Lesson #3  - Using Patterns and Gradients

Lesson #3 is named Using Patterns and Gradients.  In the past two lessons we learned different tools in PSP and what is a tube and tag.  We will continue on in this lesson with making our own tags. 

 

In the first lesson we learned how to use the Flood Fill Tool,   we will start with that today.  Open an image in the usual way, 300 X 300 pixels, 200 dpi resolution, raster background, making sure the transparent box is checked. 

 

On the tool bar on the left side choose your Flood Fill Tool, your icon may look different than the one above but they all work the same.  Now going to our Materials Palette on the right click on the upper box or Foreground and our Color Wheel will open in a new window.  At the top of the Color Wheel you will see three tabs COLOR, GRADIENT and PATTERN.  Click on each of these tabs and see the different options you have.  On the bottom right of this window you will see two boxes they show your last choice and your new choice see how the upper box changes when you move through the tabs?

 

 

Ok let's start with the GRADIENT tab,  In the larger box on the upper left side of this window is our choice box click on the menu tab on the right of this window, it shows the down arrow.

 

  As seen here.  This will give you a drop menu of all the gradients that are in your program.  PSP does load sample gradients for your used in every new program.  Choose a Black to Red gradient like the one pictured above.  Inside our box there is a handle giving you the option of changing the Angle of the Gradient.  With your cursor grab that handle and move to see how the gradient changes, you will notice that the box next to it marked Angle also changes, you can use the slider of that box or the up/down arrows to adjust the angles as well.  Below the Angle box is another one called Repeats, you can use the slider or up/down arrows on that box as well this creates repeats of the gradient what I like to call "Blinds"  But for this exercise lets leave both of these boxes at 0 and close this box by clicking on the OK button at the bottom.

 

Now going to our new image click inside of the box with our Flood Fill Tool.

You should now have an image like this. 

 

  This is our background for a new tag.  This time go to your Tube Tool,  again your icon may look different but they work the same.  At the top of the workspace in your tool menu choose the drop down menu to choose your tube.  Choose any that wish.  Click inside our tag image and you should now have your tube positioned there.  Leave enough room at the bottom to put your name.  You may need to undo and redo the tube until you get it just right.  Remember?  Go to EDIT / UNDO,

this will remove your last move. 

 

  Looking at our Tool Menu you can also see that we can scale the tube either up or down so if your tube is too small or too large use the scale feature to adjust the size either up or down as needed.  Once you get your tube positioned where you want it you should have an image similar to this one.

 

 See how this train engine is placed slightly above the middle line to give us room to place our text. 

 

Next click on the Text Tool and then go to the Materials Palette and click on the upper box or Foreground Color.  Remember in Text the foreground color

is the text outline, we are going to go back to solid color and choose Black here.  Then click on the lower box or Background Color, here it will be used in our text as a fill color.  We want to go to our gradient again, Choosing the same Black to Red Gradient (Duotone Red) but we want to do a complete 180 here, literally!  Move your handle so that the gradient is Red to Black, top to bottom.  You will notice that the Angle box now reads 180 degrees. 

 

 Once you have this correct click on OK at the bottom of the window.  Now with the Text Tool click inside our tag and Type your name in the Text Entry Box and click ok.  Your Name should now be floating at the bottom of the tag.  If not position it, by dragging to the position you want.  Then before we do anything else while the Text is still selected (Marching ants are still around it) Go to EFFECTS / 3D EFFECTS / DROP SHADOW which brings up our drop shadow box leaving the settings as seen in the picture below click ok.

 

 Now we have our tag almost complete.

Lets put a border around it.  Go to IMAGE / ADD BORDERS and a new window will come up called, conveniently,  "Add Borders" as seen below.

We want to put a symmetrical black border around our image, we are going to click in color box to choose our color, Black of course, and making sure that the Symmetric box is check type in or use the up/down arrow in one of the size boxes, as you change it you can see that all three of the other boxes change as well.  It should now look like this.

 

  and now our tag is done. 

 

***TIP*** You can resize it if you like by going to IMAGE / RESIZE  a new box appears and gives you choices as to how you wish to resize the image.  In the top series of boxes called "Pixel Dimensions" the box on the far right will change the resize from pixels to percent, we want to make it percent.  Then at the bottom of the window make sure that the "Lock Aspect Ratio" and "Resize All Layers" boxes are checked.  Back up to the Pixel Dimensions change it to 80% then click OK.  You will see that your image has slimmed down a bit to a more manageable size.  Here is my Tag.

 

 Great!  You made your first tag from scratch.  We are going to do the same thing but this time with Patterns.  Open a new image like before. Then choose the Flood Fill Tool and click in our Foreground box in the Materials Palette and click on the Patterns tab above the color wheel.  Here again PSP has loaded sample patterns for you.  Choose one of your liking and close the box. (Keep the settings at the factory settings, you will see similar setting adjustments as we saw in the Gradient window).

 

Going to your new image click inside and the image should now be filled with the pattern you chose.  Here is mine.

 

  Now following the same steps as before find a tube to your liking and position it on the tag leaving room for your name.  Like this

 

  Click on your Text Tool go to your Materials Palette and choose two colors that match either the pattern or the tube.  Remember that Foreground Box is the outline of the text and Background Box is the fill of the text.  Type your name in the Text box and put a drop shadow under it and your text should similar to this.

 

  Now we can add the border, using the same settings as the last time, choose a color that compliments your image.

Then you can resize to 80% again and you should have another tag that looks similar to this.

 

  There you have it!  You are making tags like the pros!!!  Keep practicing on using the gradients and patterns.  Next lesson we will learn how to add tubes, gradients and patterns to our drop down choices. 

 

In this lesson you learned:

All of the instructions in this lesson work for PSP 9 as well as X and XI.