Creating and Editing Background Menu Images

[montgal55]

Hello Everyone:

When designing background images for my menus in DVDMF7, I use PowerPoint (yes, I kno-o-o-ow). The reason I use PowerPoint is because it is extremely fast to simply crop an image, save only the image and I¡¦m done. I save my background image as a JPEG file. I then import it into DVDMF7 for my menu.

I am noticing, however, that NOW I am not able to resize the image if the image happens to bleed outside of the TV-Safe area. When I re-edit the image in PowerPoint and import it back into DVDMF7, the edit changes do not take (can't figure out why).

So I am willing to use another program to create and edit my background images.

What graphic programs do you recommend to make such images that will be able to abide with the TV-safe area (aspect ratio 4:3)?

Montgal55

[Ron P.]

You can use just about any program you desire for background images. There's a freebie called Irfanview, that's very powerful. If at sometime you would want to go further, and completely build your menus, then Corel PhotoImpact would be needed. The reason is that the menus in DVD MF, use a the proprietary UFO file format. This is also the proprietary working format for PhotoImpact.