I have written this Overview Tutorial to help acquaint the beginner with Paint Shop Pro. It is always a good idea to first learn the different parts of the program before beginning to create anything.


Preparations:

1. You may want to print this out to use as a reference. Go to the very top of this page, click File, then Print. Follow the instructions for your printer.

2. Open your PSP.

3. Right click and hold mouse down a blank space on your computer's taskbar - the bar is located where your Start button is.

4. A menu pops up. Select "Tile Windows Vertically". You should now have the tutorial and your own PSP open side by side. This will aid you in following the tutorial.


Now we will begin:

Look at your own PSP program. You will see it looks like the image below but without the transparent graphic in the middle. I will explain that later in this overview.

I haved labeled the basic parts of the program which will be explained along the way.


THE MATERIALS PALETTE:

On the right side of your program you will see the "Materials Palette". This is where you choose the paint colors, gradients, textures, etc that you would use for the background of an image layer and write your text. These are listed the exact same way in both foreground and background areas.

I have closed out the foreground in the image below so you can see that if you use the icon with the circle and slash thru it that it will close off use of that color.

The arrows to the top of the palette show you how each icon is used.  You will see the same tops on all palettes that are displayed.
I will now list what each means:

• Push Pin - that will automatically hide the palette.
• Minus Sign - that will minimize or collapse the palette without actually closing it.
• Square Box - that will maximize palette - brings it back up from being minimized.
• The X - will also close it out completely

When you are making a graphic and want a certain color to show behind the image, you will use a Foreground Color. You can fill that area with a solid colorm a gradient or a texture. I will explain what each of these mean and how to apply them later. Right now I only want you to understand how the "Foreground" color is used.

Note this image has used the Foreground color to fill the bottom layer as a background.


The "Background" color is what you use to place text on an image. I am not trying to confuse you, but sometimes both the Foreground and Background colors are used for text also. Beginners will mostly work only with the Background for text placement color.
Note this image has closed off the Foreground color while using the Background color to place text on the layer.

THE LAYER PALETTE:

The Layer Palette is usually located on the right side of your program below the Materials Palette. This gives you a clear display of how many and what kind of layers you have on your image. The image below shows 2 layers. One is vector and the other is raster.

I will now explain what the different types of layers are and what they mean.

• The bottom layer is called a "Raster" which means it is a transparent (no background to it) layer. You would use this to place an image or fill with a color.
  
  
• The top layer is called a "Vector" which means I either placed some text using the vector mode (I'll explain later in tools) or I drew a circle, square, symbol, etc using the preset shape tool (which I'll also explain later when covering tools).
  
  Notice below in the overview I have an image open with text. I wrote that text in vector mode and it placed a box around the text. That is what makes it a vector layer.
  
  
• Or there could be another type of layer called "Background" which is used when you open a graphic already made - like a blank tag you want to add your name to. A background layer means an image has already been compressed and saved as a graphic.

TOOL BARS:

The tool bar lists all the tools available to you. It is usually located on the left side of your program but you can move it anywhere you want. It will turn horizontal if you want it going across the top or bottom of your workspace area. To move any tool bar just place your mouse above the first icon, left click and drag the bar. If you bring it up it will turn horizontal. Once you let go of the mouse it will remain where you moved it to.
Note some icons have a little down arrow next to the picture of a specific tool. If you click an arrow it will list the different tools associated with that particular icon. Take your mouse and try each of them out. Click on the arrow to see exactly what each will do. You will do this often as you work with PSP.

I will now explain a little about the basic tools listed. I won't explain them all because it may be too confusing. However, there will be a special tutorial on each basic tool so so that you can learn how to use each of them. For now, I will only cover the ones that are most often used.

• Pan Tool will be covered later.

• Move Tool has four little arrows and has two parts to the drop down menu.
  • Pick Tool looks like a pointing arrow and is the first option on the menu. This will be covered later.
  • Move Tool has four little arrows looks just like the big icon. It is used to move an image or text around on a layer.


• Magic Wand, Selection, Freehand tools are all in the same place
  • Magic Wand looks just like a magic want used for children's magic shows. This wand is used to "select" or choose a certain part of an image. When used, a display of "marching ants" which look like short blinking dashes, appear around the area selected with the magic wand.
  • Selection looks like a rectangle box in the menu. But you can select different styles of shapes like a rectangle or square, a circle or eclipse, triangle, etc. These options are found in the "Tools Options Palette" which will be explained later. When using the selection option, you will also see those "marching ants".
  • Freehand looks like a rope or lasso. This is used to outline an image. Example - If you wanted to cut something out of your image, you would use this tool to outline what you want to remove and then "cut". Once you outline the area, you will see those "marching ants" around the area that will be cut.


• Dropper tool: looks like an eye dropper. It is used to choose a certain color from your image for either to fill a background and/or fill a text. If you want to select a color from your foreground put the dropper over the color in the image and left click. The color will become visable in your foreground color in the Materials box. If you want a color from your foreground, put the dropper over the color in the image and left click. If you want the color for the background or text, right click and the color will appear in your materials background color box.
  • Left click fills the foreground color box
  • Right click fills the background color box


• Crop, Straighten, Red Eye and Make Over Tools will all be explained later.

• Clone Brush Tool looks like a double paint brush. There are two other brushes on the drop down menu that we will not discuss at this time.
  • The clone brush is like a magic brush. Pretend that your image has a flower on it that you would like to have in other places. Take the Clone Brush and place it in the middle of the flower and right click. This tells the memory of the program to start cloning in that spot. Move the brush over to the area where you want the flower. Left click and hold down the mouse and move the brush around that area. You will see the new flower appear. You can only clone on the same layer that the image appears.


• Paint Brush, Lighten/Darken, Eraser, and Background Eraser Tools will be covered later.

• Flood Fill Tool looks like a can of paint with the paint spilling out of the can. This is used to fill a layer with a certain color, gradient or texture. You can fill an entire section or just areas that you have selected with your Selections Tool. These are just a couple of examples of the many reasons that you can use this tool.

• Picture Tube Tool icon is hard to describe. It may be a camera but I am not sure. This tool needs its own tutorial and you will probably use this tool very quickly in your learning process.
  • The Picture Tube Tool allows you to pick the tube image you want to use and place it on a blank layer.
  • You have a folder in your PSP program files that holds (houses) some basic tubes.
    
    • A tube is a PSP Image on a transparent background that has been saved in PSP using their tube process. LOL just take my word on that for now.
    • Most graphics made from scratch are made using tubes.
  
  
• Text Tool looks like a Capital A and is the tool used to add all text graphics and images.

• Preset Shape Tool has an icon that looks like one of those talk boxes you see in comic books. If you select one of the other three shapes listed in the drop down menu next to the icon it will change the icon to the selected shape.
  • This tool will draw all types of circles, shapes, etc and place them as a "Vector" layer so that you can adjust the size and placement. This tool will also have its own tutorial.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Upcoming Lessons will cover various tool bars and the tool options palette. We will also review basic definitions and abbreviations of key words common to use in Paint Shop Pro. These are terms that are often used in tutorials written for the public by many authors.

  Tutorials Index
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  This tutorial was written and graphics used were created by Cathie.
  A special thank you to Fran, my Tut Lady, for all the time she placed into editing this for me.
  Any similarities to other tutorials is merely a coincidence.
  ©   Cathie's Collection
  ~September 2006~