Preset Shapes
Created by: Zonia

Click on the Preset Shapes tool on the Tools toolbar. Click on the arrow beside the picture in the Tool Options palette and select "Star 1". You may have to scroll up or down to find it depending on how many shapes you have.

Make sure there is no check in front of "Retain Style" and "Create as Vector". Retain Style will keep all the original settings and Materials for the preset shape. Normally I choose to "Create as Vector" because of all the options available. The options for vector shapes is the same options I covered in the Text lesson (last lesson). However for the sake of simplicity will we create a raster shape instead.

"Line Style" should be Solid, and "Width" determines the size of the outline around the shape (just like with text). I have my Width set to 1.

You have several options for drawing a shape:

• You click and hold the left mouse button and drag out the shape. The left mouse button draws the shape from the corner and lets you decide how tall and wide you want it.
• You can click and hold the right mouse button and drag out the shape. The right mouse button either draws the shape from the center or the bottom left hand corner depending on the shape selected. In this case it will draw from the center.
• If you hold down the Shift key while you drag with either the left or right mouse button the shape will retain its proportions.

Try drawing out the star shape using the methods above. When you get done just hit your Delete key.

Now, holding down the Shift key and the left mouse button, draw out a star shape. I started at the coordinates (x:50 y:50) and dragged to (x:250 y:250), but you can make yours any size you want. Release the mouse button, then release the Shift key. The coordinates are in the bottom right hand corner of the PSP 8 Status bar. If you don't see the Status bar go to View || Toolbars || Status.

Let's make sure our star is centered on the canvas: Go to Edit || Cut (Ctrl+X) and then to Edit || Paste || Paste As New Layer (Ctrl+L). Remember pasting as a new layer automatically centers it.

Go to Layers || Duplicate to make a copy of your star, then go to Image || Rotate || Free Rotate (Ctrl+R). Choose "Left" or "Right", it doesn't matter, click on the circle in front of "Free" and type "45.00" into the box (this is the degrees we are going to rotate), make sure "All Layers" is unchecked, and click on OK.

Go to Layers || Merge || Merge visible and save your image (File || Save). Close this image and let's create something else.

Note: If we had created as vector, with a little work we could have combined the two vector layers (the original star and the duplicate) into one shape and then exported the new shape, but that is beyond the scope of this lesson.

The Preset Shapes tool should still be selected. Change the shape from "Star 1" to "Rounded Rectangle" (it's a little above the Star 1 shape). In the last lesson I included some button graphics to put text on. I used preset shapes to create those buttons. Let's create our own button this time.

Set your Foreground to Null and your Background to a color you like. Holding down your left mouse button, draw out a rounded rectangle the size you want your button to be.

Go to Selections || Select All (Ctrl+A), then to Selections || Float (Ctrl+F), and finally to Selections || Defloat (Ctrl+Shift+F). Your rounded rectangle should now be selected.

Now go to Selections || Modify || Contract = 8, then click on your Flood Fill tool and flood-fill your selection with Black or another complimentary color. This is to give us an outline.

Go to Selections || Select All (Ctrl+A), then to Selections || Float (Ctrl+F), and finally to Selections || Defloat (Ctrl+Shift+F) to select your button.

Now go to Effects || 3D Effects || Buttonize and reset to default. Change "Height" and "Width" to 8 and click on OK. Deselect with Ctrl+D (Selections || Select None). That's it, you now have a button you can add text to if you wish.

In your Layer palette, click on the "+" sign in front of the 'Vector 1' layer, then click on the "+" sign in front of the 'Button 004' layer. You will now see all the layers that make up the button.

Let's say you like this button style but you don't like the color. Since we had "Create as Vector" checked we can easily change the color.

Double-click on the 'Color' sub-layer in the Layer palette to bring up the Vector Properties dialog. Click on the color box below "Fill" to open the Materials dialog. Now choose a color, gradient, or pattern that you like and click on OK. Click on OK in the Vector Property dialog as well.

If you wanted you could edit or delete the other sub-layers or even add to them.

PSP 8 has a lot of shapes to play with and a lot of things you can do with them. This lesson was to show you how to use them and give you a general idea what you can do with them.

I can't draw so all my "drawings" start with a vector preset shape which I reshape by adding, deleting, moving, and editing nodes. I will be teaching about vectors and node editing in my advanced lessons.

That's it for this lesson. I hope you enjoy exploring and using all the preset shapes PSP 8 has to offer. If you want more shapes do a search on the web, there are several places you can download more.