Adding descriptive boxes and lines to a photo, help please.

[gtmspyder]

Hello, as anyone who has followed any of my scribing's on this forum will know, my descriptions of whatever I have done can be very long winded.

I am in the process of building a control panel for my Glen Ogle layout, which has many wires and components in a relatively small space, and it would be much easier for anyone trying to make sense of my scribing's, if I could put information on the picture with arrows to the relevant part.

I know it can be done, but I don't know how????

I store my photo's from camera to hard drive using Picasa, if I want to resize, I open the saved jpg in Microsoft "Photo gallery" and use the facilities there, and if I am going to post on a forum, I load them into "Photo-bucket".


I presume that some where in those three programmes, there is facilities to add descriptions, lines and arrows as required?


Would some kind soul give me an idiots guide as to how it is done please?


Kind regards,


BrianT

[Hugh Norwood]

Well... I have used PaintShop Pro, myself for doing this sort of thing (other packages are available :) )
(Which reminds me I haven't re-installed since my old PC went west)

[gtmspyder]

Thank you Hugh, unfortunately, I do not have Paintshop Pro, but I have had some answers from elsewhere which I am going to pursue, so fingers crossed.

Have good Christmas Hugh.

Regards,

BrianT.

[Graeme Dunbar]

A couple of free image manipulation programs

Paint.NET http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

GIMP http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.NET is particularly useful as it is designed to be familiar to people who use Windows Paint. GIMP may take a bit more getting used to.

[Harry Mantheakis]

I would use a "Google Drawings" document - one of the several document-types that Google-Drive offers:

https://www.google.co.uk/drive/

You need a Google account, which is free.

I do all my graphics drawings using GD - it offers a decent range of options, including the ability to import images and overlay them with arrows and text-captions.

My GD files are automatically available from home, work and my mobile without me ever having to worry about copying or transferring them.

For the record: Microsoft Word allows you to add captions to images - basic, but sometimes useful because it is quick and easy.

[Harry Mantheakis]

Here is an example of a Google Drawings document that I created before attempting to wire up a model with LED lights - each line, circle, text, character and symbol are distinct, separate elements: