The Color Panel

The color panel is divided up into two sections. The "select color panel" and the "active" color panels. The select color box is used to choose a color and is the upper rainbow colored box as shown to the left. There are also two active color windows. The foreground color and the background color. In the picture shown to the left, the yellow window is the foreground color and the red is the background color.

Many of the brush types let you paint with either color in the two active color windows! The foreground color is applied by holding down the left mouse button and the background color is applied by holding down the right mouse button while using your brushes on an image.

You can change the colors of the foreground and background colors by either clicking on those windows or selecting a color from the upper rainbow window. Clicking on the foreground or background window will also bring up another color choosing window for each. Right clicking on the rainbow window puts that color in the background window and left clicking in the rainbow window puts that color in the foreground window or simply double click on the foreground or background window. So there are two different ways to change the colors in the foreground and background windows.

To select a color, you run your pointer over the "select color panel" (rainbow window) and left click on the desired color (this will change the foreground color) or right click to put the selected color in the background window. You can also try clicking on one of the active color boxes (foreground or background color windows) to bring up the "Custom Color Picker" to change either one of those color windows. The "Custom Color Picker" window gives you a much more precise method of selecting colors if you choose to do it that way.

The Tools Control

The control palette contains the settings and options for using the tools on the tool palette. To view and use the control palette, just click on the control palette icon to activate. When a tool is selected ~ the control palette is used to set the options and functions for that individual tool. For instance click on your paint brush and then click on the control palette. You can now set the options for the paint brush in the control palette. Other tools work the same way and the options are set for each one by using the control palette after a tool is selected. There is no wrong or right way to set your control palette settings! Just experiment and set it to your own individual taste.

The Brush tool

The brush tool is used to paint, using many different types of brush tips ~ sizes, shapes, hardness, opacities (transparencies of color), and density.

First make sure that you have a image on your PSP screen and your control palette up. Click on the paint brush icon and then click on "brush tip" on the control palette. Select a brush setting from the control palette. Now all you need is a color to paint with!

Let's experiment with this! If you have an image up, close it now. Click on File, New, then set the width to 400 and the height to 400 and click OK.. You should now have a blank image on your screen. Click on the control panel and then click on the brush tool. Next, click on the "brush tip" tab and select your brush option. Now go over to the "select color panel" and choose any desired color. Put your pointer over the new image and hold down the left or right mouse button to apply the paint. Then go ahead and play by clicking on your "active color" boxes and select a different color for each of those "active" boxes. You will have a new color window come up "select color panel" after clicking on each one to choose a color from. Click OK when you find your color for each of the "active" color boxes.

The Crop tool

The crop tool is used to lop off (or crop) parts of an image, thus eliminating an unwanted area of the image.

Let's give it a test run! With an image up on your screen, select the crop tool and also bring up the control palette. Now move the tool onto your image and press and hold down the left mouse button and drag. As you can see this makes a square or rectangular area. The area inside the square/rectangle will be saved and the area on the outside will be cropped. Now on the control palette select "crop image". To erase the square or rectangle you made before you select "crop image", just right click on your mouse anywhere on the image to start again if needed. Don't worry about losing your image after you crop it. If you want it back to its original state, simply close the image window and select not to make changes. You can also select the Undo button if you have already cropped your image to return the image to its original state. Of course if you want to keep the changes, then select Yes to the prompt window (do you want to keep the changes) or select Save.

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