Bezier Lines in PSP 9 - MiniTutorial

This tutorial is a simple introduction to creating Bezier lines, or curves, in PSP9. The tools and the process are different, but the results are the same. The basic concept for creating Bezier lines in this fashion was posted in the PSP 8 beta newsgroup by Flarelocke, and is used here with his permission. Thanks, Flarelocke!

This tutorial assumes you are a relatively new user to Paint Shop Pro, Version 9. It was originally written in and for PSP Version 8 and has been completely revised for PSP 9.

Many screen shots in this tutorial are resized - your work will be larger than this.

Supplies - For this tutorial, you will need the following:

• Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 9 - you can get the public beta test version HERE.

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OK, now we're ready to begin. Grab your mouse and let's get started.

Remember to save often.

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STEP 1

In PSP 7, we had an option for drawing Bezier lines, or curves, which "seemed" to be absent from PSP 8 and PSP 9. But it isn't! The ability to draw these "elastic lines" is still there in PSP 8 and in PSP 9 - it's just done a little differently. In fact, Bezier curves in PSP 8 and 9 are even easier than in PSP 7. And they can be drawn using the same basic strategy you learned in PSP 7, with those 2 endpoints and 2 control points. This mini-tutorial is designed to build on that basic knowledge from PSP 7.

In addition, curved lines in PSP 8 and 9 are much more flexible and much easier to make - lots of the limitations of Bezier lines in PSP 7 have been removed. You can now draw lines with many curves, and you can manipulate those curves much more easily.

But let's get back to a review of Bezier curves in general, and the PSP 7 implementation of Bezier curves. By definition, a Bezier curve is a line connecting 2 endpoints, whose curve is determined by one or more control points which do not lie on the curve. In PSP 7, we used some basic points to draw Bezier lines:

• First, the line was set by clicking on the canvas at the point where you wanted the curve to start (point A), and then dragging to where you wanted the curve to end (point B).
• The curve was created by clicking the mouse away from the line 2 times - the first of these clicks, or control points (point C), set the angle and target point from the start of the line, and the second control point (point D) set the angle and target point from the end of the line.

Image 1	Image 2
Image 3	Image 4

We can achieve exactly the same line in PSP 9, using the Pen tool (V), in Draw Point to Point - Bezier Curves Mode:

There are several other options of interest on the Tool Options palette for the Pen tool:

• If you wish to create several segments, mark the Connect Segments check box. For our purposes in this tutorial, we will be drawing only a single segment, so we'll leave this box UNchecked.
• Mark the Show Nodes check box to display the curve's nodes during creation. We want to check this box.
• Mark the Create on vector check box to place the curve on the current vector layer - if there is no vector layer, a new one will be created. We want to check this box, too.

  Note: For drawing lines, be sure the foreground material style is set to color and the background material is set to transparent:

Foreground Material

Background Material

Now that we have our options set, let's create the Bezier curve with the same arrangement of end points and control points as we used in PSP 7 (Image 5 below):

• Click on point A, and drag towards point C so that the arrow handle of the control arm rests on point C (Image 6).
• Click on point B, and drag away from point D so that the circle handle of the control arm rests on point D (Image 7).

Image 5	Image 6
Image 7	Image 8

As you can see in the finished image (Image 8), the curve is identical to the Bezier line done in PSP 7 (Image 4).

Note: If your curve does not look like the above, be sure that when you click on point B you drag AWAY from point D....that's the key!

Many times, for the second point, you will have to drag the control arm off the canvas. This is perfectly okay - as long as you get the circle control handle from the second point on point D, you will achieve the Bezier curve you are aiming for.

If you create the Bezier curve as a vector object, there are nodes at both points A and B, so you can adjust the shape of the line using the control arms from either or both nodes. You are not restricted, as in PSP 7, to modifying the shape of the line only while clicking on the control points! None of your points are set when you create your Bezier curves as vector objects, and you can readjust your curve at any time.

To complete the Bezier curve, click on the Apply button:

To open a Bezier curve in node edit mode, activate the Pen tool (V), and click on the Edit Mode button:

Now click on the curve, and the nodes will once again be visible. Click on any node to see and manipulate its arms. Right-click on any node to activate the Pen tool context menu, which contains many other commands such as edit commands for the curve, commands to change node types and commands to perform node transformations.

And as with other vector objects, you can change the line's properties, including size, color, line style, visibility, and antialias status. To activate the Vector Property dialog, do any of the following:

• Activate the Object Selection tool (O) and click on the Properties button on the Tool Options palette.
• Right click on the Bezier curve with the Object Selection tool (O) and select Properties from the context menu.
• Double-click on the vector object's Layer Name button.
• Choose Objects...Properties.

Lots of times it helps to turn the grid on (CTRL+ALT+G) when creating Bezier curves so you can see precisely where your control points are located.

Note: Once you've clicked the Apply button, any other object you draw will be on a new sublayer of the active vector layer. If the active layer is a raster layer, a new vector layer will be added.

STEP 2