How to Make a Graphic Smoky in Paint Shop Pro

When you need to make a graphic smoky use Paint Shop Pro. It's a user-friendly program with built-in or easily acquired filters. Most of the filters are free. If you want a graphic to look smoky or like a ghost you can download a free filter and use it in Paint Shop Pro to edit it. Follow these steps to learn how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Visit the Flaming Pear website and download the ghost filter for Paint Shop Pro. Install the filter by creating a folder for plug-ins then place the ghost filter folder in it. Click on "File," "Preferences" and "File Locations." Locate the "Plug-ins" tab at the top of the box and check the first three boxes. Click on "Browse" to locate your folder and your filter is installed.

2. Pick out the tube that you want to make smoky. Hit "Shift+D" to copy it. Close the original file.

3. Click on "Effects," "Plug-in Filters," "Flaming Pear" and locate the ghost filter in the pop-up menu. The graphic should now be white. Click on "Colors" and "Negative Image."

4. Apply a Gaussian Blur by clicking on "Effects," "Blur" and "Gaussian Blur." Make the radius 1.0 or less.

5. Create a drop shadow and make the vertical and horizontal offset 3. The opacity is between 50 and 80 and the blur between 4 and 15. These settings are necessary to make the graphic appear smoky.

6. Copy and paste onto another background if you desire. Paste it as a new layer so that you can still adjust the transparency of it if needed.

Resources

• Flaming Pear Website