You can create your own brush tips to use with painting tools. Select a brush, modify the brush options and variance settings, and then save the brush tip in the Brushes folder of the Paint Shop Pro pro­gram folder. The next time you want to paint with that brush tip, simply select it from the Brush Tip drop-down list.

You can also make a selection, and then turn that selection into a custom brush with a width and height up to 500 by 500 pixels.

To create a brush tip:

On the Tool palette, choose a painting tool such as the Paint Brush, Air Brush, or Color Replacer.

Modify the settings for the brush in the Tool Options palette.

On the Tool Options palette, click the Brush Tip drop-down list . Current brush tips are displayed.

Click the Create Brush Tip button , or choose File > Export > Custom Brushes to open the Create Brush Tip dialog.

Note: To save the new brush in a folder other than the default Brushes folder, click the Edit Paths button .

Complete the fields on the Create Brush Tip dialog, and then click OK.
You can now use the new brush with one of the painting tools.

To create a brush from a selection:

Make a selection of the area you want to convert into a custom brush. The selection must be on a raster layer.

On the Tool palette, choose a painting tool such as the Paint Brush, Air Brush, or Color Replacer.

On the Tool Options palette, click the Brush Tip drop-down list . Current brush tips are displayed.

Click the Create Brush Tip from Selection button . A preview of the new brush appears in the Create Brush Tip from Selection dialog.

Note: To save the new brush in a folder other than the default Brushes folder, click the Edit Paths button.

Enter a name for the brush in the Name field.

To set a default step value, select a step value.

Click OK, to use the new brush tip with one of the painting tools.

The brush and paint options help you create hundreds of different brush strokes. Play with the options until you get the effect you want.

Opacity

How well the paint covers the image surface. At 100% opac­ity, the paint covers everything. At 1% opacity, the paint is almost transparent.

Blend

How painted pixels are blended with pixels on underlying lay­ers. The blend modes are the same as layer blend modes.

Continuous Stroke

Specifies whether paint builds up as you apply multiple strokes of less than 100% opacity over the same area. If this check box is marked, paint maintains a continuous color and repaint­ing an area has no effect. If this check box is cleared (the default), each brush stroke over the same area applies more paint; the color darkens until it reaches 100% opacity.

Wet Look Paint

Mimics wet paint, with soft color inside and a darker ring near the edge. Decrease the Hardness setting from its maximum of 100% to see the effect.

Paint Behind Works on layered images only. When a layer is selected, Paint Behind paints behind the data currently on that layer. No paint will be visible when the topmost layer and active layer are both fully opaque.

Once you have set brush options, set additional options on the Brush Variance palette.

Use the Brush Variance palette to customize the brush settings in the Tool Options palette. The variance settings modify the Tool Option settings by applying adjustments to the settings for a particular tool option. Adjustments can be random by increasing the Jitter percentage.

Note: If you have a variance loaded with a brush, then load another brush without loading its variance, it can take on the variance settings from the previous brush. Click the Reset button on the Brush Variance palette to remove any variance settings.

To open the Brush Variance palette:

Choose View > Palettes > Brush Variance, or press F11.

To use the Brush Variance palette:

Choose a brush type from the Tool palette.

Configure the brush options in the Tool Options palette.

On the Brush Variance palette, set brush variance for each option (Color blend, Hue, Saturation, Lightness, Size, Opacity, Thick­ness, Rotation, Density):

Normal

No variance applied.

Pressure

The pressure applied from a tablet stylus.

Altitude

The angle between the stylus and tablet.

Azimuth

Determines the rotation angle of the tip.

Twist

The rotation angle around the stylus (for 4D mouse only).

Fingerwheel

Applies to the wheel on an airbrush stylus.

Z-Wheel

Used with a 4D mouse wheel with the wheel configu­ration set to application defined behavior.

Direction

The angle between consecutive mouse points on a path.

Fade In

Fades the brush impression from small to large.

Repeating Fade In

Repeatedly fades the brush impression from small to large.

Fade Out

Fades the brush impression from large to small.

Oscillating Fade

Repeatedly fades the brush impression in and out from small to large to small.

Note: Options in the Variance palette marked with an asterisk * apply only to users with a pressure sensitive tablet. The options available will depend on the type of tablet being used.

For the (Fade rate pixels) select the number of pixels over which the fade in and fade out will occur. Lower values produce a faster fade, while higher values produce a slower fade.

For the Position Jitter (%) select a percentage for randomly adjusting the brush impression location. Mark the Scale check box if you want the jitter to scale with the brush size.

For Impressions per step, indicate how many brush impressions are made per step of the brush stroke.

Note: To reset brush variance options to their default values, click the Reset to Default button on the Brush Variance palette.

Once you create a custom Brush Tip you can save it in the Brushes folder in the Paint Shop Pro program directory. You can then share your brush presets with others by sending them the brush file. If the brush uses a custom shape, you will have to share both the brush file and the custom shape file for that brush.

To save Brush Tip settings:

Click down-arrow on the Presets button, and then click the Save preset button to open the Save Preset dialog.

Type a name for the Brush Tip.

Note: You cannot use the names “Default” or “Last Used”.

To enter additional Preset information, click the Options button, and then enter information in the Author, Copyright, and Descrip­tion fields.

The Preset includes group box shows the data saved with this Preset. To omit any of these items from the Preset, click the Save icon (a red X will appear over it) associated with the data.

Click OK.

To share Brush Tips:

Navigate to the brushes folder in the Paint Shop Pro program directory.

Provide the brush file or files (brush files have a .PspBrush exten­sion) to the person with whom you want to share the Brush Tip. They should place the brush files in the Brushes folder in the Paint Shop Pro program directory.

Note: If you are sharing a preset for a custom brush (brushes cre­ated from selections) then you will need to select both the .Psp­Brush file and the associated Jasc PSP Script file.

The warp brushes create strokes that produce a warping effect on image pixels. You can twirl areas of images, contract or expand parts of images, and create many interesting effects.

Note: To reset brush options to their default values, on the Tool Options palette click the Presets drop-down list and choose Default, or click the Reset to Default button .

To use the Warp Brush:

On the Tool palette, choose the Warp Brush . (It may be hidden under the Paint Brush or Airbrush.)

Specify the brush options such as shape, size, and hardness.

For the Strength value, enter a percentage (0 to 100) that specifies how strong the warping effect is. Full strength is 100%; minimum strength is 1%.

Under Warp Modes, choose the type of warp:

Push pushes pixels in the direction of the stroke (similar to smearing paint) in a time-independent way.

Expand pushes pixels away from the center of the brush in a time-dependent way.

Contract pulls pixels into the center of the brush in a time-dependent way.

Right Twirl rotates pixels clockwise around the center of the brush in a time-dependent way.

Left Twirl rotates pixels counter-clockwise around the cen­ter of the brush in a time-dependent way.

Noise causes random movements of pixels under the brush in a time-dependent way.

Iron Out removes unapplied warps in a time-independent way.

Unwarp removes unapplied warps in a time-dependent way.

Select an Edge mode, a Draft mode quality, and Final apply mode quality.

Do one or both of the following to warp the image:

Click and drag in the image.

For the time-dependent modes, place the cursor at one position and hold down the mouse button to repeat the effect at one area.

To unwarp an area, choose the Iron Out or Unwarp option under Warp Mode, and then click over the area you want to restore. Con­tinue clicking or holding the mouse button down until the original pixel position is restored.

Use the Eraser tool to erase areas of a layer to transparency or to the background color. Use the Background Eraser tool to selectively erase to transparency—with options that determine which pixels get erased.

When you use the Eraser tool to erase on a raster layer, all pixels in the tool’s path become transparent. When you erase on the back­ground (which does not support transparency), the Eraser tool acts like a paintbrush; all pixels in the tool’s path become the current foreground (left-clicking) or background color or material (right-clicking).

To use the Eraser tool:

On the Tool palette, choose the Eraser tool . (It may be hidden under the Background Eraser tool.)

On the Tool Options palette, choose the brush tip, size, opacity, and other options.For the opacity setting, 100% erases pixels to complete transparency and a lower opacity erases pixels to partial transparency.

Drag in the image to erase as follows:

To erase pixels, drag with the left mouse button.

To restore erased pixels, drag with the right mouse button.

To erase a straight line, click once at the beginning point, then press Shift and click the end point. To continue the straight line, move to the next point and press Shift and click.

Note: If you erase on the background, the eraser strokes change to the background color when you use the left mouse button or to the foreground color when you use the right mouse button.

Use the Background Eraser language=JavaScript1.2 type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> tool to selectively erase pixels. For example, in a photograph of a mountain range, you can erase the sky.

To use the Background Eraser tool:

On the Tool palette, choose the Background Eraser tool . (It may be hidden under the Eraser tool.)

On the Tool Options palette, choose the brush tip, size, opacity, hardness and other options. For the opacity setting, 100% erases pixels to complete transparency and a lower opacity erases pixels to partial transpar­ency.

Choose from these additional options:

Tolerance

How closely the selected pixels must match the sam­pled pixel. The range is 0 to 200. At lower settings, only pixels with very similar colors are erased. At higher settings, more pixels are erased. (Note that this edit box is unavailable if the Auto Tolerance check box is marked.)

Sampling

How the tool determines what pixels to erase:

Once samples at the center of the brush where you first click and erases all matching pixels for the duration of the stroke. Continuous samples at the center of the brush at every step and erases all matching pixels.

BackSwatch erases all pixels that match the current back­ground color on the Materials palette rather than sampling from the image.

ForeSwatch erases all pixels that match the current fore­ground color on the Materials palette rather than sampling from the image.

Limits

Whether erased pixels must be adjacent to each other:

Discontiguous

Erases all pixels in the tool’s path that match the sampled pixels, even if they are discontiguous (non-adja­cent). Use this mode on images that show the background through holes in the image.

Contiguous

Erases only contiguous pixels that match sampled pixels. Use this mode when the background pixels are close in color to the edges of the object you want to isolate.

FindEdges

Finds restricts the brush erasing according to the edge information.

Auto Tolerance

Mark this check box to have the tool determine the tolerance based on the pixels in the Background Eraser tool’s path; the tolerance may change continuously as the tool moves over different parts of the layer. Clear this check box to have the tool use the Tolerance setting that you choose.

Sample merged

Mark this check box to sample data from all layers merged together; only pixels in the current layer are erased. Clear the check box to sample data from the current layer only.

Ignore lightness

Mark this check box when the colors in the object that you want to isolate are strongly saturated and the background is unsaturated, or vice versa.

If the image has more than one layer, on the Layer palette click the layer that has an object that you want to isolate by erasing the background.

Note: The Background Eraser cannot be applied on the back­ground, which does not support transparency. If you apply the tool to the background, you are prompted to promote it to a full layer.

Drag on the layer, around the edges of the subject to erase the background area as follows:

To erase pixels, drag with the left mouse button.

To erase a straight line, click once at the beginning point, then press Shift and click the end point. To continue the straight line, move to the next point and press Shift and click.

To restore erased pixels, drag with the right mouse button.

The Clone Brush tool is a fun and powerful way to edit your images by using parts of an image as a paint source. You can remove ele­ments within your image by painting over them with another part of the image. The paint source can be part of the same layer, another layer in the image, a merged image, or a layer from another image.

To use the Clone Brush:

On the Tool palette, choose the Clone Brush tool .

On the Tool Options palette, choose the brush tip, size, opacity, and other options.

Mark the Aligned mode check box to have the Clone Brush tool paint from the point of the source area relative to the first point you clicked on the target area each time you stop and start paint­ing again. You can keep clicking and dragging over the target area to fill in the source image.
Clear the check box to have every stroke copy the same data.

Mark the Sample merged check box to clone data from all layers merged together. Clear the check box to clone data from the cur­rent layer only.

On the source image, right-click or press Shift and click the center point of the source area.

Click and drag on the image you want to change to paint the cloned area.

You can retouch images with Paint Shop Pro’s retouch brushes, which apply changes with brush strokes. Some retouch brushes mimic photographic effects while others change pixels based on their lightness, saturation, hue, or color values. Some retouch brushes create similar effects to Paint Shop Pro’s color correction commands.

To use a retouch brush:

On the Tool palette, choose the retouch brush:

Dodge , Burn , Smudge, Push , Soften , Sharpen , Emboss , Lighten/Darken , Saturation , Hue , or Change to Target .

On the Tool Options palette, choose the brush tip, size, opacity, and other options.

Depending upon the tool, select from the following options:

Swap mouse buttons

Mark this check box to swap the functions of the left (up) and right (down) mouse buttons.

Sample merged

(Smudge, Push, Soften, Sharpen, Emboss) Mark this check box to retouch data from all layers merged together. Clear this check box to retouch data on the current layer only.

Mode drop-down list

(Lighten/Darken)

Choose what is lightened or darkened: RGB values or Lightness values.

Mode drop-down list

(Change to Target)

Choose the characteristic of the foreground color to target:

Color (RGB value; luminance is not changed), Hue, Lightness, or Saturation.

Limit drop-down list

Choose which option you want to limit for the Dodge and Burn tools, either None, Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights.

Drag in the image to apply the tool. If the tool has two functions (such as Soften/Sharpen), drag with the left mouse to apply the first function and drag with the right mouse button to apply the second function.

Description of Retouch Brushes

Use the Flood Fill tool to fill a selection or a layer with the fore­ground or background color and material. You can fill all pixels or fill only those pixels that match options that you specify. When you click in the image, the Flood Fill tool finds and fills all contiguous language=JavaScript1.2 type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> (or adjacent) pixels that match the pixel you select.

To use the Flood Fill tool:

On the Tool palette, choose the Flood Fill tool .

Choose the foreground or background color and material to fill the area with.

On the Tool Options palette, specify the Match Mode options to determine which pixels are filled:

Match Mode

How pixels that match the pixel you click are cho­sen and filled:

None

Has no matching criteria and so fills all pixels.

RGB

Fills contiguous pixels that match the red, green, and blue values.

Color

Fills contiguous pixels that match the hue and saturation values.

Hue

Fills contiguous pixels that match the hue value.

Brightness

Fills contiguous pixels that match the brightness.

All Opaque

Fills all pixels that are opaque (not transparent).

Opacity

Fills contiguous pixels that match the opacity.

Tolerance

How closely the selected pixels must match the ini­tial pixel you click. The range is 0 to 200. At lower settings, only pixels with very similar colors are filled. At higher set­tings, more pixels are filled.

Sample Merged

Mark this check box to choose pixels to fill based on matching pixels from all layers merged together. Clear this check box to choose matching pixels to fill in only the current layer.

Select the Blend Mode options to set how pixels are filled:

Blend Mode

How filled pixels are blended with pixels of underly­ing layers. The blend modes are the same as the Layer blend modes.

Opacity

The opacity for the fill. At 100% opacity, the paint covers everything; at 1% opacity, the paint is almost transparent.

Position the cursor over the area of the selection or image that you want to fill, and then do one of the following:

To fill with the foreground material, click the left mouse but­ton.

To fill with the background material, click the right mouse but­ton.

If the Match Mode is None, all pixels on the current layer are filled. For all other Match Mode settings, the Flood Fill tool fills matching pixels that are contiguous to the pixel you click.

Use the Color Replacer tool to replace one color in a selection or layer with another color. You can use brush strokes to replace only those pixels that the brush touches or you can replace all pixels of a certain color in a selection or a layer. You can set a tolerance value so that the Color Replacer changes similar, not just identical, colors.

To use the Color Replacer tool:

On the Tool palette, choose the Color Replacer tool . The tool may be hidden under the Eye Dropper tool.

Choose the color to replace as the foreground or background color.

Choose the color to substitute as the other color (foreground or background).

To replace colors using brush strokes (rather than all colors in the layer), on the Tool Options palette choose the brush tip, size, opacity, and other options.

In the Tolerance edit box, specify a value that sets how closely the selected pixels must match the initial pixel you click. The range is 0 to 200. At lower settings, only pixels with very similar colors are replaced. At higher settings, more pixels are replaced.

Position the cursor over the area of a selection or layer that con­tains the color you want to replace, and then do one of the follow­ing:

To replace all occurrences of a color, double-click.

To replace using brush strokes, drag in the image.

For both options, use the left mouse button to replace the back­ground color with the foreground color and use the right mouse button to replace the foreground color with the background color.

Use the Picture Tube tool to paint with a collection of objects with­out having to draw them. You can add butterflies and beetles to a picnic setting, fill an aquarium with fish, or frame a picture with holly. Use one of the picture tubes included with Paint Shop Pro or create your own.

Picture tubes are .PspTube files. Each picture tube file is made up of a series of images arranged in rows and columns that are called cells. Picture tubes may have any number of cells. As you paint with the Picture Tube tool, Paint Shop Pro paints one image of a picture tube after another. Many picture tubes create discrete images (such as traffic signs), while some create the effect of a continuous image (such as crepe paper).

Note:

The Picture Tube tool paints raster objects on raster layers. You cannot use the tool on vector layers. To make picture tube elements easier to edit, it is helpful to paint them on a separate layer.

To use Paint Shop Pro version 8 picture tubes with Paint Shop Pro version 7, copy the version 8 tubes with the .PspTube extension to the picture tube directory in version 7, and then re-name the files with the .TUB extension.

To paint with a picture tube:

On the Tool Palette, choose the Picture Tube tool .

On the Tool Options palette, click the Picture Tube drop-down list and select a picture tube.

Note: Most picture tube previews show one image rather than all images in the picture tube. To view all images, paint with the pic­ture tube, or open the .PspTube file with the Browser.

If necessary, adjust the following options:

Scale

The percentage (10 to 250%) to reduce or enlarge each image in the picture tube and scale the step.

Step

The distance in pixels (1 to 500) between the centers of each picture tube image that you paint.

Placement mode

The way images are placed: Continuous evenly spaced by step size or Random spacing between 1 pixel and the step size.

Selection mode

How Paint Shop Pro selects images to paint from the cells within the picture tube:

Random

Selects images ran­domly.

Incremental

Selects images one by one from top left to the bottom right.

Angular

Selects images based on the direction you drag the cursor as you paint.

Pressure

Selects images based on the pressure you apply on a pressure-sensitive tablet.

Velocity

Selects images based on the speed you drag the cursor as you paint.

To paint one image of the picture tube, click once in the image. To paint multiple images, drag in the image.

To create your own picture tubes, create a grid of cells and then fill each cell with an image. The cells can be any size, but picture tubes with larger cells require more memory to use.

Important: This tool works only on raster layers in greyscale and 16 million color images. To convert a vector layer to a raster layer, choose Layers> Convert to Raster Layer.

To create a picture tube:

Choose View> Change Grid, Guide, and Snap Properties, click the Grid tab, set the current horizontal and vertical grids, then click OK. The grid positions are the value in pixels that the width and height of cells will be. Images can be no larger than this cell size.

Choose File> New to open the New Image dialog.

Set the following options:

Image Dimensions

Choose a width and height (in pixels) that are multiples of the horizontal and vertical grid spacing. The width and height of the image determine the total number of cells in the image. For example, if the grid spacing is 100 pixels, create an image of 400 pixels wide by 300 pixels high to have 12 cells (four across and three down).

Image Characteristics

Choose Raster Background as the layer type and mark the Transparent check box.

Click OK.

If the grid is not visible, choose View > Grid.

Create one image in each grid square. These squares are the pic­ture tube cells.

Note: To change the size of cells, change the grid size and then use the Canvas Size command to change the canvas size.

Choose File> Export> Picture Tube to open the Export Picture Tube dialog.

Set the following options:

Cell arrangement

Enter the number of cells across and down.

Placement options

Choose the default options for this picture tube. You can change these options when you apply the picture tube.

Tube name

Enter the file name of the tube. The extension .PsP­Tube is automatically added to the file name.

Note: By default, picture tube files are stored in the Picture Tubes folder of the Paint Shop Pro program folder.

Click OK. The picture tube is saved.

Close the image file. To edit it later, save it as a .PspImage or other format file.