Format a Picture

Format a Picture

Adjust images added to your slide using a variety of picture formatting options to bring a distinctive look and feel to your project. You can add a frame to a picture, increase or decrease the brightness, recolor/customize to fill in your own color, and more. With these formatting features, your original picture can be enhanced, improved upon, and made more appealing for your presentation.

Here is a sample presentation created using Zoho Shows' different picture formatting options to beautify your image. Feel free to save, share, and even reuse these slides in your own presentations. 


Apply a picture style

Give your picture more style by editing the shape and border, and applying effects such as fancy borders, rounded edges, thick frames, and more. Picture styles help enhance the placeholders, slide images, and photo albums, directing attention and emphasizing the content of your presentation. 
 
To apply a picture style,
1. Select the picture on the slide.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.



2. Go to Picture tab and  click  More .. to see the list of all picture styles.



3. Choose your desired picture style from the list.
The chosen style will be applied to the picture and can be changed whenever required. 


Apply a picture effect

Your original image can look even more impressive with the right effects. Zoho Show features three types of effects:  Stroke, Shadow, and  Reflection . These effects can offer a huge boost to visual quality of your slide. Apply these effects creatively to achieve results such as mirror images with reflection, border colors using the stroke effects, and even making your picture jump out of the page with a properly placed shadow.
 
To apply a picture effect,
1. Select the picture on the slide.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.


 
2. Choose the type of picture effect you wish to apply for your picture.
There are three types of picture effects that you can choose from:
  • Choosing a Reflection effect  creates a reflection beneath the original picture with styles such as a semi-transparent duplication of the original picture, a water or glass reflection, or a half-shadow blurred effect.


The chosen effect will be applied to your picture and can be modified at anytime. You can also apply multiple effects to the same picture on the slide.

Reset a picture effect

Undo the changes you’ve made to your image to reset them back to its original picture property or effect. To do this, select the image and click the  Reset button in the right pane. The edited image will return to the original image you added to the slide.

Adjust picture brightness and contrast

Before being edited, a picture may sometimes appear too dark to see anything properly, so bright that it seems washed out. In the cases, adjusting the brightness (how bright or dark an image is) and the contrast (how much variation there is between the darkest and lightest parts) may help improve the look of the image.
 
To adjust the brightness of a picture,
1. Select the picture on the slide.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.


 
2. Choose the Edit tab within the pane and use the  Brightness  or  Contrast  slider to adjust and correct the variation to the range you want.  
The slider value ranges from ‑100 to +100 for Brightness and Contrast.
  • Moving the  Brightness slider to the right   increases the overall brightness of the image while moving it to the left makes the image darker. 
  • Moving the  Contrast slider to the right increases the contrast between the light and dark parts of the image while moving it to the left brings them closer to the middle. 
     

Crop a picture

The crop tool is one of the most commonly used features in editing software. This tool lets you cut out unwanted parts of a picture and resize it to fit specific proportions or shapes. Cropping might be used to remove the background of a picture, or to reframe a photograph to change the focus. This tool lets you showcase, enhance, and emphasize the important parts of an image.
  You can crop a picture in the following ways:
  • Manually crop a picture
  • Crop to fill
  • Crop to fit
  • Crop to specific shape

Manually crop a picture

1. Select the image to crop.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.


 
2. Choose the  Picture tab within the pane and click  Crop.
When you select this tool, you will see dotted lines appearing on the edges of the picture along with four corner handles and four side handles. If your picture is placed within the picture placeholder, then click the Crop     icon attached below the selected picture placeholder box to crop them as explained in the next step.


 
3. Do one of the following to crop your picture:
  • To crop one side of the picture, drag the side handle of that side inward. For example, if you want to crop from the right side, drag the right side handle.
  • To crop two adjacent sides at the same time, drag the corner cropping handle inward.
  • To crop two opposite sides at the same time, press and hold the  Ctrl key while you drag the side handle on either side inward.
  • To crop equally on all four sides at the same time, press and hold the  Ctrl key while you drag any corner handle inward.
  • To position the picture within the crop area (placeholder area) drag the edges of the handles inwards. 
4. Once done, click  Crop.
The selected image will be cropped to the desired size.


Crop picture to a specific shape

A picture that you insert into a slide always falls within the rectangular box. However, you can change this frame and make your picture fit any non=rectangular cropping shapes available under the  Shape gallery. When you crop a picture to a specific shape, it automatically trims the picture to the chosen shape, such as a star, a triangle, a diamond, and more. 
 
To crop picture to any shape,
1. Select the image to crop to a shape.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.


 
2. Choose the  Picture tab within the pane and click  Crop To Shape. 
This will open the Shape gallery. 


 
3. Pick a shape you want your picture to crop to from the  Shape  gallery. 
You can choose from one of several shape categories such as basic shapes, stars, and more. The image will be trimmed to fill the shape while maintaining its own proportions.


If you want the same picture in different shapes then make a copy of it and crop each picture individually to the shape you want.

Crop to fill

Fill the entire picture frame (placeholder) with your picture using the crop to fill option. This option removes part of the picture while retaining its original proportions and also repositions the image automatically to zoom in and emphasis the middle areas of the image.
 
To perform crop to fill,
1. Select the picture you want to crop to.
You will see three types of crop icons attached at the bottom of picture placeholder box. 

2.  Click the  Crop to Fill    . 
Your picture will now be filled to the selected shape or placeholder area.


Crop to fit

Whenever you use a content placeholder to insert a picture, some areas of the picture are already cropped and the picture's vertical proportions are cropped so as to fit the width of the placeholder. However, you can crop this image and scale it up to fit entirely within the picture frame . The Crop to Fit option maintains the original aspect ratio and resizes the picture to fit within the placeholder area without distorting the image. 
 
To perform crop to fit,
1. Select the picture to crop.
You will see three types of crop icons attached at the bottom of the picture placeholder box. 

2. Click the  Crop to Fit   .
Your picture will now be fitted to the placeholder box/ the shape you selected on the slide. While you crop to fit you can see some empty space around the image. 


Apply dramatic effect to a picture

Give your picture a crafty and poetic look or make it look like it was drawn with a pen or pencil. The dramatic effect adjusts the overall color of the image and adds a completely new texture. 
 
To apply dramatic effect to a picture,
1. Select the picture you want to apply an effect.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.


 
2. Choose the  Edit tab in the pane, navigate to  Recolor modes  and select the type of effect you want to apply.  
There are three types of Recolor modes (dramatic effects): 
  • Grayscale  – This effect makes your picture look like it was sketched by the artist with pencils. 
             
  • Black& White  - This effect makes your picture look vintage adding a scratched paper effect to it.
             
  • Sepia  - This effect resembles the aging in old photographs, mostly the ancient period photography. 
              

Change the picture color 

Make your image to match the color of other slide elements for example, the shape, company's logo, background style, etc using  Variant color option. The variant group contains a set of predefined colors that are based on the theme of your presentation. 
 
To change the color variant of a picture,
1. Select the picture you want to change variant.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.


 
2. Choose the  Edit tab within the pane, navigate to  Variants  group and select a color variation you like to apply. 
The variants group contains a set of six predefined color called Accent colors which are based on the theme of your presentation.



The chosen color will be applied to your picture. To set back the picture to its original color, click  Reset . 

Make the picture transparent

You may find that you want to use a semi-transparent image in many situations, such as displaying your company logo without distracting from other content, or putting an image in the background behind text. In these cases, you can make an whole image or part of an image transparent. Adjusting the opacity of an image lets you emphasize important text or parts of the image by isolating particular areas of the image on the slide.


To make the whole picture transparent,
1. Select the picture.
You will see the  FORMAT  mode with picture formatting options on the right pane.



2. Click the Picture tab within the pane and use the  Transparency Slider  to increase or decrease the picture transparency.
You can also manually enter the percentage transparency value in the text box.



To make a particular color or areas on the picture transparent,
1. Select the picture.
This will open the  Format mode for pictures in the right pane. 



2.  Click the  Edit tab within the pane and select the  Set Transparent Color  button . 
Click your cursor on the part of a picture you want to be transparent.



If your picture is inserted inside a shape then the  Set Transparent Color  button will be unavailable.

Replace or delete a picture

If you think a picture does not go well with your slides anymore  then you can either replace it with a better image or delete it permanently from the slide.

To replace an image,
Right-click on the picture you want to replace and choose C hange Picture from the menu to choose a new image from the  Image gallery in the  Insert  section at the top-center.



To delete a picture,
Right-click on the picture you want to delete and choose  Delete from the menu or simply press  Delete on your keyboard.

Check out the presentation below built using Zoho Shows’ different picture formatting options like border styles, recolor modes, shadow effects, color filters, and more. Feel free to save, share, and reuse these slides in your own presentations, too!



    • Related Articles

    • Format a picture

      Once you add an image or photo to a slide, there are several ways to make it more appealing for your audience from the Zoho Show app for android. Adjusting images in Zoho Show includes options to add a frame to your picture; increase or decrease the ...

    • Apply a solid color, gradient, picture and pattern fill

      Fill the empty spaces inside your shapes to make them stand out on the presentation screen. Adding fills such as blended-color gradients, two-color patterns, or pictures to your slide objects not only helps your audience easily capture the ...

    • Format a shape

      Zoho Show app for your android phone and tablet device comes with several options to customize shapes, such as fill color, border, reflection, and shadow effects on a slide. These formatting options can help brighten your shape, and emphasize text ...

    • Format a Shape

      Shapes in your presentation can be made more realistic and fun using various formatting options such as border style, fill color, reflection/shadow effects, and more. These features will stand out during the slideshow, helping you emphasize and ...

    • Format a Chart

      Each chart you add to your slides is unique and presents data in a different way. You can choose to customize your charts using a variety of chart formatting options (styles, designs, and layouts, or change color, borders, axis ticks, labels) to make ...