Installing PSP
Installing Paint shop Pro is pretty much a "no brainer". You put the CD in and choose
"install". The only recommendation I have regarding installation is that you might want
to change the folder where it installs. If you let it auto install, the program will install in
C:/Program Files/JASC/Paint Shop Pro 7. That's buried pretty deep and can be a real
pain if you need to visit the folder where the program in installed. I have mine installed
in C:/Paint Shop Pro 7.
When you are done installing the program, take a look at all the added files on the CD.
There are lots of additional graphics and this is where you will find the tutorials for the
Web Sets provided on the CD.
Once the program is installed, your listing of sub folders will look similar to the graphic
below. I have a few extra directories created to hold graphics I don't want loaded into
the Cache when a tool is loaded. I'll address these later in this tutorial.
Anims
This folder contains elements used by Animation Shop.
Brushes
This folder contains your brush files. The default brush file is
"jascbrush.jbr". When you create your own custom brushes, they
will be in "UBrush.jbr".
Cache
Paint Shop Pro 7 uses Cache to pre-load the graphics contained in
the Tubes, Shapes, Brushes, Patterns and Textures folders. This
action is performed the first time you open the associated tool. If
you have numerous graphics in any of these folders, it can cause
performance problems in slower machines with low amounts of ram.
Fortunately JASC provides you with a way to intelligently handle
this situation. Under File>Preferences>File Locations, you can set
up to 3 folders to pre-load graphics from (see Customizing tutorial).
By organizing your folders, you can keep the graphics you use most
in the primary folders and graphics you use rarely in sub-folders. As
you can see by the above graphic of my sub-folders, I have several
pattern and texture folders for this purpose.
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Camera
When you install Paint Shop Pro, you will be asked if you want to install Digital Camera
Support for various cameras. If you install camera support, the files will be in this
folder.
Frames
The frames in this folder are the default frames that come with the program. You will
find numerous other frames including some very nice edge frames on the Paint Shop Pro
7 installation disk in a folder called Frames. If you download frames created by other
people, all you need to do is to place the frames (assuming they are unzipped and have
a "pfr" extension) in this folder and the next time you call up frames, the new frames
will load into Cache.
Gradients
This folder is where all your gradient presets are stored. When you create new presets,
they are also stored in this folder. If you download gradient presets from the internet,
just place them here. The gradient file extension is "jgd".
Patterns
Any graphic placed in the Patterns folder, saved as a ".bmp" will be available as a choice
through the new Color Palette and will be an available choice when you use the
Sculpture tool.
Presets
Many of the new Effects available in Paint Shop Pro 7 allow you to save the current
configuration of the effect as a "preset". All those presets are saved into this folder.
Shapes
This folder contains all the shapes available to the shapes tool. There are several shapes
files that don't pre-load with the program on the CD. If you want those shapes available,
simply copy the files and paste them into the Shapes folder.
Styled Lines
This folder contains presets for styled lines.
Textures
This folder contains greyscale images saved as ".bmp" files. These textures work with the
setting on the Color Palette and are the textures used by Effects>Texture
Effects>Texture.
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Tubes
This folder contains the default tubes that come with the program. There are tons of
tubes available for free on the Internet (just do an Internet search for PSP Tubes). Tube
files can be rather large, so I recommend you only keep frequently used tubes in the
main sub-folder. Create a Tubes1 folder for tubes you rarely use and set the File
Location (See Customizing PSP) to the sub folder when you need these tubes.
Costumizing Paint Shop Pro
The way you work with Paint Shop Pro 7 can be customized extensively by setting the
preferences available via File>Preferences. In addition, the Toolbar can be customized
by adding or removing buttons (explained in detail in Workspace tutorial) for one-click
access to all menu functions. How preferences are set will be determined by:
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personal taste and the way you work
the image you are working on at the time
the processing power of your system
the size, resolution and color depth of your monitor
Customizing the Toolbars
Paint Shop Pro comes with five pre-configured toolbars. They are:
Standard Toolbar - contains buttons for standard operations like Open, Save, Print,
Undo, Redo, etc.
Web Toolbar - contains buttons for the Web Image Slicer and Image Mapper, the Gif,
JPG and PNG Optimizer and View in Browser.
Photo Toolbar - contains buttons for all the Effects>Enhance Photo menu items and
other effects filters that pertain to photo enhancement.
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Effects Toolbar - contains buttons for many of the effects you would be most likely to
use.
Browser Toolbar - This toolbar is only active when you have the Browser open. It
contains buttons for copying, deleting and moving images and a few other commonly
used items from the Browser menu.
To activate or deactivate a toolbar, right click on any open toolbar and toggle the
toolbars on or off. To access the Customize Toolbar preferences window, right click on a
toolbar and choose “Toolbars” from the drop-down list. Highlight the toolbar you wish to
customize and click on the “Customize” button.
When you have toolbars open, you can hit “T” on the
keyboard to remove the toolbars from your workspace
and “T” again to bring them back. This is very handy
when you have a smaller monitor and want to reclaim
some space on your workspace.
All of the pre-configured toolbars can be customized
to the way you work. You can remove buttons from
the toolbars and add new buttons.
You have the option to add an icon for almost every
function in Paint Shop Pro 7, and the toolbar will hold
as many icons as you choose to put on it. However,
how many icons you can comfortably and practically
fit on the toolbar will depend on individual screen
sizes and resolutions. Only the icons which fit into the
width of the working Paint Shop Pro window will be visible: the toolbar does not wrap
according to the width of the window, nor is there an option to scroll through the
toolbar icons beyond the width of the window. Adding more icons to the toolbar than
can be accommodated across your preferred window size is therefore of little use.
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Gaining more real estate on your Standard toolbar - If you use keyboard
shortcuts for common actions such as Save (Ctrl-S), Copy (Ctrl-C), etc., remove
those buttons from the Standard toolbar. You might also want to remove the
“Toggle” buttons (Toggle Tool Options Window, etc.) since these are also easily
accessed through keyboard shortcuts.
To add a button to a toolbar, highlight the appropriate button in the right window above
which you want to place your new button. Then highlight the button in the left window
of the Customize Toolbar palette and click on the “Add” button as illustrated in the
following graphic. You can jump to a particular button by typing the first letter of the
name of the button. This shortcut has its limitations, though, since the order of the
Available toolbar buttons is not strictly alphabetical. The order listing of the buttons
roughly follows the order of the menu items starting with File Menu and ending with
Window Menu. To remove a button, highlight the button in the right window and hit the
“Remove” button. Once you have all your buttons on the toolbar, you can rearrange
them by highlighting a button and hitting the Move up or Move down button.
Do not hit the “Reset” button on this control panel unless you really want to
reset your buttons to the default buttons. Once you hit the Reset button, there is
no turning back! It’s also a good idea to close the program immediately after you
have configured your toolbars. If you were to have a crash before you closed Paint
Shop Pro, you would lose all the toolbar settings you made in that session.
General Program Preferences
File>Preferences>General Program Preferences
General Program Preferences is where you set the defaults for many of Paint Shop Pro’s
features. How you configure the preferences is generally a matter of personal taste and
they way you use the program. If you find that you are frequently changing preferences,
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you might want to consider placing the General Program Preferences button on your
Standard toolbar.
Please Note: You might want to have PSP open and the General Program Preferences
tab open as you read the following.
Undo/Redo
How you set these preferences will depend on how you use the program and how many
resources you have available on your computer. If you have a low memory machine, you
will want to keep the Mbytes of storage space limited to a low figure. You will also want
to limit the number of redos available.
Viewing
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Fit window to image when zooming in or out - This option fits the Paint Shop
Pro window to the image without any extra space around the image.
New Images Auto Size - When this option is activated, the automatically resize
the graphic you are opening to fit into the window. If you open an image that is
too large to fit in the Paint Shop Pro window, the program will resize the graphic
automatically to fit in the window.
After changing size - Fit image to window automatically resizes the image
window whenever you resize a graphic. Auto size activated will reduce the
image's magnification if you increase the size of the graphic to a size that is more
than will fit in the window.
Dialogs and Palettes
Most of these settings are a matter of personal taste, or are affected by the size of your
monitor.
Presentation
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Display large text and icons on palettes - This option will enlarge the size of the
type and graphics on your toolbars and palettes. Keep in mind that you will
reduce the number of buttons you can have on your toolbar if you choose this
option. Choosing this option may also cause options on your tool palette (if you
keep it on the left of your workspace) to be inaccessible.
Display flat style toolbars - This option will set the menu buttons to display
without the bevel effect.
Remember last type used in file save-as dialog - This option sets a default file
type to the last file type used in a File>Save As process.
Display menu icons - When this option is activated, the drop down menu will
display the corresponding icon associated with the action. This is a convenient
way to figure out which icon available on the Configure Toolbars menu applies to
a particular menu item.
Enable automatic palette roll-ups - This option will activate the "automatic
rollup" action for tool palettes. If you use the keyboard shortcuts for removing the
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tool palette from the workspace (type an "O"), then you will probably want to
disable the automatic rollups.
Color Palette
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Display colors in RGB - This setting will configure the color palette to display
colors in RGB (Red/Green/Blue) format. This is the default setting for the Color
Palette
Display colors in HSL - This setting will configure the color palette to display
colors in HSL (Hue/Saturation/Lightness) format.
Use Standard Windows color picker - There are two color pickers available in
Paint Shop Pro. The default color picker and the Standard Windows color picker.
If you are used to using the Standard Windows color picker from other programs,
you might want to activate the Standard Windows color picker.
Decimal or Hexadecimal Display - If you are creating web graphics with Paint
Shop Pro, choose hexadecimal display since web browsers use hexadecimal
format. Paint Shop Pro also displays colors in the color palette in hexadecimal
format.
Show Rainbow picker/Show document palette - These options apply to how the
color picker displays colors when you are in a paletted image (256 colors or less).
With the Rainbow picker selected, the available colors panel remains configured
as the rainbow color picker, allowing you to choose any available color. Show
document palette displays only the number of colors available in the graphic in
the available colors panel.
Browser Preferences
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Thumbnail Size - determines the size the thumbnails will be rendered in the
browser.
Appearance - The browser color configuration defaults to the standard Windows
blue color for the background color when a graphic is highlighted. To change the
color to a different color, activate the Use Classic Colors box and then select the
color you want to use from the color picker.
Display flat style thumbnails - This option displays thumbnails without the bevel
effect.
Save Browser Files to Disk - If you activate this feature, Paint Shop Pro will save
the current browser selection to the folder on your hard drive where you are
browsing graphics. This will enable Paint Shop Pro to load the graphics in that
folder much faster than if it has to start rendering the graphics all over again.
But, there is a trade-off for this. The "jbf" files that are created and saved to your
hard drive can take up a lot of your hard drive space and they are never
automatically deleted. If you decide to clean up old .jbf files, you will need to
manually delete them.
Automatic update for thumbnails - This option will slow down the rendering
process somewhat but has the advantage of rendering all the graphics in a file,
not just the graphics that were rendered the last time you viewed the file.
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Miscellaneous
The choices on this tab are determined by how you work. Selecting several of these
options can be rather risky so you might want to think twice before activating or
deactivating them.
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Recently Used File List - This option determines how many recent file names will
be available for recall when you choose the File menu option.
Transparent Paste Color Tolerance - This option sets the tolerance settings
applicable when you paste a selection "as a transparent selection". The tolerance
setting determines how closely the background color must match the transparent
color before the transparency takes effect.
Do not ask to empty clipboard on exit - This option will set the program to
automatically empty the clipboard upon exit.
Force Window Redraw - This option will force Paint Shop Pro to redraw the
information in the active window when you move objects in an image. This one is
best left unchecked.
Show Splash Screen - Deactivating this option will disable the splash screen and
it won't load every time you open Paint Shop Pro.
Disable pressure support for puck-type pointing devices - This option applies to
the pointing devices used on graphic tablets. With this option disabled, your pucktype pointing device's pressure settings will be disabled.
Rulers and Units
The rulers and default resolution options on this tab are again a matter of personal
choice. Both the Rulers and Grid are activated from the View Menu.
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Rulers - The "Rulers" option allows you to set your display units to Pixels, Inches
or Centimeters. You can display rulers as "black on white" or as "toolbar colors".
Toolbar colors have a gray background.
Default resolution - This option can also be changed to inches or centimeters.
You can change the resolution by using the arrows, or just type the new value in
the box.
Grid settings - These settings apply to the "View Grid" option. You can again set
the units to pixels, inches or centimeters. You can also set the horizontal and
vertical spacing and line color.
Guide - The Guide setting applies to setting "snap to" guides in your graphic.
Transparency
Transparency preferences allow you to set the appearance of the transparent
background that appears whenever you are working on a transparent layer. The color
and size you choose will be reflected whenever you view a transparent graphic or a
transparent background in a graphic.
Warnings
The warnings tab allows you to determine whether or not you want to be warned about
a particular action.
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CMYK Conversion Preferences
File>Preferences>CMYK Conversion Preferences
With CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) conversion set, Paint Shop Pro will replace
the RGB (red, green and blue) colors you see on the monitor with CMYK colors for
printing . When you select the CMYK Separations option on the Print Page Setup dialog
box. you can print a separate page for each CMYK color for use in a prepress shop for
high-end printing.
To create a new profile, editing the "default" profile is the easiest method. Since the
conversion process is very specific to each individual service bureau and print shop, it is
best to consult with your shop before configuring the preferences.
File Format Preferences
File>Preferences>File Format Preferences
Some formats listed in the Paint Shop Pro "Files of Type" drop down list need information
from the user so they can be properly displayed. These formats are PCD, PostScript,
RAW and WMF.
PCD - PCD (Kodak PhotoCD format) is a format that many photo developers use to
deliver photos on a CD. You can set this format to open a photo at a specific size or to
ask for the size before loading.
PostScript - Paint Shop Pro can read PostScript files through Level 2 and convert them
into raster information. You will lose most of the PostScript settings but your converted
graphic will retain any transparency settings. You will probably want to leave the
default settings on this tab.
RAW - This tab allows you to set how Paint Shop Pro interprets RAW pixel data. An
explanation of RAW file format is beyond the scope of this book. We recommend you
research the file format if you come across a graphic in this format.
WMF - WMF (Windows MetaFile) is Microsoft Windows native vector format. Microsoft
uses this format for its clipart. When you open a WMF file in Paint Shop Pro, the program
reads the header information in the graphic and tells you how large the graphic is. If you
leave "Prompt for size and options each time a file is opened" checked (my
recommendation) you will be able to enter a new size each time you open a WMF
graphic. Since WMF files are generally very large, you will probably want to determine
the size at the time you open the graphic. Entering a larger size for a WMF graphic will
not effect the quality of the graphic since WMF graphics are vector graphics.
Instant Vector Graphics - Since WMF graphics open in Paint Shop Pro with all
vector information intact, they provide an excellent source of pre-configured
vector art.
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File Format Associations
File>Preferences>File Format Associations
This dialog box allows you to determine which file format associations will be assigned
to Paint Shop Pro. You can choose the association by placing a check mark in the box to
the left of the file association name. You can choose to "Select All" or "Remove All"
associations. It is generally a good idea to remove all associations if you plan on uninstalling Paint Shop Pro. Besides assigning an association to Paint Shop Pro, you can also
add to the associations assigned to each file format.
File Locations
File>Preferences>File Locations
When you install Paint Shop Pro, the program creates numerous default folders to hold
objects such as patterns, textures, brushes, gradients, tubes, frames, shapes and styled
lines. With version 7, you can now set up to three locations for the program to search
for these objects. But, keep in mind that Paint Shop Pro will load all the objects within
the paths enabled. Therefore, if you have thousands of tubes, you will probably not
want the program to load all your tubes before you can use the tool. A good system to
use, if you have numerous objects, is to enter all the paths where you store your
objects, but do not check the Enable this Path box until you need the objects.
Place the File Locations icon on your Standard toolbar for instant access to
changing the locations.
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The Tubes, Patterns, Textures, Gradients, Brushes, Frames, Shapes and Styled Lines
Dialog boxes all have the same option choices with a few minor exceptions.
Enable this Path - When you have this option selected, Paint Shop Pro will look in that
path for any of the selected objects.
Use Sub Folders - When you have this option selected, Paint Shop Pro will drill down to
sub folders to find objects.
Save to Path - This option pertains to tubes, gradients, brushes, styled lines and shapes.
When you have this option selected, any new objects you create for the selected tool
will be saved to the designated path. This path defaults to the path set up when the
program was installed. If you wish to save your objects to a different folder, you might
want to create a new folder under the default folder. That way the original default
objects will be retained in the main folder.
Web Browsers
This option allows you to set the web browsers you wish to use when you select the
View>Preview in Web Browser menu item.
Undo/Temporary Files
This option allows you to designate where you want to store any temporary files
generated by the program. I set my default to my Windows>Temp file since I regularly
clear this folder.
Plug-in Filters
Unlike other graphics programs, you do not need to close Paint Shop Pro and reopen to
allow the program to load plug-ins from a designated folder. Just point the program to
the plug-in folder you want, hit OK and the program will then immediately load all the
plug-ins from that folder.
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Enable Filters - This option must always be selected to use external filters in
Paint Shop Pro.
Include sub-folders when searching for filters - This option allows you to
organize your filters by filter type or filter effects within one main folder.
Limit loaded plug-in files to .8? extension - This option should always be
checked because these are the only filters that work with Paint Shop Pro at the
current time.
Enable Plug-in automatic file format identification - This option should always
be checked.
Folders - Paint Shop Pro allows you to designate three folders to load plug-ins
from.
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Many of Photoshop's native plug-ins work fine with Paint Shop Pro, so if you
own the program, pointing one folder to that location will work to your advantage.
If you do point to a Photoshop plug-in folder and none of the plug-ins work, find a
file called "plugin.dll" and place a copy of this file in the Paint Shop Pro folder.
Color Management
File>Preferences>Color Management
Color Management under the Preferences only applies to Windows 98 and Windows 2000
operating systems. Activating Color Management will improve color rendition when you
display an image on your monitor and print it on your printer. It allows you to preview,
within the limitations of your monitor, how the image will look when printed on a
specific printer. To activate Color Management:
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Click in the Enable Color Management box.
Select Basic color Management to set how colors will appear on your monitor and
printer.
Select Proofing if you want to preview how colors will appear on a particular
device.
Select the applicable device drivers and settings in the drop down boxes. Any
installed monitor and printer settings will be the default when you choose this
option.
Click OK to apply the settings.
Monitor Gamma Preferences
I highly recommend that you leave the Monitor Gamma Preferences at their default
settings of 1. If you adjust your Monitor Gamma Preferences, you will end up in
producing graphics that look fine to you on your monitor, but will look very different on
other monitors.
Autosave Settings
Activating Autosave Settings will set the program to create a backup copy of the image
on which you are currently working. You determine how often you want this autosave to
happen by entering the number of minutes. If you suffer a system crash when you have
autosave enabled, when you restart Paint Shop Pro, the image you were working on will
be restored to the state it was in when the last autosave was performed.
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If you work with very large graphic files and you don't have a lot of RAM, you
might want to turn off Autosave. Autosave is a resource hog and will seriously slow
your system down if you don't have enough RAM.
Paint Shop Pro gives you an exciting arsenal of Paint tools to work with. The paint tools
covered here will be the Paint Brush, Clone Brush, Color Replacer, Retouch, Scratch
Remover, Eraser, Airbrush, Flood Fill and Picture Tubes.
The Paint Brush, Clone Brush, Retouch, Eraser and Airbrush tools all have the following
common elements. They all start with an identical first tab on the Tool Options Palette.
This tab is illustrated below:
Shape
Your shape choices for this tool are square, round, left slash, right slash, horizontal and
vertical. You also have the option of using custom brushes by pressing on the Brush
Types button in this dialog box. The following graphic illustrates the brush shapes round,
square, left slash, right slash, horizontal and vertical (from left to right)
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Size
You can set the size of your brush by typing in a new size (up to a maximum of 255), by
clicking on the up and down arrows, or by invoking the slider by depressing the button
on the right of the size box. If you click on the black bar under the size box and drag to
the right and to the left, you will increase/decrease the size of the text. This is a
shortcut to the slider bar.
Hardness
The hardness setting will determine how sharp the edges will be when you apply your
paint with the Airbrush tool. The following graphic illustrates a hardness setting of 100%,
75%, 50%, 25% and 0% from left to right.
Opacity
The opacity setting will determine the how well the paint covers the image. The
following graphic illustrates an opacity setting of 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% from left to
right. Since you can build your paint up with subsequent strokes of the Airbrush tool, we
recommend you always start with a low opacity setting.
Step
The step determines the spacing between your drops of paint as you apply a stroke. The
following graphic illustrates step settings of 25, 50, 75 and 100 from top to bottom. At a
step size of 100 with a brush size of 20, the paint will touch the surface once every 20
pixels.
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Density
The density setting will determine the amount of paint that will be applied with each
stroke. The following graphic illustrates a density setting of 100, 75, 50 and 25 from left
to right.
Build up Brush
The Build up Brush checkbox on the Tool Options Palette can sometimes have a big
effect on the results of a Paint brush stroke, especially if the Opacity setting is low.
When the Build up Brush box is checked, the Paint tools behaves like a normal paint
brush would - The more you go over an area, the more paint is applied, and the more
the paint covers the underlying graphic. When the box is unchecked, the brush applies
color only once to any area, and repeated passes made with the same click of the mouse
have no effect.
Brush Type
The Brush Type option allows you to set the Airbrush Tip to replicate specific drawing
tools such as a paintbrush, pencil, or charcoal, as illustrated in the following graphic.
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When you choose one of the drawing media types, the program will set the shape,
hardness and density of the tool to simulate the drawing tool.
The Custom selection allows you to use any of the Custom brushes you have available to
the program.
Custom Brushes
Using a Custom Brush allows you to paint with almost any brush shape you wish. Paint
Shop Pro 7 comes with several custom brushes pre-installed, and many more can be
downloaded from Paint Shop Pro sites on the Web. You can also make and install your
own custom brushes quite easily.
When you choose to use a Custom Brush, the Custom Brush dialogue box will open (as
illustrated in the following graphic). From this dialogue you can view and select any
installed brush, edit the preset step size of a brush, or delete a brush that you no longer
want. You can also load other brushes you have saved in a different directory by clicking
on the Edit Paths button. To select a brush, simply click on the thumbnail image, choose
your brush and click OK. A blue box will appear around the selected thumbnail image.
To Delete a brush, simply select it and click the Delete button.
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Paint Brush
The Paint Brush is used to apply paint to an image. How the paint is applied is
determined by the various settings for the tool. Following are some drawing styles:
Freehand - For freehand drawing, simply set the brush to the style you want to use and
using the mouse of a drawing tablet pen to draw on your graphic. From the time you
start to the point where you either release the mouse of remove the pen from the
tablet, you will have created one brush stroke. If you hit Undo, only that one stroke will
be removed.
Straight Lines - To draw a straight line, click once on your graphic to start the line and
click again at the point where you want the line to end. Turning on the gridlines can
help you create straight lines by giving you a focal point to start your line and to end
your line. You can create a series of connected lines by continuing to click on a new
point. When you "close" your line by clicking again on the starting point, the "connecting"
aspect of creating the lines will disappear.
Clone Brush
The Clone Brush is used to duplicate pixels in a graphic and replicate them elsewhere.
This tool is very handy for touch-up work on photos and for photo enhancement. Since
the Clone Brush duplicates pixels, you need to have a graphic open on your workspace
that contains the pixels you wish to duplicate. You can clone from one area of a graphic
to another on the same graphic or you can clone from one graphic to another. The
second tab of the Clone Brush Options Palette present you with options for cloning.
Aligned Mode
Aligned Mode is a mode in which the source area moves with the brush each time you
release the mouse. When you release and then re-click the mouse, the brush resumes
cloning the image relative to the distance from the source area. With aligned mode, you
can replicate an entire image, or part of an image, from one graphic to another graphic.
Nonaligned Mode
Nonaligned mode is similar to the aligned option except that it will always sample from
the original point specified. This sampling occurs even if the sampling point is not visible
within the working window. You will choose this option if you want to apply a particular
cloned portion of an image to various points on the image.
The following graphic is an example of aligned and non-aligned mode applied from one
graphic to a blank new graphic. Both clones were from a starting point of the left-most
characters head.
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Sample Merged
Check the Sample Merged box to clone anything visible on your graphic rather than just
what's available on the current layer. If the check box is not selected, you can clone
only what is available on the layer you are working on. If the check box is selected, you
will select the portion of the graphic that is visible from the layer you are currently on
down to the background layer.
Taking Advantage of Sample Merged - If you are cloning elements of a graphic
into the same graphic, having sample merged selected can be very handy. Add a
new transparent layer, select the area to be cloned and click on the new
transparent layer. The data you cloned is now on a transparent layer separate from
the remainder of the graphic. This can be very advantageous if you need to smooth
the edges of the cloned area or if you need to lower the opacity of the cloned area.
Set "Show brush outlines" - Setting the "Show brush outlines" option on the third tab in
the Clone Brush Options Palette will help you define the area the brush will cover.
To clone either aligned or non-aligned, choose a shape and size that will outline the
area you want to clone. Then set the opacity, hardness and density options.
Select or clear the "Build Up Brush" check box. When the check box is selected, each
clone stroke you apply will increase the density of your cloned data.
To define an area to clone, place the cursor over the area to be cloned and right-click.
Set the shape and hardness options to a lower value if you need to merge the outline of
the area selected into the underlying graphic. Move to the area where you want to place
the cloned data and click with the left mouse button.
Color Replacer
The Color Replacer tool is used to replace one color in a graphic with another color in a
graphic. To use the color replacer, set the color you want to replace as the background
color and the replacement color as the foreground color. A quick way to set the color to
be replaced is to right click on the color with the eyedropper tool. Once you have your
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colors set, either paint across your graphic or to replace all instances of the color at
once, double click on the graphic.
The only setting available for change on this tool is the density. Setting the density to a
lower value will replace fewer pixels of color with the new color. The following graphic
demonstrates the gray background replaced by red, the top with density set to 25 and
the bottom with density set to 100.
You can also set a texture in the Color Palette to use with the color replacer. Set the
texture as the Foreground texture. The following graphic demonstrates a brick texture
applied on the top of the graphic and a weave texture applied on the bottom of the
graphic.
Retouch Tool
The Retouch tool can be very valuable for special effects while creating graphics and for
cleaning up photographs. You can use the Retouch tool when you want to paint with an
effect rather than applying it to the entire image. The Retouch Modes all keep the brush
settings you used the last time, so you can find yourself confused when each Retouch
Setting has a different configuration for the Brush settings. The following image will be
used to demonstrate the various Retouch Tool Modes. Unless otherwise indicated, all
modes were applied with the Hardness set to 100, Opacity set to 100 and Density set to
100.
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The Retouch Tool Modes are:
Lighten RGB/Darken RGB
These settings will lighten or darken the RGB pixels in an image. The following example
has Lighten RGB applied to the left half of the image and Darken RGB applied to the
right side of the image.
Tolerance Setting
The second tab on the Color Replacer Options Palette contains the tolerance setting.
Tolerance settings only apply to a graphic that has variations of a color in the graphic. A
lower tolerance setting will replace all instances of the color wherein a higher tolerance
setting will replace instances of the color that vary in intensity. At a tolerance setting of
0, only pixels that exactly match the color will be replaced. As an example, the
following graphics have a blue sky color replaced by red with a tolerance setting of 10
(left) and a tolerance setting of 40 (right).
Soften/Sharpen
The Soften setting will smooth edges and reduce contrast. The Sharpen setting will
emphasize edges and heighten contrast. The following example has Soften applied to
the left of the image and Sharpen applied to the right of the image.
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Emboss
The Emboss setting works the same as the Emboss Effect except that you can vary the
embossing by reducing the hardness and the opacity. Reducing the opacity will allow the
retention of some of the color in the underlying image. The following example has
Emboss applied with full Hardness and Opacity on the left and Opacity reduced to 50 on
the right.
Smudge
Smudge picks up colors at the starting point and adds new colors as it moves across the
image. The effect is similar to smearing paint. The Hardness and Opacity settings on this
mode dramatically effect the way it works. The following graphic demonstrates smudge
set to 100% for Hardness and Opacity in the top part of the image, 50% Hardness and
Opacity in the middle portion of the image and 25% Hardness and Opacity in the lower
portion of the image.
The Smudge mode of this tool is very handy for blending the edges of an image that has
been selected and pasted onto a new layer. Smudge will help reduce the jaggies that
can remain after a selection and paste operation.
Push
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Push is similar to Smudge except that it does not pick up new color as the brush travels
across the graphic. The following graphic demonstrates the same settings as the Smudge
Tool.
Dodge/Burn
Dodge lightens and brings out areas in an image that are in a shadow. Burn Darkens
areas in an image that are too light. Both these effects are very intense and are best
applied at very low Hardness and Opacity settings. The image on the left has Dodge
applied at 40% and the image on the right has Burn applied at 20%.
Saturation Up/Saturation Down
Saturation Up and Saturation down increase and decrease the HSL values of an image.
The example on the left below demonstrates Saturation Up on the left and Saturation
Down on the right.
This tool comes in very handy if you want to convert part of a graphic to black and
white, leaving part the original color. All you need to do is to paint the part you want to
convert to black and white with the retouch tool set to Saturation Down with Hardness,
Density and Opacity all set to 100%. The graphic on the right below demonstrates this
technique:
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Lightness Up/Lightness Down
Lightness Up and Lightness Down increase and decrease the lightness of an image
effecting the HSL values. The following example demonstrates Lightness Up on the Left
and Lightness Down on the right.
Hue Up/Hue Down
Hue Up and Hue down effects the hues of an image effecting the HSL values. The
following example demonstrates Hue Up on the left and Hue Down on the right.
Saturation to Target/Lightness to Target
Saturation to Target changes the saturation of an image to match the currently selected
foreground color. The hue and Lightness of the image should remain unchanged.
Lightness to Target changes the lightness of an image until it matches that of the
currently selected foreground color. The Hue and Saturation of the image should remain
unchanged.
The following examples demonstrate Saturation to Target on the left and Lightness to
Target on the right. Both had the foreground color set to white and Opacity set to 25.
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Hue to Target
Hue to Target changes the Hue of your image to match that of the current foreground
color.
Color to Target
Color to Target changes the color of your stroke to match that of the foreground color.
The Luminance of your image should not change.
The following examples demonstrate Hue to Target on the left and Color to Target on
the right.
Red Eye Removal - Using Color to Target is a perfect solution to removing redeye in a photo. Select the iris area of the eye with the selection tool and set the
foreground color to the color you want the eye to be. Then paint over the selected
area with the retouch tool set to Color to Target. This changes the color of the eye
and leaves the highlights. Click here for a tutorial on using the Retouch tool to
correct red-eye.
Eraser
The Eraser tool is used to replace colors in an image with the currently selected
background color or with a transparency when you are working on a layer. When you use
the eraser tool on a background layer, as you drag the tool, all color pixels are replaced
by the background color. When you use the eraser tool on a transparent layer, all color
pixels are replaced by the transparency, allowing any underlying layers to show through.
Eraser Undo - If you erase an area by mistake, you can always hit the undo
button. But, with this tool when you are working on a transparent layer, you can
right click and drag over the area you have erased and this will restore the color
pixels you previously erased.
The Eraser Tool is a very handy tool to use when you want to extract an image from a
complicated background or a background that has colors that are too close to the image
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for using the magic wand tool. Following are some tips for erasing a background from an
image:
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Promote the image to a layer, then place new layer under your graphic and flood
fill the underlying layer with a contrasting color. As you erase, the underlying
color will show through and show you how well the edges blend.
Set the eraser tool to a large brush size to erase large portions of the background
and reduce the size of the brush as you move in on the edges of the graphic.
When you get to the edges, it helps to zoom in on your image.
Reducing the hardness level will allow you to blend your edges smoothly.
Setting Precise Cursors and Show Brush Outlines will also assist you when you are
using the Eraser tool.
You can also set a Paper Texture before erasing to create interesting special effects or
to reduce the intensity of the Eraser tool.
The Build up brush option works the same with the Eraser tool as it works with the Paint
Brush. When the box is checked, each stroke removes more pixels (assuming you have
your opacity set to something other than 100). When the box is unchecked, subsequent
brush strokes over the same area do not remove any more pixels of color.
Picture Tubes
Paint Shop Pro's Picture Tubes allows you to "paint" with a variety of objects. The
program comes with a large library of Picture Tubes to get you started. You can also
create your own Picture Tubes (see my Creating Picture Tubes tutorial) and use tubes
created by other people. There is a large community of "Tubaholics" on the Internet who
maintain sites where you can pick up an infinite variety of Picture Tubes.
The first tab on the Picture Tube Control Palette shows a sample of the currently
selected tube in a view window as illustrated in the following graphic. If you click on the
currently selected tube, you will be presented with a window displaying all the currently
installed tubes as thumbnails. You can then click on the tube you want to select from
the display box. This palette also allows you to set the scale and step for the picture
tube.
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Scale
The scale determines the percentage of the original tube size to be rendered when you
apply the tube. Lowering the scale of the tube will keep the tube looking crisp and
clear. Raising the scale of the tube will, after a certain percentage, start dithering the
tube and will result in a blurry looking tube.
Step
Step selection determines the spacing between your tube images as you apply a stroke.
Each tube will be selected with the scale set by the tubes creator but can be changed in
the options palette before applying. The following graphic illustrates the application of
a single sphere tube set to a Placement Mode of Continuous and a step mode of (top to
bottom) 10, 50, 100 and 150.
The second tab on the Picture Tube Control Palette, as illustrated the following graphic,
allows you to further options for how the tube will be placed on your graphic.
Placement Mode
The options for the Placement Mode are Random and Continuous.
Random - Random mode places the picture tube on the graphic at random intervals.
Continuous - Continuous mode places the picture tube on the graphic at equal intervals.
The following graphic demonstrates Random Placement Mode on the top and Continuous
Placement Mode on the bottom.
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Selection Mode
The options for the Selection Mode are Random, Incremental, Angular, Pressure and
Velocity.
Random - Random mode randomly selects images contained within a Picture Tube. Every
time you click on the image, a random image is selected from the Picture Tube. This can
result in repeat applications of the same image.
Incremental - Incremental selects a starting image within the Picture Tube (not
necessarily the first image) and repeats it only after all the other images in the tube
have been applied. Incremental mode is a good choice if you are applying images when
you don't want unexpected repeats to occur.
Angular - Angular mode selects images based on the direction you drag the cursor as you
paint. If you follow a straight path as you drag the cursor, Angular mode will result in
the same image being applied as you drag the cursor. If you set the mode to Angular,
you must drag the cursor to apply an image. Just clicking on the graphic will not result
in an image being applied.
Pressure - Pressure mode uses pressure from a pressure sensitive pad to determine
which image to select. It will result in the last image in the Picture being consistently
applied as you drag the cursor with a mouse.
Velocity - Velocity mode selects images based on the speed you drag the cursor as you
paint.
Options
The Picture Tube Options box, as illustrated below, allows you to save a preferred
setting with a tube. If you find you are always setting a particular tube to a specific
Placement Mode, Step Size and Selection mode, choose the settings you want to save
with the tube and check the "Save as default for this Picture Tube" box and hit OK.
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Do not, under any circumstances, change the Cell Arrangement of your tubes. If
you do, you will end up with unexpected results when you apply a Picture Tube.
Hints for Painting with a Picture Tube
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If you are using a picture tube to build a picture or to enhance a picture, we
recommend you apply each subsequent tube on a new layer. With this
arrangement, you can move the applied tube independent of the other layers.
This helps greatly in placement of a tube.
Sometimes finding the particular image you want from a tube that contains
numerous images can be very frustrating. If you choose "Incremental" as the
Selection mode, then continuously apply the tube on a separate layer, you can
then select the one image you were after, invert your selection and delete the
remaining images. Then move the image into position over the underlying image.
If there are only a few images in the Picture Tube you are using, just apply a
tube, and if it is not the one you wanted, hit Undo and apply another image until
you get the particular image you were looking for.
Sometimes it is easier to open the actual Picture Tube image in Paint Shop Pro,
select the image you want, copy your selection then go back to the image you are
working on and paste the selected image.
You can create a straight line of tubes by clicking on a start point once then move
the cursor to an end point and click again while holding down the shift key. This
method works best with a tube that is a single object. Setting the Placement
mode to Continuous will allow for even spacing between the individual tube
images. Using the gridlines is handy for lining up your clicks to ensure that your
line is straight.
You can use Paint Shop Pro's Browse feature to view the contents of Picture Tube
files.
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Creating Picture Tubes
It is very easy to create your own Picture Tubes. All you need to do is to place an image
or a series of images on a transparent graphic, define the tube and Export as a Picture
Tube.
1. Open a new Transparent Image large enough to fit the number of graphics you are
going to place in the tube.
2. Set the Grid Lines (See the View Menu tutorial for instructions on how to
setgridlines) to an exact division of the number of images you will be placing on
the image. If you create a 300 by 200 pixel transparent image that will hold 6
images, you would set your grid to 100 pixels. Turn on the gridlines (View>Grid).
The following graphic illustrates a transparent graphic 250x125 with gridlines set
to 125 pixels, turned on under View mode.
2. Open an image you want to place in your Picture Tube. Images with a solid
colored background are the easiest to create picture tubes since eliminating the
background is the essential step to creating tubes.
3. Promote the image to a layer (right click on the background layer in the Layers
Palette and choose "Promote to Layer").
4. Create a new layer and drag the new layer under the image.
5. Flood fill the new (bottom) layer with black (or white if the background on your
image is a dark color). By working on a colored background, you will be able to
see if you have a smooth image with no spare colored pixels remaining after you
remove the background from the image.
6. Click on the background of the image with the Magic Wand tool set to a Feather
of 2-3. Hit the Delete key a few times. This will remove the background from the
image. The feathering removes spare colored pixels from the edges of the image.
The following graphic illustrates the selection (on the left) and the image after
removing the background with the white background turned off.
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Resize the graphic if necessary to fit in the space alotted on the transparent graphic
7. .
8. Select the image (Selections>Select All or Ctrl A), copy the selection (Edit>Copy
or Ctrl C). Switch to the Picture Tube Image and Paste the selection into the
image (Edit>Paste>As a New Selection or Ctrl E).
9. Move your image with the Mover tool into the center of one of the grid squares.
10. Repeat for the remaining images. The following graphic illustrates the finished
tube with two orchids:
11. Choose File>Export>Picture Tube.
12. Set the Cell Arrangement for the configuration of the Picture Tube. In our tutorial
example, you would enter 2 cells across and one cell down.
13. You can set the Placement Options at this point, but since you can set them when
you apply a tube, you might want to leave the options set to the defaults.
14. Enter a tube name and hit OK.
Airbrush
To activate the Airbrush Tool click on the icon or type "." (period).
The Airbrush Tool is mainly used as an art tool to apply tones and colors gradually. The
edges of a stroke are softer than those of the Paintbrush resulting in a simulation of a
traditional Airbrush. The longer you hold the mouse button down, the more paint is
applied. This tool is useful for enhancing highlights and shadows, retouching, and tinting
areas with soft color.
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Flood Fill
If you use Paint Shop Pro to create web graphics, the Flood Fill tool is one tool you will
find you use frequently. It is used to flood fill a selection with a solid color, a pattern
and various versions of gradient color fills. The options available on the Flood Fill tool
make this an extremely powerful tool.
Before you use the Flood Fill tool, you will need to set a color, gradient or fill pattern in
the Color Palette.
When you have selected your fill, you will now have further options as illustrated in the
following graphic.
Blend Mode
Blend Mode is a method of combining pixels from the current layer with the underlying
layers. Blend Modes will be covered in my Layers tutorial.
Match Mode
Match Mode is a method of determining what pixels will be covered by the flood fill. If
you set your Match Mode to None or if you have your Tolerance set to 200%, you will
cover the entire underlying image. If you set your Match Mode to RGB Value, Hue or
Brightness and the Tolerance to 100, you will flood fill only parts of your image with the
solid color or fill depending on which mode you are using. To experiment with Match
Mode, open a photograph or some other colored graphic. Set the Tolerance to 100 and
then apply a color to your image picking the various Match Modes.
Tolerance
The Tolerance value determines how closely the color of a pixel must match the color of
the selected pixel before it is overwritten. The Tolerance works in conjunction with the
Match Mode option.
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Opacity
The Opacity setting determines how heavily your flood fill will cover your graphic. The
lower the opacity setting on the Flood Fill tool the lower the coverage and vice versa.
Sample Merged
Select the Sample Merged check box to have the Match mode select pixels from the
entire image including all underlying layers. Clear the check box to limit it to the
current (active) layer.
Get into the habit of always setting the Blend Mode and Match Mode to None
when you leave this tool. If you don't, I'll guarantee you that you will become very
frustrated the next time you try to do a solid flood fill.
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The Text Tool is used to add raster or vector text to an image. Vector text is always
placed on a vector layer and will remain editable as long as it remains on a Vector layer.
Raster text is always placed on a Raster layer and once placed on a Raster layer cannot
be edited. To create Text, click on the Text icon on the Tool Bar then click on your
graphic with the mouse. This will open the Text Entry dialog Box illustrated below.
Before you open the Text Entry dialog box, make sure the Tool Options palette is open
since this box contains the control for the stroke width and the Line Style. You need to
have the Tool Options palette open before you open the Text Entry dialog box because
you can not open it while the Text Entry dialog box is open.
The Text tool in Paint Shop Pro 7, has an associated Options Palette (as illustrated
below), unlike any previous versions. This Options palette contains two settings, Width
and Line Style.
The name box contains a drop down list of fonts currently available to Paint Shop Pro.
You can scroll through the list of names by clicking on the down arrow to activate the
drop down list and then use the down arrow key on the keyboard. As you scroll through
the available fonts, the Sample Text area will display the highlighted text in the
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currently selected font. You can also navigate the name box by clicking the cursor in the
name box and then typing the name of the font. As you type, the selection will move to
the next available font starting with the letters you have entered. Once you have
located the font you wish to use, click on the font name with the mouse or use the down
arrow to enter the font list and scroll down to the font name you want and hit enter.
Size
The Size box allows you to set the font size. You can either choose a size from the drop
down box, or you can type any size you want in the window. Paint Shop Pro can handle
very large text sizes with no difficulty.
Sample Text
The Sample Text box renders the text you have entered in the Text Entry box in the
currently selected font. If you have not entered any text or you have not selected the
text in the Text Entry box, the Sample Text will be rendered as "AaBb".
Kerning
Width - The Width setting entered will be the width of the stroke setting.
Line Style - Paint Shop Pro 7 allows you to set various line styles for the stroke. This can
result in some pretty weird or pretty creative text. The program comes with preset line
styles and you can even create your own. Also, your text needs to be fat and fairly large
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for the line style to show. The following graphic illustrates a width of 1 and the line
style set to "Opposing Arrowheads"
If you do choose a Line Style other than the default, always go back to the
Option Palette and immediately change the Line Style back to the default.
Otherwise, the next time you use the text tool, you could have some surprising
results!
The following explains all the elements on the Text Tool Entry window:
Name
Kerning is the distance between the characters of the font. When you choose a font with
characters spaced close together, you can achieve better results by adjusting the
kerning between the letters. To adjust the kerning, select the text and type a number in
the "Kerning" box. You need to start with fairly large numbers to see the effect. Most
fonts have a default kerning built into them. To activate the default kerning, click in the
Auto Kern box. The following illustrates the font Anastasia without adjusting the
Kerning, Kerning set to 50, and Kerning set to 100 (from left to right).
You can also adjust the Kerning between individual letters rather than the whole word.
To adjust the Kerning between individual letters, first make sure the text does not
currently contain a Kerning adjustment. To do this, highlight the entire word, enter 0 in
the Kerning adjustment box and click the cursor in the text box. Then place the cursor
between the letters you want to apply the kerning adjustment to and enter a number.
Click in the text box again to apply the new kerning adjustment. The following
illustrates kerning adjusted to 200 between the C and the O.
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Leading
Leading is the distance between lines of text. Positive values add leading, while
negative values reduce leading. Leading applies to text that spans more than one line.
When you create text in the text box and hit enter to create a new line of text, the
default Leading is determined by the size of the font. If you have a fairly large font size,
you probably won't want the large spacing between the lines of text, or if you have a
small font, you might want to increase the space between the lines. To add space
between lines of text, select the text and enter a positive number in the Leading box.
To decrease the spacing, enter a negative number. The following illustrates a 26 point
font with normal leading, and with the leading set to -5.
Styles
Setting a style determines the color and/or pattern for the text and allows you to set a
stroke and a fill for the text. The controls in the Style box work the same as the controls
on the Color Picker. If you set a stroke style, the size of the stroke will be determined
by the size you have entered in the Tool Options palette. Your Style choices are Color,
Gradient, Fill and None.
Stroke - The Stroke setting will create a "stroked" outline on your text the width you set
in the Text Tool Options Palette. Always set the Stroke to "None" for plain text. The
following graphic illustrates a stroke width of 2 with a solid color fill.
Fill - The Fill setting will fill the text with the Style you have selected. The following
graphic illustrates text with a pattern fill and a black stroke of 2.
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Textures
Setting a texture will apply a texture to the text that will combine with any styles you
set. Again, the controls for the Textures work the same as the controls on the Color
Picker. Applying a texture to text, for the most part, doesn't make a lot of sense. The
text will need to be very large for a texture fill to be noticeable and the stroke will also
need to be large to be noticeable.
Enter Text Here
This is the box where you enter text. After setting the font, size, color, and various style
options, just start typing. When you need to start a new line, hit the Enter key.. Always
select all the text before you attempt to change the font, size, kerning, leading, etc.
The quick and easy way to select all the type in the box is to type CTRL-A.
As you type text into this box, you can change the font or font size for each letter. Type
a letter, then change the font and/or font size, then type another letter. Or, type the
whole word and then highlight each letter to change the font and/or font size.
Text Alignment and Styles - The B I U and A represent Bold, Italic, Underlined and
Strike-through. The remaining three symbols represent Alignment choices. The first is
left aligned, the second is centered and the third is right aligned. For the most part,
how you designate the alignment of text before you place it on a graphic is not
important since you can easily move text once you have placed it on a graphic. But, if
you are placing more than one line of text, the alignment comes in handy. Text
alignment starts at the base of the font on its horizontal axis. Keep this in mind when
you are placing fonts with a large size setting. If you place text and it ends up off the
graphic, just grab the text graphic and drag it where you want it.
Standard Text
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The Standard Text button is a shortcut to creating text with just a fill and no stroke. If
you click on the box with a stroke set and a fill set, the program will turn off everything
except for the fill Style. But, the program will also reset the Color Picker's Styles and
Textures if you have the lock set on the Color Picker. It also resets the Background Color
Swatch at the top of the color picker to the color you have set in the text tool. If you
don't want to reset the color picker, set the stroke style on the text tool to null.
Create As
You can create new text as Vector, as a Selection or Floating with Antialias on or off.
Always create text with "Antialias" checked. Antialias smoothes the text edges and will
yield a much more professional result. About the only time you don't want to antialias
text is when you are creating very small text.
Vector Text - Vector text will be placed in a graphic on a vector layer. If you are
currently on a raster layer when you place vector text, the program will create a new
vector text layer. Vector text will appear with guides and handles that can immediately
be used to manipulate and resize the text. Vector text can also be converted to a vector
shape to allow for more extensive manipulation of the text. Vector text can be edited
after you have placed it in a graphic as long as it remains on a vector layer. You can
proportionally resize vector text by right clicking on a corner handle and pulling out or
pushing in. Once you have placed vector text, you can manipulate its shape as follows:
To move vector text, grab the center handle and drag. The cursor will look turn into a
"cross hair" as illustrated below:
To deform vector text in a horizontal direction, pull out or push in the middle handle on
the left or on the right as illustrated below:
To deform vector text in a vertical direction, pull up or push down top or bottom middle
handle as illustrated below:
To resize vector text, push in or pull out on the handle in the lower right corner. Right
click on the handle and pull out or push inwards to resize text proportionally as
illustrated below:
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To rotate vector text, grab the middle handle to the right of the center node as
illustrated below. Pull the text in the direction you want to rotate it.
To slant vector text, hold down the CTRL key, click on the center top or bottom handle,
and pull to the right or left as illustrated below.
Converting Vector Text to an Object
If you convert vector text to a Vector Object, you can deformation the text further or
you can change the properties of the text.. To do this, click on the Object Selector tool
, and then click on your vector text to activate it. Right click on the vector text and
choose "Convert Text to Curves". Choose "As a Single Shape" to convert all the characters
in the text to one single shape. or "As Character Shapes" to convert each letter in the
text to a separate object. Keep in mind that once you convert your text to curves, you
will no longer be allowed to edit the text to change the font. It will permanently
become a vector object. If you want to experiment with text, you might want to
duplicate your vector text layer and experiment on the duplicated layer.
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Text Converted to a Single Shape - When you convert text to a Vector Single
Shape you can deform the text or change its properties by clicking on the
Properties box in the Object Selector Tool Options Palette. This will bring up the
Vector Properties box. Please see Chapter X, Page X for a complete explanation
of this box. Any edits made to the properties of text as a single shape will be
made across the text. The graphic below illustrates a gradient applied to text
converted to a single shape. You will note that the gradient starts with the first
letter and ends with the last letter.
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Text Converted to Character Shapes - When you convert text to character
shapes, each letter of the font becomes an individual vector object that can be
manipulated on its own or in conjunction with the other character shapes in the
word. The graphic below illustrates the same gradient applied to text converted
to character shapes. You will note that each letter contains the entire gradient.
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Many Paint Shop Pro 6 users will miss the ability to change the color of each individual
letter in a word. When you convert text to character shapes you can change the color
and/or style of each individual letter.
Perfectly Spaced Text You can use kerning to space the letters in your text
or you can convert the text to Character Shapes and move each letter individually.
You will find that moving each letter individually will give you more control over
text spacing than kerning. To move each letter, click on a letter with the Object
Selector tool active, hold down the Shift key and hit an arrow key in the direction
you want to move the letter.
Floating (Raster) Text - When you choose to place text as floating, the text will be
placed directly on the currently active raster layer. If you are on an active Vector layer
when you place Raster text, you will be asked if you want to "defloat" the text to the
nearest Raster layer when you deselect the text. This may not be what you want to
happen. If not, right click on the layer that says "floating selection" and choose "Promote
to Layer". This will place the text on its own transparent raster layer. I recommend you
always create a new layer for raster text. When raster text is on a new transparent
layer, you can apply Paint Shop Pro effects to the text without selecting the text, and
you will have much more control over moving the text. You can also select the text and
save the selection to an Alpha channel. This will allow you to change text effects by
loading the text selection and flood filling with a different color or texture and/or
applying a filter or effect.
Selection - When you place text as a "Selection", you will be placing a selection of the
text rather than the actual text This can be handy if you want make a text selection of
part of a picture or a pattern. You can move the text selection by clicking on the Mover
tool then right-click and drag.
Another good use for placing text as a selection is for creating a text effect on a
background. If you place text as a selection on a photograph, you can then apply any of
Paint Shop Pro's filters to the text selection and the filters will be rendered on the
photograph. You can achieve some very interesting text effects by placing a text
selection on a graphic and then applying any of the various filters available.
Note: When you have the Proof feature turned on in the Text Entry box and you choose
Selection, the text on the graphic will render with any currently set styles and/or
textures. But, when you place the text, it will place as the text selection.
Proof
Clicking on the eye in the Proof box will render the text on your graphic as it is currently
configured. Clicking on the down arrow will lock the Proof box so that you will always
see the text rendered on your graphic as configured.
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This tutorial will cover the tools on the toolbar that can be used to create selections.
The selection tools on the toolbar all have several common concepts. They are as
follows:
Antialias
The Selection and Freehand Selection tools both allow you to set Antialias. Setting
Antialias on will smooth the edges of your selection so that the edges. This will make the
edges of your selection smoother.
Feather
The Selection and Freehand Selection, and Magic Wand tools both allow you to set a
feather. Feathering fades the edges around a selection, creating a smoother transition.
The feathering value you enter is the width of the transition.
When you set Antialias or Feathering in one selection tool, it applies then to all
the selection tools. If you forget to turn off Antialias or Feathering, the next time
you use a different selection tool, the values you enter in the previous tools will be
active. This can lead to unexpected results. I always turn off Antialis when I an
done using a Selection tool. I never set Feathering in the tool since you can feather
a selection from the Selections>Modify>Feather menu option.
Adding to a Selection
You can add to a selection by holding down the Shift key while making another selection
that crosses the currently active selection. The example below illustrates adding to a
square selection.
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Subtracting from a Selection
You can subtract from a selection by holding down the Control while making another
selection that crosses the currently active selection. The graphic below illustrates
subtracting from a square selection.
Moving a Selection
There are several ways you can move a selection:




You can move a currently active selection by clicking on the Mover tool and then
right-click and drag the selection. This operation moves only the selection.
To move the selection itself, left click and drag or hold down the Shift key and
press one of the Arrow keys to move the selection one pixel in the direction the
arrow key is pointing. This will move the selection and fill the background with
the currently selected background color. On a transparent layer, the area behind
the moved selection will remain transparent.
To move a copy of the selection, leaving the original selected area behind, choose
Selections>Float and move the "floating" selection. Or...
Choose Selections>Promote to Layer and move the promoted selection on the new
transparent layer by left-clicking and dragging.
Selection Tool
The Selection tool is used to make selections in a preset shape on a graphic. The
Selection Tool Options palette contains a drop down list of numerous preset shapes for
selections as illustrated below.
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When you enter a value in the "Feather" box, you will feather the edges of the selection
by the number of pixels entered. When you activate Antialias, your selections will be
antialiased.
A rule of thumb for antialiasing selections is to antialias any selections that contain
curves and do not antialias selections that contain straight lines. Antialiasing straight
line selections will result in the edges of the selection looking blurred.
"When I make a selection from a graphic, why does it end up with a "halo" of
color around the edges?" Because you had "antialias" checked when you made your
selection!
Select Area
Double click on the Selection tool and the following dialog box pops up.
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This option is very handy when you are cropping numerous graphics to the same size.
You set your crop size by entering the appropriate coordinates. When you hit OK, your
selection will be active on the currently active graphic. Paint Shop Pro will retain the
coordinates you enter until the next time you change them. So, if you have 100
photographs you need to crop to 4" x 5", this is how you will do it, quick and easy!
Other than manually entering the coordinates for the selection, the other options on this
dialog box are:




Custom Size and Position - This is the active selection mode to manually enter
coordinates.
Surround Current Selection - This option will enter the coordinates of the
current selection in the coordinate boxes.
Select Opaque Area - current layer Select Opaque Area - merged -
Creating Selections
Following are ways to create a selection with this tool:
Rectangular, square, or rounded rectangular or square selections - place the cursor at
the upper left corner of the area you want to select.


Circular or elliptical selections - place the cursor at the center of the area you
want to select.
Shape selections - place the cursor at the upper left corner point that would form
the corner of an imaginary rectangle enclosing the shape.
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Click the left mouse button and drag in the direction you want to create a selection.
Release the mouse button when your selection is complete. The area surrounding the
selection will become a marquee (sometimes referred to as "marching ants"). If you don't
see a marquee when your selection is complete, check Selections>Hide Marquee and
make sure it is not activated.
Freehand Tool
Freehand selections can be very useful when you need to extract an object from a busy
background.
Selection Types
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

Freehand - The Freehand tool allows you to drag the mouse around an area you
want to select. When you release the mouse, the program will connect the start
and end point. I rarely use the Freehand option on this tool since it gives you very
little control over your selections.
Point to Point - The Point to Point option gives you much more control. All you do
is to click on an image, and continue clicking. When you reach the starting point
and double click, the selection will be complete. When you are making an
intricate selection, you will find that zooming in on the graphic will allow you to
make a much more accurate selection.
Smart Edge - Smart Edge allows for a very accurate selection if there is a lot of
contrast between the background and the object you wish to select. Smart Edge
works a lot like Point to Point, but the selection area between the two points
where you click "snap" to the edge of what you are selecting.
Magic Wand
The Magic Wand tool is used to select pixels of color in a graphic.
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Match Mode
The Match Mode determines the value on which a selection will be based. These modes
are:
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


RGB - Selects pixels based on the amount of red, green and blue they contain.
Hue - Selects pixels based on the hue's position on the color wheel.
Brightness - Selects pixels based on the amount of white they contain.
All Opaque - Selects all pixels of color (does not select transparent areas).
Opacity - Selects pixels based on the opacity level of the pixels selected versus
the opacity level of surrounding pixels.
Tolerance
The Tolerance level determines the amount of similar colored pixels that will be
selected. A Tolerance level of 200 will result in all pixels of color in a graphic being
selected. The following graphics represent, on the left a tolerance setting of 10 and on
the right a tolerance setting of 50 with the blue in the sky as the selection point.
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Feathering
Feathering controls how sharp the edges of the selection will be. When you are selecting
a background to remove from a graphic, setting a value in feathering will result in less
"jaggie" artifacts being left behind. The following graphic demonstrates selecting and
removing the white background with no feathering (middle graphic) and feathering set
to 2 (right graphic). I first made the selection then hit delete to remove the background.
With feathering set, you will probably need to hit delete more than once to remove the
fuzzy border. I hit delete three times on the graphic with feathering set.
Sample Merged
When Sample Merged is checked, the Magic Wand tool will select pixels of colors from
the underlying layers in addition to the currently selected layer.
Eye Dropper Tool
The Eye Dropper tool is used to pick up a color from a graphic. Left clicking sets the
Foreground color and right clicking sets the background color.
Draw Tool and Preset Shapes Tool
The Draw and Preset Shapes tools can be used in either vector or raster mode. Using
these two tools, you can create just about any outlined graphic you want with little
effort.
Draw Tool
The draw tool is used to create straight lines, bezier curves, freehand lines and point to
point lines. This tool can be set to either vector or raster. Since vector graphics are
adjustable, I recommend you alway create lines with the vector option selected.
The following graphic illustrates the Tool Options palette for the Draw tool:
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The Type box allows you to select the type of line you want to draw.
The Width box allows you to enter the width of the line.
The Line style is just that, the style of the line. This tool comes with numerous preset
line styles from dashed or dotted lines to lines with arrows at each end. You can even
create your own custom line styles.
Antialias - Check this box to antialias your lines. If you are creating a line in any shape
other than a straight line, you will probably want to have antialias checked. The
following graphic illustrates a freehand line drawn with antialias on (left) and antialias
off (right):
Vector - Check this box to create your line as vector. This has the advantage of being
able to edit the line you have drawn instead of starting over if you don't like the results.
Close Path - When this box is selected, the start and end points of your line will be
connected when you release the mouse, assuming that your line is curved in some way
so that the ends can connect.
The second tab on the Tool Options palette contains three other settings for the draw
tool:
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Join - The Join choices are Miter, Round and Bevel. These options only apply to the Point
to Point draw tool. They determine the shape of the join where two segments of the line
meet. The following graphic illustrates the Miter (left), Round (middle) and Bevel (right)
joins on a point to point line.
Miter limit - This control again, applies only to the Point to Point line, and is active only
if a Mitered Join is used. This setting determines the maximum value allowed for the
Miter length to the line width. The Miter length is defined as the length in pixels from
the inside edge of the join to the outer point. If the ratio is less than the Miter Limit,
the result is a normal Mitered Join. If the ratio exceeds the Miter Limit, the tip of the
Miter is cut off at the limit, giving something that resembles a Bevel Join. The highest
allowable Miter Limit is 30. It is best to keep the Miter Limit at the high end, otherewise
some of your Mitered Joins may be truncated.
Curve Tracking - This option is located on the second tab of the Tool Options palette.
This only effects the freehand line type. Curve tracking determines the distance
between the nodes used to create your curve. The closer the nodes are the better the
curve will be defined. Therefore, lower values allow you to create tighter curves
without distortion. If you want smooth curves, though, you will want to keep the Curve
Tracking numbers in the higher range. The following graphic illustrates a freehand line
drawn with Curve Tracking set to 1 (left) and 30 (right).
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The type of line you draw depends on how you have your Color Palette set. For a simple
stroked line, turn off the background color and leave the Foreground color active. For a
stroked line, have both color swatches active. If you are drawing a curved line, you will
want to have only the stroke (foreground color) active since you probably don't want the
curved line to be filled with a color. The following graphic demonstrates a bezier curve
line with stroke only active and with stroke and fill active:
Single Line
Fill has no effect on the Single Line setting. It always draws with the stroke color only.
Single lines are used to create straight or angled lines. If you hold down the Shift key
while drawing single lines, you will end up with smooth edges on your lines, even if you
don't have Antialias set on. If you don't constrain the lines, you will end up with jagged
edges.
Bezier Curve
Bezier curve is used to draw smooth flowing lines. To create a bezier curve:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Open a new graphic large enough to hold your curved line.
Set the stroke line to a solid color and the fill (background) off.
Set the line width (usually a small number) and turn on Antialias. Set to Vector.
Draw a straight line from left to right (hold down the Shift key to constrain the
line).
5. Click once below the line and once on top of the line to create the curve.
6. Release the mouse.
7. You can edit the curve of the line by clicking on the Object Selector tool then on
the curved line. Choose Node Edit.
8. To increase the curve of the line, pull out on the round handle. To decrease the
curve, push in on the round handle.
Point to Point
To create a line drawing using Point to Point, simply click on the graphic where you
want your point to be. Keep clicking until you are done. This will probably result in
crooked lines. But, do not despair. This is very easy to click. Until you right click and
choose Quit Node Editing, you can fix the lines (you can even fix them afterwards by
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editing the nodes). Hold down the Shift key and cycle through the nodes until you hit the
one you want to straighten. Then hold down the Ctrl key and hit an arrow key in the
direction you want to go to fix the line. Continue on through the nodes until you have all
of them fixed. Then right-click and quit node editing. You can use this same technique
to fix lines created when you are not in Vector mode, but you will not be able to go back
later and work on the lines again. Since it is so easy to convert your vector lines to
raster, I recommend you always create your line drawings in Vector mode. The following
graphic illustrates a line drawing with jagged lines (left), the nodes edited to fix the
lines (middle) and the final drawing (right).
Create a Pill Button Shape
Creating a pill button shape with the Line tool is a piece of cake:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Activate the Draw tool, Single Line, Width 50, Antialias and Vector checked.
Choose the Line Style Round.
Holding down the Shift key, draw a short line.
Using the Vector handle on the right, pull the line until it is the length you want.
You will not be able to expand the height of the graphic, only the width.
5. Choose Selections>From Vector Object and save the selection to an Alpha Channel
(Selections>Save to Alpha Channel).
6. You now have a template for a pill button.
Click here for a tutorial on creating a pill button.
Preset Shapes Tool
The Preset Shapes Tool opens a whole new world to the "artistically impaired" (like me).
Paint Shop Pro comes with an extensive set of Preset Shapes and you can easily create
your own to add to your library of shapes (I'll cover this later).
The Tool Options palette for this tool allows you to control the final appearance of the
shapes you create.
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When you click on the window for the shapes, it enlarges and allows you to view all the
available shapes.
Retain Style - When this box is checked, the style of the preset shape you choose is
unchanged. If it is unchecked, you will only get the basic outline of a complicated
shape. The following graphic illustrates this. The graphic on the left is the Cylinder
preset shape with Retain Style checked, the graphic on the right, with Retain Style
unchecked.
Antialias - You should always have Antialias checked if a shape contains any curves. The
following graphic illustrates a circle shape with antialias checked (left) and without
(right).
Create as Vector - With this box checked, you will create shapes in vector format. This is
the recommended procedure for shapes because vector shapes can be edited, whereas
raster shapes cannot.
Line Width - The value in this box will determine the width of the stroked line on the
shape.
Line Style - Choosing a line style other than solid can have some interesting effects on a
shape. The Line Style is disabled when you have "Retain Style" activated. The following
graphic illustrates a couple of different lines styles on a shape. The circle on the left has
the Line Style set to "diamond" and the circle on the right has the Line Style set to "short
dash".
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Changing Colors of Preset Shapes OK, you really like the Cylinder, but you need it
to be blue rather than red. No problem. To change the color of a preset shape:
1. Draw the Preset shape with Retain Style and Vector selected.
2. Click on the plus sign to the left of the layer called Cylinder. This will expand the
layer.
3. Click on the layer called "Front" and choose "Properties" on the Tool Options
Palette. Change the color of the Fill to the color you want the cylinder to be.
4. Or, click on the Pattern Tab and choose a pattern to fill the cylinder.
5. Repeat step 3 on the "Back" layer.
The following graphic illustrates the Cylinder preset shape changed to blue (on the left)
and filled with a pattern (two cylinders on the right).
Drawing with Preset Shapes Tool To draw with the Preset Shapes tool, click on the
graphic at the top corner of where you want to start drawing and pull the cursor to the
right and down. To contstrain the shape to a proportional shape (no distortion), hold
down the shift key while dragging with the mouse.
The following graphic illustrates an arrow shape drawn without constraining
proportionally (left) and with constraining (right).
You will notice that there is no preset shape for a circle or for a square. To draw a
circle, select the Ellipse shape and hold down the shift key while drawing. To create a
square, select the Rectangle shape and hold down the shift key while drawing.
The second tab on the Shapes Tool Options Palette contains settings for Join and Miter
Limit. These work the same as on the Draw tool.
You can create some very nice shapes by settings on the Join and Miter. The following
shapes were created (left graphic) Star Shape, Line Width 50, Fill Color and Stroke Color
activated and the same, Join set to Round and (right graphic) Same as left graphic
except Join set to Bevel.
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Rounded Rectangle - One complaint about the Preset Shapes tools has been about the
Rounded Rectangle. It does a pretty poor job of created the rounded edges on a
rectangle. The solution to this problem is to create the rounded rectangle out of the
rectangle shape set the same as outlined above. This method doesn't work well with the
rounded rectangle shape, though, as you still end up with a jagged edge. The following
graphic illustrates a rounded rectangle created as described here (left) and a rounded
rectangle created from the Rounded Rectangle preset shape.
Create Your Own Shapes
One very cool feature about the Shapes Tool is the ability to create your own shapes.
This works similar to creating picture tubes. The best source for new shapes are fonts.
As an example, the following is how I created the Splats shapes I use on my intro page. I
created them from a dingbat font called Splats. I wanted the splat shape, but I didn't
want the letters in the interior of the shape.
1. Create a new graphic with a transparent background large enough to hold the
number of shapes you want. For this tutorial I created a graphic 200x200.
2. Set gridlines to help you line up the graphics (I set mine to 100x100).
3. Open a new graphic 200x200.
4. Set the Stroke off on the Colors Palette and set the fill color to black.
5. Place a splat font on the new graphic.
6. Click on the Object Selector tool and select the font with the tool active. Right
click on the font and choose Convert Text to Curves>Single Shape.
7. To make viewing the letter part of the font easier, I pulled on the right bottom
corner of the font to increase the size to almost the size of the graphic.
8. Click on Node Edit on the Tool Options Palette.
9. Drag a box around the letter part of the font graphic and hit delete. The following
graphic illustrates (left to right) the font with the letter before removing it, the
font with the letter removed and a fiew of what the font now looks like.
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Reduce the size of the graphic by repeating step 7 in reverse.
10. Copy your graphic (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C).
11. Paste your copied graphic on the original graphic "As a new Vector Selection".
12. Repeat with remaining font shapes.
13. Expand the vector layer. You will see that the layers are named after the fonts.
This is what will show up under the shape in the Shapes Tool. To give the shapes a
more meaningful name, double click on a shape layer and give it a new name. I
named mine Splats1, 2, etc.
14. Choose File>Export>Shape. Give the export a name you will recognize. I named
mine Splats.
The exported graphic you just created will be saved to your Shapes folder under the
folder where you have installed Paint Shop Pro. You can open this graphic and change
the shapes if you want (they were saved as vector graphics) and then export the shapes
again. The shapes are saved with a .jsl extension. You can now share your shapes with
other PSP users. You can also pick up shapes other people have created. If you pick up a
.jsl shapes file, just drop it into your Shapes folder. The next time you use the shapes
tool, your new shapes will be available for use.
Hints for Installing Shapes
It can be very tempting to run out there and start collecting shapes. This is not a bad
thing, but you want to be careful how many shapes you have in your shapes folder. Too
many shapes can be confusing when you are looking for a particular shape and loading a
large number of shapes can cause performance problems on machines that don't have a
large amount of RAM.
I keep the basic shapes I use the most in the Shapes folder and have moved all my other
shapes to a Shapes1 folder. When I want to use the shapes from the Shapes1 folder, I
click on my File Locations button on the Standard Toolbar (that's one of the first buttons
I installed on the toolbar), and change the location for Shapes from Shapes to Shapes1.
Miscellaneous Tools
Arrow Tool
When you increase the magnification of an image for detail work, the entire image may
no longer fit in the image window. When you want to work on a part of the image that is
not in the window, you can move the image with the Arrow tool. Click on the Arrow key
and then hold down the left mouse button (the arrow will turn into a hand) and drag
your image.
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Zoom Tool
When you are working on an image, frequently you will want to zoom in on your work for
greater accuracy. Using the Zoom tool is the easiest way to increase or decrease the
magnification of an image. To Zoom in on an image, click on the Zoom tool and left click
on top of the area you want to magnify. To Zoom out (reduce magnification) click with
the right mouse button.
If you have zoomed in on an image to the individual pixel level and you want to return to
normal viewing, use the menu choice View>Normal Viewing to quickly get back to where
you started.
The Deform Tool
The Deformation tool allows you to Rotate, Resize, Skew and Distort a floating selection
on an image. To deform a selection, use the selection tool, then choose
Selections>Float. Keep in mind that you are now working on a copy of your image with
the underlying image still intact. Your selection will now have handles in the corner and
a handle in the middle as illustrated in the following graphic.
When you hover the cursor over the right handle on the middle bar, the cursor turns into
two curved arrows in opposite directions. When you are in this state of the Deform tool,
you can rotate your graphic by moving your mouse up or down.
The handles on the Deform tool can be manipulated in three ways. The first is by
clicking on any handle with the left mouse button. This will turn the cursor into a "cross
hair" with a rectangle box (example on left below). This allows you to make an image
wider, narrower, shorter or taller. Just grab a handle and push or pull.
The second option you invoke by holding down the Shift key while clicking on a handle.
This will turn the box next to the cursor into an angled box (see example in the middle
below). This option allows you to slant your graphic to the right or to the left. The last
option you invoke by holding down the Ctrl key when you click on a handle. This will
turn the box next to the cursor into a box with the top handles proportionally inward
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(see example on the right below). This option allows you to proportionally distort the
sides of the graphic inward or outward.
A very practical use for the Deform Tool is to use it to resize a graphic. To resize your
graphic proportionally, grab on to the lower right handle with the right mouse button
depressed and press inward to scale the graphic down and pull outward to scale the
graphic up. The advantage to this method of resizing a graphic (rather than using the
Image>Resize feature) is that you can see your graphic resize interactively and can
better judge when you have the image the correct size.
The Deform tool for Perspective
The Deform tool works very well for giving a graphic perspective. The following tutorial
will teach you how to create an "open door" effect on a graphic.
1. Download the door graphic above to your hard drive.
2. Open the door graphic.
3. Use the selection tool to select the "door" part of the image.
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4. Choose Selections>Promote to Layer.
5. With your selection still active, click back on the door layer and choose
Edit>Clear. This will clear the "door" portion of the door graphic, leaving the
outlying areas of the graphic intact.
6. Turn off all layers except for the promoted door layer.
7. Click on the promoted door layer and make a selection for the right half the door.
8. Choose Selections>Promote to layer.
9. Click back on the layer that has the whole door and choose Selections>Invert.
10. Choose Selections>Promote to layer. You should now have the two halves of the
door on separate layers.
11. Delete the layer with the whole door and turn the remaining layers back on.
12. Click on the Deform tool then on your selection.
13. Click on the right half of the door layer. Select the door with the rectangle
selection tool.
14. Click on the deform tool then on the layer with the right half of the door.
15. Hold down the Ctrl key and grab the top left corner handle. Pull the handles
inward.
16. Repeat with the left side of the door.
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17. Drag the sides of the door to the right and to the left a few pixels and shave off
the outside edges to align with the inside door panel on the bottom graphic.
18.
To have your doors open outward, rather than inward, repeat the above process except
you will want to pull outward rather than inward in step 15.
19.
The Crop Tool
The Crop tool only has one purpose in my opinion. I rarely use it to crop an image. I
choose to use Image>Crop to Selection (Shift-R) to crop a selection. But, the one real
use for this tool is that it remembers the last crop setting you used. This can come in
quite handy if you need to crop a lot of images to the same size. To do this, make your
first crop. Then, when you want to crop the next image, double click on the Crop tool.
This will bring up the Crop Area box. Click OK, and you will have a crop area the exact
size as your previous crop. You can move the crop selection by dragging it with the
cursor. Double Click on the crop area and you will crop your second image to the exact
same size as the first image.
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File Menu
The File menu contains most of Paint Shop Pro's "housekeeping" and setup options. The
File menu can be activated by clicking on the Icon on the Menu Bar or by pressing (Alt)F. To select a particular menu item, either type the underlined letter in the menu, drag
the cursor to the appropriate menu choice, or use the arrow keys to move up and down
the menu choices and hit Enter when you have the menu choice highlighted.
New
Shortcut: (Ctrl) N
To create a new image, you can type the shortcut key, click on the New icon on the
Standard Toolbar or choose File>New from the menu drop-down list. The New Image
dialog box will appear allowing you to set the attributes for the new graphic you will be
creating.


Image Dimensions - Image Dimensions are entered in the Width and Height boxes.
The width and height can be set to Pixels, Inches or Centimeters by selecting
from the drop down list. The resolution is set in the Resolution box and can be set
to Pixels per Inch or Pixels per Centimeter, again from the drop down list.
Image Characteristics - Image Characteristic choices are Background Color and
Image Type. Background color choices are Foreground, Background, White, Black,
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Red, Green, Blue or Transparent. I recommend you create a new graphic with a
White background unless you always wish to start with a transparent background.
When you set a background color, the next time you choose File>New, the
previous background color you selected will be the default. Since it is relatively
easy to flood fill your graphic with a color, creating a new graphic with a specific
background color is usually not advisable.
Always leave the Image type set to 16.7 Million Colors (24 bit). Since most of
Paint Shop Pro's effects are not available in a graphic that is less than 16.7 Million
colors, there is really no reason to create a new graphic in any other format.
Open
Shortcut: O
There are several ways to open a graphic. You can use the keyboard shortcut, click on
the Open icon on the Standard toolbar, or you can choose File>Open from the file menu.
When you have activated Open, you will be presented with the Open dialog box as
illustrated below.


The Open "Look In" file will be set to the last folder you Ire in when you opened a
graphic. To charge to a different folder, click on the drop own arrow.
To open a graphic, double click on the graphic name in the window or type the
graphic name in the File name box and either hit the Enter key or click on the
Open button.
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





If you are searching for a graphic of a particular file type, choose the file type
from the drop down list in the "Files of Type" box. This will result in only the
graphics with the selected file type being displayed in the selection window.
To cancel the Open command, either hit the Esc key or click on the Cancel
button.
To access Help for the Open command, click on the Help button.
Clicking on the Browse button activates Paint Shop Pro's Browse feature and
displays thumbnails of all the graphics in the active folder. If you are not sure
what graphic you are looking for, this is a good way to find it.
The Details button will show you all the technical information on the selected
graphic.
The Image Information/Preview section on this dialog box will show you the
dimension and color depth of the selected graphic.
Toggling the Show Preview box will allow you to see a thumbnail preview of the selected
graphic.
Browse
Shortcut: (Ctrl) B
Paint Shop Pro's Browser feature displays the file names of all graphics in a selected
directory and renders thumbnail versions of the graphics as illustrated in the following
graphic. The visual effect of the Browser is set in File>Preferences>General
Preferences>Browser (see Customizing Paint Shop Pro).
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The Browser opens in the Paint Shop Pro workspace and replaces the default Menu with
a menu exclusive to the Browser as illustrated below. You can also choose to allow Paint
Shop Pro's Browser Toolbar become active when you invoke the browser by toggling the
toolbar on.
Most of the menu items on the Browser menu can be ignored since their functions can be
accessed directly by right-clicking on the on the Browser window. A right click on the
browser window will display a "quick" menu as illustrated below. You can also choose
many of the menu functions directly from the Browser Toolbar. The Browse>New Folder
menu option is the only option that can't be accessed directly from the Browser desktop,
but it is available from the Browser toolbar.
Browse New Folder
The Browse New Folder option from the menu, Shortcut: (Ctrl) B, opens the Browse for
Folder dialog box as illustrated below.
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The Recent Folders drop down box contains a list of recently accessed browse
folders.
The Favorites folder contains pre-configured folders (Paint Shop Pro graphics
folders, My Documents and Temp Folder).
The area in the Favorites folder that says "PSP 6 in a Nutshell in the above graphic
is the area that will contain any added folders have added to your favorites.
Add Current allows you to add the currently selected folder to the favorites list.
To add a new folder to favorites, browse until you find the folder you want to add
and double click on the folder. This will place the folder name in the selection
box. Click on the Favorites folder and click on Add Current.
Remove allows you to remove a folder you have added to your favorites section.
When you click on the Remove button, a list pops up containing your current
favorites list. To remove a folder, highlight it and hit the OK button.
The remainder of the File Menu items necessary for the Browser can be accessed by
right-clicking on any empty space on the Browser window. This will bring up a "quick"
menu of options as illustrated in the graphic below.
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Sort - This selection will present you with a dialog box that allows you to Primary
and a Secondary sort by Sort Order (ascending or descending), File Attributes
(name, extension, date, file size, and type) and by Image Attributes (width,
height, bits per pixel and size).
Select - This selection will present you with a dialog box that allows you to select
images from the current folder based on name, type, file size, date and by
various image attributes. This can be a very handy feature if you have numerous
images in a folder and you are only looking for certain images.
Find Name - This selection will present you with a dialog box that allows you to
find a graphic by a name. You can use wildcards on your search.
Update Thumbnails - If you have selected Save Browser Files to Disk under Paint
Shop Pro Preferences>General Program Preferences>Browser (See Customizing
Paint Shop Pro), the browser writes a file into the folder you are browsing with a
list of all the graphics in the folder. If you add or delete graphics to a folder, you
may need to Update Thumbnails the next time you browse the folder to see the
current contents.
Refresh Tree - This selection refreshes the view of the folders in the tree and
updates the thumbnails.
Preferences - This selection brings up the File>Preferences>General Program
Preferences>Browser dialog box so you can set your browser preferences.
All the menu choices described above are also available from the Browser toolbar if it is
active. The advantage to using the right-click quick menu as opposed to the Browser
toolbar is that the menu does not take up any workspace real-estate and is available
whenever you need it. This menu also has direct access to editing the Browser
preferences.
Navigating the Browser
You navigate the browser file tree the same as you navigate Windows Explorer. As soon
as you stop on a particular folder, the thumbnails will render in the browser window.
Managing Files with the Browser
Managing graphic files is a snap when you do it through the Browser. Simply right click
on any graphic (or a group of selected graphics) and select the action you wish to
perform from the list of file management choices.
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Before you perform any file management actions, you need to select a graphic or
graphics. To select graphics you can Click on a single graphic, select all by pressing CtrlA, select contiguous graphics by clicking on the first graphic, then Shift-clicking on the
last graphic or hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on specific graphics.
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Copy to - When you select a graphic or a group of graphics and choose "Copy to",
the Browse For Folder dialog box pops up. You can then choose the folder you
want to copy your graphics to and hit the OK button.
Delete - To delete selected graphics, choose this option. You will be prompted to
confirm your delete request before the graphic is actually deleted.
Move to - This option works exactly like Copy to except that it actually moves the
graphic from the originating folder into the destination folder.
Rename - This option is only available when a single graphic is selected. When
you choose Rename, you will be presented with a dialog box where you enter the
new name for the graphic, then hit OK.
Send to Studio Avenue - When you select this option, if you are currently on-line,
the program will take you to Jasc's Studio Avenue. See File>Export>Studio Avenue
later in this chapter for a complete explanation of this feature.
Information - This option will present you with a dialog box that contains
complete image information on your graphic including the image format, image
characteristics, and file information.
Open - This option will open the selected graphics on your workspace. You can
double click on the graphic or drag a single selected graphic onto the workspace.
or Shift-double clicking (or dragging) on more than one selected graphic will open
all selected graphics on the workspace.
Print Multiple Images - This option takes you direct to the File>Print Multiple
Images menu option covered later in this chapter.
Drag and Drop
You can drag and drop images from the browser onto the workspace to open them. You
can also drag and drop an image from the browser onto a currently open image. The new
image will be placed on the open image as a new layer.
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Printing Thumbnails from Browser
When you choose File>Print from the Browser menu, you will print all the thumbnail
images with their image name under each thumbnail and the folder path as the title.
This is a very handy way of creating a catalog of your images.
Close
To close a currently open file, either click on the "X" in the top right corner of your
graphic or choose File>Close from the menu. If you have made any changes to your
graphic, you will be prompted to save your changes before the program closes the
graphic.
Revert
When you choose File>Revert, your graphic will be reverted to the state it was in when
first opened. This is a handy feature when you have been experimenting with changes to
a graphic and you don't like your changes. You could close the graphic without saving
and then reopen the graphic, or you can choose Revert to take the graphic back to its
original opening state.
Save
Shortcut: (Ctrl) S
When you choose File>Save or use the shortcut, the program will save an existing
graphic to the directory in which it resides. If you choose this option after creating a
new graphic, the program will prompt you for a directory to save the graphic and ask for
a name and format for the graphic. The default directory for saving a new graphic will
be the last directory you saved to using File>Save.
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To save an image:
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Choose the folder you want to save to from the Save In dialog box (see Figure 88).
Give your graphic a name by typing in the File Name dialog box.
Choose a file type from the Save as type dialog box. When you hit the down arrow
on the Save as type box, you can skip to a file type by typing the first letter of
the name type.
If the file type you chose has further options, the Options box will be active.
Typing a letter to find the file type is not a particularly useful feature in Paint Shop Pro
since the letter you type refers to the name of the file type not the extension. Thus, if
you want to jump to a "bmp" extension, you have to type a "W" 5 times to get to the
"bmp" extension. But it is very useful when you want to jump to "jpg" or "psp" since the
letter you type will jump you directly to the correct extension.
Saving Graphics for the Web
Paint Shop Pro is frequently used to create graphics for display on the Internet.
Therefore a brief explanation of web graphic formats is in order.
Format
Most web browsers recognize GIF and JPG images. Therefore, these two formats are
used most often for saving web images. newer versions of Internet Explorer and
Netscape can now recognize the PNG format. But, since this is true only for the most
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recent issues of the web browsers, I don't recommend you save graphics for posting on
the web in PNG format at this time.
Color Depth
Some computers with older graphics cards are only capable of displaying up to 256
colors. If an image on a web page contains more colors, the web browser uses a
dithering method to display the image. This can result in color distortion of your
graphic. If you use a web safe palette and reduce the color depth of the image to 8 bits
(256 colors) before placing it on your web page, the appearance of your graphic will be
more consistent. But the trade-off is a severe limitation on the colors you can use in a
graphic. Since there are many more computers on the web today with the more modern
graphic cards than there are with older graphic cards, you will need to decide for
yourself if the trade-off is worth it in the quality of your graphics.
File Size
File size affects the users accessing a web page. The larger the file size, the longer it
takes to download. I recommend saving graphics with a large number of colors as a JPG
and graphics with a small number of colors as a GIF. Generally this will result in the
smallest possible file size for your graphic. Paint Shop Pro's Export function for both GIF's
and JPGs has an option for viewing the file size of the graphic and gives an estimate of
download time based on modem speeds. This is a very handy feature and I recommend
you use it if you are in doubt as to the file size of a particular graphic.
Internet File Types
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recognized by a few browsers. For that reason I don't recommend you save
graphics for the web in a PNG format.
PSP Format - Paint Shop Pro has a native PSP format that supports layers, alpha
channels, and other features you can use to create images. You will find it
convenient to save an image in this format while you are working on it and then
convert it after you have finished.
Save As
Shortcut: F12
If you want to save an existing graphic with a new name, choose File>Save As. This save
defaults to a .psp file format unless you set File>Preferences>General Program
Preferences>Dialogs and Palettes to Remember Last File Type with Save As.
Save a Copy As
Shortcut: (Ctrl) F12
File>Save a Copy As is the handiest of all the saves. It allows you to save a graphic using
the last image format you used and it saves into the last folder you saved a graphic to.
This is another icon you should probably add to your customized toolbar.
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Workspace
This menu item allows you to Load, Save or Delete a Workspace. Please see Workspace
tutorial for a complete explanation of a Workspace.
Delete
Shortcut: (Ctrl) (Delete) You can delete a currently open graphic on the desktop by
choosing File>Delete or using the keyboard shortcut.
Send
If you have Outlook configured as your mail client, you can choose File>Send and send
the current image you are working on through e-mail.
As stated earlier, the two most common file types for posting graphics on the Internet
are GIF and JPG.
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GIF - Use this format for line art and images that consist of very few colors. The
GIF format supports 8-bit (256) color. There are currently two versions of GIF: 87a
and GIF 89a, which can save transparency and animation information. Both are
recognized by most browsers and use lossless compression. Lossless compression
means that the graphic will retain all of the original image data and file size will
be reduced by storing patterns of pixels in the image.
JPG (or JPEG) - I recommend you save a graphic as a JPG when the graphic
contains many colors. Always save a photographic image as a JPG. The JPG format
supports 24-bit (16.7 million) colors and uses a lossy compression method. Lossy
Compression eliminates data to reduce the file size. But, keep in mind that each
time you save the graphic as a JPG, the quality of the graphic will deteriorate
through the further reduction in the data in the graphic. For this reason, if you
think you will be frequently editing a colorful graphic, I recommend you keep a
"master" of the graphic saved in a lossless format such as a "psp" or a "png" format
and only save as a JPG for posting the graphic to the Internet.
PNG - This format compresses most images efficiently. It supports up to 24-bit (16.7
million) colors and uses lossless compression, but it is currently only known by a few
browsers.
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Edit Menu
The Edit menu contains most of the commands you will need to edit a graphic. If you are
a menu-oriented person, you will access this menu frequently. I feel that most of the
commands on this menu are better utilized by keyboard shortcuts or by using buttons on
the Toolbar.
Undo
Shortcut: (Ctrl) Z
This selection will "undo" your most recent command. You will probably use this feature
by clicking on the Undo icon on the Toolbar. When you invoke Undo from the Menu, the
Undo command will be followed by the name of the latest command you performed.
Redo
Shortcut: (Ctrl-Alt) Z
As the opposite of Undo, Redo re-performs the last command. As with the Undo feature,
you will probably use this feature by clicking on the Redo icon on the Toolbar. As with
undo, the name on the menu will be followed by the name of the last command.
Repeat
Shortcut: (Ctrl) Y
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This command will repeat the last command you issued. Again, this command is most
conveniently invoked by clicking on the button on the Toolbar or typing the shortcut
keys and will appear on the menu with the name of the last command.
Command History
Shortcut: (Shift-Ctrl) Z
This is definitely the handiest feature on this menu. When you invoke the Command
History, you are presented with a dialog box listing your most recent activities.
clipboard. This command is best invoked by using the keyboard shortcut unless you are
a mouse-click oriented person. In that case, click on the Cut icon on the Standard
Toolbar.
Copy
Shortcut: (Ctrl) C
When you choose to paste as a new layer, Paint Shop Pro creates a new layer above the
currently active layer and pastes the contents of the clipboard. If your selection is a
raster selection, the new layer will be a raster layer. If your selection is a vector
selection, the new layer will be a vector layer.
Dead Center - When you paste a selection as a new layer, the selection will be
placed dead center on your graphic. This is a very handy way to center text or
graphics on an image.
As a New Selection
Shortcut: (Ctrl) E
Pasting an image As a New Selection is one of the most useful of the paste options.
When you paste As a New Selection the image you paste remains selected under the
cursor. This is very useful when you paste an image onto a graphic and you are not sure
where you want to place it. Since your image is selected, you can move the image to a
new position before you right click on the selection to drop it.
As a Transparent Selection
Shortcut: (Shift-Ctrl) E
When you paste an image as a transparent selection, Paint Shop sets the current
background color as the transparent color. This means that all pixels of the background
color will become transparent when you paste the image. The following graphic
demonstrates this technique. The picture of the left is the selected image with the
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background color set to the gray background in the image. The picture on the right is
the result of pasting the selected graphic on the left onto a white graphic.
Into Selection
Shortcut: (Shift-Ctrl) L
Copy puts a copy of a selection to the clipboard. Again, this command is most suited to
using the keyboard shortcut or clicking on the icon on the Toolbar.
Copy Merged
Shortcut: (Shift-Ctrl) C
Copy Merged copies data from all layers in a graphic rather than just the current layer.
All the layers are then merged into a single layer in the clipboard. When copying a
selection, it copies and merges the selection area from all the layers.
When you are working on a layered image, and you want to retain the layered image but
you want a merged copy of the image, this is the quickest way to accomplish the task.
Choose Copy Merged, then Paste as a new image.
Paste
Once you have copied an image or part of an image to the clipboard, you will then need
to decide how you want to paste the image. Your choices are:
As a New Image
Shortcut: (Ctrl) V
When you choose this option to paste, Paint Shop Pro will create a new image from the
contents of the clipboard. If you are pasting an irregularly shaped selection, the
selection will be pasted into a new image on a transparent background.
As a New Layer
Shortcut: (Ctrl) L
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With this dialog box, you can undo or redo several contiguous commands simultaneously.
Highlight the commands you want to undo or redo, then click on the button. Once you
have activated Undo on commands, the Command History dialog box will then list those
commands with a Redo next to them and the Undo button will become a Redo button
when they are selected. This is handy if you Undo several commands, then change your
mind and want to Redo them.
Cut
Shortcut: (Ctrl) X
Cut will remove a selection from the graphic and place it into the
If you paste a selection from a graphic into a selected area, the selected image being
pasted will conform to the new selection. This can be very useful, but it can also
produce distorted images if the selected area is proportionally different than the
selection being pasted.
AS Animation as Multiple Images
You can use this function to paste images copied in Animation Shop into Paint Shop Pro.
As a New Vector Selection
If the currently active selection is a vector selection, you can choose this option to paste
as a new vector selection. This works the same as choosing "As a New Selection" when
the selection is a raster selection. If you create a new vector layer on your graphic, then
use this paste option, you can create a duplicate of one element of a vector layer.
Clear
Shortcut: (Delete key)
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This command clears the image and either fills the image with the currently active
background color (if you are on a background layer) or clears to a transparency (if you
are on a transparent layer). Since hitting the Delete key is so much easier than choosing
Edit>Clear, you will probably never use the menu to execute this command.
Update Back to Animation Shop
This command will send all the graphics you exported from Animation Shop back to
Animation Shop in an updated format.
Command History
Empty Command History will empty the Command History buffer. When you set your
preferences for Undo, you can limit the number of Undo/Redo commands you can
perform. If you have set this to a high number, you can strain your resources. Choosing
to empty the Command History will free resources.
Empty
clipboard
Empty clipboard will empty the clipboard of the most recent copy command. This is
useful if you are running out of memory and have recently copied a large graphic.
View Menu
The view menu allows you access to many Paint Shop Pro features that will make your
work easier and more efficient. The main features on this menu are View options such as
full screen and zoom and alignment assists such as grids and guides. The following
graphic illustrates the menu choices. This menu also contains a feature new to Paint
Shop Pro 7, Preview in Web Browser
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There are several viewing options available from the menu. If you are menu oriented
person, this is where you will want to invoke these commands. But, we feel that these
commands are best invoked by keyboard shortcuts or through the use of the Zoom tool.
Full Screen Edit
Shortcut: Shift A
This command turns off the top menu bar on Paint Shop Pro and allows you a larger
viewing area for your graphic. This command works best by using the keyboard shortcut
since the "Shift A" toggles you into Full Screen mode and toggles you back. When you go
into full screen mode, the menu toolbar disappears. You can still access the menu
toolbar by placing your cursor at the top of the screen, but since you can't see the menu
toolbar bar, this can be confusing.
Full Screen Preview
Shortcut: (Shift-Ctrl) A
This command turns off all the menus and toolbars and centers your graphic on a black
background. It is very handy for assessing a graphic without all the clutter of the
toolbars and menus. To restore your toolbars and menus, simply hit (Esc).
Instant access to Full Screen Mode - If you find that you are
frequently working in Full Screen mode, place the icon on your
customized toolbar.
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Normal Viewing
Shortcut: (Ctrl-Alt) N
This command will return your graphic to normal viewing mode (1:1 ratio). This is very
handy when you have zoomed in on a graphic numerous times and want to return to
normal viewing. This is the most direct route to normal viewing. Again, this is another
candidate for placing the icon for the feature on your customized toolbar.
Zoom Out/Zoom In
You will probably never use these menu items since using the Zoom tool is much easier
and more intuitive. If you want to Zoom in 1 time, just choose the Zoom tool and left
click on the graphic once. If you want to zoom back, right click with the Zoom tool.
Preview in Web Browser
This feature allows you to preview your graphic in a web browser of your choice. Before
you can use this feature, you need to tell Paint Shop Pro what web browsers you wish to
use. To configure the web browsers, click on the "Edit Web Browser" button on the
Preview in Web Browser tool palette as illustrated in the following graphic. To preview
your graphics:
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Highlight the formats you want to preview (ignore the "bmp" format since you
can't view a "bmp" in a web browser and it will end up with a "broken graphic".
Choose the web browser(s).
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Enter a size or leave the default size set. Note: If you resize your graphic in a
manner that is not proportionate to the original graphic size, the graphic will look
distorted.
Click on the Preview button.
Set the Optimizer levels as the Optimizers pop up and then click OK.
When your graphic is rendered in the browser, it will display also display the graphic size
in Kbytes, download time for 28.8 and 56.6 Kbps modems, and the number of colors
used in the graphic.
Rulers
The settings for View>Rulers are set in File>Preferences>General Program
Preferences>Rulers and Units (See Customizing PSP).
Rulers can be set to pixels, inches or centimeters. Rulers are very useful when you wish
to cut an accurate portion out of a graphic. The following graphic demonstrates the use
of rulers to create an accurate 200x100 pixel selection area starting at 50 pixels.
Rulers must be active on your image to use the guidelines feature since the guidelines
are accessed from the ruler.
Grid
Shortcut: (Ctrl-Alt) G
The settings for the Grid option are configured in File>Preferences>General Program
Preferences>Rulers and Units (See Customizing PSP). This is another very handy
command in Paint Shop Pro. When you are attempting to line up parts of an image, the
grid comes in very handy. It is also an invaluable tool for creating images through
combining different shapes. The following graphic demonstrates how you can use the
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grids to line up shapes (Figure on left) to create a shape to use as a template for a
button (Figure on right).
If you save a graphic in PSP format, the currently active grid settings will be saved with
the document.
Change Grid and Guide Properties
This menu option gives you access to the Grid and Guide Properties options as illustrated
in the following graphic. The shortcut to this Options box is the same as the shortcut
outlined in View>Grid.
When you are placing guidelines on a graphic, it is a good idea to
have the arrow key toggled. This will give you access to right-clicking
to bring up the "Change Grid and Guide Properties" dialog box.
Snap to Grid
If you have "View Grid" toggled on, you will be able to toggle on the "snap to grid"
option. If you have not toggled View Grid, this option will be greyed out on the menu.
Toggling Snap to Grid activates the "snap" behavior.
Snap to Guides
If you have "View Guides" toggled on, you will be able to toggle on the "snap to guide"
option. If you have not toggled View Guides, this option will be greyed out on the menu.
Toggling Snap to Guides activates the "snap" behavior.
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Toolbars
This option allows you to turn on and off the toolbars you want to have available to you
on your workspace. It also allows you to set the size of the icons and the style of the
toolbars. This is also where you can configure Automatic Rollups (See Workspace for
further information on Rollups).
If you have a small monitor and you turn on Large Icons, you may think that some of
your tools on the left toolbar have disappeared. They have not disappeared, they are
just off the screen. If your monitor is too small, you may not be able to use this option
as it will cause some of your tools to be inaccessible. When you click on the "Customize"
button on the Toolbar Dialog Box with the Toolbar option toggled, you will have the
option of choosing icons to add to your main toolbar. Customizing your toolbar is
discussed in detail in the Customizing PSP tutorial.
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Grids - Grids can be set in units of Pixels, Centimeters or Inches. The Horizontal
and Vertical spacing sets the size of each grid box. The line color sets the color of
the grid lines.
Guides - To remove all guides present in a graphic, toggle the Remove all guides
box. To set a color for the guides that id different from the default color, toggle
the Set color of all Guides box, then choose the alternate color from the color
picker.
Snap - Toggling an option in the Snap dialog will determine where on the
guidelines the selection will align itself. Snap influence in pixels determines the
distance in pixels from a grid/guideline your selection will be when the "snap"
occurs. The Snap to Grid and Snap to Guide allows you to toggle on and off the
snap to behavior.
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View Guides
The View Guides menu option allows you to set guidelines on your graphic. Guidelines
are set by placing the cursor in the ruler, then when the cursor turns into a crosshair,
dragging a guideline onto the graphic. Guidelines can be moved by placing the cursor
over a currently placed guideline in the ruler (the cursor will turn into a white filled
cross hair) and dragging the guideline.
Image Menu
The commands in the menu can be divided into five broad categories: image orientation,
image size
Image Orientation
The orientation choices from the Image menu allow you to change the position of a
graphic by flipping, mirroring, or rotating. Each of these commands has a keyboard
shortcut that can be used in as an alternative to the menu commands. The shortcuts are
listed beside the menu selection in the graphic above.
The following graphic illustrates, from left to right, an original image, the image
flipped, the image mirrored, and the image rotated 90 degrees to the right.
Flip
Shortcut: Ctrl+I
Choosing the Flip option will flip your image "upside down" or on its vertical axis.
Mirror
Shortcut: Ctrl+M
Choosing the Mirror option will flip your image on its horizontal axis.
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Rotate
Shortcut: Ctrl+R
To rotate an image, choose Rotate from the Image Menu and then select the direction
and the number of degrees from the pop-up dialogue box. You can choose one of the
preset selections (90, 180, 270 degrees) or you can enter a value into the Free rotation
box. The box can be set to any number from .01 to 359.99. Setting the degrees to a
fraction can be very handy when you are trying to straighten a scanned image.
If the All Layers box is unchecked, you can rotate an image on a layer independent of
the remaining layers. Generally it's a good policy to leave the box unchecked, since you
will probably find yourself rotating individual elements more often than an entire image.
Every time you rotate an image, some blurring will occur. If you plan on making more
than one rotation for an image, always start with an original for the next rotation. As an
example, the following graphic was created from a 5 pixel straight line rotated 15
degrees to the right. The example on the left was created by duplicating the original
layer, rotating 15 degrees, then duplicating the rotated layer and rotated 15 degrees
again until the final graphic was created. You can see that each line blurs a little more
each time you rotate it. The second graphic was created by duplicating the original layer
6 times. Then I rotated the first duplicate 15 degrees, the second, 30 degrees, the third
45 degrees...and so forth. You can see that the graphic on the right is still crisp and
clear because I never performed a rotate on a layer that was already rotated.
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Image Sizing
Image>Crop to Selection
Shortcut: Shift+R
There are two ways to crop an image in Paint Shop Pro. One with with the Crop tool and
the other is through this menu selection. I use this method the most and usually use the
keyboard shortcut. When you choose this crop function, the graphic will be cropped to
your current selection. Keep in mind that your cropped graphic will always be square or
rectangular. If you are cropping an irregular shaped selection, the areas outside the
selection will be filled with the current background color. The following graphic
demonstrates the results of a circular crop selection on a white graphic with the
background set to black.
Image>Canvas Size
Shortcut: None
What do you do when you're working on a graphic and you run out of room? You increase
the canvas size!
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The Canvas Size panel shown above is set to increase the size of a 50 pixel square
graphic to 100 pixels square. If you set the image to Center horizontally or vertically the
program adjusts the coordinates in the boxes to match your requirements.
The following graphic demonstrates the result of increasing the canvas size of a 50 pixel
graphic to 100 pixels with (from left to right) no center option selected, center
horizontally selected, center vertically selected and finally both centering options
selected.
You can manually enter the orientation coordinates if you do not select either the
horizontal or vertical centering options.
If you are working on an image with just one layer (the default "Background" layer), the
program will fill the added pixels with the current background color. If you are working
on a graphic with a transparent background, the program will expand the canvas and
leave the surrounding area as transparent. The following graphic demonstrates a white
graphic 100 pixels square with the canvas size increased to 125.
The left graphic was a background layer with black set as the background color and the
right graphic is a graphic on a transparent layer.
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Image>Resize
Shortcut: Shift+S
You will use this function when you want to change the size of an image. When you
resize an image, keep in mind that if you increase the size you will probably see a
degradation in the quality of the image, whereas decreasing the size will often improve
the quality. Since you are increasing the number of pixels in an image when you resize
up, the program has to make its "best guess" at the colors needed to fill in the new
pixel. The results of increasing the size of a graphic by more than a few percent can be
quite poor. Reducing the size of an image reduces the number of pixels and compresses
the existing pixels. Since no new data needs to be created the results are usually quite
good. If you have a black and white graphic with jagged edges, you can frequently
smooth the edges by reducing the size of the image.
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Following are the settings for this command:
P works best with graphics with clear sharp hard edges. To see how this
works, create a new graphic 150x150. Draw a black rectangle with Antialias
unchecked. You will have a black rectangle with clear sharp straight edges.
Now, duplicate the graphic (Shift+D). Resize both to 70%, one with Pixel
Resize and with Smart Size. Zoom in on both graphics. You will see that
with Pixel Resize, the edges are still clear and sharp, whereas the Smart
Size edges are now slightly blurry due to the antialiasing that went on
during the resize.
Resize All Layers - With this option activated, any time to do a resize, all layers
will be resized. With the option inactivated, when you are working on a layered
graphic, you will only resize the currently active layer. Also, if you have an active
selection on a layer or even on the background layer, and you float the selection
(Selections>Float), only the selected area will be resized when Resize All Layers is
inactivated.
Maintain Aspect Ratio - You will probably want to keep this option activated at
all times. If it is inactivated and you enter pixel sizes or percentages that are not
proportional, you will distort your image.
o
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If you find that resizing a graphic to a smaller size has caused
some blurring, use Effects>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask to reduce the
blurring.
Image>Information
Shortcut: Shift+I
This command is extremely useful. The first tab of the Dialog Box shows you all the
technical information you could ever need about your graphic.
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The real power of this command lies in the second tab, Creator Information. As
illustrated the following graphic, you can save all the information necessary to a
graphic in this dialog box. If you are creating graphics professionally, the ability
to save information such as the font used, the colors used and other information
such as presets, will be of great benefit to you in the future. A word of caution,
though. You need to save your graphic in "psp" format for all the creator
information to be retained with the graphic. Saving as a "gif" will retain only the
Description information, saving as most other formats will lose all the creator
information. ixel Size - Resizing a graphic by Pixel Size allows you to enter the
pixel size directly. If you have Maintain Aspect ratio checked, when you enter a
pixel size in the Width box, the proportionate height will auto fill the Height box.
If you have Maintain Aspect ratio unchecked, you can enter any pixel size you
want in the Height box.
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Percentage of Original - Resizing a graphic by Percentage of Original will do just
that. The program figures out the appropriate pixel width and height based on
what percentage you enter and resizes to those numbers. You will notice that
when you enter a percentage in the percentage box, the pixel size changes in the
pixel size box.
Actual Print Size - Resizing a graphic to Print size will change the percentage and
pixel size boxes accordingly.
Resize Type
o Smart Size - Smart Size allows Paint Shop Pro will choose the best
algorithm based on the image characteristics.
o Bicubic Resample - Bicubic Resample uses a process called interpolation to
reduce the "jaggies" associated with expanding an image. Therefore,
choosing this resize algorithm is always best when you are enlarging a
graphic, especially photographs.
o Bilinear Resample - Bilinear Resample works the opposite of Bicubic in
that it applies the opposite algorithm. Use Bilinear Resample when you are
reducing the size of a photograph.
Pixel Resize - Pixel Resize removes or adds pixels as necessary to achieve the new
height and width specified for the graphic.
Image>Arithmetic
This function combines the pixels of color between two graphics or changes the pixels of
color in one graphic. A cool use for this function is to make a color graphic into a black
and white graphic (to use as a mask or template). The following setting was used to
create a black and white graphic out of the color graphic.
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Image>Add Borders
Shortcut: None
The Add Borders function allows you to add symmetrical or non-symmetrical borders to
an image. The color of the border added is determined by the currently selected
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background color. The following graphic demonstrates the effect of adding a 5 pixel
symmetric border with the background set to black, then a 3 pixel border set to white,
then another 5 pixel border. As you can see, using the borders function can be a quick
way to add a frame to a graphic.
If you have Symmetric checked, any number you enter will be duplicated in all the
boxes. If symmetric is not selected, you can enter individual settings in each box.
Common usage's for the add borders function would be to add a large right border to a
side border background graphic, or to increase the size of your graphic to allow more
working room. You can think of it as a "quick and dirty Resize Canvas". Since there is no
shortcut for this function, you will probably want to put the button on your Standard
toolbar.
Image>Picture Frames
Picture frames were introduced to Paint Shop Pro in Version 6. This function allows you
to add a pre-made frame to any graphic. There are several frames that install, and there
are many additional frames on the CD in the Frames folder. Frames are very similar to
tubes. The frame files are PSP format files with the extension changed from .PSP to .PFR
with selections saved to an alpha channel. They are stored in a subdirectory of Paint
Shop Pro 7 called Frames. The first control panel allows you to choose your frame and
has a very handy button called "Edit Paths". Since Paint Shop Pro caches all the frames
when you open the Frames Wizard, if you have a lot of frames you might not want all of
them to load at that time (this can slow your system down considerably). With the Edit
Paths button, you can store frames in other folders and activate the folders through this
button when you want to use the frames not in the default folder. Once you have
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selected the frame you want to use, click on the Next button. This will bring up the
following control panel:
When Paint Shop Pro adds a frame to a graphic, it adds a new raster layer to the image
to hold the frame and resizes the frame image to match the graphic if you choose Frame
Inside Image. If you choose Frame Outsize Image, Paint Shop Pro adds a new raster layer
and adds more canvas space to accommodate the frame. This allows you to frame an
entire image without losing part of the image under the frame.
Also, when Paint Shop Pro adds the frame to an image, it will "stretch" the frame to fit
the shape of the image. Thus, if you add a square frame to a rectangular image, you will
end up with a distorted frame. You also need to be aware of the orientation of the
frame. If you have a frame that is in portrait orientation and you want to apply it to a
graphic in landscape orientation, you need to rotate the image to the proper
orientation, apply the frame then rotate back to the original orientation.
Be sure to check out the Photo Edge frames on the Paint Shop Pro CD. They are really
very nice. All the photo edges create a white border around your graphic. If you want
the border to be a different color, use the color replacer to swap the white with the
color you choose.
Creating your own frames is very easy and can be a very creative process.
Image>Watermarking
Jasc has entered into a licensing agreement with Digimarc to allow embedding
watermarks in an image. You need to purchase and register the license with Digimarc
before you can use this feature.
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The Effects Menu
The Effects menu allows you numerous choices for altering graphics from Photo
enhancing to deformations and artistic effects.
Most of the Dialog Boxes available from the Effects Menu have several common features.
The first is the ability to Zoom and Preview the effects. The following graphic illustrates
how these options are represented on the Dialog Boxes:
Viewing Options
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Zoom 1:1 - The left magnifying glass zooms out on a graphic, the right zooms in.
The cross-hair graphic in the middle will pop up a rendering of your graphic with a
"thumbnail" selection under the cursor. You move can then move the selection to
a different part of the graphic and that part will be rendered in the preview
window.
Auto Proof/Proof - The eye symbol proofs the effect directly on the image. The
down arrow locks Auto Proof so that it automatically proofs on the image.
General Options
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The OK button applies an effect.
The Cancel Button cancels the effect.
The Help button will take you to the help file for the effect you are currently
using. This can be a quick and efficient way of learning how to use each effect.
The button on the right is the "Reset" button. This button will reset an effect back
to the default settings.
Effects Browser
The Effects Browser allows you to preview most the effects available from this menu at
their default settings. It does not allow you to preview any of the Enhance Photo menu
items.
Blur
Average, Gaussian and Motion Blur all give you an Control panel where you can adjust
the level of the blurs. The remaining blur options apply a default setting and can't be
adjusted.
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Sharpen
Sharpen and Sharpen More can't be adjusted, but Unsharp Mask can be. Unsharp Mask, in
my opinion is the "unsung hero" of Paint Shop Pro. It can often do more to fix a graphic
than any other Paint Shop Pro option.
Unsharp Mask
The Unsharp Mask works by locating adjacent pixels with the difference in lightness
values that you specify, and then increases their contrast by the amount you select.
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Radius - The radius indicates the number of pixels around the edge of parts of the
image that will be effected. You should start with a lower radius setting and move
your way up to test the effect.
Strength - The strength controls the intensity of the contrast or sharpening
effect. Again, start with a low number and work your way up.
Clipping - Clipping determines how much contrast two pixels must have before
they are sharpened.
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Edge
The Edge effects find the edges of the graphic and enhance them in various ways.
Rather than going over the results of each edge effect, I suggest you experiment by
opening a photograph and applying each of the effects. This will give you a visual
representation of how the effect works. The "Trace Contour" effect is fun in that you can
get kind of a "sketch" artistic effect when you apply it to a photograph.
Noise
Noise refers to random or uniform pixels that give a graphic a grainy effect. Paint Shop
Pro provides filters to remove noise from graphics and to add noise to a graphic.
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Add Noise - The Add Noise dialog box allows you to add noise as random or
uniform and to set the percentage of noise to apply. This is a very handy tool for
creating fine grain backgrounds (see my Fine Grain Background tutorial).
Despeckle - This filter is designed to remove spots from a graphic. It does this by
blurring the image around the spots.
Edge Preserving Smooth - This filter smoothes an image without the loss of edge
detail in the image. This filter is often a good starting point when you are
repairing a photograph.
Median Filter - This filter can also be used to remove noise and imperfections
from an image. It works by setting the color value of a pixel to the median of the
color values of all the pixels immediately around it.
Salt and Pepper - This filter removes black and white specks from an image. It is
very useful when you are touching up old photos.
Texture Preserving Smooth - This filter works the same as Edge Preserving
Smooth except that it preserves the texture rather than the edge detail.
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Enhance Photo
The Enhance Photo tools in Paint Shop Pro 7 are worth the price of the program alone.
All the filters are highly adjustable, allowing for more accurate corrections.
Automatic Color Balance
Automatic Color Balance will remove a color cast from an image and can be used to cool
down or warm up an image. The following image demonstrates the power of this filter.
The photo on the left is the original, the photo in the middle has the Automatic Color
Balance filter applied at it's default setting with "Remove Color Cast" checked. The
photo on the right has the same settings as the middle photo, except that I moved the
Illuminant Temperature towards Warmer with a final temperature of 5000.
Automatic Contrast Enhancement
This filter enhances the contrast through adjusting the highlights, midtones and
shadows. You can adjust the settings for Bias, Strength and Appearance. Always adjust
the Color Balance of a photo before adjusting the Contrast. The following image
represents the photo on the right above with a Contrast enhancement of Bias: Neutral;
Strength: Normal and Appearance: Natural.
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Automatic Saturation Enhancement
This filter enhances the saturation of the colors in the image. You can set both the Bias
and Strength. The following illustrates the above graphic with a Saturation Enhancement
with the Bias: Normal and Strength: Normal. You will see that this adjustment brought
back the blues that were lost in the Contrast Enhancement.
Deinterlace
This filter removes scanlines from scanned images. This filter will not work on a
selection. When using this filter, always be sure you have no active selection.
JPEG Artifact Removal
This filter removes artifacts left behind from excessive compression of a JPEG graphic. It
basically smoothes out the blocky-looking areas that appear with jpeg compression.
Moiré Pattern Removal
This filter will remove patterns that can appear in scanned images.
Automatic Small Scratch Removal
This filter will remove dark or light small scratches from an image. It has a tendency to
blur the image somewhat so you will usually need to sharpen the image back up with
either the Unsharp Mask or the Clarify filter.
Clarify
This filter will sharpen the focus on blurred images.
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Fade Correction
This filter restores color and contrast to a faded image.
Manual Color Correction
This filter adjusts colors based on Hue, Saturation and Lightness. To use this filter, you
need to make a selection in the graphic representation in the left window to select a
target Hue to shift. All pixels in the image that contain the source hue will be shifted to
the target hue (the color set in the Preset Colors box). One very cool feature of this
filter is "Gray World". I find that any image that has a color cast to it can be greatly
improved by selecting the entire image in the left window and clicking on the Gray
World button. I think that this method works better than Automatic Color Balance at
preserving the underlying colors when you remove the color cast. The following images
demonstrate this fact. The image on the left is the original and has a green color cast.
The image in the middle was corrected with Automatic Color Balance and the image on
the right was corrected with Gray World/Manual Color Correction.
Red-Eye Removal
This filter will remove the red-eye effect in humans and animals either automatically or
manually. I don't use this filter since I have a preferred method of reducing red-eye.
There is a good explanation of how the filter works in the help file, so I will defer you to
the help file to learn this filter.
To demonstrate the power of the Enhance Photo filters, please compare the following
images. Following the images are the steps I used to fix the image on the left
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1. Automatic Contrast Enhancement - Bias: Lighter; Strength: Normal; Appearance:
Bold. This brings out the dogs facial features and enhances the detail of the
photo.
2. Automatic Color Balance - Strength: 100; Remove Color Cast: Checked;
Temperature: 8000. This removes the pink cast to the image.
3. Automatic Saturation Enhancement - Bias: Less Colorful, Strength: Weak,
Skintones present checked. This further reduced the pink tones and brought out
more detail in the dogs fur.
Clarify - Strength: 3 to bring out additional detail in the photo.
3d Effects
The 3d effects are what people call "beveling" effects. They apply light and dark
shadows to images that cause the image to appear 3d.
Buttonize
The Buttonize filter only works on rectangular shapes and does not need a selection
active to work. You can create a button with a solid edge or a transparent edge. The
solid edge gives a sharper and more contrasty edge to the button whereas the
transparent edge gives a softer rounder edge to a button.
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Chisel
This effect will add a three-dimensional border to make a selection or layer appear to
be cut out of stone. To use this effect you must have a selection active. I use the Chisel
effect to create metallic colored text (See my Metallic Text tutorial).
Cutout
This filter creates an illusion that looks like part of a graphic has been cut out and you
can see through to the lower levels. Many of my artistic tutorials use this filter. This
filter can be a lot of fun. Depending on the angle of light you apply (the offset), your
graphic can look like it is carved inwards or extruded outwards. The following graphic
demonstrates this. The graphic on the left was created with the cutout filter: black
shadow offset by 3,3 then a white drop shadow offset by 1. The graphic on the right was
created with the cutout offset -3, -3 and the white drop shadow offset by -1. Pretty
cool..
Drop Shadow
This filter will apply a drop shadow behind an image. It is a very versatile effect and can
be used in many artistic and creative ways. Many of my artistic tutorials use the drop
shadow filter.
Inner Bevel
This filter allows you to bevel any shape. All it needs is an active
selection. There are numerous bevel presets that install with the
program and you can save your own presets. An interesting aspect
to the inner bevel filter is that if you reverse the direction of the
light, you will end up with a cutout effect. The graphic on the left
below was created by applying the Metallic preset to text. The
graphic on the right was created by using the same preset, but
changing the light angle from 315 to 130.
Outer Bevel
This filter allows you to create a 3D effect by adding a bevel around
the outside of the selection. The size of the selection expands by
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the width of the bevel. The following graphic demonstrates the difference between the
Outer Bevel filter (left) and the Inner Bevel filter (right). You will notice that the bevel
in the Outer Bevel brings the background into play with the bevel whereas the Inner
Bevel does not touch the background in any way.
The Color Palette
The new Color Palette in Paint Shop Pro 7 is easily the most confusing part of the new
program to people upgrading from versions 5 and 6. But, believe me, once you get used
to how it works, you will see that the new Color Palette has a lot more power than the
old one. Gradients, Patterns and Textures are now controlled through the Color Palette
rather than through each individual tool.
First, let's take a tour of the Color Palette.
1. Foreground/Background Colors - The color swatch on the left represents the
Foreground color and the color swatch on the right represents the Background
color. To set the Foreground color, left click on a color in your graphic or on the
Color Picker (2).
2. Available Colors - This portion of the Color Palette represents the totality of
the colors you have set under Color Depth. The graphic on the left demonstrates
16 million colors, the middle 256 colors and the right 16 colors.
3. Styles - Styles represent Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern and None. You chose the
style by clicking on the right arrow symbol on the Palette, or, simply hold the left
mouse button down when you are on the styles window (don't click, just hold the
left mouse button down for a few seconds). This will pop out the picker as
illustrated in the following graphic.
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The top Style swatch represents the Foreground color, a gradient, a pattern or
none, and will become the "Stroke" (the outline) for the Text Tool and the Preset
Shapes tool. The width for the stroke will be set in the individual Tool Options
box. When using one of the Paint Tools, the top swatch will be active through
using the left mouse button and when you use the tool, the color, pattern or
gradient set will be the stroke or fill applied by the paint tool.
The bottom Style swatch represents the Background color, a gradient, a pattern
or none, and will be the "Fill" for the the Text Tool and the Preset Shapes tool.
When using one of the Paint Tools, the bottom swatch will be active through using
the right mouse button and when you use the tool, the color, pattern or gradient
set will be the stroke or fill applied by the paint tool.
The following graphic demonstrates a circle and text set to a black stroke of 5
with a pattern fill.
Color - If you choose color from the pop-out picker, you can set the color by
clicking on a color somewhere in the color palette. Yo u can also pick a color from
an open graphic by holding down the Ctrl key (this turns the cursor into the Eye
Dropper tool) and then left-click on an image to set the Foreground color or rightclick on an image to set the Background color.
Gradient - If you choose Gradient from the pop-out picker, then click in the
middle of the Style swatch, the Gradient Options box will appear.
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o
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Click on the down arrow or on the sample pattern to activate the selection
box.
Set the scale for the pattern. Most seamless tile patterns are best left set
to 100%.
Set the angle by entering a number in the box or by dragging the dial hand
with the mouse.
Edit Paths - Click on this button to change the paths to your pattern folders
on the fly.
The Pattern Options selections will be all the patterns in your Pattern folder and
any graphics currently open on your desktop. The currently open graphics will be
at the top of the select list.
You can add your own patterns to the choices by converting pattern graphics to a
.bmp and placing the converted graphic in the "Pattern" folder where you
installed Paint Shop Pro.
None - If you choose None, the Style will be deactivated.
4. Textures - Setting a texture in the top swatch will apply the texture to the
foreground color, gradient or pattern and the bottom swatch will apply the
texture to the background color, gradient or pattern.
You can add your own textures to the choices by converting a texture graphic to a
.bmp and placing the converted graphic in the "textures" folder where you
installed Paint Shop Pro.
Lock - If you have the lock unchecked, the currently selected Styles and Textures
will be saved with the tool. For example, you have a red Foreground color, a
Black background color and a texture set on the background for the Paint Brush
tool. The next time you open the Paint Brush tool, Paint Shop Pro will set the
Styles and Textures to the same settings. With the Lock checked, the program will
retain the last settings for the Styles and Textures, no matter what tool you use. I
recommend
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o
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o
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To pick a gradient, click on the down arrow next to the gradient view
window. This will load all the gradients in the Gradients folder.
To edit a gradient, click on the Edit button.
Activate the Invert Gradient box if you wish to invert the gradient.
Choose the Horizontal, Vertical, Angle and Repeats for the gradient. When
you set these defaults, the sample gradient will represent your choices. A
Linear gradient can only have the angle and repeats set. For the remaining
gradients, you can set the Horizontal and Vertical axis by either entering a
number ini the boxes or by grabbing the cross-hair in the middle of the
view window and dragging it.
Choose a style for your gradient. The styles are, from top to bottom:
Linear, Rectangular, Sunburst and Radial.
Edit Paths - Click on this button to change the paths to your gradient
folders on the fly.
Pattern - If you choose Pattern from the pop-out picker, then click on the Styles
swatch, the Pattern Options box will appear.
5. you leave the Lock checked until you become more familiar with the Color
Palette. It can be quite frustrating to find just the right shade of blue, then
switch to the paint tool and have your blue turn to red!
6. Preview - This part of the Color Palette will exhibit the values of a color and
sample the color when you use the Eye Dropper tool to pick a color from a graphic
or from the Available Colors window. You can set the preview to either RGB
(Red/Green/Blue) or HSL (Hue/Saturation/Lightness) in the General Program
Preferences (See my Configuring Paint Shop Pro tutorial). The graphic below
illustrates the HSL Preview panel active.
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Recent Colors
If you right click on the Foreground or Background color swatch,
up pops a very cool feature. The Recent Colors palette,
illustrated in the graphic below, contains ten standard colors on
the top and the last ten colors you used on the bottom. This is a
handy shortcut to set your color to black or white or to reset your
colors to a recently used color.
Jasc Color Dialog Box
Paint Shop Pro installs with the Jasc Color Dialog Box selected. You can change to the
Standard Windows Color Picker in General Program Preferences>Dialogs and Palettes if
you wish. I prefer Jasc's Dialog Box, so that's what I will cover here. The following
graphic illustrates the Color Dialog box.
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Basic Colors - This palette contains 48 colors you can use as a starting point to find the
color you wish. Simply click on any color box and the colors will change to the color you
selected.
Custom Colors - You can set any of the sixteen squares in this palette to any custom
color you wish. To set a custom color pick A color in the color picker. The color will now
reside in the "New Color" box. Then right-click on the New Color box and hold down the
right mouse button and drag it to any square in the Custom Colors area. Hover over a
square (the cursor will look like a Spray Nozze. Release the mouse button and you will
fill the square with the new custom color. When you are working on complex graphics, it
is always a good idea to save the colors you use as custom colors so that they will always
be available to you.
Color Wheel - When you hover the cursor over the color wheel, you will notice that it
turns into the Eye Dropper tool. Click anywhere in the outer ring and you will set the
color to the value nearest your click. Then you can then click anywhere inside the
middle square to obtain a variation on the color you selected.
Current Color - The current color can be set as HSL (Hue, Saturation and Lightness) or
as RGB (Red, Green and Blue). Or, you can set a color by pasting a HTML code for a color
in the box. You can adjust the current color by dragging the mouse around on the square
in the middle of the color wheel, or you can adjust the current color by clicking on the
down arrow on the HSL or RGB color and using the slider.
New Color/Old Color - This box contains the most current color. Old Color contains the
last color set.
Link Colors - When activated, adjustments made to the grouped color settings (RGB and
HSL) will reflect the current setting for the other grouped settings. Leaving Link Colors
activated will give you more control over refining a color selection.
HTML Code - When you select a color, the HTML code for that color will appear in this
box. This is very handy when you are trying to match a background color. But, a better
plan for a background color on a web page is to create a 5x5 pixel tile of the background
color you will be using in the background of your web page graphics and use this tile as
your background rather than setting the HTML code for a background color. That way,
you will always have a perfect match of colors.
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