Suggestions for using Paintshop Pro

Index Page (I used version 8 for some of this and version XI for others.)

ONE VERY IMPORTANT note about Paintshop: It has a "one-button-foto-fixer." If you are into digital photography (or if you scan old photos into your computer) this feature alone makes the price of Paintshop more than worth it. What it does to improve your pictures will amaze you. Trust me. Even pictures that you think are too good to need any fixing.

All I do is put down my own notes here, to help my feeble mind next time I want to do one of these things. Some tutorials out there are just too difficult for me to follow so I make my notes with "ultimate detail" so 6 months later I can still follow them.

If you do not have Paintshop yet, you can get a free, 60-day trial at Corel which now owns Paintshop: http://www.corel.com/

I'll continue to add to these as I learn. There is a huge amount of HELP in Paintshop but sometimes dummies such as I find them hard to understand. So, when I learn something neat, I like to make notes. These are my notes.

AND, by the way, I've seen Paintshop Pro (latest version) on sale for only C$50. sometimes; only a fraction of what you'd pay for Photoshop!

Fancy Text (v. XI)

The number of different ways you can make text "fancy" is limited only by your imagination. I knew what I wanted and figured it out; I wanted to add text to the bottom of this picture and the text to be the color of the grass:

Click HERE for those notes.

Adding "Curved" text (v. 8)

I wanted to add text to this picture like this:

Click HERE for those notes.

"Soft Drop Shadow" on a Textured Background (v. 8)

I needed this to make a thumbnail picture look "3D" on a *textured* as opposed to a colored background.

Click HERE for those notes.

Adding a pond to your vacation cottage (v. 8)

Click HERE for those notes.

Making Textured Buttons for your website (v. 8)

At the bottom of every website (except the *really* short ones) you should have a link to take the visitor immediately back to the top of the page.

On a colored page such as this, the "Return" button works fine and looks OK but on a "textured" page, a "textured" button might look extra nice; here is my example.

Click HERE for those notes.

Giving a photo a "3D" effect (v. 8)

Notice how, by giving the background a slightly blurry effect, the item in the foreground looks "closer."

Click HERE for those notes.

A transparent monitor effect (v. 8)

I wanted this effect:

Click HERE for those notes.

Overlapping images at various angles, with Soft Drop Shadows (v. 8)

Long ago a gentleman asked me if/how this could be done. I was not able to tell him. Since then, I figured it out but know I can't remember who the gentleman was; I hope he finds this page. Here is what I wanted and my steps in making it are below it, a bit brief; hope you can follow it.

I want to take some of my photos and make it look as if they had been "thrown down" on a larger photo. This large photo is the "page" background but a colored or a white or black background could have been used. The finished result will be 800 pixels wide to suit *most* screen sizes and 600 wide

In Paintshop, open the background photo and make it 800 pixels wide and 600 high, preserving the "aspect ratio."
Open the other pictures and reduce their sizes if necessary; crop if necessary; add border if you like.
Show each image at 100% size.
Copy & paste the first image onto the background photo and position it, if you want to rotate it.
Click "Image" and "Rotate" Choose "Free rotate" and set the specs to your prefs.
Add the shadow.
Add a new raster layer.
Copy and paste the next image.
With the second image still "selected" put the picture where you want it.
Repeat steps 7 to 11
Flatten ("merge") the layers and save as a JPG.

Sorry this note has to be brief. Time.

"Exploding" part of an image (v. XI)

Click HERE for those notes.

Clone yourself (v. XI)

(This is probably the EASIEST of all Paintshop fun jobs!)

Click HERE for those notes. (Yes, that is ME chatting with ME.)

Put an image onto a new background (v. XI)

This one taught me how to properly use the "background eraser" tool, making it one of my best PSP learning experiences so far.

I had these two pictures and wanted to put the spider onto that web:

Click HERE for those notes.

Change the color of only PART of an image (v. XI)

My blimp had blue text; I wanted red text:

Click HERE for those notes.

Remove part of an image to remove a distraction (v. XI)

My picture had two jets and I wanted to remove one of them. Note that this "lesson" involves a slightly more difficult situation than would be the case if the background was 'textured' like grass, water, trees etc. Here is what I started with: