[Dabhand16]

PSP X users are not served well in the photographic community on the understandable grounds that we are very much a minority group. I have been looking at Photoshop tutorials and then trying to convert them to PSP X using the manual and help screens with varying degrees of success. In the absence of tutorials in PSP X, I have, God help us, written some here. There is usually more than one way of achieving any given effect, and I’m sure that there are other, and maybe better ways of doing these things. However, these do work and will give a basic starting point. You can then develop more techniques as you need them.

I do hope that they work for you. Actually doing it and writing about how to do it are two very different things, even when trying to follow the steps whilst updating this document! Any feedback appreciated.

The procedures below are not intended for those users who are streets in front of me – you should be writing these things for me!

To Add Borders, Titles Drop Shadows and Frames in Paint Shop Pro X

Borders and Titles

The colour of the borders, canvas, drop shadows and text can be changed at the point of selection in the dialogue boxes. I’ve used black and white in these examples for the borders and canvas, and grey for the titles and drop shadows. When they are not white, that is!!

1 Open your image and maximise it.
2 In the images drop down menu, go to add borders.
3 On the left of the dialogue box there is a drop-down selector for what units you want to work with. For this example, we’ll select centimetres.
4 Check the symmetric box near the bottom to make the borders even. If you want asymmetrical borders, uncheck this box and set the borders individually.
5 Enter ‘1’ in the top box, and the others will auto fill in.
6 Press OK and the borders are applied. This will give a white border. See below to change the border colour.
7 Zoom out by a couple of clicks to show the whole effect.

Adding Titles to the Border

8 You might want to zoom into the image at this point to be able to place your text more easily, depending on your image size. When you are zoomed in, hold the spacebar down to turn any selected tool into the ‘move’ tool and left click to drag the picture to the place where you want the title to be placed.
9 Select the ‘text’ tool (A) from the toolbar.
10 In the materials palette click on the background and fill properties box and in the dialogue box that opens, pick a colour for your text and press OK.
11 The cursor, when in the image, has now changed to a cross with an ’A’ attached.
12 In the tools options bar choose your font and font size. Selecting ‘pixels’ as the units will give more control. Choose the font style, and on the right hand side of the tools options bar, ‘vector’ in the ‘create as’ box. The alignment, direction, anti-alias and stroke width do not affect the text (as we are using it) and can be left as they are.
13 Click anywhere in the picture, and you will notice in the layers palette that PSP X has opened a vector layer, and a text entry box has opened in the picture.
14 Type in your title and click on ‘apply’. The text will now appear in a text box in the middle of your picture. DON’T PANIC. This is OK.
15 Now go to the view menu and select ‘rulers’. This will help you to align your title, especially if you want to put your name, or any other text, on the opposite side of the picture.
16 Place you cursor inside the text box that is now in the middle of your picture. Move it to the centre of the text box and it will change shape from the cross to a cross with arrowheads on the end of each arm. When the cursor has changed, left click the mouse and drag the text to the position you want it in. The rulers will show you the centre point (if you look hard enough) of your text and the left and right limits on the horizontal, and the top and bottom limits on the vertical.
17 When you are happy with the position, let the mouse button go. You can use the handles on the text box to change the vertical and horizontal size of the text, but if you are going to put more text into the picture, you will find it difficult to match the size if you have done this. Better to ‘undo’ and change the font and/or font size.
18 Let’s assume you have put the title on the bottom left hand side and you want to put your name on the corresponding right hand side. Make sure you have the text in the correct position, as the only way I have found to go back to adjust it is to undo anything you do from this point until you reach the stage where you position the text. It can be repositioned and then ‘redo’ to the step you have reached. If you are zoomed in, move the picture to the place where you want the new text to go. Assuming you will want to keep the font colour the same, click in the picture again, and in the dialogue box enter your name and click ‘apply’. To change the font colour, click in the materials background and fill properties, and choose another colour before you enter the new text.
19 You can now drag this text to its position in the same way as before, and you can use the rulers to ensure that the alignment is correct.
20 Finally, go to the ‘layers’ menu and select ‘merge>merge all (flatten).


To change the colour of the border

From step 7 in the Borders and Titles section,

1 Right click on the background layer in the layer palette and select ‘duplicate’.
2 Ensure the duplicate layer is selected in the layers palette, and click on the selection tool on the toolbar. Select the rectangular selection tool. (Go to the top option in the slide out and check that rectangular is selected in the selection type in the tools options bar).
3 Select the image (not the border).
4 Go to the selections menu and pick ‘invert’. The border should now be selected.
5 Select the paint bucket on the tools bar, and the foreground swatch in the materials palette. In the dialogue box, pick a colour>OK.
6 Click in the border to fill with the selected colour.
7 Go to the layers menu and select merge all. This step can be omitted if you want to go back and change the border colour.

Another take on Borders

1 Open your image and maximise. Click on the ‘i’ button in the standard toolbar. Note the image size. In my example it is 1024x768 pixels.
2 Go to the image menu>add borders.
3 In the dialogue box select pixels as the unit of measurement, check the symmetric box and make the top box 10 pixels. Click in the colour box and select black>OK. The ‘i’ button now shows, unsurprisingly, that the image is now 1044x788.
4 Now go back to the image menu>canvas size. In the top of this dialogue box the original dimensions are shown as 1044x788. Make sure that the middle ‘new dimensions’ section has pixels as the measurement unit, and the ‘lock aspect ratio’ box is checked. Enter 1044in the width (if it is not already that size) and check that the height has changed to 788. If it has not, uncheck the ‘lock aspect ratio’ box, change the height to 788 and then check the ‘lock aspect ratio’ box again. This ensures that the current canvas size is the same as the image including the border.
5 Add 50 to the top (width) box, and if the colour box is not white, click in it and select white as the background colour.
6 The bottom part of this dialogue box has a 9 button square on the left. This allows placement of the image on the canvas. You will want to put it in the centre for this example. Click OK. There is now a white border around the thin black border.
7 Undo this last step, and then go to menu>canvas size again. Increase the width by 100 and press OK. We now have a wider white border around the thin black border. You might have to zoom out to see the whole effect.
8 The new border will only be even on all sides as long as you have sufficient space on the shorter dimension. Thereafter, the sides (if landscape) will be wider. When printed, the carefully matched borders, if white, could also be lost on the longest side of the paper and require trimming. You can mix and match sizes, colours, and multiple borders by repeating the process until you run out of space!
9 Another cool trick you can try is to after step 8 above, keeping the new border white, return to the image menu > add borders and check the symmetrical box type 60 in the top box. Select black as the colour, and OK. Now you have a thin black border, a thin white border outside the black one, and a thicker black border outside them all. You will have to zoom out to see the whole effect. Adding frames at this point will mask some of the borders unless the ‘frame outside of the image’ radio button is pressed.

To apply a ‘Drop Shadow’

1 Follow the above procedure up to step 7.
2 Using the rectangular selection tool in the toolbar, select the whole image, (not the borders).
3 Go to the effects menu>drop shadow.
4 This opens a dialogue box where you can specify the dimensions, colour and density of the drop shadow. Try 15 in the offset boxes, 40 in the opacity and 5 in the blur and light/mid grey colour to give you a starting point. The white graphic box in the dialogue box also allows you to set the direction and dimensions of the drop shadow by clicking on and dragging the cross at the end of the line protruding from the centre.
5 Click OK and control D to deselect the image and you have a nice drop shadow effect.
6 To change the effect, ‘undo’ to the step where the border is selected, and go to the effects menu>drop shadow, where you will be back in the dialogue box to change the parameters.

N.B. If you want to put drop shadows on your titles and other text to match the drop shadows on the picture, you can adopt this procedure before moving from stage 16 to stage 17. (And anywhere else you have put text).


Basic Framing

1 Go to the image menu>picture frame.
2 In the dialogue box, choose ‘frame outside of the image’ to avoid cropping. If you have put a border around your picture the frame will be outside the border.
3 At this point, as we are only framing the picture we have in front of us and have not got multiple layers, it makes no difference if we select ‘frame canvas’ or ‘frame current layer’.
4 Clicking in the sample frame on the left-hand side of the dialogue box will display the available frames. Pick the frame you like, and OK, and your picture is framed.
5 Frame colours can be changed on specific frames. The transparency colour box will show a diagonal in a circle for the frames that cannot be changed.
6 Adopting the same procedure as changing the border colour can also change frame colours. Use the textures facility in the materials palette when selecting the colour to make the frame colour varied.

N.B. If you are going to use a frame on a picture you also want to title, you might want to put the frame on before the text, so that you can ensure the text is in the centre of the border between the frame and the picture.

Before



Borders



Frame

[Dave]

Great of you to take time to write this up Graham

I have never used PSP-X, so how hard have you found it to convert lessons from PS ?

[Chris]

Thanks Graham

[Dabhand16]

That's not so easy to answer as you might think. Some things are easier than others. Some of the terminology is the same or similar, and some is different. The user interface on the tools/controls is not as intuitive. Or is that just because of the lack of familierarity? I've been tinkering with PE2 for around 4/5 years, and in fairness I never really got the best out of it. This basically because I never realised what it could do, what was possible, let alone how to do it.

Bearing in mind I was (am) not that skilled in editing, I am finding that if I can get an idea of what is actually possible using any editing software, and this is where the Photoshop tutorials come into play, showing the principals/concepts, then I can try to delve into PSP X, the help screens and the PSP X book I bought to try to replicate the technique.

I'm getting better, because I am now more motivated to persevere, where previously, I would give it up as a bad job, or put it in the 'too hard' tray. I'm still on a learning curve with layers and their interaction, but it is gradually coming.

The only real snag at the moment, is if I can find a way to do something, I'm so pleased that I did what I set out to do, I don't really know if it is the best/most economic (in terms of effort) way of doing it.

She who must be obeyed is not too impressed with my spending the time I'm putting in, in front of the computer. You know how the time just flies when you are engrossed in trying to get something right.

[Dave]

On that last point I can sympathise....the missus goes up the wall with how long I spend on here

You're also spot on with the recognition of numerous ways to achieve the same result. As with anything in life, choose the one that suits you best & move on....otherwise it's so easy to get confused by all the options.

I only got around to finishing DVD1 of 4, of PS CS2 training yesterday & already I've forgotten half of it

[Patzt]

What great tutorials!

I've been using PSP for several years simply because I can't afford PS!

[Dabhand16]

Thanks for that, Patzt. I notice that two of the illustrations have disappeared. If the Crew will tell me how I can edit this post, (the edit button has gone) I'll put them back in. They are still in the album I stored them in.

[Sonsey]

I believe the edit button is automaticly removed by the forum software after a period of time, but if you PM the info I'll be happy to add it into the post for you.

[Sonsey]

PM recieved Graham, tutorial should be displaying properly now!

Thanks mate

[Patzt]

So great to see the illustrations!