In this lesson we will cover some basics such as opening and saving images and more.
Extract the files from b02basoptzjh_v8-dl.zip located in the CC_Beg_Zips folder. This zip contains an image that you can use when we cover opening images. You can use an image you already have if you prefer.
There are some basic tasks that will need to be done most every time you work with PSP 8 and we will cover those here.
First you will either have to Open an existing image or create a New image.
To Open an image click on File (in the menu bar) and click on Open. A window (dialog) will pop up allowing you to browse to the image you want to open. Look in: is the folder (or directory) you are viewing. Under that is the files that are in that directory. To select a file just left click on it and click Open. Note: The Open dialog is a common windows dialog so we will not be covering how to use it.
Another option for opening an image is to use the Browse feature. Click File || Browse (click on File then click Browse). This will open the Browse dialog. The drives and directories (folders) are listed in the left section and thumbnails of the files in the currently selected directory are in the right section. Find the image you want to open and click on it then hit your Enter key. Optionally you can double click on the thumbnail or right click on it and select Open on the menu. Tip: You can open more then one image at once by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the thumbnails of all the images you want to open then hit Enter.
Open an image. Check out the menu bar. You will have more menus now. Click on Edit menu and you will see that you also have more options. Now close the image by clicking on the X in the title bar of the image or clicking File || Close.
Most of the time you will not want to use an existing image so you will need to create a New image. Click File || New [Ctrl+N] or click on the icon in the Button bar. This will bring up the following dialog:
PSP wants to know the size, type, and color depth of the image you want create. In most cases if you are doing a tutorial it will give you the settings you should put such as "200x200 Transparent 16 Million Colors". When you see something similar to the above you put the first number in white box beside width, put the second number in the white box beside height, make sure Color Depth is set to 16 Million Colors (24-bit) and put a check mark in front of Transparent.
OK lets explore this window a little bit. There are some things that are not said in "200x200 Transparent 16 Million Colors" like Units and Resolution. First units are always Pixels unless otherwise stated. As for resolution the default is 200 Pixels/inch however for graphics that are going to be used on the web or in e-mail then 72.00 Pixels/inch is the best choice. Another assumed default is the type of layer. Unless otherwise specified the default is Raster Background.
Now make sure the settings
in your New Image dialog are:
Width = 200 pixels
Height = 200 pixels
Resolution = 72.00 pixels
Background = Raster
Color Depth = 16 Million Colors (24 Bit)
Color = Transparent Checked
Click OK. You will now have a window with a chessboard type background. The
chessboard shows transparent (see thru) areas. You can change your Transparency
options on the Transparency tab in General Program Preferences (File || Preferences
|| General Program Preferences). Close the New image (File || Close).
Another way of getting an image into PSP is copy and paste. Right click on the butterfly image below and left click on Copy. Now go to PSP and click Edit || Paste || Paste as New Image. You should now have a copy of the butterfly image open in PSP.
Sometimes you want to work on image but you want to keep the original. PSP makes it easy. Open the original image (in this case we will use the butterfly image already open) and click Window || Duplicate (Shift+D). You should now have 2 copies of the butterfly image open.
Neither of the open images have been saved so when you go to close one of them PSP will ask you if you want to save it. Click No one the first one and Yes on the second one. This will open the Save As dialog (same as clicking File || Save As). If you had clicked File || Save the Save As dialog would have still open because the image had not been saved previously. If the image had been saved previously then PSP would have saved it (and any changes you made to it) with the existing name and format which replaces previously saved image.
Back to the Save As dialog that is currently open. Browse to where you want to save the file then type in a file name and click Save. Both the Save As dialog and the image close.
Now Open an image (File || Open) and then click (File || Save As) so we can explore the Save As dialog a little bit. The 2 parts of the Save As dialog I want to draw your attention to is the Save As Type drop-down list and the Options button.
If you click the little arrow beside the Save As type you will see a long list of formats you can save this image as. For our purposes we are only going to talk about Compuserve Graphics Interchange, Jpeg - Jfif Compliant, and Paint Shop Pro Image better known as GIF, JPG, and PSP.
GIF images allow you maintain the transparency of the image but reduces the number of colors to 256 which can reduce image quality depending on the number of colors in the original image. GIF files are also the common format for animated graphics. Tip: If you want to save as a gif file it is better to use File || Export || Gif Optimizer as it allows you more control and lets you see how your graphic is going to look in GIF format).
JPG does not decrease your color depth but any transparent areas will be filled in. The default color that is used to fill in transparent areas is White. This type (format) is the most commonly used when you save images.
PSP will maintain the images transparency, color, layers, and so on however it is not viewable on the web or in e-mails. It is only viewable by people who have PSP or another graphics program that allows you to view PSP files.
GIF and JPG are the most common file types seen on web pages and in e-mails. PSP is best used when you are working on a image and you want to save as you go. Tip: Save your image in PSP format when you first start and save it often as you work on it. When you are done if you want to put it on the web or send it through e-mail then Save As GIF or JPG or use the File || Export GIF/JPG Optimizers.
The Options button will show the Options for the currently selected Save As Type. For the purpose of this tutorial I am only going to tell you what the Options for JPG and PSP should be.
For JPG Standard with a Compression Factor of 15 is usually the best. The lower the Compression Factor is the higher the quality of the image but the file size is larger. The higher the Compression Factor is the lower the quality but the file size is smaller. Its up to you how much quality you want lose to have a smaller file size.
The PSP options are optional but I would suggest that you change them to Save as PSP 7 compatible file. PSP 8 files cannot be used in Animation shop or be viewed by anybody except those how have PSP 8. Note: You will also want to change the extension from .pspimage to .psp when saving.
Click cancel on the Save As dialog to close it.
Now that we know how to Open and image, create a New image, Copy/Paste an image, and Save images lets cover a few more things.
Color depth seems to be a common problem because it an image does not have the correct color depth several of the PSP options will be grayed out. As I mentioned earlier a GIF has a color depth of 256 colors. To make file sizes smaller there are a lot of images saved with a color depth of 256 or lower. In order for most of the options in PSP to work the image needs to have a color depth of at least 16 Million colors. To increase the color depth of an image click Image || Increase Color Depth || 16 Million Colors.
Another common problem seems to be Presets. Almost every feature in PSP enables you to save/use Presets. The problem is PSP always uses the last preset used which can be a problem if you need to use the default the Presets.
The first item in the Tool Options palette is Presets. Most dialogs also have a Presets. Whether it is the presets from Tool options or the presets on a dialog they all use the same icons so lets cover those so you know what they do.
The 
'Save
Preset' icon beside the preset box allows you to save the current preset
just type in what you want to name it then click Ok. The delete icon
deletes the currently selected preset just select the preset you want to
delete and click the 
delete
icon.
The most important icon though is the 
Reset
to Default icon which will set all the settings for that feature to what
they were when you installed PSP 8.
Since there is a big interest in plug-in filters I thought I would touch on the how to make them work in PSP. First I would suggest that you create a folder (directory) on your hard drive for filters outside of the PSP folders however most people put/install the filters into the PSP plugins folder. Next make sure you have Msvcrt10.dll and Plugin.dll in your Windows/System directory (System32 for Windows XP users). Install or extract the filter (depends or the filter some have to be installed) into the Plugins folder. If you installed/extracted the plugin to a folder outside of the PSP directory click File || Preference || File Locationsand click Plugins on the Left. Click Add on the right then click Browse. Browse to the Plugin folder and select it then click OK. Any future filters you put in the Plugins folder will automatically be available in PSP. The main thing here that seems to cause the most problems with filters is not having the Msvcrt10.dll and Plugin.dll files.
A couple more tips then we will be done. On the Edit menu you will see Redo and Undo options. The Undo option will undo the last action you performed. If you select it more then once then it will undo more actions. The Redo option will redo the last action you used Undo on. As with undo selecting Redo multiple times will redo multiple actions. You cannot Redo something until you Undo it. The number of actions you can undo depends on the Undo settings in File || Preferences || General Program Preferences.
File || Revert will remove all changes performed on an image since it's last save. There is not a way to redo them as PSP basically closes the existing image without saving it and reloads the saved one.
That's it I hope you learned a lot from this lesson without being too overwhelmed.