GCS Member Photo & Image Editor

Transcription

1 GCS Member Photo & Image Editor Golf Computer Systems Image Editor Version August 2010

2 Introduction The Golf Computer Systems Membership Management System (MMS) and FACTS (Facility and Activity Scheduling System) applications support setting a member photo. This is useful for staff at times when their identity may need to be confirmed, such as requests for changes to their information or purchases at Point of Sale being debited directly to their account. The Touch Screen Entry (TSE) application also displays these photos in competition timesheet lists so players know at a glance who they are playing with. Golf Computer Systems Image Editor is a small standalone application that can convert images for use as member photos. It readily accesses the images in the Membership database and allows them to be resized to a more suitable size for printing to reports and displaying on the Touch Screen. Contact Questions relating to the Image Editor should be directed to Chris Matheson of Golf Computer Systems by phone on (07) or to chris@golfclub.com.au. 2 GCS Image Editor

3 Overview... 4 Application Controls... 5 Managing Files... 5 Loading and Saving images... 5 Important note... 5 Managing Member Photos... 5 Member photos... 5 Removing a member photo... 6 Program Options... 6 Program options... 6 Editing Images... 7 Zoom bar... 7 Center selection... 7 Reset zoom... 7 Rotate image... 7 Enable antialiasing... 8 Adjust image... 8 Exporting Images... 8 Export Image... 8 Export All... 8 Using the program Shrinking an existing member photo GCS Image Editor 3

4 Overview On starting the application, the main screen is shown: The toolbar buttons are mirrored in the menu. The red rectangle is an optional selection box and starts fixed at 132 pixels wide by 176 tall. This is a standard 4:3 aspect ratio portrait image as used by Membership. Behind the selection box is the image. The selection box can be moved around the screen and when the image is saved, only the part within the selection box is kept. 4 GCS Image Editor

5 Application Controls Managing Files Loading and Saving images The Open button loads an image from a file. The Scanner button, if configured in the Options, allows the acquistion of an image from a scanner or camera attached to this system. The Save Selection button will save the picture that is within the selection box. If the Members Photos form is in use, then the selection will be saved into the member photo in the Membership database. If the Members Photos form is not showing then a File Save dialog will be displayed and the image is saved to disk as a Bitmap. At this time, Image Editor will open BMP, JPG and TIFF files and only saves in BMP format. Important note If Save selection is used while member photos are enabled, the selected image is saved to the database replacing any existing image. Further changes to that image, such as selecting a different area of the original image, are not possible. Ensure a backup of the original image exists before saving any changes. This is where the program option Don t refresh image after database update is important. When that option is enabled, the image on the screen is not updated when saved and further selection saves are possible until a new member is selected or the program is closed. It is highly recommended that some testing is done with the program to become familiar with how it works before using it on actual photos. Managing Member Photos Member photos If Image Editor finds a connection to the Membership database, the Member photos button is enabled. Clicking it will open the Member Photos form and display a list of all the members in the database: Name, Member number, photo size and (optionally) resolution. GCS Image Editor 5

6 Checking the Only show members that have a photo option will remove from the list all members that do not currently have a member photo. Click the member to view their member photo on the main form. While the Member Photos form is visible (and the button is down) the Save Selection button will update the currently selected member. Click the columns of this form to sort the list. Use the Refresh button to reload the member list. Removing a member photo To remove a member photo, right-click the member and select Remove Photo. This is a permanent and unrecoverable action, so be sure a backup image is stored somewhere first. Program Options Program options The program options change how the program behaves at certain times. These options are added to change the appearance or increase the efficiency of program use. Reset image options on select, load and save Resets image adjustment settings when selecting or saving images. Update database without confirmation Check this to remove the database update prompt. Enable this only when familiar with the program as changes saved to the database cannot be reversed. Don t refresh image after database update If the database image is the only copy of the member photo then enabling this option will allow the selection to be saved to the database and leave the image on the screen. Get database image resolution information Enabling this option will collect the member photo resolution information at the time of populating the list. This can introduce a time delay and is not recommended for very large databases. 6 GCS Image Editor

7 Scanner/Camera Select a scanner or camera connected to this computer. Image Editor can acquire images from this device. Selection box Enabled this option to create a selection box. This is used to crop just a face from a larger photo. Click the coloured panel to set the colour of the selection box. Show center Enable this to put a + in the center of the selection box. Show face oval This will draw an oval in the selection box that is a suitable place to center a face. The settings for this oval where taken from passport photo guidelines. Fixed size Select this option and enter the dimensions of the selection box. The selection box will not be resizable. Aspect ratio Select this option and enter a ratio. The selection box will be resizable but will keep this shape. Editing Images Zoom bar Use the Zoom Bar to change the overall size of the current image.. The image can be resized down to 3% of it s original size and enlarged up to 1000%. The current zoom level is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the form. Center selection This moves the selection box back to the center of the image. Reset zoom The Reset zoom button is used to return to 100% zoom. The zoom is reset to 100% each time a new image is loaded or selected from the member photos form. Rotate image Use the Rotate image buttons to rotate the current image by ninety degrees. GCS Image Editor 7

8 Enable antialiasing Resizing images causes distortion because image detail is lost. For example, when an image that is 500 pixels wide is reduced to 100 pixels wide, each line loses 400 pixels or 80% of the image information. The result of this loss is visible as jagged lines and specks. The antialiasing function is used to clean up the image data and smooth the edges between contrasting colours. Note in the example that diagonal lines, like the pleasts in the skirt, in the antialiased image are softer. Adjust image Antialiasing example Without antialiasing With antialiasing The Adjust image button will open the Adjust Image form. Use this to change the brightness, contrast and colour levels. Reset will restore the settings to their original values. The Greyscale button has been moved to this form. Exporting Images Export Image To export the current image to a file, click Export image. Enter a filename and the entire visible image will be saved to that file, not just the area within the selection box (if enabled). Export All This function is used to export all the images from the Membership photo database. This is useful for backing up the existing images before making changes. 8 GCS Image Editor

9 Set the Export path to the location the images are to be exported to. Select the member information the Filename uses and the Image format. Use Overwrite existing files to replace any files that already exist with ones from the database. Optionally it may prompt on each file. Or select Create new file and any photos that already exist will be left and the new photo will have the same name with _n appended where n starts at 1 and increments. If a member does not have a photo, an image for no photo can be set and will be named appropriately during the export. For example a photo of a silhouette with a question mark. GCS Image Editor 9

10 Using the program Shrinking an existing member photo 1. Click Member Photos to see the member listing 2. Select the member The image size is listed. The resolution may already be listed or will be once the member is selected. This image is obviously too large. Membership needs an image 132 pixels wide by 176 pixels high. The selection box shown here is this shape and size. 10 GCS Image Editor

11 3. Use the Zoom bar to shrink the image 40% appears to be about right. Note that the scroll bars on the right and bottom of the image can be used to move the image around. Like the selection box, the image can be dragged to change it s position. 4. Move the selection box and image to select the desired area Use the Enable antialiasing button to smooth the image if required. This is more noticable on very large images. GCS Image Editor 11

12 5. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the selection is correct 6. Click Save Selection to update the member photo in the database The newly selected image will be displayed (unless a program option prevents it) and the original large image is removed. If a different selection is required, the original image needs to be restored. Note that the new image is only 90KB instead of 2,896KB. The member listing will update to show the new image size and resolution. 12 GCS Image Editor