Welcome to the Corel tutorial on Understanding Transparencies in PaintShop
Pro. Creating transparencies in an image editing program means having the
ability to set up part of your image to be invisible and see-through.
Transparency is usually, but not always, used to delete a white background from
clipart, a logo or something similar. It can be also used to create windows in
which to place other images inside, such as pictures within frames. The following
examples of transparencies are fairly simple in that they don't include any
varied degrees of transparency such as gradient masks,
nor do they support color blending between layers such as an alpha channel
and they use some of the easiest to use tools in PaintShop Pro. The idea is that
parts are either visible or they're not. We'll cover collage frames, single picture
frames and transparent web objects. Before we begin, if you're watching this
video on YouTube you can pause it and click on the link
in the description below to go to the tutorial page and download a written
copy of this tutorial and follow along. PaintShop Pro has many pre-built,
included templates and objects that can be used in transparency projects that
you can add your own photos into. You've just seen a few examples of photo
editing projects that make use of basic transparency. If you go to File > New from
Template you can open up something similar to this multi-frame collage
template.
Let's take a look around and learn more about the features of transparencies. The
first things to note is the gray and white checkerboard background in each of
the small picture frames. This is a common indication of a transparency. In
PaintShop Pro this look can be customized. Go to File > Preferences >
General Program Preferences then to Transparency and Shading. Such items as
Grid Size and Color Scheme can be selected from this list. Even grid colors
can be changed. Click OK once you're finished with your changes.
Let's place a couple photos into these frames, it's very easy. I have two photos
that have already been sized to fit this frame. I'll go to one of them, select the
Pan tool, right-click on the image and Copy. Then I'll go to the collage
template, right-click and choose Paste > Paste As New Layer. Select the Pick tool
and move it over one of the picture frames. You notice it's currently on top
of the frame. In order to put it into the frame you just rearrange the layer so
the photo is in back of the frame and bingo. I'll do it again with another
photo.
PaintShop Pro also has many included single picture frames which you can get
by downloading the free bonus content. Just like the collage frame, these also
have transparent parts built in. With this robin's egg image open, I'll go to
Image > Picture Frame and choose the birds frame. I'm also going to choose Frame
Outside the Image and click Keep Transparent and click OK. Notice that not
only do you see the birds eggs through the frame's transparency, but the layer
representing this frame has a checkerboard background indicating the
center area and the area outside the frame are transparent. In PaintShop Pro
you may also use a preset shape to create a transparency. Here's an example
of the results of drawing out a heart shape object on top of a photo. Using the
shape cutter tool, it will auto-crop the images into your shape without having to
set up and use layers. Notice that this is a PNG file, not a JPG. PNGs support
transparency and JPEGs do not. I recommend viewing a short tutorial on
using the shape cutter. One of the most popular uses of transparency, especially
for businesses, is on webpages. One of the most common web uses is to place an
image on a web page so that the web page's background becomes your image's
background, such as a play button on a YouTube video poster frame or your logo
or a product shot on your home page. Let's go to the Corel website and show
you a couple of examples.
You notice the PaintShop Pro box shot here. If I right-click on it you'll see
that it is an image because I can save it as an image. I'll just grab it and put
it on my desktop, then I'll drag and drop it right into PaintShop Pro.
You can tell this image is part transparent when you look at the layer
and see the checkerboard pattern. If we go to the Corel Discovery Center I can
point out that all these video play buttons on this page are also
transparent and were merged with the underlying images. The play button is not
really functional, as the entire image is a hyperlink, but it does indicate that
it's clickable. You can also create more complex transparencies using items such
as Selection tools, Eraser tools including the special background eraser
tool, Masks and alpha channels, where you can even create various degrees of
transparency. Here are some examples of these. We won't cover the step-by-step
workflow for these projects now but you can find links on the tutorial page for
more transparency tutorials. I mentioned this briefly already but it's very
important to know what file formats will support transparencies, because not all
do so. The most common format that supports it is PNG, which we've used here.
GIF and JPEG 2000 are also compatible. Regular JPEGs do not support
transparency. Once you've finished merging all your
images into the final one, you can still save it as a JPEG for sharing but to be
put on a webpage, and unless blending with a background is not necessary,
you'll want to save it as a PNG. So that's a good overview of transparency,
what's possible and the many different ways they can be created. If you're
watching this video on YouTube, you'll find a link in the description below
that will take you to our tutorial page on the Discovery Center. Here you can
download a written copy of this tutorial to follow along and find other helpful
tutorials for working with transparencies in PaintShop Pro.