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Dings and Things Tag
This tutorial is written
for Paint Shop Pro 8, but can be done in PSP
7 and 9 if you are familiar with them.
Some items may be on different menus and
slightly different settings.
You will need a dingbat
font. I used Butterflies - you can
download it HERE
There is also a large selection of other
dingbat fonts on this site - click on Themes
and look under Dingbats. Download your
dingbats to a folder. There is NO need
to unzip them to your windows fonts folder,
unzip them in a folder called Dingbats,
anywhere on your hard drive (so long as you
can find it). When you have unzipped
your font, open the folder you've unzipped
it to, and double click on the font file
(font files are the ones that end in .ttf).
Then minimize the font window (don't close
it).
The text font I used is Adorable
or use whatever font you like. You can use
text fonts in the same way as given above
for dingbats - you don't have to put them in
the windows font folder. If you do put
them in the windows font folder, go to
Control Panel and double click the Fonts
icon after you've unzipped them. This will
make sure they are imported into windows
correctly.
| Create a new image 300
to 400 (depending on length of name)
pixels wide and 300 high, white
background, raster.
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| Click on the Flood Fill
tool
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| On the materials pallet,
set the foreground color to a medium
shade of any color (whatever color you
want the tag). Set to solid
color.
Set the background color to white.
Click
the All Tools box (Lock on PSP
7). If its already ticked,
untick it and tick it again.
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| Click on your image to
fill the canvas with the foreground
color.
Adjust menu, Add/Remove Noise, Add
Noise
Uniform, 20 %
On the materials pallet, click on
the foreground colour block, and make
a note of the Hue and Saturation
numbers.
Adjust menu, Hue and Saturation,
Colorize
Adjust settings to the values for
Hue and Saturation that you noted down
from the color window.
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number from materials pallet
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| Layers menu, New Vector
Layer
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| Click on the Pen tool (Draw
tool on PSP 7)
Set the following
Tool Options
Line Style = solid line
Line Width = 10
Segment Type = Line Segment (single
line on PSP 7)
Create As Vector = ticked
On
the Materials Pallet, set the
foreground material to Gradient and
then click the large gradient block to
set the options:
Gradient
= Foreground - Background
Style = Linear
Angle = 0
Repeats = 1
Invert = unticked
Now
draw a line....
Start near the top, left corner of
the canvas and, holding down the SHIFT
key on the keyboard, drag with the
mouse to draw a vertical line
approximately 3/4 the hight of the
canvas (250 pixels)
When you finish your line, click
the Object Selector tool 
(Picker tool in PSP Photo XI)
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| On the keyboard, press
Ctrl C (or click copy on the tool
bar).
Move your mouse a little to the
right of the line you've just drawn
One the keyboard, press Ctrl G
(Edit menu, Paste, Paste As New Vector
Selection). Use the Object
Selector to position this line
slightly lower than the previous one.
Repeat pasting a copy of the line,
and moving it down twice more (so you
have 4 lines in total).
Use the Object Selector to position
the last line so that its bottom end
is a little above the bottom of the
canvas (about 10 pixels - the same
width as the line)
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| Look at the Layers
Pallet. Click on the + sign next
to the top (Vector) layer.
You should see the vertical lines
listed as individual items. On
PSP 8 they are named "New Shape" and on PSP 7 they are
named "line",
Hold down the SHIFT key on the
keyboard and click on each line/shape
on the layer pallet, until all 4 are
showing in bold on the layer pallet.
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objects become bold as they are
selected
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| Objects menu,
Distribute, Vertical Top
Objects menu, Distribute,
Horizontal Left
Objects menu, Group
Now
you can use the Object Selector to
adjust the position, height and width
of the block of lines, and because we
have "grouped" them they
will keep their even spacing.
When you are happy with their
position, continue...
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| Layers
menu, Convert To Raster Layer
Effects
menu, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow
Horizontal
=1
Vertical = 1
Opacity = 70
Blur = 2
Color = Black
Shadow on New Layer = unticked
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| Layers
menu, New Vector Layer
Look
at the windows task bar (at the bottom
of your screen) and make sure you can
see your fonts listed there. If
you can't, open the font files and
minimize them (unless you have
installed them in your windows font
folder - see instructions at top of
page)
Click
on the Text Tool
On
the Materials pallet, set the
background color to Null 
Set
the font to the dingbat font you want
to use to create the graphic on your
tag.
Stroke
width = 3, Create As Vector!!!
Font Size = 72
Click
on the canvas, just to the right of
the middle. Try out letters in
the Text Entry box until you find a
graphic you like.
Note:
Some dingbat fonts only have things
on capitals and some only on
lowercase - Butterflies has graphics
on capitals A-E and all the
lowercase letters. (I used
capital E). Also some use stroke
(foreground) color and others
background and some both, so with
other fonts you may need to set up
your background material with the
same gradient as used for the
foreground material.
When
you've got a graphic you like, click
Apply.
Click
on the Object Selector tool (Picker
tool in PSP Photo XI).
Use
the Object Selector to stretch the
graphic if you want it bigger, and
rotate it if you want to (its best to
stretch before rotating).
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Click
on the Text tool again and change the
font to a text font (I used
Adorable).
Again,
whether you use a stroke
(foreground) material and
stroke width, as well as a fill
(background) material depends on
what looks best for the font you
have chosen.
Add
you text, and then click on the Object
Selector tool. Use it to move,
and stretch your text so that it is a
good fit. You can also adjust
the size and position of the dingbat
graphic if you need to.
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| Layers
menu, Convert To Raster Layer
Effects
menu, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow - use
the same settings as before.
Layers
menu, Merge, Merge All (Flatten)
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| PSP
7 - set the background color to
something a bright, contrasting color.
Image,
Add Borders
Set
the color to a bright, contrasting
color (we are going to replace it)
Make sure the Symetric box is ticked
Set the size to 15.
Click
on the Magic Wand selection tool
Mode
= Replace
Match Mode = RGB Value
Tolerance = 0
Anti-Alias = ticked (smooth on PSP
9)
Click
on the border - you should see
marching ants around the border.
Click
on the Flood Fill tool
PSP
7 - set the background color back to
white
On
the Materials pallet, set the
foreground material to gradient and
then click the gradient block to set
the gradient options.
Gradient
= Foreground - Background
Style = Linear
Angle = 0
Repeats = 1
Invert = unticked
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| Click
on the border to fill it with the
gradient.
Effects
menu, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow - same
settings as before.
Repeat
the Drop Shadow, changing the
Horizontal and Vertical settings to -1
Selections
menu, Select None
PSP
7 - swap the foreground and background
colors on the color pallet by clicking
the double pointed arrow.
Image
menu, Add Borders
Right
click on the color block and then
select the foreground color.
Make sure the Symetric box is ticked
Set the border size to 1 pixel
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| Save
as .jpg file.
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