Everyone Can Use A Lift!

So, Mr. Bigexec's company name is starting to come around now! Good work! (It's already better than the one he did in crayon!). But, it still looks......flat. Let's give it a lift...up off the page! How? With a drop shadow of course!

With PSP and your image still open, and text still selected, choose "Image", then "Effects", then "Drop Shadow". You can adjust any of the attributes. Here's what The KROW chose:

When you like what you've set for Drop Shadow, click ok and watch your logo come off the page! Remember, "UNDO" is your friend, so if you don't like the Drop Shadow you did, UNDO it, and re-apply it. You see? It really is too easy!

The Big Guy Awaits!

So, you've got a logo of Mr. Bigexec's company name created. Let's get it to him!

In the PSP menu, click "Selection", then "None". Now, nothing should be selected in your image. In the Layer Palette, RIGHT click on either of the Layers and choose "Merge", then "Merge All (flatten)" . Don't worry, you won't lose your Drop Shadow! This just puts all the layers together into one image so you can save it as a single file.

Click the Selection tool.  Check your Tool Option Palette to make sure it's set to "Rectangle" in the drop down, "Feather" is set to 0, and "Antialias" is NOT checked.

Now, place your cursor just outside of the image and draw (click and drag) a rectangle around the text. With the text now selected, click the Copy and then Paste buttons. Voila! A whole new logo made to order, especially for Mr. Bigexec! Now, just save it in a ".gif" or ".jpg" for web use, and send it off to him!

Here's The KROW's logo for Mr. Bigexec.

COOL KROW CLUE:

If you have email set up on your machine, a great feature of PSP is the "Send" option. With your image open and ready to go, click "File" and "Send" from the menu. An email opens with the image already attached waiting for you to fill it out and send it!

Now that you've created your first logo, take some time to play around in Paint Shop Pro on your own. The more you work with it, the easier it will get, and you'll never stop being surprised at all the fantastic features it has.

Next week we'll see what Mr. Bigexec has to say about his made-to-order logo, and how to deal with changes he wants (since his secretary, Miss Admin, dropped you the hint he wants his logo a bit fancier). We'll see how to create text on a path (vector!), add some dimension, and then frame his logo to bring it all together

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