March 18, 2009, 10:20 AM — Have you ever wondered how I'm able to create that "yellow highlighter" effect in screenshots, like the one in Monday's post? Really, you have? Wow, you need to get out more.
Actually, it's pretty handy little effect, great for calling out key areas of a business document or even certain photos. To apply it, all you need is one of my all-time favorite tools: IrfanView.
This freeware image editor offers quick-and-easy cropping, resizing, rotating, and special effects. It can open just about any image format known to man and save to just about any other format.
Plus, it's a tiny program that loads in an instant and consumes very little RAM. And did I mention that it's free?
Here's how to create the highlighter effect:
1. Open the image you want to modify.
2. Draw a box around the area you want to highlight. (It needs to have a white background if the effect is to work properly.) If necessary, resize the box by dragging any of its four sides.
3. Click Image, Color corrections (or press Shift-G).
4. In the Color balance section, click the B slider and drag it all the way to the left.
Presto! Everything in your box should turn a bright, highlighter yellow. Now just save the image (giving it a different name if you want to preserve the original) and you're done.
