Paint Shop Pro
Lesson Preliminaries
Before we start, there are certain preliminaries we need to address:
1. I can't possibly send a piece of clipart to so many and in any case there could be copyright problems if we put something on Roz's "open" web site. I have chosen therefore, to work with a small section of the daisies.jpg in Paint Shop Pro's browser. See File/browser. Click on C: The same collection is in PSP 3 and 4
2. I must put out the material so that people can work at their own pace and with Christmas around the corner, we are all going to be busy, so there will be clear instructions for you to follow on the open Machine Knit List. I will keep a copy of all I send and receive from you. Anything for open discussion can go directly to the List. Everynow and again I will put out an update of people's comments & experiences and invite discussion from the List.
3. The colour reduction method
will involve using the Color palette options which in PSP are
particularly efficient, but there will be principles which can
apply to DAK (to a less extent Creation 6 et al) and indeed, you
can move the graphic to DAK at any time and try the Replace
function. Please read and print out my message on the RGB color
system. (colour is UK English for color!)
Some queries/concerns so far:
1. Computer specifications - Win 3.1, 4 megs ram works with PSP 3: Win95 with PSP3 or 4. We work with a 256 color resolution, so see your option is changed from 16.7 million colors to 256, 640x480res.
2.Graphics formats are "languages" in which pictures/designs/drawings are stored and which give shape to them on the screen. There are 2 main types of graphics - vector which come in lines, each line an object in its own right - these are dealt with in CAD (computer aided design) programs like Corel Draw; and raster which come in dots (pixels or pels) - these are paint program units of design and are our concern because for knitting and stitching - each pixel (or collection on a grid) is a stitch. There are a lot of raster formats - pcx, gif, jpeg or jpg, cut, tif, gif etc are all compressed while bmp, Windows native format, is not. PAT is DAK's special format and is not recognised by other programs - that is why we have the clipboard option or saving on disk in PCX etc
3. PSP4 (shareware) can be down-loaded from the Jasc site but it is often included on magazine cover disks. Keep a look out in your local newsagents/ PC store for a bargain.
4. Difficulty with downloading
clip art from the Internet - you can at any time, press Prt Sc on
the keyboard and the whole page will go into the clipboard as a
bmp graphic. Open Paint/Paintbrush or PSP and Edit/Paste. With
the Selection tool (dotted rectangle) select the bit of the page
you
want, then Edit/Copy. File/Ne, then Edit/Paste and your piece of
clip art or whatever, will land on the screen. I can't do this
for public consumption because I respect the copyright situation.
5. DAK & 24 stitch punchcard machines - I think you can learn so much from this and then DAK will be your best bet.
6. No, you don't need a scanner for this exercise, but anything you scan and it can be fabric as well as photos, paper, plastic etc - should be saved as jpg or gif for processing in PSP or similar.
6.Frightened of the computer? I am too and Win 95 and the Internet certainly give me the creeps every now and again - I do not understand what it is going on some of the time. However, when I get ideas - then I forget to be scared and plunge in. That is when the fun begins.
That's it for the moment, folks - except I'm sending a photo of me taken 5 years ago at a workshop - I'm greyer now and a bit heavier. You may be able to put a face to whom you are dealing with. Look out for the lesson in the next day or so.
Best wishes Kathleen
Kathleen Kinder
k.kinder@daelnet.co.uk
Feel free to make copies of the
Graphic Lesson for your personal use. The following copyright
notice must appear on all copies
Copyright (c)Kathleen Kinder, 1997, 1998.