The ability to work with layers in a graphic was added to PaintShopPro with version 5. The best way to think of layers is to imagine as many sheets of clear plastic as you wish (welll... limited somewhat by your system memory and I believe an upper limit of 100 for the program, far more than one would normally desire). Each layer can contain different parts of your image while you work on it so that you can edit one part without changing another part.

The first, background layer, automatically appears with any image you open. With a new image, it contains the background color you have chosen in the new image dialog box. Every layer you add starts out as transparent and remains so unless you add a background color to it although you can then adjust the opacity of the layer, showing more or less of the layers underneath. To understand working with layers, you really need to just plunge in and start experimenting with them. [NOTE: PSP5 has only the one type of layer, PSP6 adds vector and adjustment layers but for these exercises we will stick to PSP5.]

When you first open an image, you have one layer, the background layer. If it is an existing image, the entire image will be the background image (unless it is a psp file you have already added layers to). A new image will have the background color you chose in the New Image Dialogy Box. The LAYER PALETTE (shown to the left) is your *command central* for working with layers.

• Open a new image, 300x300, with a black background.

• Make sure your LAYER PALETTE is visible. If it is not, the L key will make it appear or you can choose it from View... Toolbars or activate it by clicking the View Layer Palette button on the toolbar.

• Click on the new layer button on the Layer Palette. Don't change anything in the new Layer Dialog Box except name the layer text.

• Using a light color, put your name in text. (I used Curlz font, bold size 48 and then used the chisel effect on it.) Deselect the text using the menubar: Selections... Select None; or by using CtrlD on the keyboard.

• Make a new layer and call it splotch.

• Use a nice bright color (I chose purple) and using the airbrush, cover up your text.

1. Try moving the Opacity Slider left and right on the Splotch Layer. Opacity is the *thickness* of the layer and determines how much of the layer(s) below it you can see through anything you have put on the layer on which you are adjusting the opacity.

   All the way to the right ( 100% ) is completely opaque and you can see nothing through it. With the slider all the way to the left ( 0% ), it is totally transparent. The image to the left shows the purple splotch at 80% and 50% opacity.

2. Return the slider to the right - 100% Opacity - and click and drag the text layer button up above the splotch layer (or the drag the splotch layer below the text layer). Presto-Chango, the text now resides on top of the splotch. You can rearrange all layers above the background layer.

3. Now, try playing with the different blends on the layer blend mode dropdown list. The effects here vary from image to image, from layer to layer.

   Experiment with the layer blend modes on the Layer Palette and with other effects and tools in PSP. With layers in use, you work and change only the layer you are on!

   You can also move a layer from one image to another so if you like the purple splotch and want to use it in a different image you are working on or have an exact duplicate with different text you can click and drag it over to another image or delete the text layer and create a new one.

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   One last bit of fun... while our session worked on this tutorial, some forgot to deselect the text on the text layer and with apparent problems with their air brush settings (due to the text selection masking off most of the area) tried making their splotch with tube images. This is one way to *create* letters out of objects... see below:
   or, using the underlying text layer as a *pattern* - harder to read but buggier looking