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Now lets get to know the
basic tools by making this tag:
These are
the Vector Drawing tools:
We are only going to use 2 colours plus white for
this tutorial. A dark
colour for the frame and text, a lighter shade of the same colour for the
inside of the frame, and white for the stars.
If you need to save your work part way through, make
sure you save as a PSP file. Most other file types (.jpg or .gif for
example) will cause the image to be flattened into a singe raster layer,
and you will lose the individual vector objects. |
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Create
a new image - 400x400 white background
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Layers
– New Vector Layer
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Choose
a colour and set your Foreground colour (left box) to a dark shade of
that colour, and set your Background colour (right box) to a light
shade of that colour, on the colour pallet. Make sure both foreground and background colours are
set to be solid colours.
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Make
sure your Tool Options pallet is turned on (showing).
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Draw The Rectangle:
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Select
the Shapes tool
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On
the Tool Options, make sure Create As Vector is ticked and that Retain
Style is NOT ticked
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From
the pull down list on the Tool Options pallet, choose the Rectangle
tool.
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Point
somewhere in the upper left area of your image and drag diagonally
down to the right lower area to draw a rectangle.
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Click
on the Object Selector tool
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Click
on your rectangle (you will know it is selected when there is a fine
line around it with handles on the corners and sides)
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Adjust
the size/shape of your rectangle (by dragging the handles) so that
there is some space all around it. Even if it looks OK, practice changing its size/shape.
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Click
on the Properties button on the Tool Options pallet.
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Change
the Stroke Width to 12
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You
can change your line and fill colours in this window at any time.
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When
you are happy with your settings, click OK
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Add some text:
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Click
on the Text tool
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Click
somewhere on your image above or below the rectangle.
This is important: If you click inside the rectangle PSP will
try to fit your text around the inside edge of the rectangle.
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Type
in the text you want e.g. “Congratulations”, “Great Work!”, or
your name.
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Change
the Fill colour for the text to the same colour as used for the
outline of the rectangle. PSP 7 do this by clicking the block of
colour in the Properties window, PSP 8 use to main colour pallet.
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Highlight
the text and then choose your text size and font.
I used size 26 Lucida Calligraphy (kerned at –65 to push the
letters closer together).
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Click
the  symbol on the Stroke colour box, and turn off the line (select the
 symbol). For PSP 8 I
think you do this on the main colour pallet.
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Click
OK
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Position The Text:
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Click
on the Object Selector tool
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Point
at one of the letters in your text and drag it into the middle of the
rectangle.
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Point
at the Rotation handle for your text.
When you see your mouse pointer change shape to rounded arrows,
press the mouse button down, and hold it down while you drag the
rotation handle to make the text go diagonally from the bottom left
corner to the top right corner of the rectangle.
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Drag
the handle on a corner of your text object to adjust the size of the
text so it fits just inside the rectangle without touching the dark
line around the edge. You
will probably need to adjust the angle of the text using the rotation
handle again once you are happy with its size.
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Draw A Star:
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Set your foreground
colour to the dark version of your colour (if its not already set to
it) and set the background
colour to white. Make sure they are both set to be solid colours
and not set to null.
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Click
the Shapes tool.
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On
the Tool Options, scroll down the preset shapes to find the four
pointed star (Star 1) and click on it. Set the Width to 1.
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Point
somewhere in the upper left part of your picture and drag diagonally
down to the right to draw a star about ½ the height of the rectangle.
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Click
the Object Selector tool
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Point
at the centre of the star and adjust its position so that the left and
top points go over the outer edge of the rectangle.
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