| Tutorial Title: How to use PSP 5 |
| Program: PSP 5 |
This tutorial will show you how to begin using Paint Shop Pro version 5.
After the PSP installation has finished installing, open the program by double clicking on the program's icon (should be named something like psp.exe), or go through your start menu.
This is your toolbar. Here are some buttons for you to have quick access to certain program features such as new canvas, open file, save, undo, redo, paste, cut, copy, access to your palettes, and a few more. This toolbar can be changed to work with your method of working. As you can see, my bar has a few extra buttons that yours might not have. To add extra buttons, go: FILE > PREFERENCES > CUSTOMIZE TOOLBAR and from there you are able to add or delete buttons.
This bar is called your Tool Palette. In this bar, you have access to all the different tools provided inside PSP. The picture to the right is a screenshot of PSP5, in PSP6 a few tools were updated and a few were added... but once you have the hang of PSP5 switching over to PSP6 is a whiz. Now, the names of the tools and a small description of what they do in order:
Arrow - Simply makes your cursor turn back into a cursor, this one probably does not fit in the tool category, but it's there nonetheless.
Zoom - Allows you to zoom in and out of your image, left click zooms in, right click zooms out.
Deformation - Allow you to alter the shape of an image. You can skew, mirror, rotate, and do a few more things to your image with this tool.
Crop - Lets you pick a portion of your image and cut it out from the rest of the image.
Mover - Lets you pick a certain shape or image on any layer and quickly move it.
Selection - Allows you to draw a square, rectangle, circle, or ellipse onto your image letting you move that area where you drew the shape on.
Freehand - Same as Selection, but lets you draw any shape.
Magic Wand - Lets you pick a certain group of pixels at a time.
Dropper - Lets you select a color from anywhere on your image.
Paint Brushes - Allows you to draw freehand on your image with different textures and brush sizes.
Clone Brush - Lets you copy a group of pixels and rapes them some where on the image.
Color Replacer - Allows you to replace any color on the image with your foreground or background color.
Retouch - Allows you to add effects to your image using brushes.
Eraser - Lets you erase portions of your image.
Picture Tubes - Allows you to add quick images onto your canvas. You can download extra tubes from Jasc or 3rd party websites.
Airbrush - Same as the Paint Brush, but you have a bit more control with this one.
Flood Fill - Lets you fill the image with a solid color, gradient, or pattern.
Text - Lets you add text. ;]
Line - Allows you to draw a normal line, or a bezier line (a twisted line that you can slightly control when it comes to it's curves).
Shapes - Lets you draw filled or outlined shapes such as squares, circles, ellipses, and rectangles onto your images. |
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This is your Control Panel. From here you can change the settings of your tools. You can change the sizes of your brushes by clicking on the Brush Tip tag. In there you can also alter the percent of your brush opacity, hardness, density, and step. Mainly you will be changing the properties of the opacity and brush tip size. You hardly ever use the other properties in any other value than the default values. From the Tool Control tab, you can alter the way a tool works, or you can quickly jump to a setting. For example, with the zoom tool, you can select the percent to zoom in at. From here you can also select different textures for your brushes, and different tubes for your picture tubes. |
This is my favorite utility in PSP, the Layer Palette. Layers allow you to have better control over your image by stacking different portions of your image one on top of the other to form your complete image. To add a new layer to your image, either go through: LAYERS > NEW, or click on the first small icon on the bottom of this palette (the icon of two papers stacked on top of each other). a dialog will pop up telling you the properties of your new layer. In here you can change the name of the layer, and that all you should worry about at the moment, click OK. When you return to the palette, you see that a new layer has been created (like in the picture above). The icon to the direct right of the layer name (the three color bands red green and blue) is called the Layer Visibility button and it allows you to turn that layer on or off. The small slider a little further from the visibility button, lets you change the opacity of the image, therefore when you set the opacity to a low number portions of the images on the layers under this layer will show through. The menu that says normal is called your layer mode menu. From here you can alter the blending of that layer with the other layers in the image.
This toolbar is the simplest to use and explain. :] With this toolbar, you can select the color for your image. If you notice, right next to the foreground and background colors (the two squares, one black and one white), there is a small "L". When you click this L, you can switch the foreground color with the background color and vise versa. To quickly color something you background color when you are using the airbrush or paint brush, just right click. :] If you click once on one of the colored squares, a small window will pop up with a color will. Here you can choose color more efficiently and find out the RGB code and Hex numbers for any color. If you ever want to quickly know the RGB (red green and blue) code for a color on your image, select the Dropper and hover the mouse over the color. Right under the foreground/background color squares, you will see a group of numbers, this is the RGB code for that color, under the code you can see a snapshot of what the color looks like.
NOTE: This tutorial was written for PSP5. Many of the features have changed in version 6. I believe it's easier to learn version 5 before you learn 6. I will however write a tutorial like this tutorial for those of you who are starting with version 6. Now you should have basic knowledge of how Paint Shop Pro works. If you would like to test your new knowledge, go to the next tutorial and see how you survive it! ;] |
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