Quick Question on Making Custom DVD Covers

[golfnut]

I have begun making my own covers and so far I am doing OK for a newbie but have one problem I would like your advice on. I use a capture program called Snag It to capture my images. When I try to enlarge or shrink those images they become blurry, how and what can I do to maintain the original resolution and sharpness when I enlarge or shrink. I have paint shop pro but like I said I am a beginner, I also have Photoshop but have no clue yet how to use that either. Is there a simple way to do what I am asking to do? I really could use your help and advice here. Thanks a million.

[Tommyknocker]

How are you trying to enlrge or shrink the images?

[CaseyComb]

Snag it is a program that will take a snapshot of whatever is on your desktop correct? If Im correct and it's the same program I am thinking of it captures at a very low resolution, and if you are capturing from the web those images are of even lower quality. That stuff is not even worth printing by mst standards. You do realize that you can right click on just about any image and save it to disc right? Well it seems to me that its how you acquire your pics is the problem. Low Res is just that...Low Resolution, thus the blurryness (i.e. pixelation) of the picture.

[golfnut]

tommyknocker and caseycomb thank you for your reply. Let me try to explain what I am doing. I am using a freeware program called CDMedia Face which has the DVD template built in. I am having no problem downloading the front and back covers in high res. My problem comes when I use Snag It to snag let's say ust the movie title off the front cover for use on the spine. The movie title is in high res when I snag it but when I put it on the spine and enlarge it to fit the spine properly that's when it gets blurry. Hope this helps explain my problem better. I just need to know how I can enlarge the title so it fits the spine properly and main the original high res qulaity that it was when I captured it with Snag It. Thanks again for your help and advice.

[golfnut]

Caseycomb, Snag It will allow you to capture all or any portion of an image from the internet which is what I am doing. These are high res images that I am capturing, the problem arises when I try to enlarge the captured images, that's when they become blurry. Lost? Help? Thank you.

[cyflyer]

You keep saying "these are high res images I'm capturing", but where are capturing these high res images from ? How many pixels x pixels is the image dimension ? We all know that there is no such thing as "high res" images on the internet. They may "appear" to be high res, but be more specific before someone can advise further. An image the height of the screen may look great on the screen but may only be 300 x 600 pixels, which when saved and printed will be total s**t. More details please. Right click, properties, pixels !

[dphirschler]

OK, you won't be able to have a "print quality" image from a screen capture. However, you can retain a certain level of sharpness and clarity. For your use, it should be okay. When you enlarge, do not use any special methods such as "smart resize" or "bilinear". Just go with "pixel resize". Those other methods have a way of introducing blurriness and halos around objects that were otherwise sharp and crisp. In my opinion, it is better to "see" larger pixels than to have these artifacts introduced.


Darryl

[overloaded_ide]

Also besides what others have said, anytime you enlarge an image you are adding more data than the image had to begin with. So you will get blurry enlarging, and the larger you go the blurrier it will get.

Take any really nice picture, zoom in, see the loss in detail? Zoom in more, more loss. If you zoom in enough you end up with just blocks of color and you can't even tell what you are looking at. That's what you are doing when you enlarge a picture, basically zooming in. The better and higher resolution the picture the more you can zoom before it starts looking realy bad, but any zooming actually loses details rather you notice or not.

As for shrinking an image, that should not be getting very blurry. Small and hard to see tiny details yes, but it should still look decent.

I never used Snagit, but why don't you simply cut and paist the images? If you have them downloaded or whatever on your hard drive, open the files in a graphics program, select the area you want and cut, go to your other program and paist! Most programs I have seen for any type of labels/covers let you drag a corner of a paisted in selection to resize it. Very simple to do and the results probably better than the way your doing it now.

I would offer advice on cutting and paisting, but various programs function differently though they do the same things. Basically find the selection tool, select the area, and find the cut or copy command for the program. Normally in the drop down menu called edit, or a short cut like Ctrl + C to copy. Some programs have their own clipboards, the program I use does. If your going to paist into a different program you'll have to use the windows clipboard. My program has that under the edit menu also.
For cutting and paisting in the same program, the programs clipboard is normally better to use. For instance I can select a square area, round area, strange shaped area etc... and paist into another image in the program and the paist is the same shape as I copied. Using windows clipboard though I can select all the same stuff, but when I paist into another program it is always a square, so a round circle would be paisted as a circle in a blank square. Give copy and paist a try if the files are on your hard drive, can't hurt and you might get better results. Also you could just make the entire cover in the graphics program and paist that into the template in the other program.

[golfnut]

overloaded_ide, thank you so much for the advice and reply. I tried your suggestion and it worked like a champ, really do appreciate your time and advice. Thank you and have a great day.