If you are a business owner, you are always on the lookout for great editing tools. Whether it is video or photos, you need to edit, having the right tools is important for your branding and advertising. You also have to keep in mind the technical specifications that are needed to create graphics online that will work on multiple platforms and sites.
Being able to find the right mix of creative and technological prowess is not easy.
If you are looking for a great free online graphic editor, Pixlr Editor Express Editor is a great tool. At Pixlr.com, you can download three different editors version pixlr editor download including Playful, Efficient, and Advanced. There is a video tutorial on this photo editor by Lauren from The Thinking Closet.
She explains how you can use Pixlr Express to edit photos, add stickers, animations, and other assets to create a better photo. Here are some of the tips she mentions in the video:
1. Bring in your photos.– You can bring in new photos by selecting your photo files that you want to add and placing them on the canvas. If you don’t already have a portfolio of images to use, you can always join a royalty free resource site. Download images and customize them to your liking within a tool like Pixlr.
2. Add borders.– If you want to add borders to your photos, you can do so once you have added your photos. You can choose from a variety of different types and widths of borders. You can decide not to use borders if you don’t want them.
3. Use browse function to bring in individual photos.– To bring in more pictures for a collage or infographic, use the “browse” function.
4. Use the “adjustment” button to crop first.– One of the first things you should do is to adjust your photo to improve the quality. By using the adjustment tool, you can increase the lighting, adjust the contrast, and bring in more color saturation to improve the color. This is especially effective when creating photos featuring people or events that you want to focus on. Pixlr Express allows you to improve the overall quality. Use the vibrancy tool to improve skin tone or other colors, as well as other aspects.
5. Add lighting effects to improve the quality of the photo.– The use of good lighting is important to the quality of your photos and images. Adding lighting effects to make your photos darker or lighter, you can greatly improve the look of your work and make it appear more professional.
6. Resize to change the pixels to 750. This speeds up your blog or website loading time.– This is a recommendation by Lauren at The Thinking Closet. She has used 750 on many of her photos and collages and liked this size. However, if you are making an infographic, you may want to consider changing this to meet the needs of your project.
7. Use the contrast tool to add light or darken the contrast.– Once you have adjusted the lighting effects, you will want to tweak the contrast a bit. That’s because changing the lighting will sometimes fade out the photo a bit. So you use the contrast to improve the clarity and quality.
8. Use focal blur function or filters to give it a different look such as vintage or black and white.– The “focal blur” function allows you to give your photos a unique look that appears to focus on the center of the image. It creates a blur effect for everything that is not in the center circle. This is a professional-looking effect that many well-known photographers use to enhance a picture.
9. Use text editor to choose a creative font.– Using the creative fonts will help to personalize or customize your image so that you can create a unique look for your work. Play with a variety of fonts when creating professional images or graphics or infographics.
10. Add labels, ribbons, and stickers to enhance your image.– If you want to add a label, Pixlr Express will let you do that. It’s easy to do. Just select the ribbon or label function so that you can pull it into the photo like a sticker and place it in the position you want to. If you need royalty free images to use within your visual content, be sure to check out any of these free image sites.
Magic Wand and Selection Tool
The magic wand and selection tool allows you to select specific parts of your picture or graphic that you want to cut out of the photo. The lasso tool is a great tool to use also. It allows you to circle the selection you want and cut it out of the image. This is usually used to place the image on another layer or picture to create a unique effect.
You can use Pixlr Editor to locate the section you want to cut from the main photo. Then place the image wherever you want or use the Advanced Pixlr Editor to layer it with other pictures. This might be a good thing to use if you plan to create infographics or collages where you are featuring several graphics.
Pixlr Express is one of the simplest online design tool credited to edit professional-looking photos and deliver incredible simplicity, unlike the advanced option. You’ll need Adobe Flash Player to run the program.
How to Create an Infographic in Pixlr Express
If you want to create an infographic in the Pixlr program, you can do so. Just bring in your photos that you want to put into your infographic and follow the steps in the video or our tips above to edit and adjust your infographic.
You will probably want to use the “collage” option and bring in different photos that you plan to use in your infographic, then start using the editing functions to enhance it. If you don’t use the collage function, you’ll want to choose graphics that will enhance your infographic and promote the idea of your infographic in the best way.
To make your infographic in infographic format, you could use PowerPoint after you have edited your photos in Pixlr Express to create your infographic.
There is another great video tutorial on Pixlr Express at this link. This narrator talks about how to create specific edits and how to focus in on the subject in various ways.
Getting Started with an Infographic
You should think of creating an infographic in a sort of “layered” fashion, much like the tools you see in Pixlr Express or the advanced editor. By layering images on top or behind each other, you will create a more complex mix of graphic images that will complement your images and message in your infographics.
If you need help in designing and creating your images or infographics, contact us at infographicdesignteam.com.
We create customized infographics for businesses to use on their websites, blogs, and social media. We have been doing this for over a decade, and we enjoy showing business owners how they can maximize their impact on the web through the magic of infographics.
For samples of our work, feel free to go to our online portfolio page. Then contact us to learn more about how we can help you edit, create, and publish your customized infographics to your websites, blogs, and social media pages.
