I only just got photoshop 7.0 and I'm having a bit of trouble with it. I'm too used to paint and simpler programs like that, so when I got Photoshop is was like WHAM! Anyway, I created this thread so that I (and other people) can ask for help for programs they are having trouble with, and maybe someone will have the answer here for them.

Now, my problem is I don't know how the resize pictures once I paste them in or whatever.So far I've had to copy from word or paint after I've resized it on them *sob* also, is here any way to change the brush to another shape, like a square?

I'm far from a Photoshop guru and I don't have alot of time to answer but I'll do my best :D

Image Resizing
To resize an image before pasting it properly into the canvas I'm working on, I usually 'copy' the image and select new from File. It will open up a new canvas which is automatically the size of the image you copied. Now, you can paste it in to this canvas and resize it. This is located in Image > Image Size. Here you edit the width and height of the image (I usually make sure it's in pixels first). After I have resized it, I paste it into my original canvas the size I wanted it to be. This technique also works if you wanna rotate things or crop them.

Hope that made some sense ^__^

Brushes
You can change your brushes to several things and I can see you have discovered this because you have leaves and stars in your signiture. Well, you can download brushes off the internet. I haven't actually seen any square brushes as such but you can get some really beautiful brushwork happening using the correct brushes. You can get a really grungy feel etc. The website eludes me at the present moment but I good starting spot is a site called 'Vbrush'. It is amateur brushwork at it's best. After you found your brush and downloaded and unzipped it, when you have your brush open on a canvas in Photoshop, right click and the brush select comes up. In the top right hand corner is a circle with a triangle in it. Click it and go down to 'Load Brushes'. Now all you need to find is where you put the Brush File and click load and ta da...new brushes.!

So do a search for Vbrush and have a look around. Also just google 'Photoshop Brushes', your bound to get results ^__^

Hope that helped a bit. There may be easier ways to do the things I suggested and would be willing to learn a bit myself ^__^

wah&#33; Thank you so much&#33; Now, maybe I won&#39;t get so frustrated after the intial thrill of realizing I have Photoshop :lol: Thanks again, it&#39;s a huge help to a Photoshop n00b like me >.<

aw man, now I realize I need help with borders. I tried before with the rectangle marquee select, but it didn&#39;t work. Maybe I just suck at these things...

I say you should try to mess with the different filters and see what effects they have on an image ^^;

As for borders, select what you want (or press CTRL+A to select everything) and then use edit > stroke. Set up how you want it and away you go =P

hmmm, that&#39;s a good idea, but how does that create a border? :blink:

Stroke should create an outline around, on, or inside the selected area.

I always make a new layer (layer > new > layer), select it completely and then use edit > stroke. If you want another border within that (like my signatures and avatars usually have) just use the magic wand tool to select the empty area and use another stroke in a different colour.

Do I still make sense? When using stroke, mess around with the settings. Opacity and colourse can be set, and you can select whether you want the stroke to appear within our outside the selected area.

Okay, you make a little sense, but once I mess around and experiement more with photoshop, perhaps, I&#39;ll understand fully. The main reason why I&#39;m having trouble is probably because I haven&#39;t had it long enough, and maybe I haven&#39;t completely explored the capabilities of Photoshop. Nonetheless, thank you for the help&#33;

I feel so stupid at this compared to you, Angelic, and all you other graphics gurus&#33; Lend me some of your power&#33;

the best way to learn programs like Photoshop is, what Angelic said, mess around with the filters and see what each does. You could also search google or something for Photoshop tutorials. They&#39;re great practice for learning the filters and different techniques.

I use the single pixel vertical and horizontal selection tools for borders :huh:

You can get this by right clicking on the Selection tool (First thing on your little handy toolbar of goodness) and selection the long thin vertical or horizontal lines. It makes a 1 pixel wide line which you can move to the edge of an image and fill ^_^

Yay, all of this is really helpful for me too :D I did a drawing recently that I tried to colour in Photoshop - I was following the instructions in an art book and created three separate layers - background, outline and top layer, in order to colour without messing with the background or outline... except it&#39;s really pernickety trying to use the marquee tools to select the outline to fill, especially with freehand lines - I end up with white gaps everywhere. Is there any other way to do fill? Something alone the lines of the paint bucket in MSPaint would be good, but I don&#39;t know where it is and the help file wasn&#39;t helpful :(

Originally posted by madmazda86@Oct 19 2004, 09:13 AM
Yay, all of this is really helpful for me too :D I did a drawing recently that I tried to colour in Photoshop - I was following the instructions in an art book and created three separate layers - background, outline and top layer, in order to colour without messing with the background or outline... except it&#39;s really pernickety trying to use the marquee tools to select the outline to fill, especially with freehand lines - I end up with white gaps everywhere. Is there any other way to do fill? Something alone the lines of the paint bucket in MSPaint would be good, but I don&#39;t know where it is and the help file wasn&#39;t helpful :(
Try fiddling with the magic wand tool, the settings for it are on top. I personally would use background, colours, outline, in that order so that the outline will stay on top of the colours.

I usually do my coloured in drawings this way. It is just a tad fiddly but will fix your white spaces etc. If used correctly of course XD ~ &#33;

1. I do the outline on a completely white layer. I change the opacity of the entire layer so I can see the outline I&#39;m making of my drawing etc.

2. After I have this, I turn the opacity back to 100% so I have a complete outline with a complete white background all on one layer.

3. Now to colour, I do it in segments or in colours. I use the Magic Eraser to delete sections of this outline (which always remains the TOP LAYER). I then create a layer beneath this, and add colour to that this way, it comes through to view however you have the top layer covering it. This way, you also don&#39;t go out of the lines ^__^

4. Now, once you coloured a segment you can either flatten them together and repeat step 3 for all segments. However, I usually leave them as separate layers, but you have to constantly go back and just make sure you don&#39;t go over the lines then into other segments X_X

My way is kinda difficult, but I am comfortable with it and hey, doesn&#39;t hurt to share.

Does anyone know of any good tutorials for Paintshoppro 8 ? I just got hold of it recently and have been using lots of photoshop hints to figure stuff out...... But the programs do have some other differences that makes it difficult to follow instructions....

But anyway.. Does anyone know how I can make a scanned in picture transparent? Other than using the magicwand lots and lots? I was thinking of putting a layer on top and just tracing... But I don&#39;t have my graphics pen connected to the computer with psp, so it&#39;s a bit difficult with just a mouse..... X_X

Anyway, I&#39;d appreciate any help you can give me... I always tend to do my drawings free hand first, then shift them across to the computer... But I don&#39;t like always having whiteness... :&#092;

taa Lina&#33;

yuck, psp. and what do you mean, transparent? as in, make the whites transparent?

what do you mean by "yuck psp"? I&#39;ve been having lots of fun with it.... And though I still haven&#39;t worked out how to do gradients like photoshop, everything else is pretty much the same :)

What I was trying to ask before is how you can make a picture that has been drawn on a white background transparent so that you can only see the lines..... I&#39;ve sortof worked out a way to do it now, by enhancing the contrast and then making the image a bit transparent (toggling with the little eye-visible thing in the bottom left cnr)

Anyway, I&#39;m still looking for that tutorial......

Ta lina&#33;

well, can&#39;t you just delete the background layer, magic wand the whites, and delete that? if your paper&#39;s a bit gray-ish so that magic wand doesn&#39;t select all the paper, level or curve it a bit. i have no idea what the psp equivilents are.

make sure you save it as a gif......

cause when you save it as jpeg it makes al transparent white again

I&#39;m confused. Do I have to buy it? Or download it? Or either one?

it is commercial software.

I was wondering if there is a plugin available that will make white turn into transparency, or a technique that does this.

with photoshop? as i said, copy the background layer, delete the background layer, magic wand the white part, and delete it. the background will be transparent and the whites will be gone.