Help File

This is a very basic note about using the free basic photo editor Makeup. Depending on the support, this program will enhance in the next days, etc.

This help file is very basic at the moment.

Reduce JPEG Size

Open the file in Makeup. Click the main menu: Save As... :Save As JPEG. (You must have an image loaded before you can save).

Notice the slider "JPEG Compression". And also the button with 3 dots.

1. Choose a compression value, click the button, and compare the images, noticing the new file size.
2. Each time you click the button, the image on the left is changed into the image on the right. You do not need undo in this screen because the image on the right is never changed, and the compression is applied newly to this image which appears in screen 2 (the screen on the right).
3. If the image quality is still good enough, then try a lower value of compression.
4. If the image quality is not good enough, then choose a higher value.
5. Remember to click the button each time you move the slider!
6. Save the image, or click the Save As button to save the image under a new name.

When the image is saved, it is always reloaded in the main editor and the save screen is closed.

General

Sometimes you can take a photo and add a little contrast and sharpness and perhaps a dash of colour emboss and make that photo look magnificent. However, when a photo cannot be repaired with a few clicks, then it might never be a good photo. There are no rules, so sometimes you might make many changes and end up with a reasonable photo from a very bad one.

The click after the one that makes a magnificent photo, makes it worse. You cannot do better than best. And you can end up spending hours chasing a tantalising nearly right photo.

In general, you can click on a button and see what it does. It is not easy to be specific in words to say what the buttons do. For instance, sharpness generally makes an image clearer and perhaps lighter. There are three buttons which change sharpness in different ways. For some photo problems, one button might work wonders where the others do not help or make the photo look worse. For another photo problem a different button might be very valuable. It is therefore not easy to say in words exactly what the button does with a particular photo or image.

You should always try the controls on the  "Appearance" tab first.

Tabs

Appearance

This is the general place you should be when you wish to enhance an image. You can change the lightness (or darkness), contrast and sharpness of an image.

Flip/Reverse

You can flip an image top to bottom or reverse it left to right.

Resize

You can change the size of the image. The change is always proportional. So you need only change one value such as height or width and the other is computed so the picture isn't distorted.

Rotate

(This will change). The intention is to use rotate to turn the image a bit when it isn't straight.

Colours

You can change "blue to red", etc, when a picture seems to be out of colour balance. You can also convert a picture to greyscale.

Various

The various tab has buttons for "Contrast 2", "Sharpen" (another sharpen), Gaussian blur, anti-alias, Colour Emboss, Emboss (greyscale), and Soften.

Mix Original

Here you can mix the original picture with the changed picture. For instance, you might apply a lot of sharpness to an image (which is very dark) and find that while the shaddows are lighter, so are the highlights. You can tone it down with mixing the original picture with the current one. You might then go on and add more sharpness, colour change, etc.

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