Operation Manual

Working with Pictures 175
Importing pictures
Pictures that can be imported into
DrawPlus can belong to one of several
groups:
• Bitmapped pictures, also
known as bitmaps or raster
images, are built from a matrix
of dots ("pixels"), rather like the
squares on a sheet of graph
paper. They may originate as
digital camera photos or
scanned images, or be created
(or enhanced) with a "paint"
program or photo editor.
• Vector graphics, are resolution-independent and contain drawing
commands such as "draw a line from A to B." These are like DrawPlus
drawings, made of many individual objects grouped together, and you
can edit them in the same sort of way. You have the choice of
ungrouping the objects in order to edit them further, or leaving them
as a group.
• Metafiles are the native graphics format for Windows (i.e., Windows
MetaFiles) and combine raster and vector information. Serif also has
its own metafile format, Serif MetaFile Format (SMF) , optimized for
image sharing between Serif applications.
Any imported picture ends up as an object you can select, move, scale, shear,
rotate—and even cut or crop using the Knife or Crop Tool on the Drawing
toolbar. The Image Cutout Studio (p. 177) lets you cut the subject of your
picture out from its background (and vice versa).