Tutorial Created Jan  2005                                                                                                                                                                                           © 2005 Alicorn

Basic PSP9 [Part 3]

Adding a Background Colour

To add a background colour first we need a new layer so go to 'Layers' and open a 'New Raster Layer'.

This layer needs to be underneath all your others...so you can either click, hold and drag it to the bottom in your 'Layer' palette, or go to 'Layers' 'Arrange' 'Send to Bottom'

In the 'Materials' palette, click on the colour thats already showing in the top of the two boxes [the 'Foreground and Stroke Properties' box] which will open the 'Colour' section in the 'Material Properties' box and select a colour for your background.

Click on the 'Floodfill' tool  and left click on your image to floodfill with the colour.

To crop off any unwanted parts of your image, select the 'Crop Tool'   and draw it around your image

then click on the tick    on the 'Tool Options' palette.

And there you have your first graphic in PSP.

You could try a gradient background or a pattern background instead of the plain colour.

Make sure you have your background layer selected [blue] in your 'Layer' palette [Raster4 in this instance] then in the 'Materials' palette

 click on the solid black dot to reveal the drop down menu, and click on the 'Gradient' icon

Click on the gradient which appears in the box and that will open the 'Gradient' section of the 'Materials Properties' box

Click on the gradient showing in the box and the menu will appear.

Select a gradient from the menu and 'OK' it......

Your gradient will now appear in the 'Foreground and Stroke Properties' box in the 'Material' palette.

 Using the 'Floodfill'  tool, left click on your image to floodfill with the gradient.

To try a pattern , select the 'Pattern' icon in the menu in the 'Materials' palette ....

Click on the pattern which appears in the box and that will open the 'Pattern' section of the 'Material Properties' box

Click on the pattern which appears there........

 and that will open the patterns menu.... click on a pattern to select it and 'OK' it.

The pattern will now appear in the 'Foreground and Stroke' properties box in the 'Materials' palette

Using the 'Floodfill Tool' , left click on your image to floodfill with the pattern.

Framing your Graphic.

To add a frame we have to first merge all the layers in the 'Layer' palette to just one layer.To do this go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge All (Flatten)

 Once merged you cant move items independently from one another.

Next go to 'Image' 'Picture Frame'. Click on the small preview frame on the left of the window to open the picture frames menu and select the frame you'd like to use. It will show you on the right what it will look like. Ok it

To save your graphic go to 'File' 'Save as'.

In the 'Save as' window....where it says at the top 'Save in:' click the little arrow directly to the right of that bar and from the drop down menu select one of your folders to save your image to

Where it says 'File name' near the bottom, type in a name for your image.

Where it says 'Save as type' click the little arrow directly to the right of the bar

and from the  menu select 'JPEG (*.jpg, *.jif, *.jpe, *.jpeg) and click on 'Save'

If you get this message...click on 'Yes' to continue

We hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Back to Part 1

Back to Part 2

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Have fun

© 2005 Alicorn

Revised 2007