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Paint Shop Pro Vector Text
and Rastor Warp
Creating text as vector allows us to create a
lot of different effects that are not generally possible with rastor
text. Vector text as with vector images stretch and resize without the
image quality loss associated with rastor text and images.
| 1 |
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The first step is
to create a blank image. I created my blank image 590 pixels x 150
pixels. |
| 2 |
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Select the text
tool and the Text Entry dialog will appear. Make sure that
"Create as Vector" is ticked, "Antialias" is
checked and for my purposes I wanted my text to have an outline so
in the Styles selections I have a color for both Stroke and Fill. |
| 3 |
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Because I chose to
create the text as vector I can size it without losing clarity and
smoothness. In other words the text doesn't get blurry or jaggy
from resizing as it would if it were created as rastor text. Using
the handles I stretched the height. |
| 4 |
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Before we can apply
any effects to the text we have to convert it from vector to
rastor. From the Layers menu you will find the conversion option.
Layers>Convert to Rastor Layer. |
| 5 |
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Now let's add some
dimension to it by using the Warp tool. You will find the Warp
tool under Effects>Geometric Effects>Warp. It is at the
bottom of the Geometric Effects menu. The settings I used for Size
and Strength are 90 and 40 respectively. I also found with the
text I was using that "EYE" did not show up centered and
I wanted that to be the biggest section of the image so I set the
Center offset to Horizontal: 10.
You can get a reverse effect so that the
text in the middle is smaller giving the effect of the text being
punched back instead of forward by setting the Settings:Strength
to a negative number. |
| 6 |
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Now we need a new
layer to place our eye brush on. Using the layers palette and on
the top of that palette, click the leftmost icon to create a new
layer. |
| 7 |
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Select the brush
tool from the tools palette. Then in the Tool Options palette
click on the paint brush with the black arrow next to it. Choose
the eye brush. |
| 8 |
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With the paint
brush tool, paint one eye on the new layer you created for it. It
won't be the correct size so we'll need to resize the layer it is
on. From the tool palette select the "Deformation" tool.
You will see handles appear around the eye like below. With those
you can size the eye layer correctly. Then using the
"Mover" tool you can move the layer to place the eye
where you want it. |
| 9 |
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Now we need to
create the drop shadow. Although Paint Shop Pro has it's own drop
shadow tool, what we need is a custom drop shadow so we'll create
it manually. Create a new layer. Select the text tool and in the
Text Entry dialog choose "Standard Text". We want this
text to be a solid color. For demonstration purposes I have used
black for the tutorial but, you'll notice in my final product the
shadow is red. That is because I used red here instead of black
for that image. |
| 10 |
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The new text shows
up on top of everything else, so I've highlighted the vector text
layer in the Layer Palette and dragged it below the other layers. |
| 11 |
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As we did with the
first text, resize it so it is about the same height as the
shortest text in the first text layer. Convert the vector text
layer to a rastor layer as we did above and apply the same Warp
Effect settings to it. |
| 12 |
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Stretch the black
text layer so that it is about the same height and width as the
red text layer. Then from the Layer Palette, set the transparency
to around 20. |
| 13 |
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Next we're going to
add a little something to the eye. Create a new layer and again
use black text. You can create this text as rastor or do as I did
and create it as vector and convert it to rastor. |
| 14 |
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Once you have it
converted to rastor, open the Warp Tool as before. This time you
will see I have changed the Settings and Center offset a little.
This gives the text a really big warp. |
| 15 |
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As you can see it
looks pretty messy. All I want from the Warp Tool is the circular
shaped text that I have moved over the eye. Using the eraser, I
erased all the text on this layer with the exception of what is
over the eye. |
| 16 |
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Once the text I
don't want has been erased, I set the transparency of this layer
from the Layer Palette. The transparency is set to about 20. |
Finished Product
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