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Frames and Backgrounds
Working with frames and backgrounds in a scrapbook project with Paint
Shop Pro can be challenging if a few basic
procedures are not clear.
This tutorial is the result of a question I received from a Paint Shop
Pro user who was having some difficulty creating a nicely stacked
scrapbook page.
The confusion was, in part, due to a mis-understanding of the different
types of files when you download or buy a CD of scrapbook frames and
backgrounds and embellishments.
So let's start with the file types and there is only one thing you
really need to understand ...
File
Types
Most of the files you receive when you download or purchase a
scrapbooking CD will be a mixture of the following file types ...
- .png
- .jpg, and in some cases
- .psd
Of particular interest when working with frames and backgrounds are the
.png files. This is an example
of a .png frame ...
What separates this file type from a jpg file is the checkerboard
pattern inside the frame.
The checkerboard pattern means that particular area is transparent and
anything behind it will be visible through the frame.
Just think of a real world picture frame - it's placed on top of the
picture.
Anything that is behind the frame (the purple ribbon thing in this
case) will be
hidden.
The problem the new Paint Shop Pro user had was that she opened the png
file from her CD to check out the frame, liked what she saw and saved
it as a jpg file to her hard drive.
When she opened the the file later (it was now a jpg file) the
checkerboard pattern disappeared and was replaced by white which tends
to make the frame totally useless as a frame, doesn't it?
To prevent your .png files from becoming a ,jpg just copy the files
from
your frames and backgrounds CD directly onto your hard
drive. The .png's will stay .png's complete with their
transparencies.
Backgrounds
The background file type will be a .jpg file - this is a scaled down
version of a 12" X 12" background ...
The background will generally be the bottom layer in the layers palette
- the initial element of the stack.
Any images, frames and borders and embellishments will be built on
different layers
above the bottom layer.
Another great thing about working with frames and backgrounds with
Paint
Shop Pro is that their original color can be changed.
In this case the lavender background is not exactly what I would like.
The color change will be brought about by applying a Hue/Saturation/Lightness
adjustment to the background layer.
Color
Change with
Hue/Saturation/Lightness
This is the Hue/Saturation/Lightness palette which is found right here
- Adjust > Hue
and Saturation > Hue/Saturation/Lightness ...
The settings shown here produced this color on the background ... when
you make a color change make note of the number so they can be applied
to other elements (like the frame, for instance) of the project.
The numbers for the background are Saturation 42, Hue 191, Lightness
24.
Now because background is blue it seems like a good idea to make
the frame a similar, but not the same color as well, don't you think?
If you copied down the settings from the background color change then
it is an easy task to change the color of the frame as well - but maybe
just a bit darker or lighter.
I chose a bit darker and here it is (Saturation
42, Hue 191, Lightness
-14) ...
Now we have two important elements ready to go - the fame and
the background. Let's put them together ...
Moving
The Frame Onto the Background
The frames and backgrounds need to be open in Paint Shop Pro.
My preference is to move everything onto the background - it
just seems reasonable, somehow.
Make the Frame the active image and then ...
- Select All - Selections
> Select All (Ctrl+A)
- Copy - Edit
>
Copy (Ctrl+C)
Switch over to the Background as the active
image and then ...
Edit > Paste
As New Layer (Ctrl+V)
This is what the Layers Palette looks like now ...
Now an image can be pasted in as a third layer and dragged below the
Frame layer and above the Background layer to create a great look.
Notice that the Background is showing through the transparent
part of the Frame - that is what the png file does for you.
Making
Things Fit
Sometimes the frame is too small or too big or doesn't match the shape
of the background so some fiddling is required. Here's the
frame on this background ...
Now that isn't particularly useful, is it?
There are a few things that can be done to get things right in the
frames and backgrounds project ...
- Upsize the Frame and crop out any extra background, or
- Downsize the Frame and move it to a different
position on the Background.
Cropping down the Background is not a good solution because the page
would be too small.
Upsizing the Frame and cropping out extra Background is a better
solution but the end product will be a non-standard size.
If text will be added then downsizing the frame may be the best
solution.
Whatever choice is made, the re-sizing will be done with the Pick Tool
- 
On
the frames and backgrounds layer palette select the Frame layer and
click on the Frame with the Pick Tool (the image to the left
is just a portion of the frames and backgrounds combination).
The bounding box will appear with all of those little red handles and
the spinny thing in the middle.
You can rotate the Frame by spinning the central point.
The Frame can be made larger or smaller by placing the Pick Tool over
one of the corners.
A little square will appear and then drag the point to keep the same
ratio of length to width while making the Frame bigger or smaller (this
maintains the aspect ratio of the frame).
If you drag on the red points in the middle of the Frame it will make
the Frame wider or taller.
When you are done click on another tool to exit the Pick Tool.
After a bit of fiddling around here is the new combination of Frames
and
Background with some rotation added to the frame ...
This particular frame is great for a portrait image but will be
limiting if you are going to insert a landscape image in the frame.
That's much more useful and now it's time to add an image ...
Adding
The Image
This is the photograph that is going to go in the frame ...
The size of the image is 3200 pixels X 2400 pixels which will likely be
much bigger than the frame.
 The same procedure was followed
with the image as with the Frame.
Activate the photograph and Select
All (Ctrl+A).
Copy with Edit >
Copy (Ctrl+C).
Activate the Frames and Backgrounds image and Paste As New Layer (Ctrl+V).
The layer palette now shows three layers. The top
one is the new image which needs to go below the frame layer.
The next step is to drag the top layer (Rose of Sharon) below the Frame
layer - this is done by clicking the image layer and then just dragging
it below the frame. This will place it in the right spot in
the
layers palette for
the next step which is to resize the image (or the frame)...
Modifying
The Image
Here's how things look now with the Rose of Sharon layer dragged below
the Frame layer and the layers palette ...
Things are coming along nicely in our frames and backgrounds page but
there is an obvious problem with the
Frame and the Image - something is too big (the image) or something is
too small the frame).
The good thing is that both can be modified - the Frame can be enlarged
or the photograph can be made smaller - so lets try both with the Pick
Tool ...
Adjusting The Frame
By now this should be simple. Active the Frame layer and grab
the Pick Tool - .
Click on the Frame and place your cursor over one of the corner handles
(the red dots) until a little Rectangle appears. Left click
and drag the Frame to make it larger.
When you reach the edge of the image move the Frame to see how it looks
and re-adjust if necessary.
This is what happened (a zoomed in view) ...
Getting it right took a bit of messing around and re-sizing and here it
is - not too bad!
Adjusting The Image
There are two ways to do this - one is to erase unwanted parts of the
image to fit the Frame and the other is to downsize the image with the
Pick Tool. You might think that cropping would be a good idea
but it can be quite annoying actually.
If you crop in the Frame and Background layers then the whole thing is
cropped, not just the picture.
You can crop the image before adding it to the stack if you wish,
however.
Downsize The Image
Activate the Rose of Sharon layer, grab the Pick Tool and click on the
image so the little handles appear.
Hover over one of the corner handles and re-size the image down so it
is close to the size of the Frame. Release the mouse button
and use the Pick Tool to drag the image behind the Frame.
This is how it looks (I left the Pick Tool framework for reference ...
The picture has not been modified in any way, just made to fit the
Frame.
Looks OK, right? And there is a lot of space for some text.
Erase Unwanted
Parts
This is an easy way to make things fit - now it may seem to be just too
easy and basic but darn - it works really well.
Before erasing take a good look at the image to determine how much you
want visible through the Frame.
If
it needs to be up or down sized grab the Pick Tool and adjust 'till you
get what you want and then have at it with the eraser - make sure the
image layer is selected!
Here is the page with the unwanted parts erased ...
Finishing
Up
You can leave the whole thing as is on the frames and backgrounds
project - with three layers but there is
one more thing you can do to tighten things up and that is to Merge the
Image and Frame layers together.
When that is done you can move the resulting layer around wherever you
want.
This easy to do - activate the top layer in the stack - in this case
the Frame Layer - and then click Layers
> Merge > Merge Down.
This
will merge the Frame and the Rose of Sharon layers together into one
new layer which you can move around, rotate, resize and do things like
add a drop shadow to the layer.
This one has the frame and picture rotated with a drop shadow and some
text with a drop shadow.
Once you understand how to work with frames and backgrounds your
scrapbook projects will be much, much easier.
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Frames and Backgrounds Page Links
Files Types
Backgrounds
Color
Change with Hue/ Saturation/Lightness
Moving the
Frame onto a Background
Making
Things Fit
Adding
the Image
Modifying the Image
Finishing
Up
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