The Tube FAQ
=Phantom=
Copyright (c) 1998 by Tika Carr, All rights reserved.
v. 2.5; August 3, 1998
Maintained by Tika Carr
In this FAQ, I hope to answer some of the most common questions I've
seen in the newsgroups and in e-mail. Special thanks to Shena Delian
O'Brien, Diana, and Dlanock de Ceresk, all the others in the
comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro newsgroup. This FAQ or portions
thereof can be redistributed, as long as you give credit for the
portions you use.
I. Paint Shop Pro 5 Picture Tubes
1. What are picture tubes and how do I use them?
2. What can I use them for?
3. Adding, renaming, deleting, removing, and uninstalling tubes
4. Paint Shop Pro 5 Error Messages
II. Creating Your Own Picture Tubes
1. The Basics
2. What can I make tubes out of?
3. How to Scan Images & Clean Them Up
4. When To Colorize, Rotate, Add Drop Shadows, and Other Effects
5. File Size Considerations
I. Paint Shop Pro 5 Picture Tubes
1. What are picture tubes and how do I use them?
Picture tubes are like little pieces of clip art that you can paint
with. In Paint Shop Pro 5, there is a tool that looks like a brush and
a sort of puzzle piece in the tool bar. The Control Window lets you
select a tube, resize it and change other tube options. Use the TAB
key if you cannot see the control window. To paint with a tube, drag
it across the image as you would a normal paint brush. In order to use
tubes, your image must be 16.7 million colors. See the drop down box
when creating a new image, or the Colors Menu's Color Depth sub menu
for options.
2. What can I use them for?
Picture tubes can be used for nearly anything, such as flower
arrangements, web site graphics, tiled backgrounds, buttons, and
boarders. You can also use tubes to avoid repeated cutting and pasting
in digital paintings. Great for adding plants, clouds, and other clip
art. The uses are limitless.
3. Adding, renaming, deleting, removing, and uninstalling tubes
If you have been downloading tubes from this or other web sites and/or
from newsgroups, you already know that your collection can grow quite
fast. Some may have experienced Paint Shop Pro slowing down if you
have a lot of tubes. Keeping them in order can also be a chore. A
program called The Tube Librarian found at
http://www.frontiernet.net/~phantom7/tubes.html#tubelib will help you
to keep your tube collection in order, and allows you to change your
tube listing while Paint Shop Pro 5 is still running. You can import
tubes you find on the internet or in newsgroups to your collection, or
export your tube control settings so you can share your tubes with
others. Renaming or removing removing control settings and
uninstalling tubes is quite easy with this handy utility.
4. Paint Shop Pro 5 Error Messages
Unrecognizable File Format:
This error is often a result of a corrupted picture file. Sometimes
this happens if you or the person posing the tube is using Netscape,
which doesn't support the .tub file format. You may want to try
downloading again or try with another browser. (This is one reason I
prefer to zip tube files).
Can't Export Because of Layers or image is not in 24-bit color mode:
When you create a picture tube, you must be sure to start a new
graphic in 16.7 million colors, with a transparent background. If you
did this and still get this message, make sure that you do not have
anything selected or any floating selections. Go into the Selections
Menu and choose Deselect All, then try to export the tube again.
II. Creating Your Own Picture Tubes
1. The Basics
JASC Software has a very good tutorial on how to create a picture tube
in the Paint Shop Pro 5 manual and also at their site (
http://www.jasc.com/tubes/tubegen.html). In addition, Diana has a
Tubetutorial on how to make picture tubes at
http://members.xoom.com/tubes/tubetorials/tubemaking.htm. Both have
screen captures and easy to follow step-by-step instructions.
2. What can I make tubes out of?
You can make tubes out of almost anything. However, do be very careful
that the items or clip art you use aren't licensed or copyright,
otherwise you'll have to get permission to use them for tubes. Images
that normally do not have copyright are things like flowers, leaves,
food, and other natural things if you scan them in yourself. Other
items around the house such as artificial flowers, vases, etc. may be
safe to scan in if it does not have any copyright, patent or trademark
notices printed on the item or the package the item came in.
In some cases, especially for scanned images, you will need to do some
editing to make the tube. Another thing to consider is how the tube
will look reduced or enlarged, since the tubes can be scaled from the
control window.
3. How to Scan Images & Clean Them Up
Preparing objects to scan:
I will assume you already know how to use Paint Shop Pro 5, and your
scanner software. When scanning bulky objects, try propping the lit up
with something. Then block out as much light as possible around the
sides. Some might use a black cloth or heavy towel draped over the
lid. Others just leave the scanner lid off. This produces a dark black
background that some may find easier to edit out. When scanning flat
objects, sometimes you might see "ghosting" in the image. In this case
you might want to try putting a thin sheet of white paper over top of
the paper you are scanning.
Most scanner software contains a "preview" button, which lets you see
what the image might look like after the scan. It sort of does a full-
page quick scan then shows the results. Work with the brightness and
contrast levels, and do not have any auto-adjust settings active. For
faster scanning, move the box in the preview (if there's one) so that
it is over what you wish to scan, and resize it to only get that area
you want. Sometimes the actual scan may still come out darker than
what's on the preview so you will have to practice and learn how your
scanner reacts to various situations.
Removing the Background:
After you scanned in your picture, work with the gamma correction and
lightness/contrast until you get it the way you want. You can find
these in the Adjust Color menu from the Colors menu in Paint Shop Pro
5. It's best to get the background to have as little variation or
"banding" of color as possible, and providing as much contrast to the
object you plan to make the tube out of.
Be sure the control window is showing, and use the magic want to
select the background. Adjust the tolerance until you can get as much
of the background separated from your object, or use the lasso tool's
smart edge option. Don't worry if you can't get it all. Using the
lasso tool and the freehand option you can add to and delete from the
selection. You do this by holding the SHIFT or CTRL key down while
selecting an area. You may also do this in zoom mode, so that you can
see up close the edges.
Be sure you're in 16.7 color mode (increase color depth if you need
to). Copy the selected object to the clipboard and then paste as New
Image. You should now see your object on a transparent background.
Tips:
- Using the touch up tool's smudge and push options can help you fill
in transparent background holes you don't want showing through your
object.
- To remove parts around the object, select the background with the
magic wand, modify the selection (Selections menu, and use the
feather or expand option). Enlarge the selection by one pixel then
hit the DEL key to delete those pixels.
- If you want to smooth the area, try expanding by one pixel with just
background selected, then use the Gaussian Blur (Images Menu/Blur
item) with a setting of 1.00.
- If you rotate your tubes at different angles, sometimes you might
want to use the sharpen filter to make it a bit sharper. Rotations
at odd angles (not right angles) seem to blur the image somewhat.
4. When To Colorize, Rotate, Add Drop Shadows, and Other Effects
- The more tubes you put in a tube file, the larger the file size will
be. Tubes can also be just one image that can be used as a brush.
When working with tubes, you may want to keep the original image in
a separate window, alter it, copy it to the clipboard, then paste as
new image into a square in the tube grid. Use the Undo or Undo
History (Edit menu) to get the image back to it's original state
before creating the next tube.
- Images like flowers and balloons are good examples of tubes you can
make in different colors using the Colors menu Colorize option.
- Foliage, grass, and some flowers, and other items are examples that
can be rotated in different directions so that when painted into an
image, they give a more realistic look. Use the sharpen filter
(Images menu) for rotations that are not at right angles, since
those tend to blur more easily.
- Flowers, clouds, and foliage are objects that lend themselves nicely
to be resized. This let's you paint different sizes of the tube in
one tube size setting, and can give a realistic look. You may need
to sharpen the image some when resizing, if it blurs easily.
- It's best not to use drop shadow on tubes unless the tubes do not
show up very clearly when painted over top one another, or unless
you want to give your tubes a pop- out 3-D look. Drop shadowing can
darken the area around an object too much and sometimes takes away
from the realism.
5. File Size Considerations
If you plan to share your picture tubes with others, you may want to
be sure your tube file size is as small as possible. One
recommendation is to use a tube square of about 100 x 100 pixels, and
no more than 10 tubes in a tube file (total would be 500 x 200 in
size). In some cases, dithering the image down to 256 colors or even
16 colors help keep the file] size down. After you do this, then you
can recolor or rotate your image and paste each alteration into your
tube grid. Remember that you can enlarge and reduce the size of the
tube while painting with the picture tube tool, using the control
window options. There is usually very little to no degradation of
quality of the image when altered this way.
[End of FAQ]
=Phantom=
Phantom Inspirations: http://www.frontiernet.net/~phantom7/
(no underworld to e-mail me)