Graphic Packages
Definition of Graphic Package
Graphics packages are application software that can
be used to create and manipulate images on a
computer.
Examples of Graphic Packages
Examples of graphic packages include: Ms Paint,
Adobe Photoshop, Instant artist, Harvard graphic
and CorelDraw.
Features of Graphic Packages
Most of the graphic packages posses the following
features and tools.
1. Menu bar:
The menu bar can be used to activate commands of
graphic packages and operations. Depending on the
graphic package you are using, some packages
contain the following. File, edit, view, text, tools,
window, help, etc.
2. Toolbar:
The tool bar is a bar that contains short cuts to menu
and other command. For example you can use the
“open” icon o open an existing document by clicking
on it. Others are save, print, cut, copy, paste,
alignment, bold italics, underline etc
3. Toolbox:
A toolbox is a bar with tools for creating, filling and
modifying objects in the drawing
4. Printable area:
Printable area can be referred to as the work
space inside the drawing window, which you can
plan your work on.
5. Colour palette:
It is a bar that allows you to fill desired objects or
texts with any colour you want.
THE PAINT PROGRAM
Paint is a graphic or drawing tool which can be used
to create simple and complex drawing.
Features of the Paint Environment
Paint is a software from Microsoft Inc. It allows one
to create, customize and paint graphics or images.
Starting Paint Program
To start a paint program the following steps are to be
followed:
1. Click on Start Menu
2. Navigate to all program and click on it
3. Navigate to accessories or window accessories
and click on it
4. move to paint program and Click on it
PAINT TOOLS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
THE TOOL BOX
The paint toolbox has sixteen tools. The names of
the different tools are shown in the diagram below:
Functions of Toolbox Tools
1. Free-form select: The free-select tool is a tool
used to select objects or pictures.
2. Rectangle Select tool: The Rectangle select tool is
also used to select objects in the drawing area.
3. The eraser tool: It is used to remove mistakes that
have been made in a drawing. The size of the eraser
can be adjusted to remove either big or small areas
of a drawing
4. Fill colour tool: This is a also known as paint
bucket tool. It is used to fill objects that have drawn
with any colour of your choice.
5. Pick colour tool: The pick colour is used to pick
or select colour from pictures.
6. Magnifier tool: The magnifier tool is used to make
objects in the drawing area appear bigger.
7. Pencil tool: The pencil tool is known as the
default tool in the paint program. You can use the
pencil for drawing just like a real life pencil.
8. Brush tool: The brush tool works like a real life
brush. It is used to paint a drawn object or picture.
9. Air brush tool: The air brush tool is used to spray
colour over an area of a drawing.
10. Text tool: the text tool is used for inserting text
into the drawing.
11. Line tool: The line tool is used to draw
horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
12. Rectangular tool: The rectangular tool is used to
draw rectangles and squares of different sizes.
13. Curve tool: The curve tool is used for drawing
curves from a line. To draw curve line, you must
first draw a line with the tool, and then click on any
part of the line and drag the mouse pointer to create
a curve on the line.
14. Polygon tool: The polygon tool is used to draw
straight line objects with different shapes and sizes.
You can use the polygon tool to draw a triangle, star,
rhombus and many other polygon.
15. Ellipse tool: The ellipse tool is used to for
drawing ovals and circles of different sizes.
16. Rounded rectangle tool: It is used for drawing
rectangles and squares of different sizes with
rounded edges.
