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The arrow. Its main
function is to turn off one of the other tools when
you don't want to use it any more. If the image is
larger than the screen area you can left-click and
drag to move the image so other parts of it become
visible (but you can do that with the scroll bar too). |
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The zoom tool. Left-click
in the image to enlarge it, right-click to decrease
it. You can enlarge or reduce the image for viewing
purposes as many times as you like. Enlarging times 3
or even 4 enables fine pixel-by-pixel corrections.
This does not change the actual size of the image but
only the magnification at which you see it. If you
want to change the actual image size, use Resize on
the Image menu. |
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The Deform tool.
New in PSP 5 and great fun! You can rotate, resize,
skew or distort the current layer. If you're not
working with different layers, this means the current
image. Little lines and boxes appear beside every
edge and line in the graphic, and you can click-and-drag
them to new positions to selectively distort or
resize different parts of the image. |
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The Crop tool.
Works like the selection tool, but when you've
selected part of an image, double-click to remove all
the rest of the image from around your selection.
Used for removing unwanted empty space round your
final graphic, to reduce file size. |
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The Mover tool.
Left-click and drag to move the position of the
current layer (if you're using layers). Right-click
and drag to move the position of the current
selection. the actual part of the image doesn't move,
only the selection box, which will now be over a
different part of the image. |
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The selection tool.
With the control window turned on you can choose to
select a rectangle, square, ellipse, or circle, and
to "feather" i.e. select a stated number of
pixels beyond the actual area delimited. Once an area
has been selected you can use other tools on it.Use
the SHIFT key to add to an already-defined selection
area, and the CONTROL key to remove from it. |
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Freehand selection.
You need a steady hand for this one! Works like the
selection tool but selects whatever you draw round in
whatever shape. Use the SHIFT key to add to an
already-defined selection area, and the CONTROL key
to remove from it. |
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The "Magic
Wand". Selects similar regions of an image (defined as pixels the same or similar to the one clicked, and lying adjacent to it on outward until a pixel is reached that doesn't match). Allows you to use other tools, filters and special effects on a portion of an image (for instance, to add a drop shadow to a round button you've drawn) without also affecting the background. Use the SHIFT key to add to an already-defined selection area, and the CONTROL key to remove from it. The control window defines how similar a pixel has to be to the one you clicked on, to be included in the selection. If you've drawn a shape or object in one color on a different-colored background, you can usually select that object by choosing to match on RGB value with a tolerance of around 50. Set Feather to 0 unless you want to include in the selection a stripe of background around the object selected. |
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the Dropper. Copies
a color from the image to the color squares, making
it one of the active colors at present. Left-click to
copy the foreground color, right-click to copy to the
background color. |
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The paintbrush.
Your main drawing tool. The control window lets you
choose several different brush-tip shapes (round,
square, left slash, right slash, horizontal or
vertical line) and a large number of textures (parchment, marble...). You have to try it out to see all the
effects. The control window is shown above this table. |
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The clone brush. Used to copy part of an image to a different part of the same image, or to a different image. You start by right-clicking on the part of the image you want to copy (just one click, to show where you want to start from). Then move the mouse to where you want to copy to and hold down the left button. Cross-hairs will appear on the section you're copying from, and as you move the mouse, they move over the section copied from and a copy of it appears in the section you are copying to. You can vary the brush tip, size and texture, so you can copy, for instance, an area of one picture and give it a "marbled" or "paper" effect as you copy it to another. |
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The color replacer. Replaces a color in the image with the current foreground color. Again, you have to set the options you want in the control window first. The "tolerance" option in the control panel decides how close in color to the pixel you've clicked an adjacent pixel has to be in order to change color. Set it fairly high at first, and experiment. Double-click replaces the color of all the pixels in the picture whose color is within the given tolerance range of the pixel you clicked on. |
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The Retouch tool. First choose a filter or special effect from the tool's control window (such as embossing, sharpening, softening and so on, or changing color settings such as lightening, darkening, changing RGB values. Then old down the left mouse button and move the mouse over your image: the effect you've chosen will be applied to the part of the image that the mouse moves over. Again, there are many, many effects to choose from and you have to experiment. |
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The eraser. This doesn't erase in the usual sense of the word. Basically it works the same as the "Retouch" tool, except that instead of applying a filter or special effect, it applies the current background color. If you set the Opacity and Density fairly low, you get a speckled effect; if they're high, the image is erased in the sense that it's replaced by the current background color. You can choose a "paper texture" to get a textured effect while doing this. |
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The Picture Tube. This is new in version 5, and looks like the boys in the back-room just having fun. Every time you click, you get a different image from a central theme (current themes are Coins, children's Building Blocks, and Pointing Hands. I assume they'll enlarge the repertoire in the next version). You can also hold down the mouse button and move the mouse around and the images will be scattered at intervals around your graphic. |
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The airbrush. A standard painting tool found in every paint program. Click-and-drag to spray color on your image. The left button sprays the foreground color, the right button sprays the background color. You can of course alter brush tip size and paper texture from the control window for this tool; so you can spray, for instance, a light brown woodgrain effect over the image. If you want an interesting effect for buttons or icons, start with a new image in a suitable background color and try spraying with a complementary color and a texture such as Lunar, Asphalt, Weave, or Ocean. Then cut from that the size and shape of button you want. |
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The Fill tool. Fills or overlays the image with a different color and pattern. The color is not related to the current background/foreground colors, but to the color of the pixel you click on. "Match mode" on the control window lets you choose how the change is related to the original color (brightness, hue, RGB value etc). The left mouse button changes in one direction (e.g. darker hue), the right mouse button in the other (e.g. lighter). The "fill pattern" option in the control window lets you fill the image in a gradient, e.g. linear from top to bottom; "sunburst" and "radial" are the most interesting. |
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The Text tool, to write on your image. The control panel isn't relevant here. First choose a suitable foreground color: that will be the color of the text. Then click anywhere in the image to get the text dialog box; choose font style and size and write the text. Unless you have reasons to do otherwise, "antialias" and "floating" should be checked. (Read the tutorial on Anti-aliasing if you don't know what that is; Floating means that you will be able to position the text exactly where you want it, after it's written). Click "OK" and the text will appear in the image: click-and-drag on it to move it to where you want. It seems to flicker because it's selected, so that you can apply various filters and effects to just the text and not the underlying image. There are tutorials on various types of text effects useful for Web pages. |
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The Line-drawing tool. Click the starting point, drag to end point and release button; a straight line will appear between the two points. The left button draws the line in the foreground color, the right button, in the background color. On the control window you can choose "normal" for a straight line or "Bezier" for an initially straight line that you can then pull into a curve in 2 different places by clicking beside it. |
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The Shapes tool. Draw a rectangle, square, ellipse or circle on your image. The shape can be outlined or filled. The left mouse button draws it in the foreground color, the right button in the background color. Click-and-drag to draw a shape of the size and in the position you want. A square or rectangle is easy: press the mouse button at one corner, drag and release it at the diagonal corner. For a circle, the initial click defines the centre; dragging enlarges the radius. For an ellipse, the initial click defines the centre nearest to the mouse; it can take some practise to get the whole ellipse in the exact position you want. |
