More basics in PaintShop Pro

1. Screen shots

This is a Windows thing instead of a PSP thing, but it's too-useful: Anything you see on-screen can be captured and converted to a graphic.  Very useful for any sort of help manuals or for web graphics that are hard to save in one piece (sometimes graphics that look like one piece are cut into lots of little ones).

Try this: Open PaintShop Pro (PSP) (Start/Programs/Paint Shop Pro) first, of course.  Then,
  1. Start your browser and go to www.nvcc.edu/campus/ and scroll down to the menu at the bottom - "About NVCC, Admissions/Aid" and so on.  
  2. Push the Print Screen (or Prnt Scrn) button on your keyboard
  3. Switch to PSP
  4. Press Ctrl-V to paste the image in
  5. Use the Selection tool to mark the selection of the graphic you want to use
  6. Press Shift-R to crop (or go to Image/Crop to Selection)

2. More on selections

Apparently most graphics programs have two types of selections: hand-drawn and calculated.  The latter kind allows the software to make selections based on characteristics (often contrasting) in a given area.  PSP has at least two types of calculated selection tools: the Magic Wand and the Smart Edge.

Try this (Magic Wand):
  1. Open this file of the college seal
  2. Increase the number of colors to millions (Colors/Increase color depth/16 million)
  3. Select the magic wand and click on the white area - see how all blocks of contguous white stuff are selected?
  4. Extra fun: Hold the Shift key and click on areas that weren't selected
  5. Select a new color, then select the Fill tool - the background for the seal changes

The Smart Selector is for selecting edge contrasts that aren't contiguous.

Try this (Smart Edge)
  1. Open this file of two folks reading on the grass.  Use the Magnifying glass to bump its view up to 2x or so
  2. Choose the Lasso tool, and open its Control Palette.  Choose Smart Edge
  3. Click around the two folks.  Make more clicks around sharp turns.  When you're done, double-click and your points will close
  4. Fill in the background color with white

3. Pattern fills

Pattern fills allow you to, well, fill in contiguous space with patterns.

Try this:
  1. Open this file of the college seal and this file of marble
  2. Select the Fill tool, and in its Control Panel,
  3. select Fill Style/Pattern, and set the Options menu for clouds.jpg.  
  4. Click on the white space