When it comes to using Serif PhotoPlus it is such a user friendly program it basically walks you right through it itself. There are just a couple of things that might help you to get started.

Firstly when you first start the program you are presented with a great start up wizard. It will provide you with four choices:
Open saved work: from here you can open a pic you have previously edited or open any standard graphic file you may have on your computer.

Create new picture: This is where you can start with a blank canvas just set your size and resolution and go to town adding text layers shapes pics from file etc.

Create New Animation:This is a great little tool for making animated text gifs etc.. every new layer you paste can be a new animation sell just click the new frame Icon its the one that looks like a little piece of film with a red + sign on it, and paste your new layer just remember that about 25 frames equals 1 sec of animation.

Import From Twain: This is where you want to go if you just want to use your scanner to scan in a photo to edit.

Once you chose one. The program opens. Along the top menu bar you will see you standard choices: File, Edit, Image, Effects, Layers, Select, View, Window, Help. This is where you can access all the programs menus and tools. Down the left hand side of the screen you will see all of the tool icons as you mouse down the list you will see in the bottom right hand corner a brief Description of what the icon does.

Like I said in the intro this program is so user friendly it basically walks you right through it. If you have any problems feel free to ask.

In our first lecture we will cover a great basic photo editing software called Serif PhotoPlus. I personally use this program on a daily basis for things like image resizing, cropping, simple text effects, and general photo enhancements. It also has some great higher end feature like Image mapping and multiple layer control. I use this program all the time for basic graphic work like creating banner ads, web buttons and Image maps.

You can Download the program here Serif Draw Plus(like with all serif software you can download the free version for personal use or buy the very cheap commercial use version)

Photo Before PhotoPlus Edit.

Photo after PhotoPlus

Instructor: D (Slightly) Slatkin.

Welcome to Basic Graphic and Design Software 101. In this class, we will be covering free software and/or more affordable software alternatives that are used in graphics and design. Many small businesses and/or graphic start-ups spend far too much on unnecessary graphic and design software programs, when there are a multitude of more cost effective softwares which do not have to break the bank.

Class Objective:

1. To provide a basic understanding of the software presented in this course.
2. To provide all links, and where applicable, downloads necessary to complete course.
3. To provide a basic software review outlining software potential and provide samples of software’s potential when used by a pro user.

Software to be covered

1. Serif Photo Plus
2. Serif Draw Plus
3. Blender
4. Daz Studio 3D
5. Inkscape
6. Gimp

Class Structure

Each software title will be presented in a 3 class series.

Class 1 Basic software introduction, which will provide links to obtain the specific software program covered in the lesson (all programs can be downloaded for free, except Serif Software which requires a commercial license purchase if used for business purposes), provide samples of completed works by pro-users of each particular software and provide links for further reading.

Class 2 Basic introduction software tutorial. Feel free to leave your questions or comments on the tutorial at the end of Class 2 as we will be covering all your questions in Class 3.

Class 3 General review of the software and tutorials covered, as well as, answer any questions or comments from Class 2, and will provide links to further reading and tutorials.

Course Overview:

Class 1.Syllabus
Class 2-4.Review Serif PhotoPlus
Class 5-7.Review Serif DrawPlus
Class 8-10.Review Blender
Class 11-13.Review Daz Studio 3D
Class 14-16.Inkscape
Class 17-19.Gimp
Class 20-21.Final Course review and class art show.

Conclusion.

The goal of this course is to provide you with a basic understanding and capabilities of the software used in this course. Additionally, if at all possible, it may well be able to save you a lot of money.