EQ6 & PSP - Creating Web Images Part 2

In Part 2 of this tutorial, we are going to step back and take a closer look at Paint Shop Pro itself. In my 'Scanning Fabrics for EQ6' tutorial, we used a number of tools that we are also going to be using when creating web images. In that first tutorial, you learned where to find those tools. Now, we are going to create short cuts in PSP that will speed up the whole process and you should be able to do the same if you are using Adobe's Photoshop or Photoshop Elements or The Gimp (see Scanning Fabrics Intro).

Customizing the Paint Shop Pro Workspace:

Up until a month ago, I had been using an earlier version of Paint Shop Pro (8.1); however, it does not work well on Vista which is the OS on my laptop, so I decided to upgrade to PSP X2. Well, the first thing I noticed when I ran X2 was its new 'Graphite' user interface. I can live with the look on my laptop, but I do not like it on my desktop monitor so I got rid of it. If you feel the same, go to 'View' and in the drop down menu click on 'Use Graphite Workspace Theme' and you will now have a less 'dramatic' interface.

One of the first tools I went to use in X2 was the cropping tool and when I clicked on this tool I gasped. "What the heck is this?", I said to myself. There appeared this shadow box and tool bar on the image and I tried it for a while but said, "Nope, this has got to go." I didn't find either very useful especially when trying to crop fabrics. To disable these features, go to File > Preferences > General Program Preferences > Transparency & Shading and in the right side box remove the check marks for the following: Enable crop shade area, Automatically display crop rectangle, and Enable floating crop toolbar. While still in this dialog box, go to Units and set your default resolution to 72 pixels/inch (the resolution we will use for our web images). Click 'OK' and close the dialog box.

We are now looking at our PSP workspace. Now, I don't know what your workspace looks like because that will depend on how long you've been using PSP and how familiar you are with the program.  However, in the default view, I do believe it displays the Learning Centre (which is a 'Palette') on the left. Close the Learning Centre by clicking on the 'Cross' at the upper right hand cornner. Next, you will need to open up an image in PSP to activate most of the tools, toolbars and palettes. After opeing an image, click on its 'Minimize' button to get it out of the way.

When I work in PSP, I tend to work with three palettes on a regular basis and these are: Materials, Overview, and Layers. I mentioned in the first tutorial, the Overview palette is useful because on 'Info it displays image size and resolution. However, its 'Preview' section is also useful because it has the Zoom Out, Zoom In, and Normal Viewing tools and I use these constantly when working on images.

The Materials palette hasn't changed much from my earlier PSP version; however, the Layers palette has changed and I am still getting used to it. One thing, it now offers an image of the layer whereas in 8.1 you had to hover your cursor over the layer and an image would appear in a pop-up. I haven't done a great deal with Layers recently so I can't make too many comments or suggestions about this palette at this time.

The 'Organizer' at the bottom of the workspace is new to me and I am still getting use to it  In its default size, it is quite cramped but you can adjust its size by hovering the cursor along the top edge and pulling up. I am sure using it will become second nature in short order.

Of course, if you increase the size of the Organizer, you decrease the size of your workspace and even in its default size the Organizer takes up too much room. Thankfully, Corel has created a 'Toggle' button and placed it on the main menu toolbar which opens and closes the Organizer. You really only need the Organizer when you are hunting for an image or picture; so, click on the toggle button and close it.

We are now going to take a look at the main menu toolbars at the top of the workspace. As I mentioned in the first tutorial, whenever you open a tool in PSP a toolbar specific to that tool will open above the workspace. At the bottom of the image above, you can see the toolbar for the 'Pan Tool' and you will notice it also offers the Zoom In, Out and image Actual Size features.

Now, directly above the Pan toolbar is the Icon (or Command) toolbar and here it is in the default mode; in other words, Corel has set it up with tools it thinks would be most useful. However, these are not tools that I think are most useful. So, this is where we are going to be making some significant changes that make using PSP much simpler.

Like in EQ6, we can customize our toolbar and have only the tools that we need or use most often. What I would like you to do is right click somewhere along that icon toolbar between a pair of icons. In the drop down menu that appears, click on 'Customize' and a new dialog box will appear.

This new dialog opens on the 'Commands' tab which is exactly where we want to be. We are now going to start removing Tool icons from that toobar. To do this, you will left click on an icon (upper arrow), hold and drag that icon into that area on the right side of the dialog box (lower arrow). When you get into that box, you can release your mouse and that icon will now be gone from the toolbar.

You are going to remove these icons from that toolbar:

-Zoom In, Zoom out
-Image info
-Express Lab
-Copy Special
-Image rotate Rt, Image rotate Lt
-Resize
-File Save As
-Enhance Photo
-Palettes

You will find the tool names by hovering over the icons with your cursor. That has tidied up that toolbar substantially and I do like it when things are tidy...LOL.

We are now going to make our very own Command (Icon) toolbar with those tools we will be using on a constant basis when creating web images and preparing photos for our blog or website; and, you will find these will be the same tools you will use for preparing your fabric swatches for EQ6. Your toolbar 'Customize' dialog box should still be open and, now, you can click on the 'Toolbars' tab and click on 'New'. In the pop-up, you will give your new toolbar a name and click 'OK'. I have labelled mine 'My Image Toolbar' and it now appears on the list (left arrow) and the new toolbar sits on the dialog box (right arrow).

You will now left click and hold on that new, little (because its empty) toolbar and drag it up to the right of the icon toolbar which we have just tidied up. Release your mouse and you can fine tune the toolbar's position by dragging it if you need to. My new, empty toolbar can be seen in the image to the right. The next step is to fill the toolbar with our own tools.

Click back onto the 'Commands' tab in the 'Customize' toolbar dialog box. I will give you first a word and you will left click on it in the left hand box. When you do that a specific list of Commands will appear in the right hand box. You will then click on the Command I give you but this time you will hold down your left mouse button and drag that Command up to the empty toolbar (you are reversing the steps you took above to empty the default Icon toolbar). When you get up to the empty toolbar, you will release your mouse button when the black line appears. Here is the list:

1. Window > Duplicate
2. Tools > Crop
3. Image > Resize
4. Adjust > Sharpen
5. Effects > Drop Shadow

After completing the list, you can close the 'Customize' dialog box. However, there is one final Toolbar will will add and to do that go to View >Toolbars. We want only the following Toolbars active (ticked): Standard, Status, Tools, your new toolbar and Web. If you are clicking the 'Web' toolbar for the fist time, it is going to appear on the workspace and you can click, hold and drag it up to place beside your own new toolbar.

Here is what our Icon (or Command) toolbar will now look like and it includes the tidied up Standard toolbar, you own toolbar and the Web toolbar. These are the most common tools we will be using as we proceed with this tutorial. We will stop here and continue with creating our web images in Part 3.

I would like to mention one last thing.  I am not an expert in using Paint Shop Pro. I did take online lessons three years ago but as with anything else "if you don't use it, you lose it."  However, I do have all the notes and turn to them when I am trying something new or have forgotten how to do something. I will say that the User Guide Corel has prepared since taking ownership of Paint Shop Pro is excellent for the basics. The old JASC guide was useless for a beginner which is why I turned to online lessons. As well, I have found Corel has improved the Learning Centre and I recommend exploring it (to open it again go to View > Palettes and click on Learning Centre).

There are also online tutorials that you will find if you search for "Paint Shop Pro X2 Tutorials". Here are some sites you might like to visit:

About.com: Graphics Software   (check out the Five Lesson series)
Paint Shop Pro Users Group (PSPUG)   (tutorials for versions 8 and above)
Dragon's Breath Tutorials  (the 'basics' look good)

Finally, I highly recommend 'Suz's Place' for Tips & Tricks' for PSP X2 - I will be definitely heading there myself.