Available Documents:
- MyAdPlayer User Guide
- Image Preparation User Guide
- MyAdTV User Guide
- Account Structure User Guide
- MyAdXchange User Guide
Preparing Ad Images for MyAdPlayer
(Using Microsoft Paint Program)
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
3. First Example – Image Cropped Size
4. Second Example – Two-Third Image One-Third Text
Before
uploading your ads to MyAdPlayer, you may need to modify your image files. You may want to crop an image to fit the size
of the frame; or you may want to create a blank area for the text to appear
next to the image (see Figure-1); or you may wish to paste two images
side-by-side (see Figure-2).
Figure – 1 Picture with Space for
Text
Figure – 2 Two Different Half Screen
Pictures Pasted Together
You should
always plan for the aspect ratio of the display monitor that you are going to
use. Our software scales your image to full
size, so you need not match the exact resolution of the monitor. However, you do need to match the aspect
ratio of the monitor. Otherwise the
image will appear distorted.
For
practical purposes, remember the following two magic numbers:
·
if
your monitor is the tradition PC type, the aspect ratio is 4x3 (see Figure-3)
·
if
your monitor is the wide screen type, the aspect ratio is 16x9 (see Figure-4)
|
Figure-3 Traditional with 4x3 Aspect Ratio |
Figure-4 Wide Screen with 16x9 Aspect Ratio |
Below are
three examples using Template7’s main frame as the display frame. The first example is to show the basic steps
for calculating the crop size of your image that will fit the chosen frame. The
goal is to maintain the image’s aspect ratio and to use as much image area as
possible. The second example prepares an image with the right side of the area
showing the picture and the left side with a color background for displaying
text. The third example is to paste two
images together so they appear side-by-side;
For
clarity, the numbers in this document that are in blue
apply for 16 x 9 aspect ratio display monitors.
Let’s go over preparing your images for MyAdPlayer using the Microsoft
Paint program. Paint comes with all PCs;
you should find it under menu path Start>Accessories>Paint.
Before we
start, click here to download the test images
you’ll need for the exercises. The two images that you should download are
demo2-5.jpg and demo2-7.jpg. Then click the ‘Back’ button at the left top of
the browser to come back to this page.
3. First Example – Image Cropped Size
Go to the
‘Start Menu’ at the lower left corner of your screen, click on ‘All Programs’. Then
click on the ‘accessories’ folder and select ‘Paint’.
After the
program has started, click on ‘File’ and then ‘Open’ and select one of the two
test images you downloaded named demo2-5.jpg.
In this
example, you prepare an image for the main frame of MyAdTV’s template7. The initial objective is to calculate the
crop size of the image so that it maintains its aspect ratio and does not
distort during playing back on the digital signage screen. The screen layout of
template7 looks like this:
First,
calculate the crop size of the image you are using. From the table below, look
up the size of the main frame for template7.
(Please see the Quick Start User Guide
to review MyAdTV templates and frames.) Use the resolution
of 1024x768 for regular PC monitor (4x3 aspect ratio), and 1280x720 for wide
screen (16x9 aspect ratio). The two
tables below list the resolution of every frame for all the templates
available, Table–1 is for regular PC monitors.
Table–2 is for wide screen monitors.
Table – 1 Frame sizes for Regular PC
monitors:
Template |
Main Frame |
Left Side Frame |
Right Side Frame |
Banner Frame |
Background Frame |
|
Template1 |
Width: 1024 Height: 768 |
|
|
|
|
Template2 |
Width: 1024 Height: 672 |
|
|
Width: 1024 Height: 96 |
|
|
Template3 |
Width: 1024 Height: 672 |
|
|
Width: 1024 Height: 96 |
|
Template4 |
Width: 768 Height: 576 |
|
|
|
Width: 1024 Height: 768 |
Template5 |
Width: 686 Height: 576 |
Width: 256 Height: 576 |
|
|
Width: 1024 Height: 768 |
Template6 |
Width: 716 Height: 768 |
Width: 308 Height: 768 |
|
|
|
Template7 |
Width: 1024 Height: 523 |
Width: 430 Height: 245 |
Width: 594 Height: 245 |
|
|
Template8 |
Width: 717 Height: 672 |
Width: 307 Height: 672 |
|
Width: 1024 Height: 96 |
|
Template9 |
Width: 717 Height: 672 |
Width: 307 Height: 672 |
|
Width: 1024 Height: 96 |
|
Table – 2 Frame Sizes For Wide
Screen Monitors:
Template |
Main Frame |
Left Side Frame |
Right Side Frame |
Banner Frame |
Background Frame |
|
Template1 |
Width: 1280 Height: 720 |
|
|
|
|
Template2 |
Width: 1280 Height: 630 |
|
|
Width: 1280 Height: 90 |
|
|
Template3 |
Width: 1280 Height: 630 |
|
|
Width: 1280 Height: 90 |
|
Template4 |
Width: 768 Height: 576 |
|
|
|
Width: 1280 Height: 720 |
Template5 |
Width: 857 Height: 540 |
Width: 320 Height: 540 |
|
|
Width: 1280 Height: 720 |
Template6 |
Width: 896 Height: 720 |
Width: 384 Height: 720 |
|
|
|
Template7 |
Width: 1280 Height: 490 |
Width: 537 Height: 230 |
Width: 742 Height: 230 |
|
|
Template8 |
Width: 896 Height: 630 |
Width: 384 Height: 630 |
|
Width: 1280 Height: 90 |
|
Template9 |
Width: 896 Height: 630 |
Width: 384 Height: 630 |
|
Width: 1280 Height: 90 |
|
From the table,
the main frame size for template7 is 1024x523 (1280x490).
Now
determine the resolution of your image. Click on the ‘Image’ pull down menu and
select ‘Attributes’. You will see the width and the height of your image. Make
sure you set the display units to ‘Pixels’.
As shown below, the resolution of our sample image is 800x533.
Next, we
need to calculate the croft size of your image. Let’s establish some variable
names for the calculation:
Frame size
variables: FX = 1024 (1280) and FY = 523 (490) (from
table)
Image size
variables: IX = 800 and IY = 533 (your actual image size)
Croft size
variables: CX and CY (what we need to calculate)
We will
calculate CX and CY as follows (we do not include any decimal point):
For regular
PC monitor:
CX = FX /
FY * IY = 1024 / 523 * 533 = 1043.58
CY = FY /
FX * IX = 523 / 1024 * 800 = 408
If CX is
larger than IX, then the croft size width is IX and the croft size height is
CY.
If CX is
smaller than IX, then the croft size width is CX and the croft size height is
IY.
In our
case, CX is larger than IX, so our croft size is 800x408.
For
wide screen monitor:
CX
= FX / FY * IY = 1280 / 490 * 533 = 1392
CY
= FY / FX * IX = 490 / 1280 * 800 = 306
If
CX is larger than IX, then the croft size width is IX and the croft size height
is CY.
If
CX is smaller than IX, then the croft size width is CX and the croft size
height is IY.
In
our case, CX is larger than IX, so our croft size is 800x306.
Click on
the ‘Select’ tool at the upper right corner – the icon that looks like a
rectangle (see below).
Place the
mouse cursor at the upper left of the image. Press the right mouse down while
dragging the mouse to the lower left to select the area you want to crop. Watch at the numbers in the lower right
corner; this is the size of the area you have selected. This number will
continue to change as you move your mouse. Drag out a box with the size of
800x408 (800x306) as shown below.
Next, save
the cropped image to a file by clicking on the ‘Edit’ pull down menu and select
‘Copy To’. Save it to a folder of your choice and save it in the default format
which is 24 bit BMP. Now, this image has the same aspect ratio as the template7
main frame, and it is ready for use for ad content.
Important! Please click here to continue with the next section.