How to Make Your Own Picture Tubes for Paint Shop Pro

Picture tubes "stamp" a collection of images across a background or another image. To make your own, you will need a few images to work with. These instructions work for Paint Shop Pro 5.0 and above.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computers
• Paint Shop Pro

Creating the Tube

1. Make sure the images you're using are all the same size in pixels. (See "How to Resize a Picture in a Paint Program" for instructions.)

2. Start Paint Shop Pro. From the File menu, choose Preferences. Select General Program Preferences.

3. Click on the Rulers and Units tab. On the right side of the box, change the horizontal and vertical spacing to match the size of the images you're using for the tube. (If the images are 100 by 100 pixels, use 100 here.)

4. Press the Change button next to the line color box. Change the line color to black.

5. Click OK.

6. Select New from the File menu. Set the dimensions to match the number and width of your tube images. (For example, use 400 wide for four images that are 100 pixels wide and 100 high if your images are 100 pixels high.) Use a transparent background color and a setting of 16.7 million colors. Select OK.

7. Click on the View menu and select Grid. The grid lines will appear on your new image.

8. Open the first image to be used.

9. Click on the Magic Wand tool and select the background (for images with a solid background). Select Invert from the Selections menu. Select other types of images using the Freehand Selection tool (which resembles a lasso).

10. Select Copy from the Edit menu, then click on the title bar of the grid graphic. Select Edit, then click Paste and choose Paste as New Selection.

11. Center the pasted image in the first of the four boxes and click to deselect.

12. Follow the same procedure to paste the remaining images.

13. Select Export from the File menu. Choose the Picture Tube option.

14. Type the number of grid boxes across the page in the Cells Across box. In the Cells Down box, type the number of grid boxes down the page.

15. Choose the Placement Selection options as desired.

16. Type a new name for the file in the Tube Name box and click OK.

Testing the Tube

1. Close all images and select New from the File menu. If the grid still appears, click the Edit button and click on Grid. The checkmark next to the box will disappear.

2. Choose the Picture Tube button from the toolbar. The Picture Tube button resembles a paintbrush with a stamp above it.

3. From the Controls box, select the name of the tube you created from the pull-down menu.

4. Click several times on the new image to "stamp" images from the picture tube.

Tips & Warnings

• Because picture tubes are a collection of images, each image should be similar to the next image in the group. For example, a Christmas picture tube might contain several different colors and/or styles of Christmas tree ornaments.

• By varying the dimensions you set when you create the tube document, you can set up your tube grid any way you like - all your images vertically down the page, in a square, whatever.

• Use the scale option on the Tube Controls box to enlarge or decrease the size of the images stamped by the tube.

• Use picture tubes to add images to an existing graphic. For example, you can add ornaments to a Christmas tree using an ornaments tube.