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 | |  | | PAINT SHOP PRO TIPS AND TRICKS (Paint.Net, and MS Gif are freeware programs that can be downloaded off the internet, if you are ever charged for any of these software applications, I suggest you get your money back). Unfortunately, no form of PSP in free, not even the earlier version, but you can download free trial software. **These tips are for Paint Shop Pro 10 only** **I checked out PSP 11, and X2, and found that most of the features are the same as the ones in PSP 10 with a few changes to the menus. Its a good chance that these same tips will work in the lastest verions of PSP. Try um out and see.** - You can copy and paste between paint programs (graphics programs) , meaning you can open psp and copy the current image from PSP to Photoshop, MS Paint, Gimp, Paint.Net or just about any graphics programs. Same as copying from MS Paint to PSP, and vice versa with all the programs.
- Always remember layers, layers, layers, doing this can lead to tons of effects and animations, I can't express this enough.
- Surf the web at least once a week, new PSP tubes, tutorials, brushes, plug-ins sites are popping up everyday.
- You can save Gif images in two ways, (1) from file, save as, file type. (2) or file, export, gif optimizer.
- Saving from the Gif Optimizer allows transparencies on any background, but if you save them under the save as menu the gifs will not be transparent on all backgrounds, its odd like that for some reason. Its important that you remember this if you want to create dollmakers.
- Alwasy save extra brushes, tubes, plugins, frames, etc...into seperate folders outside of PSP then load the files into PSP after you have open the program and you are ready to use them, after that remove the files before closing out the program.
- Remember to always be sure that the brushes, tubes , frames and any files that you wanna load into PSP, are really for PSP, sometimes the files cannot be converted and its a mess to get the files out of your folders, especially if the files have no file names.
- Any image can be resized in PSP, use the image menu
- You can bevel masked images; it creates a great 3D effect
- Chisel and buttonizing can also make images appear in 3D
- You can create borders around images in 5 ways.
(1). go to image, picture frame, (2). image, add borders, (3). use the pen tool to outline image, use the width and line style, to get affect you want. (4). use the selection tool to select entire image, then switch to remove mode and select the inner portion of the image, this will leave a border around the image that can be edited and turned into a frame. (5) Use the preset shapes tool, take advantange of the width and line style to get the effect you want. - You can also save backgrounds, glitters, pictures in the patterns folder for great image effect. Use gif splitter (freeware , you can find on my links page) to separate glitters into frames, then save in a folder that can be easily loaded into the patterns palettes.
- Remember that any tubes, frames, plugins, brushes, etc...that you see on the web was created in PSP, and you can also create your own originals, there are tutorials all over the net to help you out, then you gave upload them to a website and share them with the world. You can use the (coffeecup zip wizard (free)) if you would like to place file for download on ur own website.
- On the layers palette ... you can click on the opacity layer and use your mouse to scroll through different levels of transparenies till u get the image effect thats right for you.
- Left clicking on an image will make the foreground color display and clicking the right mouse key will cause the background image to cover the image, no need to keep rearranging the color palette, to add colors.
- When creating text, click (leading) on the text toolbar and you can control how you separate lines of text, if you put a (minus sign) in front of the leading numbers you will get a backward effect of the separation of text, instead of text moving farther apart it will move closer together. This is great for when you need more room on a graphic. Example, (-0.300 will bring lines of text closer together, and 0.300 will move them apart by same width).
- To create duplicate layers you can use the Layers drop down menu or just drag a layer from the layers palette, which is easier than navigation to the layers drop down menu.
- You can resize layer individually or you can resize them while they are already in a graphic image that you are creating, if the image is on a separate layer (and it should be) you can select the layer and, click images, resize, and when the resize dialog box pops up...make sure the (resize all layers) is unchecked and then click, ok.
- Remember to save, save, save, I can't express it enough. If the programs stalls or cuts off, you will lose all your information and have to start from scratch. POO POO
MICROSOFT GIF ANIMATOR - You can create all formats of transparencies but it does not support PNG.
- When saving images, its best to save backwards, if you are using more than 3 images. This helps the flow of the animation move more smoothly. I have not used other animators so maybe they all work this way, not sure. I just love this animator cause its simple as 1, 2, 3.
- Each frame can be edited individually, this is how fantastic animations are created with this simple application.
MICROSOFT PAINT TIPS AND TRICKS - Microsoft paint is a very versitile image program, and works wonders if you know how to use it. There are many tutorials (Youtube) and illustrations online displaying amazing drawings done in MS Paint.
- In MS Paint you can use the transparent selection tool (in the selections tools palette, follow the arrow)
 to create a transparent background while you make a drawing, this allows you to add multiple images without them overlapping or looking crowded. Keep the background white, because you will be moving selections around, and the only way to edit properly is on a white backgrond. Only after you have finished editing the picture can you add a color to the background, or not, it's your choice.
*Also many people don't know that you can do: - BRUSH SCALING,the program does not only have come in 3 brush sizes, it can be as many as you like, just open MS Paint and select the brush tool, hold down control then press the +plus key in keypad, this will make the brush bigger and the minus sign will make the brush smaller, its cool. Also works with the line tool, eraser tool and spray paint tool.
- CUSTOM BRUSHES, select the pencil tool and draw yourself a small textured brush in any color, such as squiggly lines, then select the image you just drew, turn transparency on, hold down shift key and drag the image around, you can do this with any image.
- STAMP TOOL, upload an image or draw an image, lets say you want to place a smiley on different parts of the image, so draw smiley and then turn on transparency mode, select the smiley and place it where you want it in the image, with the smiley still selected, hold down the shift key, left click mouse once, then release the shift key, you have a stamped smiley, you can do this all over the image, its better than coping and pasting over and over again. You can also rotate the image by clicking: image on toolbar-flip/rotate option .
- IMAGE SCALING, if you have an image open in MS Paint, just select the image and hold down the ctrl key, and then click on the + or - signs on the numbers keypad. This will cause your image to grow or shrink
in size.  - THE GRID, to view the grid simply zoom in 6x or 8x and then press ctrl + G and the grid will appear, to make it go away just press ctrl + G again.
- OUTLINING, you can outline your images in color, if you draw an image in black, you can go back and change the line colors without the use of the paint bucket, which can be irritating, all you have to do is keep the foreground color black and right click on any color in the palette to change the background color to pink, purple or whatever. Hold down the right mouse button and color over the black lines of your image, they will betransformed to the foreground color of your choosing. In order to do this the image has to be just drawn by hand in MS Paint, you cannot recolor the lines of an imported/downloaded drawing.
- *UPDATE* I found that some downloaded/imported drawings can have the lines recolored if you use the eye dropper tool first, use the eye dropper tool to select the original outline color and use it as the foreground color (eyedropper is highlighter in picture on the left). Right click on another color for background as usual, (select the eraser tool, & trace over) you should have the same ending results. Good luck.
 
- ZOOM, you can do and easy zoom by clicking on the magnifier, then left clicking on the image: watch it grow as big as you want, then right click the image to make it smaller, you can do this continuously back and forth as long as the magnifier is selected.
- 2 COLOR PALETTE, If you left click on the foreground color (primary color) then right click on the background color (secondary color). Use these to color the canvas, press the left button to use regular primary color in canvas, but when you are ready to add the secondary color just press the right mouse button to immediately switch colors.
- USE THE COLOR PALETTE TO CREATE 3 SHADES, If you left click on a colour shade, it becomes the primary colour while right-clicking on another colour will make that a secondary colour. There’s however an option to store a third colour in the palette as well. Just select the “Pick Color” tool and CTRL+ left-click on any one of the shades in the Palette or the canvas window and then CTRL+ left-click to use this new 3rd shade without losing the 2 earlier shades. You can then access this color by holding the Ctrl key while drawing.
- PENALTY FREE UNDO'S, You can actually undo a mark or unwanted line made in MS Paint, by continuing to hold down the left mouse button as you simulatneously press the right mouse button. This will immediately undo your last line or stroke, without affecting your undo's. That's right its penalty free. And remember that there are only 3 undo's in MS Paint XP, and 10 in MS Paint Vista, so please save as much as possible, (just stressing again) It's better than counting paint strokes, but some people do it anyway.
- It's always best to save images created in MS Paint as 24 bitmaps, (its keeps the images from developing those pesky pixel spotches, and its a snap to re-edit) and then save to separate folder as a sort of template that you can go back to over and over again, especially if you like to use same images with edits done to it, this stops you from redrawing the same image over and over again. If needed you can then save ther re-edited drawing as a jpeg, gif, or png, and stilll have the original bitmap stored safely away.
- Remember to save, save, save, I can't express it enough. If the programs stalls or cuts off, you will lose all your information and have to start from scratch. POO POO
PAINT.NET - Resizing images is easiest in Paint.Net, because when you save the file it allows you to actually do some configurations to your image if need be. Example: you want to save a background to a blog site that only requires you to save up to 250k images, but you have a super image that you want to use, except its 315 k. Well thats where Paint.Net works like a charm, you can download the image to your computer and open it in Paint.Net where you can then instantly save the image, which will cause a configuration box to pop up, at this box you can slide the Quality or dithering level of the image and at the exact moment the kilobytes will shrink or grow depending on if you take the level up or down. If you want the 315k image to be 250k, just slide the level backward and you can watch the meter reading as the images stays the same but the kilobytes shrink. Hooray!! Now you can take that favorite image and place it as the background for your blog.
 - Paint.Net has unlimited layering and unlimited undo's
- If you don't have PSP or Photoshop you can use Paint.Net to make transparent gifs, and create complete dollmakers -wow- or transparencies for your web sites. Absolutely no irritating edits when saving transparencies, its great for dollmakers.
- You can not (well you can if you want the aggravation) take a gif you made in Paint.Net, and open it in PSP, because the background will appear blacked out and this creates a difficulty in editing the image, plus the image will not resave as a transparent gif and you will have to resave it as a PSP gift afterward.
- Paint.Net has some killer Effects (under effects menu) that rival PSP and Paint Shop Pro
- You can easily paint paint the canvas by left clicking to create foreground color and right clicking to create the background color
- Remember to save, save, save, I can't express it enough. If the programs stalls or cuts off, you will lose all your information and have to start from scratch. POO POO
Thanks for visiting my Tips and Tricks page | |  | |  | |
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