**Program Tutorials** : Paint Shop Pro : *Program Basic

Paint Shop Pro 8 & 9

TO USE BRUSHES:

Open a new document/canvas/layout.

File > New

Be sure your layout is being started in inches and not pixels.

Choose if you will be starting with a transparent background or “foreground” or “background” colors; or white.

I prefer to create all my brushwork on a separate layer in case it’s not quite what I expected…

Layer > New Raster Layer

Next open your brushes palette from the menu at the left of your workspace (this is located here by default).

If you do not see this menu do the following:

Right click on your workspace

Click on “toolbars”

Next click on “tools”

This should open the menu mentioned at the left of your workspace.
Now the brushes will load and you will be able to select your brush from the Brushes Toolbar located at the top of your workspace (image shown below):

Now you will find the brush shape you wish to use.

Click on the image located next to the Presets and before the “shape” options.

You will now find a list of brushes and the option to click on a category to find even more brushes.

You can view your brushes by large or small thumbnails or by description only.

When you have your brush list open, click on the View Types option at the right.

Now that you have chosen your brush you can either use it as it’s provided or you can experiment to get an even more unique and fun effect.

Try changing some of your options I the Brush tool bar (as shown in step 3) by changing the size, hardness, step (spacing), density, etc.
IP: if you need to create a brush in a straight line (ie: stitching, dots, etc.); click with your brush on your new layer/layout and then hold the shift key and click in your ending spot and you will have a straight line from point A to point B.

INSTALLING BRUSHES DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET/WEBSITE:

You will become quickly addicted to your brushes after today!  Another addition to the addiction is finding amazing pre-made brushes on the internet.  Many are NOT available for commercial use but for personal use only (ie: your own private layouts that are not for sale).

Some great sites for brush downloading are:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/paintshopprodownloads/l/blpspbrushes01.htm

http://www.inxplicable.org/design/mybrushes.html

http://www.ajoyfulheart.com/pspphotoshopbrushresources.htm

http://www.magitek-designs.net/brushes/

http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/pspbrushes/

After visiting one of the above sites; find a brush you like and download it to a location on your harddrive that you will be able to find it quickly afterwards… typically “save to location: desktop or my documents”.

NOTE: you CANNOT load .abr (photoshop format) brushes into Paint Shop Pro.

Now we will install the brush you download to your brushes palette to use for later:

Download brush/es as noted

Unzip the file.

Copy and paste the file to the brush plugin directory within Paint Shop Pro.

C:\My Computer \Program Files\Jasc\Paint Shop Pro V#\Brushes

Now go back to Paint Shop Pro.

Make sure your brushes palette is open (selected by clicking on your brush option as noted in the first steps).

File > import Custom Brushes

You will now see a window to open and find the files where you unzipped the brushes just a few steps ago.

You will note it now shows you what was in that particular brush set.

You can either just import the one you need from that particular set and click “Add” or you can add the entire set by selecting “add all”

Click OK
Now go back to your brush toolbar at the top of your workspace and click the brush tip options open as before; and you should now see your new brushes/brush sets added for use.

These brushes will remain in your program next time it loads!

CREATING BRUSHES FROM YOUR OWN PHOTOS, CLIPART OR STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY:

This is just an extra… but open any photo you can find.

Go to the inches and change it to pixels and make it no more than 500 for either width or height.

This is one of the limitations of the brushes and the size it permits to create a new brush.

This step may take a few minutes as Paint Shop Pro resizes the image.

You may also choose to just crop a piece of your photo from a main picture (as I have done below).

Adjust > Threshold.

Alter the settings to your liking.
Making sure your brush option is selected.

File > Export > Custom Brush.
This brush will now show up in your main brushes area.

THERE IS SO MUCH YOU CAN DO WITH BRUSHES AND SO MUCH MORE TO BE COVERED such as organizing your brushes, creating soft brush effects, etc.  I will be teaching a more advanced brush class in January for Paint Shop Pro users!

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS TUTORIAL feel free to email me at amy @ scrapbook-bytes dot com

HAVE FUN!