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Creating a Computer Graphic 
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 A unique logo or catchy graphic can help to convey the identity of your company, school or your cause. Paint programs provide a wide range of different media effects to the artist. Many ideas that would take too long (maybe impossible) with traditional media can be easily tried out with a computer and some good software. You can start from scratch with an empty canvas (file). Anything that can be rendered with traditional media can be scanned then cropped, adjusted and resized. Your scanned art can then be integrated into a computer rendered image, altered, enhanced or completely redesigned. Composites can be created from multiple and unrelated images and implemented into the design.
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Let's Get Started
It's time to get the brushes out. Luckily clean-up will be super easy and there are usually no mistakes that can't be undone. We will be using Paint Shop Pro, let's take a look!
Click to enlarge...Note: Hover your cursor over images for more information!
Welcome To PaintShop Pro 7
To create a new file, select File from the Main Menu and then New. A dialog box will appear. Make sure Pixels is selected and enter 400 for both the heigh and Width. For Resolution make sure Pixels / Inch is selected and enter 72 (DPI/PPI). The Background can be Transparent, White, Black, Red, Green, or Blue. If you select Forground or Background Color it will use one of the two colors you have selected on the Color Palette to the right. Finally, the Color Depth should be set to 16.7 Million Colors (24bit). Note the Memory Required and then click OK.
Size is the dimensions of your image if it were printed out at 100%. Resolution is the number of pixels per inch along one row. Our 400 x 400 image contains 160,000 pixels and has actual dimensions of 5.56 inches x 5.56 inches. Since our row has 400 pixels and our image is 72 pixels per inch we devide 400 by 72 to determine inches. Color Depth is the number of colors that format is capable of utilizing. We will always start out with 24 bit (24K colors) with a size under 8'x10' and resolution of 72 - 100 dpi.
Congradulations You now have a blank canvas with infinate possibilities. Go ahead and try out some of the tools from the Tool Palette on the left.
Where To Start?
Before you begin it is a good idea to check the Paint Shop Pro Preferences. Here you can set the number of undo's, set view and zoom settings, rulers and units, color palette and more. Select File from the main Menu and then Preferences and a list of options will drop down. Select General Program Preferences for now but take note of the other options available from the Preferences list. Most user configurable settings and defaults can be found here. Check out "Customize Toolbar" from the Preferences list too (more below).
The PaintShop Pro Tool Bar
The Tool Bar contains shortcut buttons to common adjustments and other program features. By right clicking on the Tool Bar (not on icon) and then selecting Customize from the drop down, you can add buttons for virtually any feature that you would normally have to go through the menu for.
A Customized Tool Bar
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Display Settings
You should check a few things before you begin. Right click on your Desktop and then select the Settings tab.
- Screen Area 640x480, (suggested 600x800), 1024x768, 1280x1024
- Color Depth = 24 bit True Color
Color Palette
The number of colors available on the color palette are dependent on the type of image (format) and the chosen color depth. Selected colors with Color Picker will be represented in the lower part of the palette as a combination of values ranging from 0 - 255 for RED, Green and Blue respectively.
- Red - 255
- Green - 0
- Blue - 0
Would Display Red
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RGB
Our computer monitors displays colors using combinations of Red, Green and Blue. Each pixel can be stimulated to display it's color in brightness ranging from zero to two, zero being black and two being white. The highest combination of Red, Green and Blue (value of 255 each) also displays white, and the lowest combination (value of 0 each) would display black.
Red - 255
Green - 255
Blue - 255
Would Display White |
Red - 0
Green - 0
Blue - 0
Would Display Black
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CMYKIn contrast, when we print an image we must use a different set of primaries to render all of the colors. Printed paper cannot light up like a computer display so black is used as a 4th color. In most cases the paper is already white so black is used to achieve tonal gradation. Right - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Below - Gradient from white to black.
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Real Primary Colors
To make it all even more confusing, none of the methods mentioned before use the combination of colors known as the primary colors. 
Light contains all of our visible colors. When these colors are split up they form a spectrum. In our spectrum of light, our visible light starts out in the red to yellow to green to cyan to blue to purple to magenta. We can bend this spectrum into a circle, starting with red and ending with red.
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Set Preferences
- (Dialog & Palette) Note: Optional Large text
- Tool Bar, Rulers & Units
- (Dialog & Palette for size of icons)
Monitor Gamma,
- (Phosphor excitation)
- 1 highest, pure white
- 2 lowest, pure black
- 120 mid point (0-255)
Here are some examples that might help you get some ideas of your own.
Good luck! |
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| Stonehenge In The Sky |
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| Screen Capture |
   
  
 
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| All images are the work of Ken Pinkham and are provided for educational use only. |
Let's Color - 256 Color Depth Exercise
Click on the "Let's Color" link and it will open an image. Right click on the image and choose Save Picture As from the pop up menu. Find your folder and click Save. Then find and open the image using the PaintShop Pro Image Browser or the File/Open dialog box from the menu. We will have to increase the color depth and reduce the size of the image before we start coloring. Practice using the various tools and tool settings to color the drawing. To save the file with the extra colors it will have to be Saved As a format that supports Millions of colors such as .JPG (JPEG) or .PSP (PaintShop Pro).
QGoo, bet you can't Goo just one!
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Course Outline / Terms & Software / How Graphics Work
Editing Graphics / Create a Graphic / Web Graphics / Glossary
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" on the PSP 7 Tool Bar is for the Tool Options palette. The Tool Options Palette box allows changing properties for each Tool selected from the Tool Palette (left).
on the Tool Options Palette to keep it from rolling up.
