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7.25 Bitmap Property Bar
The Bitmap Property Bar is your control center for editing bitmapped images. All the common functions are available on the property bar:
Px W
This is the width of the bitmap in pixels. If you change this, the height (Px H) will change in proportion, and the Resample button image\Resample.gif will be enabled.
Px H
This is the height of the bitmap in pixels. If you change this, the width (Px W) will change in proportion, and the Resample button image\Resample.gif will be enabled.
Width
This is the width (inches or mm) of the bitmap in the layout. Changing this will change the DPI.
Height
This is the height (inches or mm) of the bitmap in the layout. Changing this will change the DPI.
X
Set the X axis location of the anchor in inches or mm.
Y
Set the Y axis location of the anchor in inches or mm.
Anchor
This is where you select the anchor point to use for this object. See the anchor points topic for more information.
DPI
This is the dots per inch of the bitmap. This is calculated from the bitmap?s pixel dimensions compared to the absolute dimensions (Width and Height, above). If you change this, the pixel dimensions, Px W and Px H, will change accordingly.
Tr (Transparency)
This setting controls the transparency ? the amount the background will show through and be combined with the bitmap. 0% means none of the background shows through, and 100% means all of the background shows through.
Name
This is the name of the bitmap, which is usually the name of the imported file. You can change this to more easily identify the bitmap in the Layers list.
Resample
This button will resample the image according to the current Px W and Px H settings. Resampling is the process whereby the bitmapped image is reconstructed using different dimensions.
Rotate Image
Use this tool to rotate a bitmap by picking two points in the image that represent two ends of a horizontal or vertical line, such as the horizon line.
Measure Tool
This invokes the Measure Tool, making it easy to scale up a bitmap to actual size.
Lock
Use this to lock the image and prevent it from being accidentally moved.
Crop
This launches the Crop Tool.
Vectorize
This starts the Vectorize tool.
Font Wizard
This starts the Font Wizard.
Lossless Bitmap Mode
Check this to save the bitmap in a lossless format inside the layout (LYT) file. Otherwise JPG will be used, which can lose some pixel information every time the layout is saved and reopened later.
Transparent Bitmap Mode
Check this button to enable transparent bitmap mode, in which some parts of a transparent bitmap will allow the background to show though. A transparent bitmap can be created with Photoshop or other bitmap editing applications, and must be 32-bits so that one 8-bit channel can hold the alpha channel. The alpha channel is a layer of the bitmap that holds values from 0 to 255, and these values define how transparent that pixel is.
In Photoshop, to create a transparent bitmap you would load an image, duplicate the Background layer, mask off part of the new layer in some way, and then turn off the original Background layer and save it as a PSD, TIFF or PNG file. This has the effect of letting you use bitmap images the same way you would vector graphics, in that complex layering is possible.
Save Image
This will let you save the image to a new bitmap image file, without regard to the size of the image in the layout. It will save the raw pixels.
Vertical Flip
This flips the image vertically.
Horizontal Flip
This flips the image horizontally.
Rotate 90 degrees Clockwise
This rotates the image 90 degrees clockwise.
Rotate 90 degrees Countclockwise
This rotates the image 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
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