Paint Shop Pro Tutorial #1

Black and white outlines from a colour image

This quick Paint Shop Pro tutorial will show you how you can easily change a colour image into a black and white outline image, which is then perfect for:

• Parchment Craft Patterns
• Glass Painting Patterns
• Rubber-stamped Type Images
• Colouring Pages

Paint Shop Pro Tutorial #1

How to turn a colour image into a black and white outline - these instructions are for PSP 9 and updated for X where appropriate.

1. Open a coloured image



2. Run the 'Digital Camera Noise Removal' filter:
   Adjust>Photo Fix>Digital Camera Noise Removal
   Adjust>Digital Camera Noise Removal (PSP X)

   The dialogue box should say:

   - Link Detail Sizes = Checked
   - Small = 100
   - Correction Blend = 70
   - Sharpening = 0
   




3. This next move turns the picture into a 'pencil sketch' type image:

   Effects>Edge Effects>Find All




4. Now make the outlines darker:

   Adjust>Brightness & Contrast>Levels

   The dialogue box should say:

   - Channel = RGB
   - Input Levels = [0] [.17] [240]
   - Output Levels = 0.255 or [0] and [255]
   




5. That should produce a nice pencil sketch to colour in but if you want to use the image for tracing, e.g. for parchment craft or glass painting patterns, then I would continue to play around with
   
   Brightness & Contrast>Contrast

   ...maybe all the way up to 100% for Contrast, to make the lines even darker and reduce some of the extra noise you may get. Of course, you can always ignore this extra noise when tracing, but sometimes it makes the job easier with much higher contrast than normal.

If you use this technique and have any feedback or finished designs, I would love to hear from you!

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