How to Composite Images With Paint Shop Pro

Paint Shop Pro has the ability to make composites of two or more images. You can either combine any two images into a third image or take several layered images, adjust the opacity and make a merged image to create a number of interesting new images.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Combining Two Images

1. Open the two images you wish to combine.

2. Choose "Arithmetic" from the "Image" menu. This will open the Arithmetic dialog.

3. Select an image from the "Image No. 1" dropdown list and an image from the "Image No. 2" dropdown list. The image you select from the "Image No. 1" list determines what size the combined image will be; the appearance will otherwise be the same regardless of which of the two images is Image No. 1 and which is Image No. 2.

4. Pick a method for combining the images from the "Function" group box: Add, Subtract, Multiply, Difference, Lightest, Darkest, Average, (Binary) Or, (Binary) And or (Binary) And/Or.

5. Mark the "All channels" check box to use all three color channels (red, green, blue) from both images in the combined image. To use only one of the color channels from each image, select that channel for each image. The combined image will be a 24-bit image.

6. Include the modifier options of your choice from the "Modifiers" group box: Divisor, Bias or Clip Color Values.

7. Click "OK" to combine the images.

Compositing With Layers

8. Open the images you wish to composite. You may wish to first save the images in Paint Shop Pro's native format and then open those versions of the images.

9. Decide which image is to be the background image. Note this image's dimensions. Choose one of the other images, then select "Copy" from the "Edit" menu.

10. Go to the background image, then select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu and "Paste As New Layer" from the "Paste" submenu.

11. Display the Layer palette by selecting "Toolbars" from the "View" menu, then checking the box in front of "Layer palette" from the Toolbars dialog.

12. Slide the opacity slider for the copied layer to the left to increase the transparency of the pasted layer, allowing the background layer to show through.

13. Repeat Steps 3 through 6 for any additional images you wish to add.

14. Merge the layers into a single image by selecting "Merge" from the "Layers" menu. Save the composite image by choosing "Save As" from the "File" menu and giving it a new name.

Tips & Warnings

• If the composite doesn't look right, it may be because the upper layers are smaller than the background layer. If this is the case, click the Undo button to undo the paste, reopen the image used as the layer and save it in the dimensions of the background image. You may instead crop the composite image to the dimensions of the upper layer.
• Consider the color depth of the images when you composite them as layers. You may wish to re-save all of the images in the same color depth before you begin.