Now it doesn't look much like a bone at this point in black and white so we will change the colors before we export our shape. Vector layers have lots of hidden goodies where you change and/or control the line widths, styles, etc. to make for some interesting shapes! Now just right click the group 1 layer and choose properties from the menu.Change your colors to:

• RGB 138/103/68 Foreground(Fig. 9)
• RGB 138/103/68. Background

If you only want to change the colors of one of the shapes instead of all for any reason, simply right click the objects layer you want to edit and choose the properties from there instead of grouping them together as we did in step 6.

 

Click on the center bone object layer to make it the active object if it is not already selected. Right click and choose properties from the menu. (Fig. 10) In your dialog box change the colors to :

• RGB 138/103/68 Foreground
• RGB 99/66/57 Background

Leave the line width set to the default setting (Fig.10A) Click ok and then you should see your entire bone colored now instead of just the circles. (Fig. 10B)

 

 

 

GREAT!! Now let's get it ready to export. Choose your crop tool, starting in upper left corner (red), draw a selection around your shape, cropping as much as you can ending with the mouse at the bottom right corner (yellow). (Fig 11) When you are pleased with your crop, release the mouse button and then immediately double click again to "stop crop" :OP ( hey I am a poet... and didn't know it lol) You should now see just the bone with none of the extra canvas space. (Fig 12)

 

 

Next, in the layers palette click on the Group Layer to make it the active layer. Right click the layer and choose the rename option from the menu and then name your shape bone, then click ok. (Fig 13) Then choose file, and then export. A dialog box will appear asking you for the name of your shape, keep in mind this is the name for the file only, your actual shapes name that will appear in the options is the one we did in first part of this step. (Fig 14)

 

 

 

 

That's it. Your shape should now be available to you through the shapes control palette. Let's just check and make sure. Open a new image, 300 x 300 with a transparent canvas. Choose the shapes tool, go to the control palette and click the arrow to see all the available shapes, scroll down until you find the name of your shape. (Fig. 15) If you want the bone/shape to retain the exact colors that we used in making it (Fig. 15A) you will need to check the retain style box in the options. To change the colors of the shape simply set your foreground and background colors to whatever you like, I chose a darker brown as an example for both foreground and background. (Fig. 15B)

 

 

 

This PSP7 tutorial was provided by Sonja Shea aka Bonesy,
Technical Editor of Paint Shop Pro 7 Fast & Easy.
You can purchase this book at Amazon.com and other online booksellers,
as well as most major bookstores.