Editing images in Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver provides basic image-editing features that let you modify images without having to use an external image-editing application such as Macromedia Fireworks. The Dreamweaver image-editing tools are designed to let you easily work with content designers responsible for creating image files for use on your website.

Dreamweaver has the following image-editing features:

Image resampling adds or subtracts pixels from a resized JPEG and GIF image files to match the appearance of the original image as closely as possible. Resampling an image reduces an images file size, resulting in improved download performance.

When you resize an image in Dreamweaver, you can resample it to accommodate its new dimensions. When a bitmap object is resampled, pixels are added to or removed from the image to make it larger or smaller. Resampling an image to a higher resolution typically causes little loss of quality. Resampling to a lower resolution, however, always causes data loss and usually a drop in quality.

Cropping lets you edit images by reducing the area of the image. Typically, you’ll want to crop an image to place more emphasis on the subject of the image, and remove unwanted aspects surrounding the center of interest in the image.

Brightness/Contrast modifies the contrast or brightness of pixels in an image. This affects the highlights, shadows, and midtones of an image. You typically use Brightness/Contrast when correcting images that are too dark or too light.

Sharpening adjusts the focus of an image by increasing the contrast of edges found within the image. When you scan an image, or take a digital photo, the default action of most image capturing software is to soften the edges of objects in the image. This prevents extremely fine details from becoming lost in the pixels from which digital images are composed. However, to bring out the details in digital image files, it is often necessary to sharpen the image, thereby increasing edge contrast, and making the image appear sharper.

Related topics

• Resizing an image
• Cropping an image
• Adjusting the brightness and contrast of an image
• Sharpening an image