JWG PSP7 Tutorials:
Picture Tubes in PSP
How to export and use, the tubes that you have collected from the various tube sites on the Net, or made yourself.
What you have to do with tubes you have downloaded is either, unzip* the tubes straight to your tubes folder in PSP, (which works for PSP 7 tubes), or unzip into another folder which can be anywhere you want, and then use the tube converter which comes with PSP 7, and is supposed to convert older tubes and install them. However (!) some older tubes can be quite awkward, and the tube converter won't touch them, so you then have to open them individually in PSP like any other image, and Export them to Picture Tubes yourself.....
This method can also be used for tubes that have been offered for download in .psp format, or graphics you have made yourself and wish to save as tubes.
*Click here for some unzipping utilities you can use.
Exporting Tubes
Open PSP and open the folder that the older tubes have been unzipped into. Click on the one you want to add to your PSP tubes. The tubes appear as a large transparent image.
Now go to File : Export to Picture Tube, as shown in the shot below:
The following dialog box opens:
Now: you will notice that you have to put in the number of cells. This simply means the number of items in the tube. So, for our example, we have 3 cells across (3 butterflies across), so we type in 3 in the box for cells across. We have 4 cells (butterflies) going down, so we type in 4 in that box. Total number of cells : 12. You can change Placement and Selection mode from Random to Continuous so that they appear one after the other when you click on your image with the picture tube icon, if you like. Type in a name for the tube in the box as shown, then click OK. Your butterflies should now appear in your tubes folder. Sometimes there is only one image and then the cell arrangement is simply 1 and 1.
You can use this method to create your own tubes too. Make sure your image is on a transparent background and that you have merged all visible layers but not merged all (flatten) as that removes transparency. Then export to picture tube as shown above. Sometimes you may wish to alter the Scale and "Step" of existing tubes. The scale refers to the size of the tubed image as a percentage of the original. The step refers to the distance between each image in the tube as you place them on your graphic. The smaller the step, the less space between each image. See the examples below:
In the first example, the scale has been left at 100%, and in the second this has been changed to 75%. You may notice that the images are "continuous and incremental" rather than Random which is the default setting. This means that if your tube has several images (as in the examples of butterflies and lights shown here), you can change the settings so that they appear on your graphic one after the other in the order that they have been placed in the tube, rather than randomly. I prefer to do this, as it gives you more control over which tubed image you want to use. To alter the settings of an existing tube, click on the picture tube icon, and find the tube you wish to change.
Click on the middle tab, as indicated by the arrow:
Click on the arrow at the side of the first drop down box which says Placement mode. Click on Continuous. Do the same for the second drop down box which says Selection mode, and click on Incremental. Then click on Options:
A dialog box will open where you can make any further changes to the tube if you wish, and put a tick in the box to save as default.
I hope this tutorial has helped you add and use tubes more easily on your graphics.
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