Am I The Only One With This Problem?

[OnieRN]

I think I have asked this problem incorrectly in the past. I still do not have an answer for this................. Here it is...... I have downloaded files, such as alphebet etc. When I extract the zipped files, they do not separate as individual items. Example, all the letters in the alphebet are on one file. It was suggested that I crop what I need but that is not working. It takes forever to attempt to crop each desired letter. I'm sure there must be another way to use these type of files! It's to the point that I have deleted many of the packaged items because I can not figure out how to use them. I do not understand why some items are individual and others are bundled together as one file! I'm sure it is me and my lack of knowledge. When I click on the file, it opens with PSP8, which is only a 60 day version for me to try out.

Anyone that can explain this to me, I would appreciate it!

Onie

[Lee]

Hi Onie,
The power of PCs is that there are many ways to do the same task but that's also what makes them so complex.

There are many different formats for storing images. The letters you've downloaded (like the now deleted Gizmo Words) are actually pictures, not letters. In a PC, the letter "A" is actually "01000001" but a picture of the letter "A" is a much longer stream of 1's & 0's that describe and define what is to be displayed.

The downloaded letters are probably in some format that isn't supported by SBM. To use them in SBM, they need to first be converted to a format that SBM can understand. From past posts, my understanding is that SBM uses PNG-24 because that's the most powerful for the needs of scrappers. Many free embellishments may not use PNG-24 because it's more complex than other formats.

There are many (some free) tools for doing these coversions. I don't do things like this too often because I'm a photographer, not a graphics designer. So, after that long-winded, here's my suggestion.

First, this site has a ton of good info about this subject. Second, to solve your immediate issue, e-mail a copy of one of your files to me and I'll see if there's a simple solution for that particular file.

Lee
www.thedigitalphotoguy.com

[Lee]

When I re-read my reply, I realized it needed clarification. PNG-24 is not the ONLY format supported by SBM. If you go to the SBM help files, there is a list of all the file formats supported by SBM.

What I meant to convey is that PNG-24 is the file format of choice for the types of embellishments you're trying to produce, e.g. decorative fonts. Other formats either don't support transparency (clear background) or have other drawbacks that don't lend themselves to SBM use. Some formats are proprietary and require a particular program to produce (e.g. psd). Others produce huge files (e.g. bmp, tiff) and still others don't scale well. Hope that makes it a bit easier to understand.

Lee
www.thedigitalphotoguy.com

[Granny]

Hi Oniern....

I may be reading your post wrong, but I think the problem is this. Is easier to create all the letters in one file and save them that way, and have the user crop what they need. But it does make it harder on the user. I finally figure out an easier way to create them individually and put them all in an sbm file.

I have posted an alpha here for every one to use. They will install automatically to your embellishment folder in Max, and you can use each letter individually.

I hope this is what you meant. Let me know, please.

Granny

[Granny]

I wanted to explain this a little more.

Lets say someone creates an alpha with Capital letters, small letters, the numbers 0 to 9, and a few other things like the exclamation point, etc. In order for you to use them individually, we have to save each one to their own file. That is over 62 files we must create. It's easier for you to use, but creates a lot more work for us. And that applies to any image format or embellishments.

This is why sometimes we just put all the images in one page and save them in one file, letting you open the whole thing up and cropping just the one you need.

I'm trying to save each one individually now and zip them as smb. Maybe the other folks here that provide embellishments can do the same, but please bear in mind that it really creates a lot of extra work.

Of course, if you say pretty please really nice, how can we possibly resist?

Hope this helps.

Granny

[OnieRN]

Thank you so much for the explaination. I guess I will avoid all those packaged as one file. In order to pull all the letters I need from one file means I have to keep opening the file with each letter. My ram runs out when I keep reloading the file over and over again. It would be easier if there was a way to minimize the file and keep expanding it, as I need to crop out the next letter. I do understand it's a lot of work for the creaters and we appreciate all the hard work you all put into the embellishments!

[Ladybug]

Awesome alphabet Granny! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.

Ladybug

[Kazr]

Love this Alphabet Granny, thank you for sharing it with us,we can never have too many Alphas & appreciate all your hard work

[Lee]

I seem to have completely misunderstood the original post. If all the alpha images are showing up in one file in the correct format, why not separate the letters by yourself?

The easiest way would be to open the file in any image editor (all the letters would show up in one image), delete (crop) all but one letter and save that letter with an appropriate name e.g. "separated-A". As Granny pointed out, it will be a time-consuming process but you only have to do it once. Hope I'm making sense.

To make it easier, you might group both upper and lower case together and simply delete the one you don't need as you add them to a LO. So, when you add "separated-A", both "A" and "a" will show up and you just crop out the one you don't need.

Lee
www.thedigitalphotoguy.com

[Sandy]

That has been suggested but OneiRN thought that was too labour intensive. But it definately works.