Interpreting PS for PSP Users: Inner Shadow

There are lots of digital scrapping tutorials on the web, but the majority of them are for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If you know Paint Shop Pro well, it is fairly easy to figure out how to create the same results in PSP.

But there are a few styles mentioned in the tutorials that are very subtle. I could never figure them out from looking at the pictures in the tutorials. Now that I have Photoshop, I easily see how these styles can be created in PSP. So I am writing some tutorials that will explain these PS styles and how they can be reproduced using the effects in PSP.

This is the first of a series of three tutorials on the “inner” styles or effects.

“Inner” means that the style occurs within the boundaries of the image. These styles use highlights and/or shadows to give the image a third dimension. Let’s start by looking at the three types of inner styles and what each one does.

• The inner shadow uses a shadow to create roundness or to make the image appear to be under another object.



• The inner glow puts a highlight on the image.



• The inner bevel uses both a shadow and a highlight to create thickness for a flat object.

Including all these styles/effects in one post would be much too long. So the tutorial will be divided into three parts. Part 1 will cover inner shadow and Part 2 the inner glow. Part 3 will look at the PSP inner bevel effect.


Part 1 - Inner Shadow

There is no effect in Paint Shop Pro called inner shadow. However, we can use the cutout effect to create the same results. Cutout is one of the 3D effects in the dropdown menu with the drop shadow.

The white image below is the default setting for the cutout. The original image was pink. As you can see, the original image disappears.


In the second image, the “fill interior with color” is unchecked. (See red circled area in the dialog box below.) This leaves you with an image that is transparent except for the shadow.




In the third image, the “fill interior with color” is checked and the color was changed to the original pink.


This last method will work if the original image is a solid color. You can increase the blur and lower the opacity to make it look more like a rounding shadow and less like a cutout. But it won’t work on a patterned image.

The offset in the default is set for a cutout with the light source coming from the top left. If you want your shadow in a different place, change the offset settings.

A Better Inner Shadow in PSP

Another way of using the cutout allows you more options with your inner shadow because the shadow will be on its own layer. I have used a textured image in this example to show you that it is possible to add the inner shadow to images that are not a plain solid color.

• First, create your image. This image can have a texture or pattern if you want.


• Next, duplicate the image. (Layers, Duplicate or right-click on the layer and choose Duplicate.)

• Then, link the two layers so that if you move one layer, the other layer will go with it. Do this by clicking on the area circled in red on one layer to change it to a number. Then activate the other layer(s) to be linked and change “None” to the same number. You must use the move tool to move the layers. The pick tool (deform tool in earlier versions) will move them separately. The chain link will show beside layers that are linked. (See below.)


• With the copied layer as the active layer, apply the cutout effect.


• Be sure the “Fill interior with color” is unchecked.

• The shadow color in this image is a very dark version of the green of the star. Shadows are only black or gray if they are resting on white or gray surfaces.


• Both offsets are set to zero which makes the shadow go all around the star, giving it a puffy look.


• Because the inner shadow is on its own layer, you can change the opacity and/or the blend mode of the layer.

Below are inner shadows applied to images using different settings for the cutout effect. In each case, the shadow color is a darker version of the original color.





PDF Version

Please have some patience!

Grr!!! I am so tired of reading complaints about what President Obama is doing. The man has been President for one month. It would take a miracle worker to fix everything people want fixed in such a short time. While President Obama is a very talented man, he is just one human being. It took years for our country to get into the mess it is in. How can anyone reasonably expect him to fix everything in a month?

Interpreting PS for PSP Users: Outer Glow

There are lots of digital scrapping tutorials on the web, but the majority of them are for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If you know Paint Shop Pro well, it is fairly easy to figure out how to create the same results in PSP.

But there are a few styles mentioned in the tutorials that are very subtle. I could never figure them out from looking at the pictures in the tutorials. Now that I have Photoshop, I easily see how these styles can be created in PSP. So I am writing some tutorials that will explain these PS styles and how they can be reproduced using the effects in PSP.

The circle below was created in Photoshop with only the Outer Glow style added. The default setting was used. The default color is a pale yellow. I have used a black background so that you can see it more easily.


The size of the outer glow can be increased as shown in the image below.


(If you have ever done a PSP neon tutorial or class project, you probably just had an “I know how to do that” moment.)

This style can be replicated in Paint Shop Pro by using the drop shadow effect.
After creating the circle, open the drop shadow dialog window. Use these settings.


You will notice that this created the “glow” only on the right side and at the bottom of the circle.


To create the remainder of the “glow”, reopen the drop shadow effect dialog window.

• Leave the Attributes settings the same as you used before.


• But change the Offset to the opposite negative values of the values you added before. For example, if your positive settings were 3, the negative values would be -3. Since I am creating the very thin “glow”, I used 1 and -1 for this image.

To create the neon-type glow, increase the values of the Offset and the Blur.

• First, apply the drop shadow effect with positive Offset values.


• Repeat, using the negative values.

Experiment until you get something you like. Try different colors.



Making the Glow a Shadow

When referred to in PS/PSE scrapping tutorials, the outer glow style might be creating a shadow instead of a glow.

It is not as easy to produce the positive and negative drop shadow in the same PS image as it is in PSP. So users of PS/PSE use the outer glow to create a shadow that goes all around the object by using a darker color instead of the default pale yellow.


This is what confused me. I was seeing it as a shadow in the example image, but the directions in the tutorial were calling it a glow.

I hope this helps to clear up any confusion you might be experiencing with outer glow when using PS/PSE tutorials to create in PSP.

PDF Version

As I Ramble On...

This poor old blog got stuck on the bottom of my TO DO list again. I have been busy with a website update among other things.

I decided it was time to quit pretending that I was going to update the link pages on my site. I just don't have the interest to check those things out anymore. With my pokey old dialup, it was a chore. It is basically impossible to check out many sites since so many have videos now. There are plenty other educational reference sites where teachers can go to find good links for their units.

There are several articles that draw the bulk of the site's visitors. I left those with an explanation of what I did and why. If you are interested in what's left, click the link for Teachers' Mentor in the sidebar.

I have also started working on the Paint Shop Pro tutorials I have been planning in my head for some time now. The first one is done. I just need to read over it tomorrow morning to make sure I didn't leave anything out. I have read it so much in the last hour or so that I would just read over any mistakes.

This is the first of several tutorials on recreating Photoshop/Photoshop Element styles using Paint Shop Pro effects. I thought they would be helpful since so many of the tutorials for scrapbooking are written for PS and PSE. I know I have often been confused when trying to follow a PS tutorial while using PSP.

The first tutorial is on the outer glow style and how you can recreate the same look with the PSP drop shadow effect. I have already started working on the next tut in my head and with a few images. It will be on the inner glow and inner shadow.

I am sure many experienced users of PSP would be able to reproduce these if I just showed the PS style in isolation. But I am providing an explanation of how I would do it for those who have less experience with PSP.

Don't let anyone tell you that the layer styles that Corel put in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 are equivalent to the PS layer styles. They are a joke. There is no real control of the effects with the layer styles because they did away with the numerical value buttons. You do have some nudge control with the arrow keys, but it is a poor comparison to the control you have with the regular effects. There are only a few effects that can be done as layer styles anyway. Those effects and all the others can still be done the same way they have been done since version 8. I bought PSPP X2 in order to check that my tutorials would work and only because I could get it at such a good price. I won't be switching from PSP X for my own use.

There are some new photoediting features in X2 which I have not checked out and may never. I have done very little photoediting in PS except for class assignments. I am kind of set in my ways with photoediting and can do it quickly in PSP X. I try to get the best photo possible in camera. Usually some cropping and maybe a bit of levels work is all they need.

I have been working a lot in PS lately because of the series of classes I just finished. I now find myself mixing up the keys in PSP as much as I do in PS. For one of my class assignments, I fixed a photo of my grandmother which had been folded and worn. The crease went right down the middle of the face of one of the ladies in the photo. Cloning was the only way to reconstruct the face. Boy, that was hard getting the highlights and shadows around a nose and mouth. To complicate things, I kept clicking the wrong buttons. To get your clone source in PS, you have to hold the Alt key and left-click. I am used to right-clicking on the source in PSP. I said a few naughty words as I kept clicking the wrong way out of habit.

It is time to stop this rambling and go to bed. I will read over my tut tomorrow and post it unless there are some major mistakes. I will try to get the next tutorial up before the week is over, but I do have to work the next several days. I won't have much play time.