open image not as background 1

[fredk]

I have limited experience with PSP8 - I have not used it in about 6 months - My problem is that I want to open a jpeg and paste it as a seperate layer (I am guessing it must be raster) into my file - I am making a label with some text and this jpeg in the middle.

I have done this before but now, everytime I open the file, it creates the picture as the background????

How do I open the jpeg as a layer and not the background?

Thanks much for the help!!

Fred

 

[Larena]

If an image only has one layer (which all jpegs do), PSP will call that layer "background".

You have 2 options:
1. Create a new image. Open your jpeg, copy it & paste it into the new image as a new layer
or
2. Open the jpeg, press CTRL-A to select all, then choose Selection > Promote to Layer (the menu option might be slightly different - I've only got PSP5 in front of me at the moment). This will move the image to layer 1, but the background will be blank (no colour)

Either way, make sure you save the image as a PSP file instead of JPG while you are working on it, because as soon as you save it as a jpeg it will revert to a single layer.

 

[fredk]

redcap, thanks for responding - one more question - If I need to re-size the picture in the new image, do I have to make it a vector (can I re-size a raster) ???

Thanks!!!!

Fred

 

[Larena]

You should be able to resize any picture or layer. JPGs are always raster images, though, so you can't enlarge them without losing a lot of image quality.

As a bit of a quick explanation - raster images are bitmaps, ie images made up of dots (pixels). Vector images are a bit harder to explain - they are created mathematically, more as a relationship between one point and another.

So if you create a circle in a raster image, then zoom in or enlarge it, it will appear jaggy. The software doesn't 'know' that it's supposed to be a circle and just sees it as a collection of pixels. If you enlarge it, the graphics software just adds more pixels & 'guesses' what colour to make each new pixel. If you shrink it, the software just removes pixels.

On the other hand, if you create a circle in a vector image, the software does know that it's a circle so you can enlarge or reduce it without losing any image quality.

You can convert a vector image to raster - the software will convert the image to dots with no problems. However, you can't convert a raster to a vector because there is no information contained in the image to tell it how one pixel relates to the next.

Hopefully this makes some sense.

 

[fredk]

Thanks Redcap - that makes sense - I appreciate your detailed help!!!!!

I just read that Corel acquired Jasc - interesting!!

Fred