Here is a simple step-by-step guide to formatting images for the Butterflies of India website using GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. (more...). If you would like to use Adobe Photoshop instead, please see this article.
1) When submitting any image or video to Butterflies of India website please ensure all the images are your own or that you have permission from the copyright holder to submit.
2) For our website it is important to select an image of the butterfly or its life cycle phase that clearly portrays either a particular feature or the entire insect , it is best to tightly crop the selected image to highlight the focus point. This is easily done by double clicking the crop tool from the toolbox or simply press shift+C . Select the area you would like to crop to and double click. When formatting your image it is preferable to keep the width greater than the Height (Landscape).
3) Now you need to resize your image to 680 pixels with black borders of 10 pixels on each side. To adjust your image , select Image on your tool bar and scroll down and select Scale Image. In the Scale Image tool panel, change the width to 680 and select Pixels then click on the chain link . This will proportionally adjust the Height of your image. Remember to also set the Resolution to 72 pixels/inch
4) Now, select Image on your tool bar and scroll down and select Canvas size, release the chain link and change the width to 700 pixels and the height to 616 pixels, and click the chain link then click the center button. This will automatically add borders of 10 pixels on each side of the image and 58 pixel borders to the top and bottom.In the Offset section change the Y axis to 68, this will give you an extra 10 pixels on top for entering scientific name of the butterfly and immediately below its common name with font Arial, size 24. For the bottom, make sure that you can accommodate location, date and the copyright statement with font Arial, size 18. If you can’t fit the location with date in single line, you can spill it onto second by increasing the border. Check out the media guide on the website to have an idea of how the borders should look like. Make sure that you leave sufficient space above and below the text. It should ideally be 5 pixels.. Don’t forget to ensure the background is selected black in the main tool box window. This will, of course, make the border black.
5) Now you have managed to add borders to the image, you have to add the information about your species. Select Text tool from Tools ( letter A symbol). Make sure you italicize the scientific name of the species by selecting Italic from the font style from the drop down menu in your toolbox. Choose the appropriate font size for the respective text from the media guide. To type the © symbol on a Mac press option G, on Windows Alt+069 and on Linux Ctrl+Shift+U followed by 00A9.
6) Before you finalize the formatting, please ensure that the image resolution is 72 pixels/inch, and that the image is 700 pixels wide (including the 10 pixel-wide black borders on either sides). The height of the image, including species names, locality information and copyright holder name, should ideally be between 550 and 650 pixels, but this may be variable depending on the subject of the image and the shape of the butterfly.
7) All the text you entered in the image will be in different layers. Such a multilayered file cannot be saved as a JPEG files, which is the format required for the website. To “flatten” the image, i.e., to merge all layers into a single layer, go to Layer>Flatten Image. Now you can save the file normally in the JPEG format. This can now be used to upload on the website.
8) For some reason, if you want to save the layered file, save it either as a TIFF file or as a XCF file, which, unlike JPEG files, can store layers. To save these layered TIFF or XCF files as JPEG files to send to Butterflies of India, open the files in GIMP and save them as JPEG files.
9) Finally, save your picture with the species scientific name as file name, followed by an underscore and your name, again followed by an underscore and the media code, all without spaces, e.g., EuploeaCore_PeterBakos_ab671.jpg.
10) Send your final formatted image to the Butterfly Biology Team. They will upload your file online after review.
Note that this website uses subspecific names for media files and other information. Most people do not know subspecific names, or they are not sure about subspecific identification. You will also need the media code number to format the image. To get the correct name of the butterfly (sub)species and the media code, write to the Butterfly Biology Team or the Media management Team. Alternatively, submit your formatted image to these two teams and they will add this information to the photograph before uploading the file online.
Cite this page along with its URL as:
Bakos, P. 2012. Formatting images for the Butterflies of India website. In K. Kunte, S. Kalesh & U. Kodandaramaiah (eds.). Butterflies of India, v. 1.04. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.
