Created May 8, 2003 © Copyright SuzShook
Property of SuzShook
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This tutorial is my own creation;
however, most of the techniques used in this tutorial, I have learned from others.
Therefore, if you recognize any contribution you have made, I thank you.
And I thank you as well for respecting this as my work by not posting it,
in whole or in part,
in any other location without written permission from me.
Individuals and PSP graphics groups are invited to share my tutorials with others with TEXT LINKS ONLY.
You can e-mail me to let me know you are adding one or more of my tutorials to your list if you like -
it's always fun to know who is doing them.
This tutorial will teach you how to save images in PSP 7 format for use by Animation Shop, or to distribute to others using PSP 7. It also provides the user with a script that makes the procedure available at the touch of a button. Hope this tutorial helps you make your workspace work for you.
This tutorial assumes you are a relatively new user to Paint Shop Pro, Version 8, and is written in and for that version. 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 8 - you can get the 30-day trial 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
There are several instances when you may want to save PSP 8 images in PSP 7 format. The most important reason, to me, is for saving images for Animation Shop. Animation Shop has not been updated to recognize either *.PspImage files or *.psp files in PSP 8 format.
Important PSP 8.01 Patch Note
June 18, 2003The 8.01 patch made 2 important changes to Animation Shop for PSP 8: My recommendation would be to continue saving PSP files for Animation Shop using the *.psp extension. This distinguishes them from other PSP files saved in PSP 8.
- The first of these changes is that Animation Shop now recognizes the *.PspImage extension. However, files for Animations Shop still need to be saved in PSP 7 format, no matter which extension is used.
- The second change to Animation Shop now allows frames to be exported directly from Animation Shop to PSP 8 - before the PSP 8.01 patch, this function was either unavailable, or it caused the frames to be exported to PSP 7 rather than PSP 8.
The version of Animation Shop shipped with PSP 8 is version 3.0.4, the same version used with PSP 7.04. Therefore, the ONLY way to open layered images created by PSP 8 in Animation Shop is to save them in PSP 7 format.
Fortunately, this is very easy to do:
Be aware that this change will remain in effect until you save an image in PSP 8 format by repeating the above process and resetting the Save Options Version to "Save as PSP 8 compatible file". Why would you want to do that, you ask? Why not just leave the settings as is, and save all images in PSP 7 compatible format? There are several reasons and several kinds of information that will be lost if images are saved consistently in PSP 7 format:
- In the Save As dialog, change the .PspImage qualifier to .psp:
- Click on the Options button (green arrow above) and enable the "Save as PSP 7 compatible file" radio button, then click OK:
- EXIF data will be lost.
- Layer groups will be flattened to a single layer.
- New properties such as lith color and opacity and layer highlight color will be lost.
- New blend modes will be lost.
- Mask layers will be lost.
- Several new text properties, including per-character formatting of vector text, will be lost.
- Other vector information will not transfer, such as texture scale properties and gradient focal points for vector shapes.
Therefore, I would recommend always saving images in PSP 8 format, and using PSP 7 format only when needed, such as saving layered images for Animation Shop. To this end, I have written a script precisely for saving an image in PSP 7 format, and resetting the Save As dialog back to PSP 8 format. Using this script, at the click of a button, you can have it all. The script, called Save_PSP7_Format.PspScript, is available HERE. ~ ~ Unzip into your C:\My Documents\My PSP8 Files\Scripts-Trusted folder.
Note: This script must run from the Trusted folder because it both creates and deletes a file. This is done in order to reset the "Save As" options to PSP 8.The ZIP file contains the script and a short readme.txt file. If you are an advanced PSP 8 user, this may be enough for you. For those just starting out with PSP 8, continue below for guidelines on using this script.
STEP 2
To accomplish its task, the Save_PSP7_Format script opens the Save As dialog, and waits for the user to input the file name, and alternately, change the file location. The file name must end with .psp (see Important PSP 8.01 Patch Note above).
Note: To permanently change PSP 8 so that all psp files are saved with the .psp qualifier rather than the new .PspImage qualifier:
- In File...Preferences...General Program Preferences, click on the Display and Caching tab. Place a checkmark in option "Re-use last type in file save-as dialog".
- In File...Preferences...File Format Associations, highlight "Paint Shop Pro Image" and click on the Extensions button. Highlight psp* in the list, press the Preferred button, and press OK.
When the user clicks the Save button, the script saves the file in PSP 7 format. In order to reset the Save As options to PSP 8 format, the script duplicates the image, saves the duplicate in PSP 8 format (using a dummy name), and deletes the duplicate.
Before using this script it should be tailored to your system. I wrote it to save the PSP7-format file to the C:\My Documents\My PSP8 Files\Sample Images folder, but undoubtedly, you save your images elsewhere. To get this script ready to use, follow these steps:.
- Download the script - see above.
- In PSP 8, activate the Script toolbar (View...Toolbars...Script):
- In the Select Script drop-down window (red box above), locate the Save_PSP7_Format script.
- Click the Edit Selected Script button
(red arrow above) to open the Script Editor.
- In the Script Editor, click the Text Editor button:
Partial Screen - Change the location for the saved file by very carefully editing the area highlighted in yellow below - this is the first occurrence of FileName in the script:
Partial Screen Note: Be very careful when editing the script. You need to replace the folder name only - do not replace the *.psp. That will be the name that appears in the Save As dialog, and you will replace the * with your chosen file name each time you run the script. If you change the format or punctuation of the script, it may not run!- (Optional) Change the location for the duplicate file (the one saved to reset the Save As options back to PSP 8) by very carefully editing the area highlighted in green below. This is the second occurrence of FileName in the script. You can leave it as is, if that folder exists. The file is created and then immediately deleted.
Partial Screen - Save the script by choosing File...Save.
- Run the script by clicking the Run Selected Script button
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When the Save As dialog appears, type your chosen image name in place of the *, retaining the .psp extension, and then click the Save button. The file is saved. Then a copy of the image is created, saved in PSP 8 format, and deleted - if you watch closely, you will see this happen!
To make this script even more accessible, you can assign a shortcut key to it, or add it to a toolbar or menu. PSP makes this possible by the use of BoundScripts. For an explanation, visit my Using Boundscripts Tutorial.
If you have any problems, comments, or questions, please do not hesitate to Email me.
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All graphics and content © 2003 by SuzShook
