Make Your Own Styled Lines in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X

Paint Shop Pro offers many options for customization, including one that can be overlooked. Any of the drawing tools available, such as the Pen and Preset Shapes, can be used with styled lines as well as solid lines. There are several default choices in Paint Shop Pro, but of course you can create your own to use.

Open Paint Shop Pro, and then open a new image. The image itself is not important, but tool options are grayed out without an open image. With the new image created, click on the Pen, Text, or Preset Shapes Tool. Go to the Line Style toolbar and click on the drop down arrow to the right. In the menu that appears, click on the Custom button at the bottom right. If you want to use an existing line style as a base for a new one, select that style in the Line Style drop-down window, then click the drop down arrow and click Custom. The line style you selected will appear.

The Styled Line Editor has a number of different options to change. In the Caps area, you can alter First Cap, Last Cap, Segment Start, Segment End, and Different segment caps, and Sizes.

First Cap - Choose the style for the first seg­ment in the line.

Last Cap - Choose the style for the last segment in the line.

Segment Start - Choose the style for the begin­ning of each dash.

Segment End - Choose the style for the end of each dash.

Different Segment Caps - Place a check in this box create separate end caps for all the middle dashes in the line. Leave the box empty use the First Cap and Last Cap settings for each dash.

Size - Adjust the sizes of the end caps. To set height and width equally, place a check in the Link axes box.

In the Style area you can manipulate the length of dashes and gaps in the line style. The Preview Area at the bottom displays the changes you make. The Edit Area has a pix­el ruler to size each dash and gap with the slider. You can add, delete, clear, undo, and zoom.

Add - Adds dashes or gaps. You can set the length either by dragging the sliders or with the numeric edit control.

Delete - Removes the selected dash or gap. Select by clicking on its slider in the edit area.

Clear - This will remove all dashes and gaps.

Undo - Click to undo previous changes

Zoom - Zoom the view of the edit area in or out

When you are satisfied with your styled line, click Save As New and choose a name. Be sure not to use the same name of the original line if you used an existing line as your base.

Once you have saved your styled line, it will be available to use with all the drawing tools in Paint Shop Pro. These steps are compatible with both Paint Shop Pro 9 and X. Don't feel limited by the defaults, make your own!