Tutorial for Paint Shop Pro 7 - Working with Layers

When creating graphic design, it is important to work in layers. Imagine a layer is like a transparent piece of paper that you can lay on another piece of transparent paper. You can move each layer around on the page. You can also move it on top or underneath a different layer.

Here is an example of working only with one layer. Again, it's best to imagine having one sheet of paper. Think of the hard work you put into drawing a beautiful portrait of your father. Now, you want to put a caption at the bottom of your portrait that says "Dad". Working with the same layer, you insert this caption. Step back and take a look at the finished product. Hmmm... you think to yourself this would mean more if it said, "Father" instead of "Dad". You've already put the word "Dad" at the bottom of the page on a portion of the portrait. Changing the name would require some erasing which would impact the original portrait. Knowing this will mess up the portrait, you either will need to start over or leave it as it is. Now, you will either spend more time re-creating the portrait or you will choose to leave it alone and not being completely satisfied with your final product.

See how working with just one layer can be difficult? Using multiple layers and the visualization I provided earlier with each item on separate transparent pages, now you can see how multiple layers will help. In this same situation, you would create the portrait on one layer and the word "Dad" on another layer. This way, if you don't like the position of the word, you can move it above the portrait or you can delete it and start over without affecting the original portrait.

With Paint Shop Pro 7, this is how you will create multiple layers. First start by opening a new document. At the top, click on File then New. The Width and Height is up to you but let's start with 500x 500 Pixels. To the right of the Width and Height is a drop down box where you can select "Pixels". You can also choose inches and centimeters if you'd like.

Select the background color to be white. Later if you want to create your own background as a picture or different colors, you should change it to transparent.