blogs?

[whogivesa]

I dont know what exactly a blog is. I have skimmed over definitions but I dont quite understand.I am trying to creat a simple picture with a scrollable box in the middle. I would use photoshop but it is too expencive to I downloaded GIMP. all I need help with is makeing my text area of the image lighter so it is easier to read the text. Is anyone familiar with GIMP and if so can you tell me how to make a selected area lighter in color but still have the original image in the background? and if not is there a general tool that I may not know of that will do this? Thanks, I appreciate the help

[Twey]

I think that's rather two different questions.
"Blog" is short for "weblog." It's basically a sort of one-man forum. You post stuff, and the rest of the world reads it. Some blogs allow other people to comment on the main article too.
As for the lightening on an image, here's how I'd do it (though I'm not the world's greatest artist ):
1) Create a new layer (Layers->New Layer...). Set the dimensions properly and fill it with white.
2) Use the move tool to position your layer nicely.
3) Open the Layers dialog (Dialogs->Layers) and lower the opacity of your layer until it looks nice.

If you want anything complicated, like irregular shapes of lightness, simply fill the layer with transparency instead of white and draw the shape on in white.

[mwinter]

[Using layers to lighten an image]

I don't have The GIMP installed at the moment, but I would have thought it would be a little easier than that. In PSP, I could just select a region (using whatever tool was best) and then apply a gamma correction or brightness/contrast operation, affecting only the selected region.

Mike

[Twey]

Oh aye... that works too.
1) Select a region
2) Layer->Colors->Brightness/Contrast, increase brightness, click OK.
I did say I was no Van Gogh.