Paint Shop Pro 6 Vector Shapes

Select the Preset Shapes tool. Open the Tool Options dialog box. The Preset Shapes tab should be foremost, if it isn't, select it to bring it to the front. Choose the following settings:

• Shape Type: Rectangle
• Style: Filled
• Line Width: 1
• Antialias: checked
• Vector: checked

Place your cursor over the working canvas and draw a rectangle. Your shape will have it's own bounding box, similar to the bounding box for the deformation tool that you are already familiar with from PSP 4. This bounding box has all of the same features and functions of the PSP 4 deformation tool, and if you've played with it at all you're probably wondering what all this vector stuff is about and how to do it. So let's find out.

Select the Vector Object Selection tool and right click inside of the bounding box. A drop down menu appears; scroll down and select Node Edit. Your bounding box will change in appearance and the image inside will seem to disappear.

You can get into some really interesting shapes using a circle or ellipse preset shape. Notice when you enter the Edit Node and select one of the bounding box (circle) handles, a line with an arrow on one end and a circle on the other appears. Try moving the little circle around and see what happens! The handles may be drug around the canvas as well.

Now then, back to our rectangle. Let's make something out of this thing. Drag the handles around until you have an approximate V shape. Right click on the canvas and select Quit Edit Node to exit and return to the solid shape.

While you've still got the vector bounding box, drag the center handle until the V shape is upright.

To add a drop shadow, right click on the layer in the Layers Dialog box, and select Convert to Raster. All of the effects will now be available to you.

Now, go play with that circle vector layer. :)