Creating Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics

Second Edition

The book by Andy Shafran
Full Table of Contents

Andy Shafran, author of Creating Your Own Netscape Web Pages, Creating and Enhancing Netscape Web Pages and Creating Your Own Web Graphics with Paint Shop Pro has given us yet another look into the world of Creating for the Web. His latest offering, Creating Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics, Second Edition is a comprehensive, full color guide to Jasc Software, Incs. latest release, Paint Shop Pro 5.

Creating Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics, Second Edition is suitable for both novice and advanced users alike. Andy begins with the basics, progressing to more advanced features of the program and image creation techniques. The novice will have to experiment in the advanced sections, in order to learn the techniques and the resulting effects produced. (It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the program and graphic creation in general by this time). Equipped with the knowledge gained from the beginning chapters, the novice should have no trouble with such experimentation.

Tips and Warning boxes are scattered throughout the book, drawing your attention to special hints for superior graphic results. Each chapter contains techniques for adding images to your website, with Part 5 of the book devoted entirely to adding graphics to your web pages.

Table of Contents and Brief Synopsis

Web Graphic Basics

Web Crawler's Beginning

The book begins with a brief look at Web Graphics, what they are and how they're used to enhance a web page through the use of logos, headlines, icons, photographs & pictures, and background images.

The different type of Web Images are looked at in detail. GIF, JPG, and PNG are explained, along with when to use which type of image for best results. Also covered in this section is the new PSP format which allows you to do advanced image manipulation inside of Paint Shop Pro.

This section concludes with a refresher course on basic HTML for adding images to your website. Here you will learn how to include an image in a webpage, align it left, right or centered and add an alternative text for user agents that either don't display graphics or are configured not to.

Installing Paint Shop Pro

Installing Paint Shop Pro is not so much about installing the program as it is a "quick" tour of the new (and old) features. Jasc Software, Inc. supplies an installation setup which will walk you through the installation with ease. The tour includes the Tool Bar, the different Palettes, and a quick PSP tutorial, all of which are covered in more depth later in the book.

Creating Simple Graphics

This chapter begins with the basics: How to open a new file or canvas, then moves into more detailed explanations of image dimensions and how they relate to VGA, SVGA and Enhanced SVGA monitors. The five color types are explored, along with the advantages and dis-advantages of each. While it seems a little out of order to me, ( although I've seen the same format in PhotoShop tutorials), you are taught how to save an image before you're actually taught how to create one. The available web graphic formats are looked at again, with instructions on how to save to each format.

Also in this section is an in depth look at drawing tools found on the tool palette, the tool options, (Paint Brush, Pen, Pencil, Marker, etc.), and characteristics, (Opacity, Density, Hardness and Step).

Editing Images & Photos

If you're all out of ideas on something really cool to create for your website, this chapter will fill you in on where to find images on the Web and CD that you can modify for your own use. Andy lists several websites with free and/or public domain graphics as well as affordable CDs. Always be sure an image you take is not copyrighted. If it is, get permission first to use it. (See Purloining and Pilfering ).

Included in this section are editing techniques for rotating and resizing your image, as well as a 3 page tutorial on removing 'red-eye' from photographs.

Making Great Images

Images and Special Effects

Images and Special Effects introduces you to Deformations, Effects, Filters and Arithmetic. You'll learn about deformations and Effects, and how to use them. Included is a comparison chart to display the results of the various deformation settings. The section on Filters describes the Filter Browser dialog box along with a comparison chart showing the effects of the different filters. Arithmetic instructions are a little scanty, but you can reproduce the effects if you duplicate the Image Arithmetic dialog box settings as shown on page 121. Once you have reproduced the effect you'll feel more comfortable experimenting with Arithmetic.

Picture Tubes and Web Graphics

Picture Tubes... the hottest new feature of PSP 5. Andy explains what they are and describes the various settings found in the Options box.

Using Paint Shop Pro Layers

Chapter 7 gives in-depth instructions on working with Layers. A hands-on tutorial will walk you through creating a professional looking banner using the various layers options. (Images for this tutorial are located on the books website http://www.muskalipman.com/graphics/default.htm ).

Black and White Alternative

The art of Black and White is explored. Examples are given on selection techniques, but little attention is paid to the 'how' of enhancing those black and white pictures. Coloring a black and white image is also covered, and this section is well worth the reading. Many times new artists will want to colorize an image but not understand the selection techniques. Their resulting image is varying hues of the same color rather than different colors.

Advanced Image Techniques

Using Scanners and Digital Cameras

Chapter 9 touches on selecting a scanner and getting images from the scanner or a digital camera into PSP and onto your hard drive.. The various types of scanners are covered as well as resolution and pitfalls of not understanding the manufacturers hype.

For those of you who felt cheated that previous sections of the book didn't cover such things as color correction, brightness/contrast, gamma correction, tonal corrections, HSL/RGB controls, and equalization, this is where you'll find them.

Creating Transparent Gifs

Andy goes into detail on transparencies, how to create them, how to adjust them, how to remove detailed backgrounds of photo's and ready them for transparency.

Moving Graphics: GIF Animations

Walk-through of creating a two frame animation to familiarize you with the settings and features of the gif animator. A clever trick creating animation frames using layers is revealed.

Making Your Graphics Lean

The reasons for, and methods used to reduce file size are covered in detail. This chapter walks the reader through various methods to reduce file size and enhance load time for web pages, including cropping, resizing, colors, compression and image format. Wondering what an Optimized Octree is? You'll find it here.

Practical Use of Images on your Web Pages

Web Graphics as Image Maps

The care and feeding of Image Maps, from understanding how they work to a full walk-thru on creating an image map. Included is an example of the HTML counter-part to the map.

Background Graphics and Colors

The beginning web designer will love this chapter. It covers such topics as creating web page backgrounds, both solid color and seamless tiles, the techniques and pitfalls. A novice's major stumbling block, the left edge border, is touched on briefly.

HTML Tips for Web Images

The tricks of the trade for adding images to web pages. Learn about tables, frames, directory paths and design techniques.

Cool Paint Shop Pro Techniques

Using a real world example, Andy walks the reader through the creation of an image using the smudge brush, and clip art.

Creating Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics, Second Edition is a well written, comprehensive guide to not only Paint Shop Pro 5 but to web graphics in general. Jasc has a wonderful new program and Andy has more than done justice to it with his new book.