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PhotoPlus X8 User Guide

1. HSL Dropper tools The HSL Adjustment now provides Add Colour and Subtract Colour droppers 16 Bits Channel plugin support 16 Bits channel Photoshop compatible plugins are now available to use natively while your document is in 16 Bits channel mode Creative effects Extra blend modes see p 30 Linear Burn and Linear Light complement the existing set of blend modes Welcome Faster Surface Blur Previously only available in the Filter Gallery the filter can now be applied via Effects gt Blur The filter applies a blur without affecting image edges Defringe for removing pixel edging A useful matting option to eliminate unwanted pixels at the edge of pasted layer content More effects in Lab 8 or 16 Bits Channel mode We ve made more effects available for Lab Noise Reduction in RGB 16 Bits Channel is also possible Add Noise The Add Noise filter now supports both colour noise and monochromatic noise 5 6 Welcome Installation Installing PhotoPlus follows different procedures depending on whether you are installing from disc or via download e You can install your new version alongside previous versions and use them independently e 32 or 64 bit PhotoPlus X8 installs to respective 32 or 64 bit computers Installation procedure from disc e Insert your purchased disc into your disc drive e If AutoPlay is enabled on the drive this automatically starts the Setup Wizard Follow the on screen instructions
2. To save your PhotoPlus Picture SPP Click the I Save button on the Standard toolbar or to save under a different path or base name choose File gt Save As To save your currently open image If you ve altered the background layer only and no layers paths or masks have been added you can save without prompt the altered image to its current base name via Save and Save As or If you ve added layers paths etc when you click a Save option you ll be asked if you want to keep the project information e Inthe dialog click Yes to save your project information as an SPP file or Click No to save as a flattened image i e without layers To revert an image file Click Revert from the File menu Opening Saving and Organizing 19 Using plugins PhotoPlus supports non automated Adobe Photoshop compatible plugin filters e g Topaz and Filter Forge plugins which if located in your PhotoPlus Plugins folder will appear on the Effects menu 32 bit plugins will only run in 32 bit PhotoPlus and 64 bit plugins in 64 bit PhotoPlus To apply a plugin filter e Choose it from Effects gt Plugin Filters Either the effect will be applied immediately or the plugin will display its own dialog Placing images PhotoPlus lets you import images that can be used to supplement existing content in your document You ll be able to resize the image once placed and apply adjustments and effects non destructively To pla
3. 1 For online video written tutorials help tips 9 Learn amp tricks and more all via an updating feed that can be filtered The Product Help and your electronic PhotoPlus X8 User Guide are also provided For cross product news company news and News product announcements using Serif s news feed Any time you access the Startup Assistant the Learn or News buttons indicate the number of new articles to be viewed if available This number will decrease as you read each article in the Learn or News pane When new articles arrive these will be indicated the next time you open the Startup Assistant 12 Opening Saving and Organizing Any new unread article arriving in the Learn or News pane will display a new indicator in its thumbnail Once you ve clicked on a new article the new indicator changes to a read indicator Don t forget to use the keyword Search box at the top right of the Startup Assistant This is an incredibly powerful tool for filtering specific file names Learn articles or News articles K To access the Startup Assistant when PhotoPlus is already running choose Startup Assistant from the File menu Starting from scratch PhotoPlus lets you create an image from scratch which is based on a pre defined canvas size e g 10 x 8 in Different canvas size options are available from a range of categories International US Paper Photo Video Web or Animation You can also create your own
4. Cropping to a selection You can also crop an image to any selection area no matter what shape as defined with one of the selection tools If the Rectangle or Ellipse Selection Tool is used you can make your selection a Fixed Size defined in pixels from the tool s Context toolbar To crop the image to the selection 1 Make your selection 2 Choose Crop to Selection from the Image menu Trimming images The Trim feature lets you remove unwanted transparent areas at the edge of your image This clips your canvas to the outer border of your image intelligently trimming all edges of your image simultaneously Before After image on layer showing unwanted transparent area 76 Manipulating Images To trim an image From the Image menu select Trim Flipping and rotating Flipping and rotating are standard manipulations that you can carry out on the whole image the active layer a path or just on a selection Flips are used to change the direction of a subject s gaze fix composition and so on whereas rotation is an orientation tool for general purpose use Rotate Rotate 15 anti clockwise 10 clockwise Manipulating Images 77 To flip 1 From the Image menu select either Flip Horizontally or Flip Vertically 2 Choose Image Layer Selection or Path from the submenu To rotate 1 From the Image menu select Rotate 2 From the flyout menu select an option based on the object Image Laye
5. Graphics PNG h Photoshop PSD Tagged Image File Format TIF Only SPP and Photoshop PSD formats Autotraced Metafile WMF information preserves image information such as multiple layers masks or image map data Preview File format Displays Size and resampling settings Format Portable Network Graphics PNG Bit Depth 32 24 8 4 i 64 4 CMY Grey Grey 15bps Format specific settings View and Zoom Printing and Exporting 113 The Export dialog consists of a right hand preview display single dual or quad and a left hand settings region Dual and quad previews let you test and compare between different export formats in each pane simply select a preview pane and then test various quality settings change format specific options or resize before going ahead with your optimized file s export Exporting images To export an image 1 From the File menu select Export 2 Inthe Export dialog use the Options tab to specify the Export Area resampling method file Format and format specific options such as bit depth dithering palette and compression 3 Review your optimized image and when you re happy with it click Export 4 From the Save As dialog choose a folder and enter a file name The export format and custom settings will be remembered for future exports Click Save 114 Printing and Exporting Additional Information 116 Additional Informa
6. Image Adjustments 45 To apply an adjustment using custom settings 1 Review the available adjustments in the Filters section before expanding the adjustment you want to apply by clicking Expand 2 Modify the adjustment using sliders check boxes graph adjustments and drop down lists The image will be adjusted automatically to reflect the new settings in the preview window The adjustment filter is enabled once a setting is changed i e the I Enable disable filter option becomes enabled m 3 Click OK A filter layer is created To reset and disable a modified adjustment e Click Reset settings on the adjustment s pane To edit PhotoFix adjustments e Double click the PhotoFix entry on the filter layer To apply a standard mask Pe 1 Select Create mask from the main toolbar The Mask entry appears in the Filters section opened by clicking Expand 2 Optional Adjust the settings in the Mask pane 3 Using the cursor paint the regions to be masked 4 Optional Click the Invert option to invert your mask i e areas that were masked become unmasked and vice versa 5 Apply your adjustment from the Filters section which will make a change to your masked regions a 6 Clickon Create mask again to deactivate masking 46 Making Image Adjustments Adding Image Effects 48 Adding Image Effects Overview Applying special effects Special effects such as distort blur shar
7. Layer Effects tab select a category then click a gallery thumbnail e To make the effect smaller or larger drag the Scale slider fx If you want to have complete flexibility when creating 3D effects you can click Add Layer Effects on the Layers tab The dialog is shared for both 2D and 3D effects simply check the 3D Effects box and enable other 3D check boxes as appropriate For more information about creating 3D filter effects see PhotoPlus Help Adding Image Effects 59 Using Warp Studio The Warp Studio is an exciting feature in PhotoPlus that lets you move your image s pixels around using a variety of brush based tools You can deform the image s pixels in equally subtle and dramatic ways as if your image had a liquid surface 2 it a a F Q 7 The tools are also supported by a masking feature which paints protected regions that act as a barrier against warping effects You can even include already selected regions layer masks and layer transparency in Warp Studio For more subtle warps a mesh grid can be applied over your image to easily indicate areas of change For both features see PhotoPlus Help for more information Warp Cool overview The vertical toolbar on the left of the Warp Studio offers all your warping tools 60 Adding Image Effects The Ne Elastic Warp Tool shifts pixels in the direction of brush motion hence the appearance of pulli
8. PSD 14 112 PSP 14 QuickShape Selection Tool 63 QuickShape tools 89 QuickShapes 90 Radial gradient fill 86 Rasterize 25 raw images 14 38 rectangle drawing 89 selecting 63 red eye removing 44 resizing images 65 resolution 66 Revert 18 RGB colour mode 105 rotating 76 Rule of thirds 74 saved work 11 opening 15 saving an image 18 scanning 17 Select All Layers 25 selection cropping to 75 defining region 62 text 97 Selection tools 63 Serif contacting 116 shadows layer effect 57 shape layers 23 Shape Edit Tool 92 shape layers 89 rasterizing 25 shaped regions 63 shapes drawing 89 sharpening 44 size canvas 13 66 image 65 Smart Selection Brush 64 Solid fill 86 SPP PhotoPlus Picture 18 square drawing 89 selecting 63 Square gradient fill 86 Standard Eraser 82 standard layers 23 Startup Assistant 10 13 15 Straighten Tool 68 straightening 42 68 support 116 system requirements 7 technical support 116 text 95 creating selection in shape of 97 layers 23 95 using layer effects on 56 Text Selection Tool 64 97 Text Tool 95 Index 123 TIF 112 Tilt correction 41 Topaz plug ins 19 transparency 26 gradient 86 trimming 75 TWAIN WIA image acquiring 17 twirl tools 60 vector shapes 89 vignetting fixing lens 42 44 warp effects 59 Warp Studio 59 Welcome 2 What s New 3 white balance 44 WIA TWAIN image acquiring 17
9. adjustments applying filter effects and so much more all the way to final export Built in support for most modern digital cameras makes it easy to open your very own digital photos either as JPG or as unprocessed raw images PhotoPlus also offers powerful on computer post shoot development using Import Raw where you re in full control of your raw image s white balance and exposure and can perform blown highlight recovery For image corrections adjustments filter effects including stunning artistic effects or layer cutouts try Lens Correction PhotoFix Filter Gallery and Cutout Studio respectively There is also an impressive range of standalone adjustments and advanced editing tools to help you get the very best from your images PhotoPlus and PhotoStack in combination PhotoPlus takes care of all your image creation and photo editing needs However if you re looking to take a step back from photo editing and manage your collection of photos or scanned images you can use PhotoStack Using the program you ll still be able to edit photos in PhotoPlus on demand Welcome 3 Registration Don t forget to register your new copy using the Registration Wizard on the Help menu That way we can keep you informed of new developments and future upgrades New features e High DPI support Windows display scaling is supported with automatic selection of suitably sized sharp looking buttons controls and menus so for very high
10. creates a filled bitmap of the shape or straight line on any selected raster layer e g the Background layer 90 Painting Drawing and Text Creating additional shapes Shape layers can store more than one shape and it s up to you where additional shapes are created The context toolbar displays a series of combination buttons which determine the layer on which the shape will be placed and the relationship the new shape will have on any existing shapes on the same layer Lal New adds the shape to a new shape layer ii Add adds the shape to the currently selected layer F Subtract removes overlap region when a new shape is added over existing shapes on the currently selected layer The new shape itself is not included Lp Intersect includes the intersection area only when a new shape is added onto existing selected shapes on the currently selected layer Fa l Faj Exclude excludes the intersection area when a new shape is added onto existing selected shapes on the currently selected layer You can also alter a shape layer s Opacity using the Layers tab Creating and editing QuickShapes QuickShapes in PhotoPlus let you instantly add all kinds of pre designed shapes to your image then adjust and vary them using control handles for shape variations Painting Drawing and Text 91 The QuickShape Tools flyout lets you choose from a wide variety of commonly used shapes including boxes ovals arrows p
11. for install _or e If AutoPlay is not enabled or doesn t start the install automatically navigate to your program disc and double click autorun exe Installation procedure from download e From serif com when logged into your Serif account follow the on screen instructions to download Welcome 7 System requirements Minimum e Windows based PC with DVD drive and mouse e Operating system Microsoft Windows 10 32 or 64 bit Microsoft Windows 8 32 or 64 bit Windows 7 32 or 64 bit Windows Vista 32 or 64 bit Windows XP SP3 32 bit e PC Memory 512MB RAM 1GB RAM for 64 bit operation e Hard Drive Space not including PhotoStack program 340MB free hard disk space for physical media install and a DVD drive 700MB free hard disk space for download install additional space required during installation e 1024x768 monitor resolution at 100 scaling 1280 x 960 monitor resolution at 125 scaling 1536 x 1152 monitor resolution at 150 scaling 2048 x 1536 monitor resolution at 200 scaling Main processor must support SSE2 instructions Recommended e Additional disk resources and memory are required when editing large and or complex images e To fully enjoy the enhancements in X8 a multi core processor 64 bit edition of Windows 8 7 Vista and 3GB or more RAM are recommended 8 Welcome Optional e Windows compatible printer e Scanner and or digital camera TWAIN WIA compatible e Pe
12. gt The Fill Tools flyout on the Tools toolbar includes two tools for filling regions with colour and or transparency Flood Fill and Gradient Fill In addition you can use the Edit gt Fill command to apply either a colour or pattern fill As with paint tools if there is a selection the Fill tools only affect pixels within the selected region If you re operating on a shape or text layer the Gradient Fill tool can be used to adjust the interior of the object s on the layer Painting Drawing and Text 85 Flood and pattern fills The gt Flood Fill Tool works on Background and standard layers replacing an existing colour region with the foreground colour To use the Flood Fill Tool 1 Select the gt Flood Fill Tool from the Tools toolbar s Fill Tools flyout 2 Set tolerance and layer fill options on the context toolbar 3 Click with the tool where you want to start the fill The Edit gt Fill command lets you flood fill a region on a standard layer using any colour not just the foreground colour k Opacity 100 E Preserve Transparency To use the Fill command e From the Edit menu select Fill The Fill dialog appears e Fora flood fill set the Type to Colour e Choose whether the fill colour is to be the current Foreground colour Background colour or a Custom colour 86 Painting Drawing and Text e Specify the blend mode and opacity of the fill If you check Preserve Transparency transparent areas
13. image already open select Lens Correction from the Effects menu F Lens Correction Background 55 ole 8 Preview v ShowGrid Sze 8 gt Lens Correction You can carry out the following actions using various tools in the studio e View and Move a Grid A customizable visual overlay to help you spot and correct distortion 42 Making Image Adjustments Straightening use a horizon line to quickly straighten images Zoom Click and drag over your image to focus on an area in more detail Shift click to zoom out Pan Shift the view to navigate around a zoomed in image Apply the following from the Lens Correction section Pincushion Barrel Distortion Most commonly used to fix images that have a slight bulge due to lens flaws Red Cyan and Blue Yellow Fringe Correct colour halos sometimes found in areas of high contrast Vignette Intensity and Vignette Midpoint Compensate for darkness at the corners of images Autoscale zooms the image to trim away transparent edges introduced by lens corrections Save and Apply Settings Quickly reapply your favourite or last used adjustments to save time and effort And using the Tilt Correction section Vertical Perspective Corrects perspective distortion about the X axis caused by camera tilt Horizontal Perspective As for Vertical Perspective but about the Y axis Rotation Straightens your image if appearing slanted as a resu
14. in one of several ways e via the Adjustments tab as an adjustment layer non destructive Making Image Adjustments 33 via PhotoFix a studio environment for managing and applying cumulative adjustments non destructive via Image gt Adjust on a filter layer non destructive via Image gt Adjust on a standard layer destructive Here s asummary of the available PhotoPlus image adjustments Levels Displays a histogram plot of lightness values in the image from which you can adjust the tonal range by shifting dark light and gamma values Curves Displays lightness values in the image using a line graph and lets you adjust points along the curve to fine tune the tonal range Brightness Contrast Brightness refers to overall lightness or darkness while contrast describes the tonal range or spread between lightest and darkest values Shadow Highlight Midtone Controls the extent of shadows highlights and contrast within the image Hue Saturation Hue refers to the colour s tint what most of us think of as rainbow or spectrum colours with name associations like blue or magenta Saturation describes the colour s purity a totally unsaturated image has only greys Lightness is what we intuitively understand as relative darkness or lightness ranging from full black at one end to full white at the other Colourize Lets you recolour an image using Hue Saturation and Lightness Vibrance Boosts lo
15. resolution displays displays at a distance or for those with impaired vision PhotoPlus X8 will look better than ever e Ultra fast multi threaded filter previews A new filter engine gives exceptional performance when previewing and applying filters e Colour Pickup Tool with Multiple Samplers see p 102 The tool now lets you add and position colour samplers at different locations on your image Great as a useful colour reference for ongoing design e Info tab The tab reports the colour values at your current cursor position and at one or more placed samplers The cursor s X Y co ordinates are also reported e Photo trimming see p 75 Crops your image by removing transparent areas at the image edge 4 Welcome Placed photos see p 19 Add supplementary photos to your document directly into a non destructive filter layer This gives complete flexibility when using applied adjustments and effects photos can be replaced while keeping the adjustment effect intact With the option to scale the image the feature is great for introducing extra photo content such as transparent overlays textures and more Professional adjustments and controls Pixel based cropping see p 69 For web designers cropping now lets you define your crop areas in pixels Transfer Colour adjustment for colour matching see p 32 Perfect for matching colours between layers or for consistent and complementary colour use across separate documents
16. sample on the context toolbar The Gradient dialog appears where you can select a preset fill from the default or a pre defined gallery select a category e g Natural Pastels from the drop down list 4 Once you ve defined the fill click with the tool where you want to start the fill and drag to the point where you want it to end See PhotoPlus Help for details on how to edit gradient fills To change a text or shape layer s fill type or edit its colour s e Double click the text shape layer or e Choose the Gradient Fill Tool and use the context toolbar Either option lets you choose a fill type and or click the colour or gradient sample to edit the fill 88 Painting Drawing and Text Cloning a region When retouching you can remove unwanted objects from an image by extending another area of the image over it This is possible using the Clone Tool which acts like two magic brushes locked together While you trace or pick up an image region with one brush the other draws puts down an exact duplicate somewhere else even in another image For corrective work you can pick up wanted pixels and put them down over unwanted pixels canal scene spoilt by power The same scene with cables and pylons unwanted objects cloned out The tool acts on the active Background or standard layer and can even clone all layers including Text layers or Shape layers To clone a region 1 From the Tools toolba
17. single or multi image printing Multi image printing in PhotoPlus lets you make the most of expensive photo quality printing paper by grouping several images onto a single output sheet using a print layout or contact sheet template shown above Printing and Exporting 109 e Single Image templates Use for basic desktop printing of an individual image with supporting Layout options custom or standard print sizes positioning tiling and image to cell fitting e Print Layout templates Use for multi image standard print sizes in portrait landscape orientation passport sizes and mixed print sizes e Contact Sheet templates Use for multi image template driven thumbnail prints great for creating labels For any mode you can also create your own custom template from an existing template Currently open documents will be used for printing although you can add more directly within Print Studio To print using templates 1 Click ram Print Studio on the Standard toolbar The Print Studio appears 2 Optional To open additional images for printing click Add Images Select a photo for addition then click Open The images are added as a thumbnail to the gallery 3 From the right hand templates list select a template category e g Single Images Portrait 110 Printing and Exporting Single Images Portrait 7 x 5 Paper Saving 8 x 10 Print Layouts Landscape 8 x 10 Print Layouts Portrait A3 Print Layo
18. solid colour l 2 3 Select all or part of any text Click the colour swatch on the Context toolbar to display the Colour Selector dialog See Choosing colours on p 100 Select your new colour and click OK To swap to a gradient colour This applies a gradient fill to all of your text on the layer and not to selected text On the Layers tab right click the Text layer and choose Edit Fill Change the Fill Type from Solid to one of Linear Radial Conical or Square Click on the Fill gradient swatch and select a preset gradient fill or create your own gradient from the dialog To convert any text layer to a standard layer Right click on the layer name and choose Rasterize from the menu Painting Drawing and Text 97 To create a text selection Tat 1 amp Clickthe Text Tools flyout Tools toolbar and choose the Text Selection Tool 2 Click at the location on the image where you want to begin the selection or Drag across the page to size your text selection Release the mouse button to set the point size 3 Optional On the Text context toolbar set the selection text attributes to be adopted by the new selection 4 Type your text directly onto the page 5 When you re done click the OK button on the Context toolbar A selection marquee appears around the text s outline 6 Youcan now cut copy move modify and of course fill the selection 98 Painting Drawing and Text Col
19. will resist the flood colour otherwise everything in the selection or layer will be equally washed with the fill e Fora Pattern fill set the Type to Pattern to fill a region with any pattern stored in the Patterns dialog Click the pattern sample to bring up the gallery of pattern thumbnails Gradient Fill Tool Whereas solid fills use a single colour all gradient fills in PhotoPlus utilize at least two key colours with a spread of hues in between each key colour creating a spectrum effect You can fine tune the actual spread of colour between pairs of key colours Likewise a gradient fill in PhotoPlus can have either solid transparency one level of opacity e g 50 or 100 across its entire range or variable transparency with at least two key opacity levels and a spread of values in between The C Gradient Fill Tool lets you apply variable colour and or transparency fills directly to a layer Solid Linear Radial Conical Square Applying a gradient fill on any kind of layer entails selecting one of the fill types editing the fill colours and or transparency in a Gradient dialog then applying the fill Painting Drawing and Text 87 To apply a gradient fill 1 Select a Gradient Fill Tool from the Tools toolbar s Fill Tools flyout 2 Selecta fill type from the context toolbar Linear Radial Conical Square 3 To choose a preset or to edit the fill s colours and or transparency values click the colour
20. Contents WE ICONS apna 1 W UCONN ches catece cst E E AE ate E 2 PST cscs nese at eaves ee cannes iE 3 Tats eld Ce g PA E EE O E A aree mre 6 Opening Saving ANd Organizing cesseseseseeeeseeees 9 SAU AS SIS CAIN o AO 10 Starting from scratch csesesesessesssscsssesscsssssssecscsssesecsesssessesssesseseees 12 Opening an existing FIC eeeesecessssesecssesesscscsssssecscsssessessssseeseens 14 Getting images from TWAIN WIA CeVICES cssesesssssesecessseeeeees 17 Saving a TIC srren E 18 Using 9 Uh 1 erent rere te rt near rca nar tie env were rene foe ener re 19 Placing MEM ACS nnn E R 19 Organizing photoS ssesssessesssessessesseessessesseessesseoseessesseesseoseoseoseesseosee 20 Layers Masks and Blending ss ssssesssesssesssesssessseessees 21 INEFOGUCTION to layer S iserrisneieikinireinisscsrai eosina 22 Adjusting Opacity tranSPareNnCy s ssessesssessessesssessesseesseosessesseesses 26 USNO MASE mse necsevieeevessauatesssusnsescinseasaeeanseausnnans 28 Using blend modes s sssessesseessessesseessessessesssesseessessesseeseesseoseossessees 30 Making Image Adjustments se ssesssessesssesseesserssessesse 31 Introduction to image adjustments eseesssseesessesseesesseeseesessess 32 Overview Adjusting image colours ssessssssesseeseessessesssesseessessesss 32 Contents Using adjustment layefS ssessessessesseessesseessesseessesseoseossesseeseessessesss 35 Adjusting FAW IMAGE
21. Image gt Colour RGB 8 Bits Channel Mode RGB 16 Bits Channel Lab 8 Bits Channel Lab 16 Bits Channel Greyscale 8 Bits Channel Greyscale 16 Bits Channel Importing from the Bit Depth 8 Bits Channel raw images drop down list 16 Bits Channel Output Format When File gt HDR Merge Output 16 bits per channel outputting HDR Merge results If you don t need to work at the highest level of colour or detail Lab or RGB 16 Bits channel you can use RGB 8 bit mode which results in smaller file sizes and allows you to use PhotoPlus s full range of special filter effects To switch from Lab or RGB 16 Bits Channel to RGB 8 Bits Channel working e From the Image menu select Colour Mode and select an 8 Bits Channel option from the submenu To check which mode is currently set the Title bar shows the mode after the file name zoom and image size 106 Colour and Greyscale Printing and Exporting 108 Printing and Exporting Printing For basic printing primarily to desktop printers Print Studio offers an exciting comprehensive and versatile printing solution for your photos Ta tin H mere awn E Dn merges rrara srira k rege Upson EEC E A Print Mode B Print Mode Options C Page Layout D Templates E Open Images The easy to use studio environment lets you select from a variety of print templates each designed for either
22. Images 1997 2002 Nova Development Corporation 1995 Expressions Computer Software 1996 98 CreatiCom Inc 1996 99 Cliptoart 1997 Multimedia Agency Corporation 1997 98 Seattle Support Group Rights of all parties reserved The Radiance Software License Version 1 0 Copyright 1990 2002 The Regents of the University of California through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory All rights reserved This product includes Radiance software http radsite lbl gov developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory http www Ibl gov Copyright 2002 2011 Industrial Light amp Magic a division of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd All rights reserved PhotoStack was developed using LEADTOOLS copyright 1991 2007 LEAD Technologies Inc All Rights Reserved 2015 Serif Europe Ltd All rights reserved No part of this User Guide may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Serif Europe Ltd Serif PhotoPlus X8 2015 Serif Europe Ltd All rights reserved 118 Additional Information index 120 Index 2D layer effects 56 Add Layer Mask 28 adjustment layers 23 35 adjustments 32 Anti clockwise Twirl Tool 60 AutoPlay 6 Background Eraser 82 Background layer 22 bevel layer effect 57 blend modes 30 BMP 112 brightness contrast adjustment 44 Brush Tip tab 80 brushes 80 canvas size 66 for new image 13 chromatic aberration 44 circle drawing 89 s
23. S ssessessessessessessessesscssesseseesseseessessesseseeseeseoseesee 38 Lens CONE CNO Meinne ENEA EE EEEE 41 Jsinag POLO icar inae e i EEA 43 5 Adding Image Effects esesseesseesseesseesseesseesseesseesseessees 47 Overview Applying Special effectS s ssesssesssesseesseesseessesssessss 48 Using filter layers sse ssesssesssesssessssssssssessseesseosseosseosseossesseesseesseesseosseos 48 Using the Filter Gallery ssessessessessesseessesseessessesseesseoseoseesseeseeseessesss 53 Applying 2D layer effects ssesssesseesseesseesseesserssesssesseesseesseesseossee 56 Applying 3D layer effects ssesssesseesseesseesseesserssesssesseesseesseessessses 58 Using Warp SUUCIO seserinis E E 59 6 Manipulating IMages se ssesssessesssesseessesssessesssesseesseesseos 61 Making a Selecto assises eiiiai 62 Changing image and canvas SiZe seesssseesessessessesseesesseesesessees 65 Straightening photos s ssessessessessessessessessessessesseseessessesseseessesseseeseess 68 Cropping an IM ge amissione 69 Trimming iMaQesS ssssssesesesessesssesesessesesesesessssosesesesesessosesesesesssoseseseseos 75 Fippingandtota tN ssi 76 Using Cutout STUdi seisseen erain a 77 Painting Drawing and Text ssesssessesssessesssesseesseessess 79 Painting ANC DrUSNES uu cesesesesesssssesssssesssssssesescsesesesesesesesessacseaeees 80 Era CU gece cece voces ge ses vauresuccussaoeaste E E 81 FINN a reglo
24. Use the a Straighten Line button to make a line segment straight Painting Drawing and Text 95 Creating and editing text PhotoPlus makes use of two text tools i e e The T Text Tool for entering solid text on a new layer Use for eye catching or subtle captioning opposite and titling equally Helianthus e The T Text Selection Tool for creating a selection in the shape of text for filling with unusual fills To create new solid text l T 1 T Click the Text Tools flyout on the Tools toolbar and choose the standard Text Tool 2 Click on your image with the text cursor to set where you want to insert text Then set text attributes on the Text Context toolbar or Drag across the page to size your text according to requirements 3 Type your text The text appears on a new transparent Text Layer shown in the Layers tab You can now use the Move Tool or other tools and commands to manipulate it just like the contents of any layer 96 Painting Drawing and Text To edit existing text l With the text layer to be edited as the active layer choose the standard Text Tool and move the mouse pointer over the text until it changes to the I beam cursor Click on or drag to select areas of text this lets you insert or overwrite selected text respectively Equally you can set new text attributes to be adopted by the selected text area all made from the Text Context toolbar To change text s
25. a of interest either for practical reasons or to improve photo composition Before After Rectangular Crop 70 Manipulating Images PhotoPlus allows you to crop unconstrained to a standard or custom print size or to fixed pixel dimensions Cropping with the Crop Tool affects all image layers Everything outside the designated region is eliminated If there s a marquee based selection it is ignored and deselected during cropping Unconstrained cropping Unconstrained cropping gives you the flexibility to cut your photo to any rectangular or square size you wish The crop area will display in green to indicate you are in unconstrained mode To crop unconstrained 1 From the Tools toolbar from the 4 Crop Tools flyout select the HA Crop Tool 2 Ensure the Unconstrained option is set in the Context toolbar s Crop Dimensions drop down list 3 Drag out a rectangle to create an unconstrained rectangle then fine tune the areas dimensions if needed by dragging the edges Alternatively you can adjust the dimensions using the settings on the Context toolbar 4 Optional Reposition the crop area by dragging inside the crop area 5 To crop to the designated size double click inside the crop area Constrained cropping Constrained cropping allows you to control the size of your crop precisely When resizing the crop area on the page the width and height Manipulating Images 71 will change simultaneously to ho
26. acity and Blend Ranges right click the layer name and choose Properties To control layer content To select all layer content use Select gt Select All or Ctrl A To select non transparent regions on a layer Ctrl click on a layer thumbnail Use Select gt Invert or Ctrl Shift I to select transparent regions 26 Layers Masks and Blending Pi To move layer content select one or more layers containing the content to be moved from the Layers tab then drag with the Move Tool with no selection area present press Ctrl D to remove any selection e To align layer content select multiple layers as above then choose Align from the Layers menu then select an option from the submenu Adjusting opacity transparency Opacity and transparency describe essentially the same thing They both describe the extent to which a particular pixel s colour contributes to the overall colour at that point in the image Fully opaque pixels contribute their full colour value to the image Fully transparent pixels are invisible they contribute nothing to the image In between pixels are called semi transparent p A Ours Wedding Day Fully opaque text Semi transparent text 100 Opacity 50 Opacity You ll primarily encounter opacity in one of these two contexts e Asa property of the pixels laid down by individual tools Paintbrush Clone Eraser Fill Smudge QuickShape and more Layers Masks and Blending 27 e Asa prope
27. age your filters at a later date 54 Adding Image Effects To view the Filter Gallery e Click O Filter Gallery on the Photo Studio toolbar e For some effects hosted on the Effects menu the Filter Gallery will automatically be launched with the effect already applied To add a filter in the Filter Gallery 1 Expand your chosen effect category by clicking the l Expand button click to collapse 2 Click on an effect thumbnail to apply it to your image The applied filter is shown in a Filters stack in the lower right corner of the Filter Gallery The properties of any selected effect will be displayed in the expanded area under the effect name you can alter and experiment with these at any time The filter shows on a light background to indicate selection Adding Image Effects 55 EA Use the Undo button to undo recent changes to the filter or the Redo button to re apply the changes 3 Adjust sliders or enter input values until your filter suits your requirements With the Replace selected option checked default adding a new filter will replace any selected filter in your filter stack To add multiple filters e Uncheck Replace selected then add one or more additional effects as described above Any filter can be temporarily disabled reset or deleted once applied To disable Click then click F to enable again Click Any changes to settings are reverted back to To reset the filter
28. as a path The Line Tool can also be used to create a filled bitmap directly Additionally combination buttons let you add the line to its own layer or path and can also be used to control how the new line interacts with existing shapes on the layer To edit a line 1 Click its layer name to select it for editing 2 To move resize scale skew or rotate the line choose the Shape Edit Tool This deform tool works by manipulation of the bounding box around the line drag on a corner or edge 3 To reshape the line choose the Node Edit Tool The line consists of line segments and nodes points where the line segments meet You can drag one or more individual nodes or click and drag directly on a line segment 94 Painting Drawing and Text When you select a node control handles for the adjacent line segments appear each segment in the line has a control handle at either end Any node can be one of several node types sharp smooth or symmetric Depending on node type the node s control handles behave a bit differently the node type determines the slope and curvature of each adjoining segment and can be chosen from the context toolbar i e A Sharp Corner me Smooth Corner 7 Symmetric Corner To edit a node 1 Select it with the Node Edit Tool 2 Drag its control handle s to fine tune the curve To add a node double click on a line segment To remove a selected node press the Delete key
29. asy referral Samplers are numbered on the page and in the tab RGB 224 180 117 O Liti To create a new sampler 1 Select the re Colour Pickup Tool on the Tools toolbar 2 At your desired location Shift click on the page to add the sampler numbered 1 2 3 etc The new sampler s colour values will be displayed in the Info tab To move a sampler e Shift click on the hovered over sampler and drag to a new position To delete a sampler e Ctrl click on the hovered over sampler 104 Colour and Greyscale Colour modes PhotoPlus operates in several colour modes to let you work in standard and higher levels of colour or tonal detail these are 8 Bits Channel RGB or 8 Bits Channel Greyscale the more detailed 16 Bits Channel RGB or 16 Bits Channel Greyscale and Lab 8 Bits Channel or 16 Bits Channel mode for professional yet natural edits As a rule of thumb use RGB 8 Bits Channel for general editing then consider RGB 16 Bits Channel or Lab mode for deep colour or professional edits If you already have 16 bit images you ll probably want to benefit from that deep colour or tonal information throughout your project from opening through editing to saving your high quality images Colour and Greyscale 105 PhotoPlus also lets you manually choose modes When New Image Colour Mode RGB Lab or creating a Startup Assistant Greyscale new image or Bit Depth 8 or 16 bits per File gt New channel At any time
30. b displays a Settings pane for that O a Levels adjustment and for any selected adjustment layer present in the m Sesseltetve Layers tab Unlike the other layer types adjustment layers don t store content in the form of bitmap images text or shapes Rather an adjustment layer applies the adjustment to content on all layers below it although you can restrict the effects of the adjustment by adding to a group or by clipping to the immediate layer below The layer is essentially a container in which only the adjustment s settings and its layer properties are stored Adjustment layers let you revisit the settings for a given adjustment as often as needed while continuing to edit the image in other ways If you later decide you don t even need an adjustment you can simply remove it For more in depth details on each adjustment view the PhotoPlus help click the Contents tab and open the Making Image Adjustments book To create an adjustment layer 1 From the Adjustments tab select an adjustment You can choose a default adjustment or a named preset by expanding the adjustment entry click 2 Inthe Layers tab the new adjustment layer is inserted above the active layer The adjustment is applied to all underlying layers Making Image Adjustments 37 Layers SF Normal Opacity 100 Lock amp ml lad a Levels ml Background 3 From the Adjustments tab change the applied adjustment layer s sett
31. ce an image from a file 1 From the File menu select Insert Picture 2 Use the dialog to select the image to open 3 Click Open The image is added to the page sized to the page width To set the size of the inserted image drag a corner handle The image is added as a filter layer from which you can apply one or more adjustments and effects 20 Opening Saving and Organizing Organizing photos PhotoStack is a powerful photo management application which acts as a useful launch point for your photos From your collection of photos youll be able to perform a range of management and filtering operations To launch PhotoStack 1 Open PhotoPlus to display the Startup Assistant 2 Select PhotoStack PhotoStack is launched as a separate application or From the Standard toolbar select G PhotoStack PhotoStack is a great starting point for editing photos in PhotoPlus To edit your photos in PhotoPlus directly from PhotoStack click Edit in PhotoPlus on the Edit menu or choose the option by right clicking a chosen photo Layers Masks and Blending 22 Layers Masks and Blending Introduction to layers If you re accustomed to thinking of pictures as flat illustrations in books or as photographic prints the concept of image layers may take some getting used to However they are one of the most powerful features in PhotoPlus allowing you to adjust and manipulate your photos in a variety of ways in a non d
32. create a new standard layer above the active layer click Windows Explorer and dropping it onto the current window also creates a new layer from the dragged image e Click the D New Fill or Adjustment Layer button to apply a Fill Layer or an image adjustment layer e The is Add Layer Mask button adds a mask to the currently selected layer not a Background layer Layers Masks and Blending 25 The bal Add Layer Depth Map button creates a depth map for the selected layer not a Background layer The jx Add Layer Effects button creates a 2D or 3D effect on the layer not a Background layer Right click to copy paste clear or hide effects m To make a layer s contents visible or invisible click the Hide Show Layer button next to its name on the Layers tab To convert any shape text or fill layer to a standard layer right click on the layer name and choose Rasterize from the menu To convert the Background layer to a standard layer which supports transparency right click Background on the Layers tab and choose Promote to Layer The layer s name changes from Background to Layer lt number gt To convert a standard layer to a Background layer right click the layer and choose Layer to Background To convert the layer to a non destructive filter layer for applying and managing effect and adjustment filters right click and select Convert to Filter Layer To access Layer Properties including Name Blend Mode Op
33. create an irregularly shaped selection area 64 Manipulating Images Directly from toolbar From the Select menu T Text Tools flyout Y Polygon Selection Tool lets you draw a series of straight line segments double click to close the polygon 2 Magnetic Selection Tool lets you trace around an object edge creating a selection line that snaps to the edge as you drag Magic Wand Tool lets you select a region based on the colour similarity of adjacent pixels simply click a starting pixel setting a Tolerance from the context toolbar It works much like the fill tool but the result is a selected region rather than a region flooded with a colour For a dialog based selection method use the Colour Range command as detailed below i wr hI Smart Selection Brush lets you create your selection as a series of brush strokes Paint to Select mode lets you use standard painting or editing tools as selection tools Text Selection Tool lets you create a selection in the form of text Click with the tool to display the Text cursor Type your text format as needed and click OK See Creating and editing text on p 95 Manipulating Images 65 For any selection tool the Context toolbar includes combination buttons New Add Subtract and Intersect that determine the effect of each new selection operation Changing image and canvas size You probably know that image dimensions are given in pix
34. created filter group and select Add Mask from the flyout menu and then one of the following from the submenu e Reveal All for a transparent mask e Hide All for an opaque mask A mask thumbnail appears to the left of the filter name A Background Copy Ea E Y Pern E Gaussian Blur m A Background 4 Paint or draw on your image using a suitable greyscale value set as your foreground colour The mask thumbnail updates accordingly To disable enable a mask e Right click the filter group and select Disable Mask or Enable Mask from the flyout menu To delete a mask e Right click the filter group and select Delete Mask from the flyout menu Adding Image Effects 53 Using the Filter Gallery The Filter Gallery offers a one stop studio environment for applying single or multiple filter effects The gallery hosts sets of filter thumbnails which are categorized into different effect categories e g Distort Blur Sharpen Edge Artistic Noise Render etc ot _ Hh The Filter Gallery offers the following key features e Application of individual or multiple filter effects simultaneously e Preview window with zoom and pan support e Optional Before and After views arranged as tiles or split screen both horizontally and vertically e Apply filters permanently to a standard layer or on a Filter Layer see p 48 The latter allows you to protect your image layer as well as man
35. ctively y Use the Background Fraser for erasing pixels similar to a sampled reference colour underlying the cursor crosshair great for painting out unwanted background colours gt Use the Flood Eraser for filling a region with transparency erasing pixels similar to the colour under the cursor when you first click In general you can set tool properties for each tool including brush characteristics opacity tolerance flow and choose a brush tip The Eraser tools work on Background and standard layers but not on text layers or shape layers To erase with the Standard Eraser F 1 Select Standard Eraser from the Tools toolbar s Eraser Tools flyout 2 Optional Change attributes especially brush Size and Opacity on the Context toolbar Painting Drawing and Text 83 For erasing with an airbrush effect or hard edged brush check the Airbrush or Hard Edge option For tablet users pressure sensitivity can be switched on via Brush Options click Brush thumbnail ensure the Controller drop down list is set to Pressure on selected attributes 3 Drag with the tool on the active layer On the Background layer erased pixels expose the current background colour On other layers they expose transparency To erase with the Background Eraser a 1 Select Background Eraser from the Tools toolbar s Eraser Tools flyout 2 Optional Change properties on the Context toolbar e For tablet users pres
36. custom canvas sizes and even store them for future use For either preset or custom sizes the resolution can be set independently of canvas size When you create a new image you can choose to work in different colour modes i e RGB Lab or Greyscale in either 8 or 16 bits channel Use a Bit Depth of 16 bit for higher levels of image detail Opening Saving and Organizing 13 To create a new image via Startup Assistant 1 il Open PhotoPlus to display the Startup Assistant or Select Startup Assistant from the File menu during your session Select New Image In the New Image dialog you can either For a preset canvas size select a suitable Category from the drop down list Categories are named according to how your image or animation is intended to be used e g pick a Photo category for photo sized canvases Pick a canvas Size from the drop down list or e For a custom canvas size enter your own Width and Height If the dimensions are non standard the Size drop down list will be shown as Custom For future use save the custom size with Add Size from the Y button if necessary e Although you can resize the image canvas size width x height later it s usually best to allow some extra canvas area at first 4 Optional Add a Resolution for the new image file Leave the resolution as it is unless you re sure a different value is required Optional Select a Colour Mode choosing to ope
37. d colour from the Colour tab before painting Painting Drawing and Text 81 3 Optional Change the brush tip s attributes if necessary on the Context toolbar 4 Drag the cursor on the active layer holding the left mouse button down to paint in the foreground colour Brush options The Brush Options dialog accessible by double clicking the brush sample on the context toolbar lets you customize a brush or define properties for a new one As you vary the settings you can see the effect of each change in the preview window at the bottom of the dialog Available settings may vary depending on the brush you ve got selected Painting using pen tablets Brush strokes can be applied directly to the page by using your mouse or if available a pen tablet the latter method is ideally suited for applying pressure sensitive strokes to your project PhotoPlus supports pressure sensitivity with tablet calibration and key assignment possible directly from within the program via Pressure Studio Erasing Sometimes the rubber end of the pencil can be just as important to an artist as the pointed one The Eraser Tools flyout on the Tools toolbar provides ways of enhancing an image by painting with transparency rather than with colour 82 Painting Drawing and Text ff Use the Standard Eraser for replacing colours in an image either with the background colour or with transparency on Background or other standard layers respe
38. ditionally filter masking to the filter group For added security it s good practice to create a duplicate of any background layer you initially have To convert to a filter layer e In the Layers tab right click a standard or Background layer and choose Convert to Filter Layer The layer now shows the letter F indicating that it is now a filter layer and ready to have a filter applied To add filters to the filter layer x 1 Select the filter layer Normal v Opacity 100 gt ma e 2 Add an adjustment via the Image menu m A Background Copy zi v Filter Group 1 Curves Add an effect via the Effects menu or via the Filter Gallery on p 53 E Gaussian Blur m fx Background Each filter as it is applied is created within a filter group nested under the COU selected filter layer 50 Adding Image Effects Editing filters Once a filter is applied it s likely that you may want to edit it at a later date To edit a filter 1 Double click the filter entry e g Gaussian Blur 2 The filter can then be edited via dialog or Filter Gallery Adjust the filter and click OK Using filter masks In an identical way to layer masks see p 28 you can apply a mask to a filter layer However masks can additionally be used for selective filter control for image correction or artistic reasons These are called filter masks which limit the influence of any applied filter s to that masked
39. editing text p 95 Fill layers contain an adjustable solid colour or gradient fill Adjustment layers apply corrective image adjustments to lower layers See Using adjustment layers p 35 Filter layers are much like standard layers but you can apply one or more filter effects to the layer without permanently altering layer content You also have full control over effects in the future See Using filter layers p 48 24 Layers Masks and Blending Selections and layers With few exceptions you will work on just one layer at any given time click a layer on the Layers tab to activate and work on that layer Tools and commands generally affect the entire active layer However if there s a selection in place tools and commands are limited to the pixels inside the selection Selections are independent from layers They don t actually include image content they just describe a region with boundaries Therefore if your image has multiple layers and you switch to another layer the selection stays in place and follows you to the new active layer Operations involving layers To carry out basic layer operations e To select a layer click on its name in the Layers tab The selected layer is now the active layer Note that each layer s entry includes a preview thumbnail which is visible at all times and is especially useful when identifying layer contents the New Layer button on the Layers tab Dragging a file from To
40. electing 63 Clockwise Twirl Tool 60 Clone Tool 88 colour adjusting 32 modes 104 colour fill layer effect 57 colour fringing 42 combination buttons for drawing 90 for selection 63 Conical gradient fill 86 contact sheets 108 Convert to Filter Layer 25 49 correction of images 32 43 credits 117 Crop to Selection 75 Crop Tool 69 cropping 43 69 Rule of Thirds 74 to pixel 75 to pixels 72 Curves 44 custom canvas sizes 13 filters 19 Cutout Studio 77 Deselect 63 digital cameras 17 drawing 89 effects filter 48 Filter Gallery for 53 layer 2D 56 warp 59 creating 60 Elastic Warp Tool 60 ellipse drawing 89 selecting 63 Ellipse Selection Tool 63 emboss layer effect 57 erasing 81 using pen tablets 84 exporting 112 Exposure adjustment 44 extracting images 77 features new 3 fills 84 flood 85 gradient 86 layers 23 pattern 86 solid 85 Filter Forge plug ins 19 Filter Gallery 53 filter layers 23 48 masks on 50 filters adjustment 32 editing 50 effects 48 plug in 19 flattening an image 18 flipping 76 Flood Eraser 82 Flood Fill Tool 85 Freehand Pen Tool 93 Freehand Selection Tool 63 GIFs 112 glow layer effect 57 Gradient Fill Tool 86 gradients 86 Greyscale mode 105 HDR merge 14 HSL 44 image acquiring TWAIN WIA 17 creating new 13 exporting 112 fixing 43 opening file 14 placing 19 saving file 18 ima
41. els dots of paint that comprise a screen image In PhotoPlus there are options to change the image size and to change the canvas size but what s the difference and how do you perform each resize Changing image size Changing the image size means scaling the whole image or just a selected region up or down Resizing is actually a kind of distortion because the image content is being stretched or squashed The Image Size dialog lets you specify a new size for the whole image in terms of its screen dimensions and or printed dimensions To resize the image for on screen display 1 From the Image menu select Image Size 66 Manipulating Images 2 4 5 Select a preferred scale either pixels or percent in the drop down list Select a Resampling method As a rule use Nearest Pixel for hard edge images Bilinear Interpolation when shrinking photos Bicubic Interpolation when enlarging photos and Lanczos3 Window when best quality results are expected Enter new Width Height or Resolution values Click OK To resize the image for print l 2 From the Image menu select Image Size Uncheck Resize layers Enter new Width Height or Resolution values Click OK Changing canvas size Changing the canvas size just involves adding or taking away pixels around the edges of the image It s like adding to the neutral border around a mounted photo or taking a pair of scissors and cro
42. estructive studio environment see p 43 To straighten via Straighten Tool 1 Onthe Tools Toolbar expand the a Crop Tools flyout and click the Straighten Tool 2 Onthe context toolbar choose an option from the Canvas drop down list This lets you decide how your straightened image will be displayed e Crop Crops and adjusts the straightened image so that it displays on the largest possible canvas size without displaying any border Manipulating Images 69 e Expand to Fit Increases the canvas size to display the entire straightened image The border area is filled with the current background colour e Original Size Displays the straightened image within the original canvas dimensions The border area is filled with the current background colour 3 Optional Uncheck Rotate All Layers to restrict the operation to the active layer only Otherwise all layers are rotated 4 Using the Straighten cursor drag a horizon from one end of the image s line to the other the length of the horizon is not important then release The image orients itself to the new line Cropping an image Cropping is the electronic equivalent of taking a pair of scissors to a photograph except of course with a pair of scissors there is no second chance Cropping deletes all of the pixels outside the crop selection area and then resizes the image canvas so that only the area inside the crop selection remains Use it to focus on an are
43. estructive environment Think of layers as transparent sheets upon which you can add adjustments effects filters paint colours and add further images shapes and text to build up the perfect picture Kinds of layers In a typical PhotoPlus image for example a photograph you ve scanned in a new picture file you ve just created or a standard bitmap file you ve opened there is one layer that behaves like a conventional flat image This is called the Background layer and you can think of it as paint overlaid on an opaque solid colour surface Layers Masks and Blending 23 w Using the Layers tab you can create any number of 100 new layers in your image Lock te Each new one appears on top of the currently active m z Surfer layer comprising a stack a that you can view and O Beach Umbrella O he Background i onan additional layers standard manipulate with the Layers tab We call these a 9 O amp layers to differentiate them from the Background layer Standard layers behave like transparent sheets through which the underlying layers are visible Other types of layers also exist in PhotoPlus Shape layers are specifically designed to keep drawn lines and shapes including QuickShapes separate from the other layers so that they remain editable See Drawing and editing lines and shapes p 89 Text layers work like Shape layers but are intended exclusively for text See Creating and
44. et in the steps above 4 Optional Reposition the crop area by dragging inside the crop area 5 To crop to the designated size double click inside the crop area Cropping to an aspect ratio Instead of cropping to physical dimensions or set pixels you can crop to a constrained aspect ratio Select a pre defined aspect ratio from the Crop Dimensions drop down list in the Context toolbar See PhotoPlus help for more information 74 Manipulating Images Non destructive and Destructive or permanent cropping By default the Crop Tool in PhotoPlus is non destructive as the context toolbar s Destructive option is unchecked This means that at any point you can remove or adjust the original crop applied to a photo To undo a non destructive crop e From the Image menu click Reveal All Using rule of thirds Use the Thirds grid check box on the Context toolbar for improving photo composition A grid is superimposed on top of your photo when the check box is selected Moving and resizing the grid allows the main subject of your photo to be offset within the photo Position a main item of interest in the photo where any two lines intersect within the crop grid four intersections are possible This is known as the rule of thirds which will help you find the most balanced composition where your eyes are drawn to the main subject Double click to crop the photo to the outer grid dimensions Manipulating Images 75
45. f from the rest of the image The boundary is visible as a broken line or marquee around the selected region see above Whenever there s a selection certain tools and commands operate only on the pixels inside the selection as opposed to a condition where nothing is selected in which case those functions generally affect the entire active layer Manipulating Images 63 To cancel the selection select nothing e From the Select menu click Deselect or press Ctrl D Selection tool options PhotoPlus offers a very wide range of other selection methods and a variety of commands for modifying the extent or properties of the selected pixels all available from the Tools toolbar Note that the selection tools work on Background and standard layers but not on text layers or shape layers Selection Rectangle Selection Tool drag out a Tools flyout rectangular selection area of your chosen size use the Ctrl key to constrain to a square area ce Ellipse Selection Tool drag out an ellipse selection area use Ctrl key to constrain to a circle QuickShape Selection Tools flyout provides different variable shapes including pie star arrow heart spiral wave and so on The shapes can be further morphed into other custom QuickShapes by dragging node handles around the QuickShape 3 7 Lasso E Freehand Selection Tool lets you draw a Tools flyout freehand irregular line which is closed automatically to
46. fox siscesexenseiporsscersvanseesraacensaesteneavootscicintedansraeveastnelorsece 84 Cloning SHE QIOM ss vsnsdsncesasvensusaslevacerssbosesovessteuavsasteuielassouevtasiovesweutetevseness 88 Drawing and editing lines and SHAPES eseseeseseseseseeeeeeeees 89 Creating and editing t Xt ssesseessessessesseesseessessessesseesseoseoseessessees 95 Contents 8 Colour and Greyscale sesssssesssesssesssesssesssessseesseesseessees 99 CHOOSING COIOUTS seesca cect cecveasavscavencssecncecnseeereaveanesetiunereey wavendesseniens 100 COTO MOLES oaen are estes ese tee ae eee 104 9 Printing and Exporting sse ssessesssesseesseessesseessesseesseesses 107 A E A E E E OEE A 108 Exporting to another file forMat sssesssessesssesssesssesssesssesssesseee 112 10 Additional Information s sssessssessseesssessseessseesseessseesss 115 Contacting SENE rsen E 116 RS EAO A OE NE S A O E ae 117 iE N MN AAPEA NENE EE ATE EE EAS 119 Contents Welcome 2 Welcome Welcome Welcome to PhotoPlus X8 from Serif the perfect image creation and editing software for any enthusiast and those new to digital photography whether at home in school an organization or growing business PhotoPlus is the number one choice for working with photographs and paint type images whether for the web multimedia printing PhotoPlus has the features you ll need from importing or creating pictures through manipulating colours making image
47. g and Organizing 15 the Startup Assisant Open gt Create and even readjust your HDR merge results from a saved intermediate HDR image Once you ve created and saved your project as a PhotoPlus file it can also be opened from the Startup Assistant 1 Open PhotoPlus to display the initial Startup Assistant or Select Startup Assistant from the File menu during your session 2 Select Open 3 Select All Images from the Browse My Computer pane Browse My Computer oe PhotoPlus Files loa All Images 4 From the dialog locate and select your file then click Open Opening saved PhotoPlus work 1 Open PhotoPlus to display the initial Startup Assistant 2 Select Open 16 Opening Saving and Organizing 3 Several options are possible i For recently opened PhotoPlus files and images select a thumbnail from the main pane Today Fantasy Eye Split Tone 2 ii The photo opens in your workspace or e For any other previously saved work select PhotoPlus Files from the Browse My Computer pane Browse My Computer eo PhotoPlus Files b All Images iii From the dialog locate and select your file then click Open To open any photo without Startup Assistant e Click E Open on the Standard toolbar Opening Saving and Organizing 17 Getting images from TWAIN WIA devices If your digital camera or scanner supports either the TWAIN or WIA standard you can bring pictures f
48. ge size 13 65 importing from TWAIN WIA source 17 installation 6 JPEG XR 112 JPG 112 Lab colour mode 105 layers 22 adjustment 35 Index 121 blend modes and 30 creating 24 extracting parts of 77 filter 48 hide show 25 Layer to Background 25 moving 26 opacity of 27 operations 24 Promote to Layer 25 selecting 25 shape 89 text 95 types of 22 using 2D effects 56 Layers tab 23 Learn 11 Lens correction 41 lens distortion 42 44 lens perspective 41 lens vignette 42 Lens vignette 44 Line Tool 93 Linear gradient fill 86 lines creating 93 drawing 89 editing 93 Magic Wand Tool 64 Magnetic Selection Tool 63 masks 28 editing 29 in filter layers 50 selections for 30 metafiles autotraced 112 modes colour 104 New Image 11 13 New Layer 24 News 11 122 Index Node Edit Tool 92 noise reduction 44 opacity 26 Open 11 opening an image file 14 organizing photos 20 outline layer effect 57 Paintbrush Tool 80 painting 80 paths 89 pattern fills 86 pen tablet 81 Pen Tool 93 Pencil Tool 80 perspective correction 42 PhotoFix 43 masking in 45 PhotoPlus Picture SPP 18 Photoshop PSD 14 112 PhotoStack 2 11 Pinch Punch tools 60 pixel cropping 72 pixels cropping to 75 placing photos 19 plug in filters 19 PNG 112 polygon 89 Polygon Selection Tool 63 print templates 109 printing 108 cropping to print sizes 75 Promote to Layer 25
49. ialog allow you to make common adjustments to your photo including white balance lighting highlight recovery noise reduction and removal of chromatic aberration To enable any filter e Click J Enable in the filter s title bar If needed expand a filter to display its settings by clicking the e Expand Collapse filter To set output format e On the Output Format section e Optional From the Bit Depth drop down list select 8 Bits Channel to reduce the colour information within the image output By default optimum raw colour information is preserved i e 16 Bits Channel e Optional From the Colour Space drop down list assign a colour space to your image which matches your intended colour workspace For professional work AdobeRGB ProPhoto or WideGamut offer larger colour spaces i e more colours than the standard RGB sRGB space this is acceptable for most users but you ll need to enable colour management and pick the same colour space as your chosen workspace Making Image Adjustments 41 Most of the adjustments you can make to your photo in the Import Raw dialog are also available in PhotoFix For more information see Using PhotoFix on p 43 Lens correction PhotoPlus lets you correct a range of lens distortions in your images within a single studio Combinations of lens and tilt corrections can be made along with a powerful image straightening To open the Lens Correction studio e With an
50. ifference H Layers To seta standard layer s blend mode Normal i e On the Layers tab Dissolve select the layer and choose from the Linear Burn blend mode s drop Darken down list Darker Colour Making Image Adjustments 32 Making Image Adjustments Introduction to image adjustments A major part of photo editing is making corrections i e adjustments to your own near perfect images Whether you ve been snapping with your digital camera or you ve just scanned a photograph at some point you may need to call on PhotoPlus s powerful photo correction tools to fix some unforeseen problems For photo correction several methods can be adopted You can use a combination of e Image colour adjustments For applying colour adjustments to a selection or layers e PhotoFix For making cumulative corrective adjustments from within a studio environment e Retouch brush based tools Red Eye Smudge Blur Sharpen Dodge Burn for exposure control Sponge for saturation control Scratch Remover If you work with raw images you can make image adjustments on your unprocessed raw file before interpolation See Adjusting raw images on p 38 Overview Adjusting image colours PhotoPlus provides a number of different adjustment filters that you can apply to a selection or to an active standard layer Typically these adjustments are used to correct deficiencies in the original image The adjustment can be applied
51. ings to suit your requirements For example for a levels adjustment you can drag the histogram pointers to alter levels To save an adjustment layer as a new preset 1 Select and then modify an adjustment layer in the Adjustments tab 2 Click Add Preset 3 From the dialog name your custom adjustment layer and click OK Custom adjustments will appear under the adjustment s type in the tab s adjustment list To modify an adjustment layer 1 Click the adjustment layer s name in the Layers tab 2 From the Adjustments tab modify the applied adjustment layer s settings To hide show an adjustment layer O L Click Hide Show Layer on the Layers tab 38 Making Image Adjustments To reset an adjustment layer 1 Click the adjustment layer s name in the Layers tab 2 From the Adjustments tab select gt Restore Default Settings Adjusting raw images PhotoPlus s Import Raw dialog offers post shoot adjustments to your raw file without affecting the original file White balance exposure highlight recovery noise reduction and the removal of chromatic aberration are all possible With an in built histogram it s easy to firstly check exposure levels and to spot any highlight clipping suggesting image overexposure and to secondly make adjustments using the human eye and the histogram in combination me hy Ga na gt 0 Fa 8 i i Bii Making Image Adjustme
52. le width use input box and Colour click the swatch to select colour from a dialog 8 Optional To caption your images check Label Then from the drop down list select either the Date image Filename or Sequence number to appear under each image For a combination of label formats click Modify add tokens to assemble a sample name then click OK and the drop down list automatically changes to Custom 9 Click Print or click Close to save settings without printing If you want to create your own layouts instead of templates you can switch print modes and customize settings for that mode To print using your own layouts a 1 Click Print Studio on the Standard toolbar The Print Studio appears 2 From the Mode drop down list select Single Image Print Layout or Contact Sheet 3 In the Layout section set a custom or standard print size 4 Optional Follow image sizing and rotating instructions described above 112 Printing and Exporting Exporting to another file format In many situations you ll want to save a file to one of the standard graphics formats In PhotoPlus this is known as exporting i r BP Tamin min T alee oY oe is oe ortable Network amp s PNG Exporting converts your image to a Windows Bitmap BMP specified graphic file format opposite ae a other than the native PhotoPlus SPP JPEG File JPG format This flattens it removing layer JPEG XR I R Portable Network
53. lt of perspective distortion Scale Simulates a zoomed in lens with cropping of your image Making Image Adjustments 43 Using PhotoFix PhotoFix provides an image adjustment environment within PhotoPlus which simplifies the often complicated process of image correction To launch PhotoFix e Click PhotoFix on the Photo Studio toolbar A Retouch tools B Main toolbar C Main Workspace D Histogram E Filters F Favourites 44 Making Image Adjustments Adjustments overview Here s a quick overview of all the adjustments hosted in PhotoFix some tool based and some available as filters The tool based adjustments are Red Eye Spot Repair Clone Selection Crop Straighten Filters are made available from the Filters section Noise White Lighting Curves Reduction Balance HSL Black and Chromatic Lens Distortion White Film Aberration Lens Vignette Unsharp Mask Youll also be able to apply adjustments selectively using both standard masking see p 45 and gradient masking see PhotoPlus Help To apply an adjustment from a favourites preset 1 From the Favourites tab scroll the tab to review the categorized adjustments select a preset or custom thumbnail 2 Click OK When applied your image layer is automatically converted to a non destructive filter layer with a PhotoFix adjustment entry nested under the filter layer entry Background Copy E Y E PhotoFis Making
54. n graphics tablet Internet account and connection required for product updates and accessing online resources Opening Saving and Organizing 10 Opening Saving and Organizing Startup Assistant Once PhotoPlus has been installed you re ready to start e For Windows Vista 7 Setup adds a Serif PhotoPlus X8 item to the All Programs submenu of the Windows Start menu Use the Windows Start button to pop up the Start menu click on All Programs and then click Serif PhotoPlus X8 e For Windows 8 The Setup routine during install adds a Serif PhotoPlus X8 entry to the desktop and also to the Start screen Double click the PhotoPlus icon from the desktop or click the PhotoPlus tile on the Start screen On program launch the Startup Assistant is displayed which offers different routes into PhotoPlus O N T ie PhotoPlus X8 oS Get started with PhotoPlus X8 today New to PhotoPlus Let s get you started then ah 1 R PhotoStack Opening Saving and Organizing 11 The options are described as follows The default home page keeps you in touch with Serif promotions and showcases articles tutorials etc You can also view the PhotoPlus Overview and Quick Start video To access images and PhotoPlus files as well Open as creating HDR photo merges and scanned images Creates a new image from scratch New Image Opens PhotoStack to manage and filter Q photos for PhotoPlus PhotoStack
55. n heptagon octagon and so on e Dragging the side control handle downwards will rotate the shape anti clockwise To edit a QuickShape 1 Click its layer name in the Layers tab to select it 2 From the Node Tools flyout use either e The Node Edit Tool Tools toolbar to click on the shape and readjust any of the shape s handles or e The Shape Edit Tool to select move resize and deform individual shapes If you only have one shape on a layer you can also use the Move Tool and Deform Tool To resize without constraint you can drag any shape s handle to constrain the shape s proportions hold down the Shift key while dragging To deform the shape drag a node while the Ctrl key is pressed Painting Drawing and Text 93 Creating and editing lines Lines can be drawn by using dedicated tools from the Tools toolbar s Line Tools flyout U The Pen Tool produces complex curves and shapes in a highly controlled way M The Freehand Pen Tool as its name implies lets you draw freehand lines PhotoPlus will compose the line with line segments and nodes each new segment starting from another s end node which is attached back to the start point to create a closed shape wN The Line Tool produces an anti aliased straight line in PhotoPlus which is just a very thin shape The line can be of varying Weight thickness aia Each tool s supporting context toolbar lets you create the line on a shape layer or
56. na particular layer The mask e can start out as transparent O EE IE 2 revealing the whole layer an opaque hiding the whole Pee Layer a e i layer or if you create it from a selection opposite sie abit of both The choice depends on how you want to work with the layer s contents By darkening portions of a clear mask you can selectively fade layer pixels By lightening an opaque mask you selectively reveal layer pixels To create a mask 1 Select a layer in the Layers tab This is the layer where you want to create the mask and select specific region s if desired 2 Click the iw Add Layer Mask button to create a Reveal All mask or Reveal Selection if there is one Instead Alt click the button for a Hide All Mask or Hide Selection z ES i On the Layers tab a mask preview thumbnail appears confirming that a mask exists Layers Masks and Blending 29 Editing on the mask When you create your mask you immediately enter Edit Mask mode where you can use the full range of painting tools selection options flood fills gradient fills and effects to alter the mask s greyscale values These manipulations cause corresponding changes in opacity which in turn changes the appearance of the pixels on the layer itself The image window s title bar shows Mask indicating that a mask is currently being edited The Colour tab switches to Greyscale mode when you re editing a mask and reverts to the p
57. ng or elasticity The PA Pinch and e Punch Tools apply respectively a concave or convex spherical distortion under the brush The ORo Twirl Tools produce a spin art effect liquid paint on a surface revolving either clockwise or anti clockwise The Ls Push Left Warp Tool shifts pixels 90 to the left of the brush direction which spreads or compresses edges along the stroke Creating warp effects To launch Warp Studio 1 Select an image to be warped 2 Select Warp Studio from the Photo Studio toolbar Warp Studio is launched Manipulating Images 62 Manipulating Images Making a selection In any photo editing program the selection tools and techniques are as significant as any of the basic brush tools or commands The basic principle is simple quite often youll want to perform an operation on just a portion of the image To do this you must define an active selection area The wide range of selection options in PhotoPlus lets you e Define just about any selection shape using various drawing and painting techniques e Modify the extent or properties of the selection e Carry out various manipulations on the selected pixels including cut copy paste rotate adjust colours apply special effects etc Selection basics Although the techniques for using the various selection methods differ the end result is always the same a portion of the active layer has been roped of
58. nour the settings you originally chose The crop area will display in blue to indicate you are in constrained mode Cropping for print One typical use for constrained cropping is in preparing your image for printing to an industry standard or custom size Cropping for print will ensure your resulting image will print at the exact size you have specified regardless of the number of pixels and original resolution of the uncropped image To crop to a specific print size 1 From the Tools toolbar from the 7al Crop Tools flyout select the A Crop Tool 2 For print sizes choose a pre defined print size expressed in inches or centimetres from the Crop Dimensions drop down list in the Context toolbar Or If you need to set a custom size on the Context toolbar o Select inches or cm from the Units of measurement drop down list o Type values into the Crop Width and Crop Height input boxes gt 3 Optional Click Swap to switch the height and width values 4 Doone of the following o Click once on the image to set the crop to the print size set above 72 Manipulating Images PhotoPlus will use the document s current resolution dpi to determine what portion of the image is included in the crop area o Drag out your crop area to create your constrained rectangle or square Once cropped the resolution dpi of your document will update to honour the print size set above 5 Optional Repositi
59. nts 39 Opening 16 bit HD photos will automatically adopt a 16 bits channel Colour mode to maintain high quality colour or tonal detail To open a raw image l Open PhotoPlus to display the initial Startup Assistant or Select Startup Assistant from the File menu during your session Select Open In the Open dialog select the folder and file name To open multiple files press the Shift or Ctrl key when selecting their names for adjacent or non adjacent files Click Open or Drag and drop a raw file into PhotoPlus from Windows Explorer The image opens in the Import Raw dialog Import Raw performs some preprocessing to attempt to correct the levels on your photo However you may wish to make further manual adjustments If opening multiple raw files once you ve adjusted the first image the Import Raw dialog will load the next image automatically until all files are loaded To exit the Raw Image dialog Click OK Once you ve exited the Import Raw dialog you photo will display in the usual PhotoPlus user interface On saving File gt Save or File gt Save As youll be prompted to save your work as a PhotoPlus picture SPP You may also wish to export your photo to a standard image format See 40 Making Image Adjustments Saving a file and Exporting to another file format on p 18 and 112 respectively for more information Using the Import Raw dialog The filters on the right of the d
60. olerance value to automatically expand the selected area under the cursor by detecting colours similar to those within the current selection The greater the value the more the selected area will grow 6 Using the circular cursor click and drag across the area to be retained or discarded depending on Keep or Discard Brush Tool selection 7 Click OK to create your cutout Painting Drawing and Text 80 Painting Drawing and Text Painting and brushes 4 g 1E The p Paintbrush Tool and Pencil Tool on the Tools toolbar are the basic tools for painting and drawing freehand lines on the active layer They work on Background and standard layers but not on text layers or shape layers The Brush Tip tab hosts a comprehensive collection of brush presets grouped into various categories Note that each sample clearly shows the brush tip and stroke the number indicates the brush diameter You can also create your own brush from within the tab If a more bespoke brush tip is required you can also customize your own brush tip and save it in its own user defined category See Creating your own brush tips in PhotoPlus Help for details To use the Paintbrush or Pencil tool l r4 7 v4 From the Tools toolbar s Brush Tools flyout select the Paintbrush Tool or Pencil Tool 2 Choose a brush tip preset on the Brush Tip tab If you ve picked a Basic brush set a brush colour i e the foregroun
61. olygons stars and more Each shape has its own built in a intelligent properties which you can use to Paa ee a ee AAN La Iil customize the basic shape A TA To create a QuickShape 1 Click the LJ QuickShapes flyout on the Tools Toolbar and select a shape from the flyout menu 2 Ensure aa Shape Layers is selected on the context toolbar 3 Ifyou want to create the shape on its own layer make sure the L New button on the Context toolbar is selected If you want to create multiple shapes on the same layer select one of the other combination buttons on the Context toolbar to specify how the multiple shapes will interact see p 90 4 For shapes on a new layer only select a foreground colour on the Colour tab for the QuickShape Multiple shapes on the layer will adopt the layer s current colour 5 Drag out the shape on the image It displays as an outline hold down the Ctrl key while drawing to constrain the aspect ratio If you switch to the Node Edit Tool you can adjust the shape The number of displayed edit control handles varies according to the shape for example the rectangle has just one control the polygon has two The Node Edit Tool is automatically selected once you draw a QuickShape to allow you to customize it 92 Painting Drawing and Text Using the middle Quick Pentagon shape as an example e Dragging the top control handle to the right will morph the shape to a hexago
62. on the crop area by dragging inside the crop area 6 To crop to the designated size double click inside the crop area Cropping to pixel dimensions Constrained cropping is extremely useful when you are preparing your images to display on a website or electronic device Unlike cropping for print the most important thing to consider is the number of pixels in the resulting image PhotoPlus also provides a unique constrained pixel crop which honours the original size number of pixels and resolution of your original image This is known as the Document preset Using this preset will always resample your image To crop to pixel dimensions 1 From the Tools toolbar from the Crop Tools flyout select the Crop Tool 2 Choose Document or another pre defined size expressed in pixels from the Crop Dimensions drop down list in the Context toolbar Manipulating Images 73 Or If you need to set a custom size on the Context toolbar o Select pixels from the Units of measurement drop down list o Type values into the Crop Width and Crop Height input boxes 3 Doone of the following o Click once on the image to set the crop area at the pixel dimensions set in the steps above o Drag out your crop area to create your constrained rectangle or square if custom Once cropped PhotoPlus will resample your image to ensure your document s resolution dpi is honoured while still giving you the pixel dimensions s
63. our and Greyscale 100 Colour and Greyscale Choosing colours Foreground and background colours Colour lt Atany given time PhotoPlus allows you to work with just RGB two colours a foreground colour and a background a San a colour These are always Go m j aa visible as two swatches on Bo Joe men o 3 the Colour tab indicated opposite The foreground colour is set to green RGB 63 173 73 and the background colour to black The Colour tab makes it possible to set the working colour model before colour selection RGB Red Green Blue CMYK Cyan Magenta Yellow Black HSB sliders Hue Saturation Brightness HSL sliders Hue Saturation Lightness HSL Colour Wheel HSL Colour Box Greyscale or Lab To set the model e Choose an option from the Reo drop down list Defining colours Now a few things to remember about how these colours are used Colour and Greyscale 101 e When you draw a selection shape or use the paintbrush tools you could apply the foreground colour e However the black text in the design could be created after swapping foreground and background colours using the tab s button Loading the foreground and background colour with two frequently used colours is a great way to boost productivity when painting and drawing To define foreground and background colour q 1 Selectthe Colour Pickup Tool on the Tools toolbar As you move the cu
64. pen edge noise render stylistic and artistic offer you a diverse choice of creative opportunities in PhotoPlus Before going ahead and applying your effects it s a good idea to review Using filter layers see p 48 before deciding on your approach i e whether you work non destructively or destructively Each effect can be applied in one of several ways e Ona filter layer via an Effects dialog or via the Filter Gallery non destructive e Ona standard layer via an Effects dialog or via the Filter Gallery destructive As with image adjustments see p 32 you can use filter effects to improve the image for example by sharpening but more often the emphasis here is on the creative possibilities when effects are applied Using filter layers Layers If you apply a filter effect SE 100 piles to a standard or background layer the Lock layer is permanently altered O A Background Copy E Y ml A Background Heo a amp w Adding Image Effects 49 However if you want the flexibility of being able to edit your filters at any point in the future and don t want to destroy the layer contents you can convert your standard or background layer to a Filter Layer e g Background Copy When applied filters are created within filter groups nested individually under the Filter Layer When you double click a filter you display its specific settings You can apply a blend mode and opacity to each filter and ad
65. pping the photo to a smaller size In either case the remaining image pixels are undisturbed so there s no distortion Manipulating Images 67 You will change the canvas size when e you want to add a border to your image without changing the size of the image itself e you crop an image To change canvas size 1 From the Image menu select Canvas Size 2 Enter New Width and or New Height values the current values are also shown for comparison 3 Inthe Anchor box click to position the image thumbnail with respect to edges where pixels should be added or subtracted ba 4 Click OK If you want to extend the canvas from all sides of the image click the centre anchor point If the canvas size is increased the new canvas area is filled on the Background layer with the current background colour and on standard layers with transparency 68 Manipulating Images Straightening photos As an image adjustment the Straighten Tool can be used to align a crooked image back to horizontal e g restoring proper horizontal alignment in a scanned image that wasn t aligned correctly on the scanner Use the tool to trace a new horizon against a line in the image the image automatically orients itself to the drawn horizon Before After horizon line drawn by dragging You can straighten using one of two methods As a separate tool used directly on your image below destructive or via the PhotoFix non d
66. r or Selection rotation angle 90 or 180 and the direction Clockwise or Anti clockwise required 3 You can also select Custom to display a Rotate dialog from which you can do all of the above but instead set your own custom angle even down to fractional degrees Using Cutout Studio Cutout Studio offers a powerful integrated solution for cutting out part of an image on an active Background or standard layer In doing so you can separate subjects of interest from their backgrounds either by retaining the subject of interest usually people objects etc or removing a simple uniform background e g sky studio backdrop 78 Manipulating Images A checkerboard pattern on the second image s background on preview is used to indicate areas to be discarded To launch Cutout Studio 1 Select an image to be cut out 2 Select Cutout Studio from the Photo Studio toolbar Selecting areas to keep or discard A pair of brushes for keeping and discarding is used to paint areas on your active layer The tools are called Keep Brush and Discard Brush and are either used independently or more typically in combination with each other To select areas for keeping discarding 1 In Cutout Studio click either d Keep Brush Tool or Discard Brush Tool from the left of the Studio workspace 2 Optional Pick a Brush size suitable for the area to be worked on ft of Gl 10 pix ae B p 5 Optional Set a Grow t
67. r s T Clone Tools flyout select the Clone Tool 2 Change properties if necessary on the Context toolbar 3 To define the pickup origin Alt click with the tool 4 Click again where you want to start the copy then click to paint the copy onto the new location Repeat as needed A crosshair marks the pickup point which moves relative to your brush movements Painting Drawing and Text 89 Drawing and editing lines and shapes For drawing and editing lines and shapes the Tools toolbar includes the following drawing tool flyouts LJ 2 The QuickShape Tools flyout featuring an assortment of tools for creating rectangles ellipses and other shapes The Line Tools flyout features straight lines plus freehand pen and curved pen lines Overview Each of the drawing tools has its own creation and editing rules as detailed below e Unlike painted regions you create on raster bitmap layers both QuickShapes and lines are vector objects that occupy shape layers marked with an symbol on the Layers tab e A QuickShape or straight line can be drawn directly as a shape layer path or as a filled bitmap Buttons on the Context toolbar allow you to decide how your lines shapes are to be drawn i e m Shape Layer create your QuickShape or line on a new shape layer or add to an existing shape layer Paths add your shape or line directly as a path rather than as a shape layer See PhotoPlus Help g Fill Bitmaps
68. rate in RGB Lab or Greyscale mode Optional Select a Bit Depth of 16 bits per channel for projects which require higher levels of colour detail Otherwise a bit depth of 8 bits channel is used as default 14 Opening Saving and Organizing 7 Optional Select a background type in the Background drop down list e When painting from scratch you ll normally choose White e You can also choose Background Colour to use the current background colour shown on the Colour tab e When creating an animation Transparent is often ideal 8 When youve made your selections click OK To create a new picture or animation during your session 1 Click i New on the Standard toolbar 2 Inthe New Image dialog set your canvas size see p 65 and then check Animation to create an animation or leave unchecked for a picture 3 Click OK The new image or animation opens in a separate untitled window Opening an existing file You can use the Startup Assistant s Open button to access files recently viewed in PhotoPlus or any file on your computer PhotoPlus opens all the standard formats for print and web graphics in addition to its native SPP format Adobe Photoshop PSD files and Paint Shop Pro PSP files Raw files open in an Import Raw dialog which offers image adjustment on the undeveloped image before opening See Adjusting raw images in PhotoPlus Help Similarly you can create HDR merged images from Opening Savin
69. region only Filter masks are applied either automatically from a selection existing before applying a filter or manually after you ve applied the filter to a filter group but never to an individual filter See Using masks see p 28 for more details on masking and masking controls Adding Image Effects 51 To create a filter mask from a selection 1 Make a selection on which your mask will be based e g a brush selection around the subject of interest By default the area outside the selection is masked i e not affected by the filter while the selection area retains the applied filter If you want to do the opposite choose Invert from the Select menu 2 Inthe Layers tab select the filter layer to which you wish to apply a filter 3 Add an adjustment via the Image menu or Add an effect via the Effects menu or via the Filter Gallery The filter is created within an automatically created filter group which applies a mask automatically O A Background Copy EY mE Y EEE iS E Gaussian Blur 4 Optional Fine tune the filter by double clicking the filter entry and editing the settings To create a filter mask by mask painting 1 With no selections present in the Layers tab select the filter layer to which you wish to apply a filter 2 Add an adjustment via the Image menu or Add an effect via the Effects menu or via the Filter Gallery 52 Adding Image Effects 3 Right click the
70. revious setting when you exit Edit Mask mode This means anything you paste from the Clipboard onto the mask will automatically be converted to greyscale As long as you are editing the mask you re only seeing a preview of changes on the layer You can switch out of Edit Mask mode at any time to edit the active layer directly or any other part of the image then switch back to resume work on the mask To edit the active layer e Click the layer thumbnail to the left of the Mask thumbnail The thumbnail is then bordered in white i To edit the active layer s mask e Click the mask thumbnail i 30 Layers Masks and Blending Masks and selections Once you ve created and manipulated a selection it s easy to turn it into a mask To create a mask revealing the selection 1 Create a selection See Making a selection on p 62 2 From the Layers tab click Add Layer Mask maak You can think of blend modes as different rules for Darker Colour putting pixels together to create a resulting colour screen In PhotoPlus you ll encounter blend modes on Ao layers or effects The colours of an upper layer Lighten blend with colours of the lower layer according to pelted Colour the upper layer s blend mode Overlay sealers To set a tool s blend mode cate e Select the tool and use the drop down list Linear Light on the tool s context toolbar D
71. rom these devices directly into PhotoPlus For 64 bit PhotoPlus you ll be able to use native 64 bit or 32 bit sources without leaving the program For TWAIN WIA device specific setup see device documentation To acquire your image from Startup Assistant 1 Open PhotoPlus to display the initial Startup Assistant or Select Startup Assistant from the File menu during your session 2 Select Open 3 Select Import from TWAIN from the Browse My Computer pane 4 For multiple devices Select the device from the dialog and press OK 5 Complete the procedure using the displayed acquisition dialog associated with the selected source g You can also import scanned images directly via File gt lmport gt Acquire To select a TWAIN or WIA source for scanning during your session 1 From the File menu s Import flyout click either Select TWAIN Source or Select WIA Source 2 From the dialog which differs for TWAIN and WIA devices select a device and click OK 18 Opening Saving and Organizing Saving a file PhotoPlus lets you work on and save one of several file types A PhotoPlus Picture SPP file is project based and so preserves project information e g layers masks paths if present when saving the file For a currently open image file you can edit and save the image back to its original format An intermediate HDR image can be saved which stores the results of an HDR Photo Merge for future use
72. rs giving the effect of a photographic negative Making Image Adjustments 35 e Clarity Lets you sharpen up your photos using local contrast e Posterize Produces a special effect by reducing the image to a limited number of colours Instead of the manual tonal adjustments above the PhotoPlus Image menu lets you correct shadow highlight values in an image automatically Adjust gt AutoLevels or Adjust gt AutoContrast may do the job in one go if not you can use Adjust gt Levels or Adjust gt Shadow Highlight Midtone See PhotoPlus Help for details Use the Histogram tab to display statistics and image colour values helping you to evaluate the kinds of image adjustments that may be needed Using adjustment layers Adjustments Adjustment layers are ed Levels pl recommended for applying image GE Curves b adjustments experimentally and non Wid Colour Balance e destructively to your image E Contest An adjustment layer is created by ae eae selecting an adjustment from the Colourize EES Adjustments tab As its name il Vibrarice i suggests an adjustment layer is 8 Selective Colour idered a it will considered a layer so it will appear in amp Channel Mixer y PP the Layers tab on creation mE Gradient Man y 36 Making Image Adjustments Layers v The Adjustments tab lists available Normal Opacity 100 adjustments in a selectable adjustments list After selection the H 6 ta
73. rsor around your photo a swatch appears displaying the colour under the cursor R252 G 179 B0 0 255 102 Colour and Greyscale 2 Or Or Optional On the Context toolbar set the Sample Size pickup region as a single Point Sample 3 x 3 Average or 5 x 5 Average area The last two options let you sample an averaged colour over a square pixel region ideal for sampling halftone images i e when point sampling is not suitable Left click with the tool anywhere on an image to pick up the colour at that point as the new foreground colour Right click to define a new background colour On the Colour tab click and drag the mouse pointer dropper cursor around the Colour Spectrum As you move the dropper cursor around the spectrum the tab s active colour swatch updates to the colour at the cursor position Left click in the spectrum to set a new foreground colour and right click to set a new background colour On the Colour tab use the slider s or enter numeric values in the boxes to define a specific colour The selected swatch updates instantly Adding colour samplers If you d like to keep a handy reference of important colours used in your image you can add samplers to those locations The sampler is just a marker that reports the pixel s colour values beneath it Colour and Greyscale 103 As you add one or more samplers their colour values will be displayed in the Info tab for e
74. rty of individual standard layers The layer s opacity setting affects all the pixels on the layer and is cumulative with the opacity of individual pixels already there To set a tool s opacity e Select the tool e g Paintbrush Tool and from the context toolbar either enter a percentage Opacity value directly or use the slider click the option s right arrow button To set a layer s opacity e Select the layer in the Layers tab and adjust the Opacity setting at the top of the tab either enter a percentage Opacity value directly or use the slider click the option s right arrow button To read the opacity values of pixels on all visible layers 1 Selectthe Colour Pickup Tool from the Tools toolbar and move it around the image 2 Read the value shown for O Opacity from the pop up window e g O 73 RGB 249 251 250 0 7356 The readout updates constantly showing the opacity value of each pixel under the cursor For more useful hints and tips about using opacity see PhotoPlus Help 28 Layers Masks and Blending Using masks Masking can also be applied to adjustment and effect filters where you can isolate regions e g an image background to which you want a filter to be applied Similarly you can use studio based filter masking in PhotoFix for adjustments and Warp Studio for warps Creating the mask Layers 7 Before you can use a mask Normal Opadty 63 la you have to create it o
75. s defaults To delete Click xi The filter is removed from the stack The effect s properties are expanded by default but can be collapsed to make more of the Filters stack visible To collapse expand filter properties e To collapse click the button preceding the filter effect name L To expand again click the button To replace a filter e Ensure Replace selected is checked e Select the filter you wish to replace by clicking anywhere in the filter s pane On selection the selected filter shows a darker background e g Glass 56 Adding Image Effects Filters V IB Glass Smoothness ammm Invert E T E Gaussian E Ripple Distort e Select a replacement filter from an effect category Your selected filter is replaced in the stack with no change made to the existing stack order Filters can be moved around the filter list to change the order in which they are applied to the photo To reorder filters e Drag and drop your filter into any position in the stack A dotted line indicates the new position in which the entry will be placed on mouse release Applying 2D layer effects Layer effects can be applied to the contents of standard layers text layers or shape layers Standard or 2D layer effects like shadow glow bevel and emboss are particularly well adapted to text while 3D layer effects p 58 create the impression of a textured surface Unlike image adjustments and Effects men
76. sure sensitivity can be switched on via Brush Options click Brush thumbnail ensure the Controller drop down list is set to Pressure on selected attributes e The Tolerance setting determines the breadth of the colour range to be erased e You also have the option of protecting the current foreground colour from erasure Protect foreground 3 Drag with the tool on the active layer to erase pixels similar to a sampled reference colour directly under the brush tip If you use the tool on the Background layer it s promoted to a standard layer 84 Painting Drawing and Text To erase with the Flood Eraser 1 Select S Flood Eraser from the Tools toolbar s Eraser Tools flyout 2 Optional Change properties on the Context toolbar 3 Click or click and drag with the tool on the active layer to erase pixels close in colour based on the Tolerance range to the colour under the cursor when you first click If you use the tool on the Background layer it s promoted to a standard layer Erasing using pen tablets For tablet users PhotoPlus supports pressure sensitivity with tablet calibration and key assignment possible directly from within the program via Pressure Studio Filling a region Filling regions or layers is an alternative to brushing on colours or patterns Making a selection prior to applying a fill and setting appropriate options can spell the difference between a humdrum effect and a spectacular one
77. tion Contacting Serif Help with your Product Co ET nit y Plus community serif com Get answers and ask questions in the Serif community Additional Serif information Serif website www serif com Address The Software Centre PO Box 2000 Nottingham NG11 7GW UK Phone 0115 914 2000 Phone Registration 0800 376 1989 44 800 376 1989 800 794 6876 US Canada Phone Sales 0800 376 7070 44 800 376 7070 800 489 6703 US Canada Customer Service 0845 345 6770 800 489 6720 US Canada Fax 0115 914 2020 Additional Information 117 Credits This User Guide and the software described in it is furnished under an end user License Agreement which is included with the product The agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses Trademarks Serif is a registered trademark of Serif Europe Ltd PhotoPlus is a registered trademark of Serif Europe Ltd All Serif product names are trademarks of Serif Europe Ltd Microsoft Windows and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation All other trademarks acknowledged Windows Vista and the Windows Vista Start button are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries Adobe Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and or other countries Copyrights Digital Images 2008 Hemera Technologies Inc All Rights Reserved Portions
78. u manipulations layer effects don t directly change image pixels they work like mathematical lenses that transform how a layer s bitmap appears Since the settings are Adding Image Effects 57 independent you can adjust them ad infinitum until you get the result you want A A A Drop Shadow Inner Shadow Outer Glow Inner Glow A A A A Inner Bevel Outer Bevel Emboss Pillow Emboss A Colour Fill Outline To apply a 2D effect 1 From the Layers tab select a layer and click fx Add Layer Effects 2 In the dialog apply an effect by checking its check box in the list at left You can apply multiple effects to the layer aO rop Shadow Inner Shadow Outer Glow Inner Glow Bevel and Emboss Colour Fill Outline 3 To adjust the properties of a specific effect select its name and adjust the dialog controls Adjust the sliders drop down list or 58 Adding Image Effects enter specific values to vary each effect Options differ from one effect to another 4 Click OK to apply the effect or Cancel to abandon changes Applying 3D layer effects 3D layer effects are just as easy to apply but they re a bit more complex than their 2D cousins see p 56 Actually there s an easy way to get started with them simply display the Layer Scale J 100 Effects tab then select a gallery thumbnail If hidden make this tab visible via Window gt Studio Tabs To apply a layer effect to the active layer e From the
79. uts A4 Paper Saving A4 Print Layouts Landscape A A4 Print Layouts Portrait MEE Contact Sheets Letter Paper Saving Letter Print Layouts Landscape Letter Print Layouts Portrait Single Images Landscape m1 2x 10 inc Label 4 To insert a particular template into the central page layout region simply click its gallery thumbnail 5 Depending on print mode decide on which image s are to be used for printing i e e For Single Image templates you can select a different image from the lower image gallery e For Print Layout templates right click a gallery thumbnail and select Fill Layout with Image All occupied or empty cells in your layout are filled with the selected image Alternatively to fill an individual cell drag a replacement image from the lower image gallery onto the target cell e For Contact Sheet templates use the Distribution option in Image Options to control image replacement 6 Optional From the left hand pane click the button to expand Image Options for sizing and rotating images see below in cells e Enable Fit image to cell to make the image fit within the cell boundaries e Enable Fill cell with image to scale the image to fit all of the cell Printing and Exporting 111 e Check Rotate for best fit to make portrait images fit cells of landscape orientation and vice versa to make maximum use of cell space 7 Optional Check Border to add a border of a configurab
80. w saturation colours in your image while high saturation colours are less affected 34 Making Image Adjustments Colour Balance Lets you adjust colour and tonal balance for general colour correction in the image Replace Colour Tags one or more ranges of the full colour spectrum that require adjustment in the image then apply variations in hue saturation and or brightness to just those colour regions not to be confused with the simpler Replace Colour Tool Transfer Colour Lets you transfer colour from a source image layer or selection to a target image layer or selection Selective Colour Lets you add or subtract a certain percentage of cyan magenta yellow and or black ink for creating effects Channel Mixer Modifies a colour channel using a mix of the current colour channels Gradient Map Lets you remap greyscale lightness information in the image to a selected gradient Lens Filter Adjusts the colour balance for warming or cooling down your photos It digitally mimics the placement of a filter on the front of your camera lens Black and White Used for greyscale conversion with controllable source channel input Threshold Creates a monochromatic black and white rendering You can set the threshold i e the lightness or grey value above which colours are inverted Equalize Evenly distributes the lightness levels between existing bottom darkest and top lightest values Invert Inverts the colou

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