Corel's Paint Shop Pro 8 is a powerful, intuitive image-editing software program. With it, you can alter and edit photos and create your own works of art. You can adjust the appearance of all your graphics down to the tiniest pixel with the many tools. Use the stroke width tool to easily change the thickness of your lines.

1

The Tool Options Palette

The Tool Options palette, situated below the menu bar and navigation bar, changes its appearance depending on the shortcut toolbar selection you have activated. For example, when you click the "Magic Wand Tool" shortcut icon in the vertical toolbar on the left side, the Tool Options palette near the top of the program changes to display the magic wand settings. When you click the "Text Tool," the toolbar options change to reflect all the changes you can make for the text. Paint Shop Pro's "Preset Shape Tool" and "Pen Tool" change to allow you to adjust the stroke width of a line.

  • The Tool Options palette, situated below the menu bar and navigation bar, changes its appearance depending on the shortcut toolbar selection you have activated.
2

The Technique

Click the "Pen Tool" in the shortcut toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen. Look for a small tool named "Width" in the Tool Options palette. If you do not see "Width" to the right, click your newly drawn line in your image to select it. The palette will display the various settings for the line. Click the small upper arrow below "Width" in the toolbar to thicken your line. The new thickness will display automatically.

  • Click the "Pen Tool" in the shortcut toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen.
3

Other Settings

When you click the "Pen Tool" to draw a line, or you click the "Preset Shape Tool" to make a shape such as a star or rectangle, the Tool Options palette displays the previously used or default settings. In addition to adjusting the stroke width of the line, you can freely change the line style, mode, colour, aliasing effect and other properties. Line style changes the property of the line, making it straight, dotted or dashed. The mode setting activates the type of line, such as straight or curved or a mixture. Anti-aliasing removes the jagged edges of your lines; aliasing retains the rough, jagged appearance.

  • When you click the "Pen Tool" to draw a line, or you click the "Preset Shape Tool" to make a shape such as a star or rectangle, the Tool Options palette displays the previously used or default settings.
  • Line style changes the property of the line, making it straight, dotted or dashed.
4

Shortcuts

The Toolbar Options palette may be hidden. The palette can be toggled on and off by pressing F4 on your keyboard. When you make your changes to the various palette settings, Paint Shop Pro will automatically save these settings. The next time you want to draw a star or line, the settings will be instantly ready for you until you change them again.

  • The Toolbar Options palette may be hidden.
  • The palette can be toggled on and off by pressing F4 on your keyboard.