Layers

I have found that many competant users of PSP have not discovered the advantages of Layers and even more are afraid of Vectors.
They are both ways of keeping your graphics fluid so that they can easily be changed right away or in the future

First I will make a quick graphic.
This is not an art lesson so it will be very basic but it will give you an idea of how each element goes on a new layer.

Everything in blue text is a link explaining each step so that even a complete newbie will be able to follow along.
  • Open a new image
    300 x 300
    White background.
  • Add a layer called "ground".

  • Open the picture tube called "lawn" and lay down some ground cover.
  • Add another layer called "animal"
  • Open the picture tube called "animals" and place an animal in the picture.
    Note that the animal can be repositioned using the "mover" tool since it is on a separate layer.
  • Add another layer called "foreground grass"
  • Open the tube called "grass blades" and put some blades of grass around the animal's feet


  • With the pen tool draw a curve on which to put text .
    Note that adding a vector of any kind automatically adds a new layer - This time a "Vector" layer.
  • With the "Text" tool active

    click on the curve and add your text.
    You can play around with size and also "Kerning" to get the text to fit.
    Kerning adds or subtracts space between the letters.
    Here I set "Kerning" to 100 to spread the text out.





  • Crop the graphic and save in PSP format
    To get rid of the curve graphic simply turn off the layer's visibility in the "Layers" palette.
    It remains there for future use but will not show when saved as a jpeg, bitmap or whatever.


This simple graphic is actually 6 separate graphics (or layers )all held in one psp file. Each layer can be worked on individually and more layers can be added at a later date.
All that remains to be done is save the individual graphic for its original use.
Once a graphic is saved as a jpeg, bitmap etc. it is flattened into one raster layer and is much harder to work on so don't forget to save as a PSP before you do.
In this case I will save it as a jpeg to be used on the web.


If the above graphic was to be used only once doing it in layers is still helpful because a simple thing like changing the background color would have to be decided at the start without layers.

Next : Getting the most out of your hard work.