Recently we introduced you to PhotoScape X. We then limited ourselves to the editor of this free photo editing package. Now let’s talk about some other capabilities, such as extracting parts from photos, batch editing images, and creating collages and animations. So the more creative tools of PhotoScape.
Before reading on, we recommend that you read our first PhotoScape X tutorial. If you have followed those steps, you have already downloaded the software. If not, download PhotoScape X here. You will find here both the older version of PhotoScape (for Windows XP up to 7) and the new (Windows 10 and macOS). This latest version looks nicer than the predecessor.
If you want to try out all the options and extras, you can consider purchasing the pro version (about 40 euros). We stick to the free edition here and focus on some nice modules of the program.
Tip: Also take a look at our overview of the best free photo editing programs.
cutting work
Do you want to select specific parts of a photo to remove or make it transparent? And do you want to add a different background? In that case, it is better to leave the editor and select the Cut out to open. At the top right you will immediately see three tools with which you can select certain areas of your image: magic eraser, Lasso and brush. The method is always different. Which tool you choose depends on the image and the target area.
With the magic eraser all you have to do is click on a certain point in your photo to select the adjacent area of ​​(almost) the same color. Via the Tolerance-slider button at the top right determines how much that color may deviate from your checkpoint. Uncheck Adjacent if you want to select areas of (approximately) the same color over the entire photo.
Of Lasso define an area yourself via a kind of Bézier curve. Click on the brush with the minus sign to remove an area from your selection. Of brush you literally draw out the area, with adjustable brush size and shape. Make full use of the zoom function (bottom left) to optimally define the area. Press on the button Invert Mask if you want to make everything transparent except the defined area. Through recovery undo your last action.
Clipping Mask
You can also save your clipping as a mask, which you can use in another photo. For example, if you’ve marked an area and you only want to have that part colored in the photo, click at the bottom right Lake and choose Copy mask. About now to the Editor where you get the same photo. Click here at the top right Colour and select from the drop-down menu Grayscale instead of Original color.
In the same window, click the plus button at the bottom next to Mask. Press the button with the three dots and choose Paste mask. Then press the button at the bottom Invert Mask. You should now only colorize the part of the photo that you used as the clipping mask.
in batch
We’re not going to go over all of the editor’s capabilities now, but we do want to tell you how to perform the same edits in one go on a whole bunch of photos at once. As you thought, you open the tab for this batch. From the preview pane on the left, drag any photos you want to the middle pane. At the top is a thumbnail overview of the added images.
The magic is mainly in the right pane. Here you can choose from various editing options: cut out, Insert, enlarge/shrink, Colour, Filter and Frame. The option curves is reserved for the pro version.
Basically you now only need to apply all desired adjustments to any photo from the added series. As soon as you change an option in one of the categories, that category will receive a blue check mark. This way you immediately know in which section(s) you have changed one or more settings. How you undo an adjustment depends on the category: you click on To recover, you choose original […] or uncheck the box next to a custom option.
Batch manipulations
Quite a lot of adjustments are possible in the various sections. We limit ourselves here to one example: placing a logo or watermark in a photo. To do this, open the section Insert and press the plus button. For a textual watermark, then select Text. In the window that opens, you can enter your text and edit it down to the smallest details. This does not only concern font, color and size, but also opacity, rotation angle, contours and (drop) shadow.
To add a logo choose Image and point you to the desired logo file. With the window Image you can adjust the image completely to your liking. The options here are similar to those with text.
Collage Designs
On the tab To combine you can include several photos in one larger photo, but for the more creative combination work you have to click the tab collage are.
First of all, you decide how many photos you want to include in your collage. All you have to do is click on the desired number in a circle (from 2 until 0, where the zero represents the ten).
At the bottom of the right window you will see which designs are available. Keep in mind that some designs are reserved for the paid version, but given the wide choice that’s not so bad. Moreover, there are so many options that any design can be significantly modified. Once you’ve selected a suitable design, drag and drop the photos onto the design template, either by photo or all at once. With the Delete button you remove an incorrect photo.
For better positioning, you can drag the photo with a pressed left mouse button. To move a photo, drag the blue circle to another photo. Drag the edges of a frame using the blue double arrow button to resize. When you click on a photo, a dialog box appears. You can adjust the zoom factor, mirroring, rotation angle, colors and (film) effects, among other things.
Collage options
In the right window you will find extra options to further optimize not so much the photos themselves as the collage. For starters, you can set the collage dimensions at the very top. With the double arrow button (top right) you immediately switch from a landscape to a portrait design, or vice versa.
You will also find sliders to adjust the Spacing, Margin and roundness to adjust. You can safely make the background transparent, but colorful backgrounds are also available. You can also fully adjust this via a handful of parameters: rotate, Hue, Saturation, Bowls and X/Ycoordinates.
Afterwards you can view the collage via Lake, Print directly to your printer. But for a check it is good to first Copy to clipboard and then the tab Print to open. Unless you want multiple collages on one sheet, press the button here 1×1. You can now choose from several print modes: To fill, To fit, Stretch or Dpi (to be set yourself).
Gif Animation
Photoscape X also allows you to animate photos. In its simplest form, such an animation comes down to adding two or more photos to the middle pane of the tab Gif Animation. After this, each added photo is shown for half a second by default. Via the button Play start the animation.
You simply insert text by typing it in the text box. By clicking on one of the nine circles, you determine the position of the text on the animation. You can also set the text color and font here. Here you also determine the Size (in pixels) of the animation and the Duration (by 0.01 until 30 seconds). You set the latter per image, or with the button Apply to All for all images at once. Finally there are six more Transition Effects available. In addition to a simple shift in one of the four directions, there are the effects To spread and Zoom.
When you save the gif animation, a dialog box will first appear where you can: Loop you can specify how many times the animation should play (Always or 1 until 5 time). We would also like to mention that you can view such a gif animation in the Windows Photos app, for example, but also in a browser. To do this, press Ctrl+O and refer to the gif file.
Tools
We would also like to mention a number of useful tools on the tab Tools. One of which is screen capture. You first indicate where you want to place the screen recording: Copy to Clipboard or Open in Editor tab. Then you indicate which screen part you want to preview: whole screen, Window, Selection or Screen with timer. In the latter case, the tool will wait five seconds to capture the screen after pressing the Start timer pressed.
Another tool is color picker. This comes in handy if you want to use exactly the same color as the color you see elsewhere on the screen, for example in a logo or in a program window. You first set the desired zoom factor (up to 8x) and as soon as the white square is exactly above the intended color, press the space bar, so that the color is fixed.
The rgb values ​​are copied to the clipboard and in the window you can read the hsb, cmyk and hsl values. You can then use the copied color in the editor by clicking on a certain function (for example, at Frame, Edges) check the box next to Full color and there To stick to choose.
