Table of Contents - Serif

Importing pictures
Working with Pictures 163
Pictures that can be imported into DrawPlus can belong to one of several
groups:
• Bitmapped pictures, also known as bitmaps or raster images, are built
from a matrix of dots ("pixels"), rather like the squares on a sheet of
graph paper. They may originate as digital camera photos or scanned
images, or be created (or enhanced)
with a "paint" program or photo
editor.
• Vector graphics, are resolutionindependent
and contain drawing
commands such as "draw a line from
A to B." These are like DrawPlus
drawings, made of many individual
objects grouped together, and you can
edit them in the same sort of way.
You have the choice of ungrouping
the objects in order to edit them
further, or leaving them as a group.
• Metafiles are the native graphics
format for Windows (i.e., Windows MetaFiles) and combine raster
and vector information. Serif also has it own metafile format, Serif
MetaFile Format (SMF) , which is optimized for image sharing
between Serif applications.
Any imported picture ends up as an object you can select, move, scale, shear,
rotate—and even cut or crop using the Knife or Crop Tool on the Drawing
toolbar. The Image Cutout Studio (p. 165) lets you cut out the subject of your
picture out from its background (and vice versa).