Layers 1

Something new. Layers were not covered at all in PSP101 so we will start at the beginning. A Paint Shop Pro graphic can consist of many layers, each with something different on. You can look upon layers as a stack of transparent sheets, each one with their own drawing on. You can remove or rearrange them, or fit new ones in.

Open a new graphic 400 x 80 with a white background. Now open the Layer Palette window. Do this by clicking on the in the top tool bar, or press keyboard letter L. This will display this window.

This shows the layers for the graphic you just opened. So far there is only the base background layer. Click on the New Layer button. This will open the Layer Properties window.

For the moment we will make no changes here, although you should note that you can give your layers a meaningful name other than Layer1 etc. Click OK and your Layer Palette should look like this now.

By clicking on the spectacles to the right of the layer you can make the layer visible or invisible. To work on a particular layer you just click on that layer. In this view, both layers are visible, and Layer1 is selected for working on. When a layer is visible, it will cover any layers beneath it unless there are some transparent areas in that layer. A newly created layer is transparent.

This graphic has 2 layers. The bottom layer has the word Hello in green, and the top layer (Layer1) has a Driftwod pattern flood fill. You cannot see the text because it is hidden by the top filled layer.

If you turn off Layer1 by clicking on the spectacles you will just see the background layer and the text.

When you have many layers you can see what is in each layer by holding the mouse pointer over the layer. You can see here that there really is the word "Hello" on the Background layer.

Right clicking on any of the layers will bring up a menu with a full list of options.

Let us have a look at some of the things we can do using layers.

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