Creating Layers

[ LiB ]

Creating Layers

Every Paint Shop Pro image consists of at least one layer usually called the background layerthat is similar to the canvas of a painting. Paint Shop Pro 8 now supports up to 500 layers per image if it's not limited by the memory in your computer. Images that are created with a transparent background don't have a background layer.

You should use layers when you want to combine several different elements into an image that you might want to control independently of each other.

In addition to the background layer that Paint Shop Pro provides, you can create a number of other types of layers in Paint Shop Pro, including raster, vector, masks, and adjustment layers. Raster layers contain pixel-based information, whereas vector layers contain instruction data for drawing vector lines, shapes , and text. The next several chapters in this book deal primarily with raster and mask layers. You'll learn more about vector images in Part III, "Using Vector Graphics & Text." Adjustment layers are beyond the scope of this book and will not be addressed.

NOTE

You can bypass the New Raster Layer dialog box by holding down the Shift key while you select New Raster Layer.

[ LiB ]