Vintage Photo Corners

The theme for this month at SNL is 'Photography'.  It inspired me to create a tutorial on how to make photo corners in Paint Shop Pro.

1.  Open up a new canvas 1 inch by 1 inch (300 x 300 pixels).

2.  Select the 'Selection' Tool and set the selection type to 'Square'.  Draw a square inside the canvas.

Selection Type = Square
Mode = Replace
Feather = 0
Anti-alias = Checked

3.  Change the Mode to Remove or press the 'Ctrl' key and hold it down.  Select another square down and to the right of the original square.

The selection should now have a square chunk missing from the lower right hand corner.

4.  Choose the Freehand Selection Tool and set the selection type to 'Point to point' and the mode to 'Remove' or press and hold the 'Ctrl' key.  Click at the bottom left corner.  Click again at the top right corner.  Now you should have a line that goes diagonally across the canvas from bottom left to top right.  Click in the bottom right, then double-click in the bottom left to close the selection.

Selection Type =Point to point
Mode = Remove
Feather = 0
Smoothing = 0
Anti-alias = Checked

Now the selection should be a triangle with a piece missing from the middle.

 5.  Expand (Selections > Modify > Expand) the selection 10 pixels.

6.  Fill the selection with the color, gradient or pattern of your choice.  I chose #B1A34A.

7.  Apply an Inner Bevel (Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel) using Bevel 8.

Bevel = 8
Width = 20
Smoothness = 45
Depth = 1-
Ambience = 0
Shininess = 5
Color = #EEECEC
Angle = 230
Intensity = 40
Elevation = 40

9.  Contract (Selections > Modify > Contract) the selection 25 pixels.

10.  Apply the same inner bevel but flip the angle 180 degrees.

Bevel = 8
Width = 20
Smoothness = 45
Depth = 1-
Ambience = 0
Shininess = 5
Color = #EEECEC
Angle =50
Intensity = 40
Elevation = 40

11.  Expand the selection 10 pixels.

12.  Apply a Gaussian Blur to hide the edges of the selection.

 Radius = 2.00

13.  Apply a Drop Shadow to give the corner some depth.

Vertical = 5
Horizontal = 5
Opacity = 80
Blur = 10.00
Color = Black

The photo corner is now complete.

How to Default to the Edit Tab in PSP X4

With the computer collapse and construction of a new computer, I have had to switch to PSP X4 and Windows 7.  I am very sad about this.  First, I cannot seem to run two instances of PSP X4 at the same time, so tutorials are going to be a little slow until I can figure out a better way to take screenshots.

First, some notes as I try to get PSP X4 set up the way I like it.  I figured I should record how to make the Edit tab the default workspace in PSP X4 so that it always shows up when I open the program.  I hate defaulting into the Manager.

 1.  When PSP X4 first launches, it defaults into the Manage tab.

2.  To keep it from doing this, I first switch to the Edit tab.

3.  Next, select General Program Preferences (File > Preferences > General Program Preferences).

4.  Select 'Default Launch Workspace' in the window that opens and click the button next to 'Edit'.  

 

5.  Click 'OK'.  Now the Edit tab will be the default whenever PSP X4 opens.

Temporarily Loading Fonts in Windows 7

Given that I have had to upgrade to Windows 7, I can no longer open a font, minimize it, and have it available for use in Paint Shop Pro.  I knew about the small program for temporarily loading a font, but since I had my lovely Windows XP, I didn't have to use it.  Alas, those days are over.

For people needing to temporarily load a font (and I have thousands, so I am not installing them), there is a program called Font Load Unload.

1.  Download Font Load Unload.

2.  Unzip the file to a folder.

3.  Go into the folder and launch (by double-click) the file called 'Font Load_Unload' (or Font Load_Unload.exe if you can see your extensions).

4.  Open the folder with the font to be the temporarily loaded.

5.  Drag the font to the Font Load_Unload window.

6.  This will load the font.

7. When you are done using the font, click the 'Unload' button to remove the font.

8.  Or, shutdown Windows and at the next boot, the loaded font will be gone (from the Font Load_Unload window and from Windows).

Sticker Alphabet

This tutorial will show you how to make a paper sticker alphabet in Photoshop.

Supplies:

6x6 Grid Template

1.  Open up the 6x6 grid template.  It is 3000 x 3000 pixels and will create 36 500x 500 characters so that you can have 26 letters and 10 numbers.  You can also make one letter at a time and not use the grid template.  I think it is easier and faster to make all the letters at once.

2.  Select a nice font.  I am using Copse.  It is a commercial use ok font from Font Squirrel. With the text tool, write out your letters and numbers as vectors. Try to position each letter in the middle of a grid square.  Choose any color you like.

3.  With the Move Tool or in the Layer Palette, select all the letters or type layers.

4.  In the Layer Palette, right-click the selected layers and choose 'Rasterize Type' from the menu.

5.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the selected layers and select 'Merge Layers' from the menu.  This should merge all the letter layers but not the grid template layer.

6.  Select the paper of your choice and open it in Photoshop.

7.  Drag the paper on top of the layer with the alpha by selecting the Move Tool.  Next, left-click on the paper, then while holding down the button, drag it over to the canvas holding the alpha.

8.  Right-click on the new layer that is your paper and select 'Create Clipping Mask'.

9.  The paper is now clipped to the text.

10.  Select the layer with the text and apply a white outer stroke using the Layer Styles (Layer > Layer Style > Stroke) the letters in white.

Size = 20 px
Position = Outside
Blend Mode = Normal
Opacity = 100%
Fill Type = Color
Color = White (#FFFFFF)

11.  Hide the grid template layer by clicking the eye next to the layer and the alphabet is ready to be saved as either a single sheet or sliced into individual files.  If you have used my grid template, then you can use my Alpha Cutter Action to slice the image into individual files.

Bent Photo Frame

This tutorial will show you how to make a bent photo frame in Photoshop. At the end of the tutorial, you will have a template to which you can clip a photo.

1.  Open a new canvas the size of the photo you want to frame.  I am going to make mine a 4 x 6 because that fits well on a scrapbook page.

2.  Fill the layer with 50% grey (Shift + F5 or Edit > Fill).

3.  Increase the size of the canvas so that there will be room for the shadow.

5.  Add a drop shadow to the layer.

Blend Mode = Multiply
Opacity = 85%
Distance = 50 px
Spread = 15%
Size = 75 px

6.  In the layer palette, right-click on the effect (not the layer) to get a menu where you can create a layer from the drop shadow effect.  Select 'Create Layer' from the menu.

7.  Optional.  You may receive a warning message.  If you do, select 'OK'.

8.  Now you should have two layers.  One is the frame and one is the shadow.  Choose the layer with the frame.

9.  From the Edit menu, select 'Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp).

10.  Click the square on the bottom left and drag it up and to the left.

11.  Click the square on the top right and drag it up and to the left.

12.  Now any photo you clip to this frame will like it is bending off the page.  It is complete if you don't want a border around the photo.

13.  Optional.  To add a border to the frame, load the opaque region of the image as a selection (Select > Load Selection).

14.  Optional.  Contract the selection (Select > Modify > Contract).  I made mine 50 pixels but you can make it any size.

15.  Optional.  Ctrl + Shift + I to invert the selection.

16.  Optional.  Intersect the transparent region of the layer with the current selection (Select > Load Selection).  Go to Load Selection but choose 'Intersect with Selection' as the Operation.

16.  Optional.  Ctrl + J to create a new layer via copy.  The template now has all the necessary layers.

17.  Optional. Afterwards, you may wish to fill your selection with a different color so that you can see the frame better.  I did this by loading the selection as in Step 13.  Then I filled with a color as in Step 2.

I have made the frame template that I generated from this tutorial available.  I hope people can use it.

Bent Photo Frame Template