Tubes, short for Picture Tubes, are images on a transparent background in a file type that can be painted with by using the Picture Tube tool in Paint Shop Pro 5 and 6. Tubes can hold multiple images, usually based on a theme such as candy, clouds, grass or trees and some tubes are single items.

Multiple images are aligned in a grid-type spacing within the tube and you have several settings you can adjust to control how the images flow from the Picture Tube tool.

Tubes can be used to click and place images without backgrounds, to create buttons, banners or other art, or to paint scenery using grass, flower and other foliage tubes. Simple 3D-look objects like pipes can be created with tubes as well, it's only a matter of setting the spacing very close and having the right shading on the tube item.

 Filling an area of an image with grass using a grass tube is as simple as selecting the grass tube you wish to use from the list of installed tubes, holding down the left mouse button or placing your pen on the tablet and moving back and forth across the image. You choose when the grass is full enough for your image. If you need a sky, clouds tubes painted above a sky colored gradient or solid color layer make short work of that job.

Tubes are adjustable in size from 10% to 250% of the image's original size so getting the right size tube image to fit your project is easy.

Picture Tubes can also be used to create custom resizable "brushes," such as multiple colors in one brush shape. Tubes can be opened in PSP like any other file type and single images can be plucked from a multiple image tube easily by using the rectangular (or other) selection tool, copy and paste.  

1. Unzip the downloaded tube file into a temporary directory.

2. Open the tube in PSP the same way you would open any regular image.

3. Export as tube.
File> Menu> Export>Picture tube..

4. Fill in all the fields in the box name your tube ...say okay.

The tube should show up immediately in your tube list.

Be careful in exporting tubes to PSP5 when choosing names for your tube.

When you pick a name that's already in use ... the new tube will overwrite your original without any warnings.

I posted about a week ago (along with three or four others) about not being able to use the Tubes tool... tool palette greyed out on selecting Tube tool, unable to create file errors on export, unable to convert, unable to use the tubes that came on the CD or the brand new ones for PSP6 that are on the JASC site.

I spent hours reading the archives of this group in deja, the help files, the JASC site, uninstalling, reinstalling, etc. Finally I broke down and asked JASC if they had any idea ... The next day they sent me a registry edit that though lengthy in reading and full of warnings about editing the registry of course, took about twenty seconds to implement. Great service!

I've got Tubes, again!!! Happy, happy, happy! (Now, I'm going back through all the old posts to find the new tubes that many of you have listed recently ... gorgeous stuff but I didn't d/l them cause I couldn't use them.)

But, I did want to post that the problem was easily fixed with a registry edit, because there were others with the same problem, and no one seemed to be familiar with it.

(I know it won't fix the same problem every time.  I'm posting it below for archiving & hope the lengthiness won't offend anyone.)  Thanks all -Elizabeth
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NOTE: Before you begin with the process detailed below
remember that instructions for editing the registry are intended for
experienced users only. The Windows Registry is at the core of the
operating system. Errors made in editing the registry could damage your
Operating System beyond repair resulting in loss of data and a required
reinstallation of the OS. If while you are in the registry you make an
error about which you are right away aware of, immediately turn the
machine off. Do NOT close the registry editor, do NOT go to
START>>SHUTDOWN simply hit the switch to turn of the machine or cut off
power to it. This will cause Windows 95 to load from the backup
registry that it makes every time it shuts down properly, hence the
mistake that you made will not have saved in the registry and your
machine should boot as it did previous to your editing. If you are not
comfortable with editing the registry you should take these instructions
to an experienced Windows technician or contact the Jasc Software Inc.
Technical Support Team at 612-930-9171 who will be happy to walk you
through the process of editing the registry.

The program configuration information, which is stored in the Windows
registry, may have become corrupted. Proceed as follows to remove the
corrupted data:

Close Paint Shop Pro, then click "Start," choose "Run," and type
"REGEDIT" in the Open text entry box. Click OK. When the Registry Editor
opens, click Registry>Export Registry File, choose a filename, and save
the file. The program will automatically add a REG extension on to the
specified filename when it is saved. This file can serve as a backup if
necessary.

After creating the backup, double-click on the following sequence of
folders:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
JASC

The "JASC" entry should now be highlighted.

Hit the DELETE key on your keyboard, and click "Yes" to confirm this
deletion. Now close REGEDIT.  This should correct your issue.

Imagine this, 6 clumps of grass images on a transparent background,
this is one example of a picture tube. You have another tube that has
a single picture of a house without any yard or background, single
objects can be a tube. Lets say you wanted to create a picture of
that house with a beautiful lawn. You could start with a transparent
layer, then using the picture tube tool loaded with the grass tube,
adjust the size of the grass tube to match the distance behind the
house (very small) and start making the backyard grass, the grass
you'd see from the street on the side of the house depending on the
angle of the street to the house. Add a new layer, then use the house
tube and click once with the picture tube tool to place the house on
the empty layer where you want it. Now add another new layer. Load
that grass tube again and make the grass a tiny bit larger than the
backyard and paint with the picture tube tool to fill in grass near
the house, as you come nearer the front of the image with the grass,
increase the size of the grass slightly. There's your house with a
beautiful lawn!

If you had a tube filled with empty baskets, you could click and place
a basket on a layer. Then load another tube filled with Easter grass
and on a new layer, paint the grass to fill the basket. Load a tube
filled with Easter eggs and on a layer above the grass, click the
picture tube tool to place eggs in the basket. Then add another new
layer and load that Easter grass tube again and paint some grass to
cover the bottom edges of the eggs so it pushes them back into the
grass in the basket. You might want to add another layer and load a
ribbon or bow tube and place a bow on the basket edge or handle. A
pretty Easter basket image is so easy!

Tubes are basically clipart, objects from photos, or scanned objects
with the backgrounds removed that you can click and place with other
objects to create a composite image or painting, to decorate a button
or logo or just click to use the object alone as a decor. You can keep
a set of matching objects in a tube like all Christmas theme images or
matching colored button blanks in various shapes. You can paint with
tubes as well, there are 3D like tubes that when painted with give the
illusion of depth, and painting in grass was never easier than with a
nice grass tube.