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Dings and Things Tag

This tutorial is written for Paint Shop Pro 8, but can be done in PSP 7 and 9 if you are familiar with them.  Some items may be on different menus and slightly different settings.

You will need a dingbat font.  I used Butterflies - you can download it HERE  There is also a large selection of other dingbat fonts on this site - click on Themes and look under Dingbats. Download your dingbats to a folder.  There is NO need to unzip them to your windows fonts folder, unzip them in a folder called Dingbats, anywhere on your hard drive (so long as you can find it).  When you have unzipped your font, open the folder you've unzipped it to, and double click on the font file (font files are the ones that end in .ttf).  Then minimize the font window (don't close it).

The text font I used is Adorable or use whatever font you like. You can use text fonts in the same way as given above for dingbats - you don't have to put them in the windows font folder.  If you do put them in the windows font folder, go to Control Panel and double click the Fonts icon after you've unzipped them. This will make sure they are imported into windows correctly.


 

Create a new image 300 to 400 (depending on length of name) pixels wide and 300 high, white background, raster.

 

Click on the Flood Fill tool

 

On the materials pallet, set the foreground color to a medium shade of any color (whatever color you want the tag).  Set to solid color. 

Set the background color to white.

Click the All Tools box (Lock on PSP 7).  If its already ticked, untick it and tick it again.

 

Click on your image to fill the canvas with the foreground color.

Adjust menu, Add/Remove Noise, Add Noise

Uniform, 20 %

 

 

On the materials pallet, click on the foreground colour block, and make a note of the Hue and Saturation numbers.

Adjust menu, Hue and Saturation, Colorize

Adjust settings to the values for Hue and Saturation that you noted down from the color window.

 


number from materials pallet

 

Layers menu, New Vector Layer

 

Click on the Pen tool (Draw tool on PSP 7)

Set the following Tool Options

Line Style = solid line
Line Width = 10
Segment Type = Line Segment (single line on PSP 7)
Create As Vector = ticked

On the Materials Pallet, set the foreground material to Gradient and then click the large gradient block to set the options:

Gradient = Foreground - Background
Style = Linear
Angle = 0
Repeats = 1
Invert = unticked

Now draw a line....

Start near the top, left corner of the canvas and, holding down the SHIFT key on the keyboard, drag with the mouse to draw a vertical line approximately 3/4 the hight of the canvas (250 pixels)

When you finish your line, click the Object Selector tool (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI)

 

 

 

On the keyboard, press Ctrl C (or click copy on the tool bar).

Move your mouse a little to the right of the line you've just drawn

One the keyboard, press Ctrl G (Edit menu, Paste, Paste As New Vector Selection).  Use the Object Selector to position this line slightly lower than the previous one.

Repeat pasting a copy of the line, and moving it down twice more (so you have 4 lines in total).

Use the Object Selector to position the last line so that its bottom end is a little above the bottom of the canvas (about 10 pixels - the same width as the line)

 

Look at the Layers Pallet.  Click on the + sign next to the top (Vector) layer.

 

You should see the vertical lines listed as individual items.  On PSP 8 they are named "New Shape" and on PSP 7 they are named "line",

  

Hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard and click on each line/shape on the layer pallet, until all 4 are showing in bold on the layer pallet.

 


objects become bold as they are selected

 

Objects menu, Distribute, Vertical Top

Objects menu, Distribute, Horizontal Left

Objects menu, Group

Now you can use the Object Selector to adjust the position, height and width of the block of lines, and because we have "grouped" them they will keep their even spacing.  When you are happy with their position, continue...

 

Layers menu, Convert To Raster Layer

Effects menu, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow

Horizontal =1
Vertical = 1
Opacity = 70
Blur = 2
Color = Black
Shadow on New Layer = unticked

 

Layers menu, New Vector Layer

Look at the windows task bar (at the bottom of your screen) and make sure you can see your fonts listed there.  If you can't, open the font files and minimize them (unless you have installed them in your windows font folder - see instructions at top of page)

Click on the Text Tool

On the Materials pallet, set the background color to Null

Set the font to the dingbat font you want to use to create the graphic on your tag.

Stroke width = 3, Create As Vector!!!
Font Size = 72

Click on the canvas, just to the right of the middle.  Try out letters in the Text Entry box until you find a graphic you like. 

Note: Some dingbat fonts only have things on capitals and some only on lowercase - Butterflies has graphics on capitals A-E and all the lowercase  letters. (I used capital E). Also some use stroke (foreground) color and others background and some both, so with other fonts you may need to set up your background material with the same gradient as used for the foreground material.

When you've got a graphic you like, click Apply.

Click on the Object Selector tool (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI).

Use the Object Selector to stretch the graphic if you want it bigger, and rotate it if you want to (its best to stretch before rotating).

 

 

Click on the Text tool again and change the font to a text font (I used Adorable). 

Again, whether you use a stroke (foreground) material  and stroke width, as well as a fill (background) material depends on what looks best for the font you have chosen.

Add you text, and then click on the Object Selector tool.  Use it to move, and stretch your text so that it is a good fit.  You can also adjust the size and position of the dingbat graphic if you need to.

 

Layers menu, Convert To Raster Layer

Effects menu, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow - use the same settings as before.

Layers menu, Merge, Merge All (Flatten)

 

PSP 7  - set the background color to something a bright, contrasting color.

Image, Add Borders

Set the color to a bright, contrasting color (we are going to replace it)
Make sure the Symetric box is ticked
Set the size to 15.

Click on the Magic Wand selection tool

Mode = Replace
Match Mode = RGB Value
Tolerance = 0
Anti-Alias = ticked (smooth on PSP 9)

Click on the border - you should see marching ants around the border.

Click on the Flood Fill tool

PSP 7 - set the background color back to white

On the Materials pallet, set the foreground material to gradient and then click the gradient block to set the gradient options.

Gradient = Foreground - Background
Style = Linear
Angle = 0
Repeats = 1
Invert = unticked

Click on the border to fill it with the gradient.

Effects menu, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow - same settings as before. 

Repeat the Drop Shadow, changing the Horizontal and Vertical settings to -1

Selections menu, Select None

PSP 7 - swap the foreground and background colors on the color pallet by clicking the double pointed arrow.

Image menu, Add Borders

Right click on the color block and then select the foreground color. 
Make sure the Symetric box is ticked
Set the border size to 1 pixel

 

 

Save as .jpg file.