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PSP
Basics Tutorial by Connie M - Part
3
Well lets see if we can
finish basics on the Tool Palette.
I can’t even remember where I left off so have to check my last
Basics Tutorial. I have
been quite ill all week and have not even turned the computer on.
Joe said that meant I was really sick.
But here I am.
OK, there’s where we
left off. The very top
button with the red arrow is the Clone Tool.
That was covered in the last tutorial.
Next, below Cone Tool is the Retouch Tool.
I must admit I have not played much with this tool so I will just
touch on how to get it working and advise you to open the help box,
enter Retouch Tool and chances are real good you will know just as much
if not more than I do about it. In
the example, I am just messing up a photo of myself.
Highlight the tool, if the options box doesn’t open hit O key
to open. I notice I got
this a bit small for you to see but you can see at the very bottom right
hand corner of the options box, a drop down box appears.
There is a whole list of things to mess with.
I chose lighten. Then
if you look at the picture, my shoulder that is touching hubby, I used
the tool to lighten. This is a tool you will just have to play with and find all
the settings. Hey, I
can’t know everything on this program.
I am still a newbie at it.
Next Tool is the
Scratch Remover. Handy for
fixing the little scratches that occur on photos that you have scanned. On the photo I have cut out a portion showing my necklace
overlaying the black top. Lets
just pretend that necklace is a scratch in the photo.
Highlight the scratch tool; you will see an x with a brush beside
it. Put the x where you
want to start fixing, hold left key on mouse and drag over the area you
want scratch removed. When
you release the key, the scratch will be filled in.
You may have to do this several times as the box does not cover a
very wide area.
Note
necklace on black
Highlight it
Notice necklace is gone
(darn
those were black pearls)
The Eraser Tool we
discussed in the last tutorial so skip over it.
Next is the Tube Tool. I
personally don’t like this thing.
My reason is once you put an item on your page, you can’t move
it. If anyone knows how to
move these tubes around I would love to hear from you.
It is fine for projects where you want something placed randomly
but if you want an image in a precise place its better to open the tube
from its file and use copy & paste.
Click on the Tube Tool,
again if options box doesn’t open hit O.
Depending on how many tubes are in your files, the tool can take
a few seconds before it opens. It
has to load all your tubes into its memory to open them.
Once its open you will see one picture of a tube and on the right
an arrow, click on that arrow and you will get a screen showing all your
tubes. Scroll til you find
the one you want, highlight it and it will show in the small window. I know it’s a bit blurry, sorry, trying to keep images
small enough to not cause email jams when Joe tries to send.
Now
you will see the Tool Options box like below.
To put your tube onto your page simply do a left mouse click and
the image appears. They
will all be the same size. Lets
say you want the butterfly all different sizes like below.
If you notice off to the right of the butterfly on the Options
box it says Scale. Simply
move the settings up or down for different sizes.
Try this, when you click and drag your mouse across page once you
have selected a tube. Gives
a continuous line across the page.
Your PSP program comes
with an assortment of tubes but you can collect them by the ton online.
If you go to www.google.ca
in the search line enter PSP tubes, you will find all kinds of
sites. Here is a top100
site list for psp tubes.
http://www.topsitelists.com/bestsites2/veertje67/topsites.html
A word of warning.
Don’t store your downloaded tubes right in your program unless
you have them backed up somewhere.
If your program has to be reloaded for some reason all your
downloads will be gone with the program.
I keep all my tubes in a separate file and all categorized within
that file, then linked to the program.
Makes it easier to find if I am looking for something like an
animal or a flower.
Next tool is the
Airbrush. I won’t go into
great detail on this one. To
use it click on it, again hit O for options, select if you want right
angle, left angle, etc., select colors on the color palette and paint
what you want. This one is
not precise so takes practice.
Flood Tool – works
basically the same as Airbrush. Best
way to learn what this tool does is open the options box and play with
all the settings. I don’t
actually use it much unless putting a light color tint over entire
picture.
Draw Tool – I am
going to be honest. I
haven’t a clue. I did try
playing with it. Read
the instructions in Help, and read my manual and still haven’t figured
it out. Someone will do a
tutorial using it and then we will all know what it does.
Shape Tool – this one
can be fun. Again your can
download all sorts of shapes presets off the internet.
This one should also be kept in another file if you don’t want
to loose them. Click on the
button for shapes, click O to open options.
A window similar to the tubes options will appear.
Select your shape the same way by clicking the arrow and a panel
will appear showing all the shapes.
Select the shape you want. Now
it gets different from tube. Go
to where you want to insert the shape.
Put the arrow where you want shape to be.
Left click mouse and drag until shape is the size you want. You can move this one by putting your curser right in the
center until you get a cross with an arrow on each.
It’s the same symbol you get for the move tool.
OK, just tried it, you can also clip on the move tool and move
shape to where you want it. You
can also twist this one by holding curser over the center until you have
to arched arrows showing you can twist it. I am going to put one picture below with several examples
rather than separate ones for each.
There, we made it thru
the Tool bar. I plan on
doing the Color Palette on the next tutorial.
That little palette sits there looking so innocent and there is
really a lot of goodies hidden in there.
Until next time, Happy
PSPing
PSP
Basics Part 2
Have
you decided to take up PSP with us yet Joe?
I keep wondering how
someone can design such a complicated program that amuses so many
people.
connieM
greenacres@digitalweb.net
Visit
Our Website - Newsletter Updated
December
3/02
http://www.angelfire.com/country/wine101/News/letter.html
====================================================
Well here I am again.
Meant to get at this sooner but Son needed advertising cards made
to set on tables at his restaurant.
Guess you can tell who got first attention.
I hope I didn’t
totally confuse anyone with part 1.
If you have questions, please email us and ask.
One of us will try to answer you.
That’s how we all learned and are still learning PSP, by asking
questions. Also a lot of
trial and error.
OK, back to the Tool
Palette. I have been
assuming that you have the tool palette visible and that was wrong of
me. Lets digress for a
moment. At the very top of
your screen click on View. Look
for Toolbars, click on it. This
drop screen will open.
This shows you all the
tool bars that are available. If
you open every one of them you will have no place to work so only open
what you really need. I
only keep the Standard Toolbar, Tool Palette, and Color Palette open.
The others can all be opened when needed.
Clone Tool (Petra has
been waiting for this one) Left
click on the Clone Button, it looks like two paint brushes.
Once you activate it your curser will look like a paint brush
with a rubber stamp beside it. (See photo below)
Put the tip of the paint brush on the area of the picture that
you want to clone. Do a
right mouse click. This
tells the brush what color to use and you will hear a click from your
computer. Move the
brush to the area you want to cover. Hold left mouse key down.
You will see an X appear and with any kind of luck it will be
over the color you want. Using
your paint brush gradually work over the area you want removed. If the X goes onto any color other than the one you
want, it will copy it. Easy
to get rid of if that happens, remember that little curved arrow. Yep, just hit that and your error is gone.
Original
Sorry I know this
picture isn’t great. I
couldn’t get the tool example using screen capture so I cheated.
Used my digital camera and took a picture of it.
How’s that for creative? There
you see the picture of the brush, stamp and X.
End result, Joe’s
name is gone. Lets get
creative and put the bird from on top of the cats head down onto the
tag. Take the tip of your brush just to the top of the birds head,
right click to set clone position.
Now take your brush down to the tag and watching the X over the
bird, slowly move your brush back and forth transferring the image.
I know this sounds
complicated and trust me, it takes some practice.
I cussed at it a few times before I got it working.
As long as we are
playing with this I am going to skip a couple of tools.
Go down to the icon that looks like an eraser on the end of a
pencil. We are going to
erase the bird now. First
we have to select colors. Go
back up to the eyedropper; select it with a left click.
Put the eyedropper on the orange of the tag where bird is.
Right click mouse to select the background color.
You want background because we are selecting the color that will
be behind the bird. You
will see the color change on the color palette on the right side of
screen.
Next, reselect the
eraser and simply erase the bird. I
would have originally used this technique to erase text but did it the
hard way for this tutorial.
Lets jump a couple of
tools again, select the big black A.
That is the text tool. Put
the tool anywhere on your image, left click opens up a screen like this.
Select the type you
want to use, size, color, etc. Type
in what you want on your image. I
always click “floating” but play with it, you might like working
with it as a Vector or a Selection.
Hit OK. It may not
land where you want it and at this point will have the marching ants
around it. Put your curse over the signature until you get a blue cross
with arrows. This means you
can now move the text. Or
you can go up on the tool palette and click on your move tool.
Either way, position your text.
When your happy, do a right click to set it in place and remove
the marching ants. If you
used the move tool to position the text, you will have to click back on
the A to set the text in place. I
will just put this image at the bottom for my signature.
One more tool and I
will leave the rest for part 3.
 This
is the Color Replacer Tool. Select
an image that has a color you would like to change. I am going to change the background color on this chicken.
First using the Eye
Dropper Tool, select the color to change.
I am changing the background so put the eye dropper over the
mauve area and do a left click to mark it.
This will show up on your color palette as foreground color.
Select color to change to. If
there is a color on the picture you want to use like say the red on the
comb just use the eye dropper, do a right click and that selects it.
This will show up as background color on the palette.
If the color you want isn’t in the picture you will have to
select it from your color palette.
I will cover that subject in another tutorial so if you don’t
know how to do it, select a color from the picture.
To keep things easy I selected the pink in center of comb.
Next, left click on Color Replacer tool to activate it.
Return to your picture. There
are two ways of doing this. Hold
down right click on mouse and paint color over area desired, or the
easiest, double right click on the color to change and it changes the
whole thing. This wasn’t
a good subject cause parts of the chicken are too close to background
color and they changed too but you get the idea.
 I
cheated and reversed things using a finer brush setting on Color
replacer and put the white back into chicken.
Remember from Part 1, hit the O key and it will toggle the
setting window for brush sizes.
Have fun.
See you again in a few days with Part 3 and hopefully I can
finish off the Tool Palette.
Basic
PSP #1 by Founder Connie M
Joe
asked us in the chat room about doing a PSP tutorial about the basics of
PSP. My first thought was
yea, I sure would enjoy that.
Hmm, ok, seems I ended up doing it.
So here goes. Hope I
can make this clear, if not, yell at Joe, it was his idea.
I
am going to begin with the buttons down the left side of your screen. This
row of buttons is your tool palette and these are your working tools.
Open psp. You will
have to open a project of some kind to make things work.
Just grab any graphic. Just
remember not to hit just save at any point or you will alter the
graphic. It might be a good
idea to make a copy of something to use just in case you mess up like I
have been known to do.
Lets
start at the top and work down.
The first button is simply an arrow. Basically,
click on that button if you don’t want anything else working.
Say you just want to move your picture to another part of the
screen. Or when your
working with all the other buttons we will get to explaining.
The
second button looks like the end of a q. tip is called the Zoom Tool.
This is a button that enlarges or reduces your image.
If your half blind like I am, left click on this with your curser
to select it, then put your curser over your image.
A left click will enlarge your image, a right click will
decrease.
Next
is the Deformation Tool. Use
the Deformation tool to rotate, resize, skew, and distort layers,
floating selections, and images. You can use this tool in two ways: You
can click its button on the Tool palette and then use the tool directly
on the image, or you can double-click the button to open the Deformation
Settings dialog box.
Notes:
To use the Deformation tool, the image must contain a layer. You may
need to promote the background to a layer.
(Confused: Me too.
I haven’t played with this one yet so just gave you the text
book instructions) But below
shows quickly one effect.
I
should add a quick note here. With
most of these tools, there will be a drop box that you can adjust
settings on. If it
doesn’t appear just click O on your keyboard and the box will appear.
That is the letter
O, not the number.
Next
weird looking button is for cropping.
Correct, its called the Crop Tool.
Click your curser on this button to select.
Go to your picture, put the x where you want to start cutting,
hold down the left button on your mouse and select the area you want to
keep.
You
will draw a neat little square on what you want.
Go to the bar at the very top of your screen, click on Image, and
click “crop” The
part you don’t want is gone, we hope.
If not, right below the image button a small curved arrow will
appear. That means
“I don’t like what I did, I want it undone”.
Click that and all is returned to normal.
Remember the location of that little arrow.
Chances are you will use it a lot.
Next
button is a cross with arrows on each end is called a Mover Tool. This
is used for moving layers and selections around.
In the example below I will add a chicken in the center of the
sky. I would select this
cross, put my curser over the chicken and be able to move it where ever
I want it. OK, now that one
won’t show up on a screen capture but trust me, the cross will move
the chicken.
Next
button called the Selection Tool is the infamous marching ants. I
don’t know why they are called that.
I hate ants but guess that’s what they looked like to the
person that named them. It
works the same as the first button only it leaves ants instead of a
solid line. Well sort
of, there is a bit of difference. Once
you have selected it a drop down screen should open.
If it doesn’t, hit the letter O on your keyboard.
On the first tab at the left you will have a selection of
different shapes that you can use to crop.
Select crop same as before, Image, Crop to selection.
On the next tab you can feather the edges of your selection if
you want a bit softer appearance. Antialias
produces a smooth edge. It
does this by partially filling in pixels along the edge making them
semitransparent. If you
don’t check antialias, your edges will appear more jagged.
Next
button, looks like something I use on the farm, a lasso.
And that’s what it does. You
can lasso the image you want. It
is actually called the Freehand Selector.
Click on the lasso to select. Now
on your graphic lets select the upper seagull.
Place the X of the curser on the image where you want to begin.
Do a left click to lock the lasso in place, keep left clicking as
you go around the image you want. When
the lines connect, do a right click to join them.
You will have a row of marching ants around your image.
If
this is the outline of what you want, again go to Image, crop and your
down to just the image you outlined.
The
Magic Wand is next. This
one is lots of fun. It is
great for removing sections of color that you don’t want in your
image. I am going to select
a cute picture but it has a black background.
Lets say I want it onto a transparent or a white background.
I won’t go into teaching how to do that right now, but to get
rid of the black, select the magic wand, go to the picture, place magic
want on black, do a left click, again the marching ants appear. Click
the delete button and the black is gone.
When
using in projects you will learn to copy and paste the little girl onto
a picture and remove the colors so that the pack ground is transparent.
Next
button is the eye dropper. This
is used to select colors. Using
the picture above of the little girl, move the eye dropper over the
color you want. This will
sound confusing right now but will make sense when you start using
things. A left mouse click
will give you your front ground color, a right will set your back ground
color.
I am going to select the color from her dress and then using the
next button down, which is the paint brush, I will just paint a few
strokes in the upper corner of the picture to show you how it works.
Note
the coloring in the upper right corner.
I selected the Paint Brush tool.
Held the left click down gave me the color of her dress, holding
right down I gave me the background color which I selected from her hat.
Clear
as Mud???? A lot of this won’t make sense but suddenly it will when
your reading one of the
beautiful creation tutorials and one of us says a tool button, you will
know where it is and sort of what it does.
Well I am going to stop at this point and
send this off to Joe. That
way your not totally and irreversibly confused.
In my next tutorial I will start with the clone button.
That one is such fun.
Hope
I have helped clear just a bit of the mystery of PSP away.
Love to all members of
*Joe's
Sharing and Caring Society*
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