32  I want to make my own shapes but all the preset shapes have a .jsl extension?

Shapes are created by going through file->export->shape

Preset shapes must be vector objects - no raster data allowed. Each top level object in the layer palette (i.e. only those things indented one level underneath the vector layer) becomes a separate shape. You can use grouping to create more complicated shapes by assembling several simple shapes.

When you export the shape file, it only exports the shapes that are currently selected. If no vector selection is present, all of the shapes are exported. The name of the individual shapes is their name in the layer palette. You can rename them (before exporting) by right clicking on the shape in the layer palette and selecting "rename", or by going through vector properties. When you export the shapes you will be prompted for the name of the shape *file*. Note that this is different from the shape name -a single shape file can contain multiple shapes.

Finally, .jsl files are really just PSP files with a special extension. You can open up any of the jsl files in the shapes directory with PSP and take a look at how they are put together. -Joe

33 When I try to change dimensions of the grid by going through File/Preferences/Gen. Program Pref. they don't change. However, if I do it through the View/Change Grid it works, shouldn't they be the same?

The file preferences addresses the default setting for a new image, previously saved images store their own grid info, this is changed in the view/change grid and if you resave the image the new settings will apply to it the next time it's opened.  Cheers -Ron

engage rulers so you can pull out your guides
& color them to suit you needs & whims

Drag ruler marker guides (blue circles) away from image to delete guide lines.

Grid size & color can be set individually on each image & saved as part of that image.  Right click your image title bar to change the grids & guides on that image. Change guide colors in preferences adjustable "snap to" available for grids & guides

34 My jpg text is kinda distorted?
What you're seeing are compression artifacts of the JPEG compression
algorithms. JPEG doesn't save the picture's data exactly, it saves
numbers that are used by formulas to re-create the picture. The
higher your compression, the more of these artifacts appear, especially
in places where you have clean edges and areas of a single color.

Solutions:

1) Use a font and color combination where the artifacts aren't quite so obvious. A texture in the lettering is one way of doing this.

2) Lower the compression setting on your JPEG format. This will make your file larger, but reduce the artifacts. Sometimes a very small adjustment can make a huge difference, without making the file very much larger.

3) Break your image into rectangular pieces. Put the part without the text into JPEGs, and the part with the text into GIF format (PNG works, too, but isn't properly supported by older browsers). Display the pieces in a table to assemble the complete image.

My small fonts text is too darn blurry?
When adding text to a graphic, it always seems to come out blurry. Besides using the sharpening
is there another way to make it more clear and sharp? Am I using the wrong fonts?

May be because you have antialiasing turned on or have a stroke color assigned that clashes with the background. Remember that small fonts won't work well with anti-aliasing turned on. Certain fonts will render much better small text that others.

When I save my image the text gets blurry?

This is the reason we recommend that you don't save in JPG format.
Saving an image won't change the image you see in PSP, but the
compressed image may be considerably different

Artifices on sharp edges, change of hues in the palette, even
conversion of solid colors to dithered hues, are all problems that JPG
introduces.

Text has sharp changes which JPG cannot handle. Usually, GIF is
preferred for text.

JPG has only one good point and that is amount of compression.

If you're creating art or new images, save in a loss-less format such
as .PSP, .PSD, .PNG, .TIF, etc.

Then, from that master image, create images for the web in .JPG
format. (Saving an image in JPG the very first time creates the
changes, and you cannot recover the original easily.)

If you have PSP 6 or later you can watch what the compression is doing to the
saved image by doing a File>Export>JPG and watching the input vs
output image.

35 There are pixels around the transparent image that are white?
The problem is that when you made your transparent image, you used anti-aliasing or feathering on your image & the background was white. Since the background was white, the image is now surrounded by pixels that aren't quite white, and are therefore not transparent.

1) Use the GIF Exporter. It can turn these not-quite white pixels transparent.

2) Don't feather or anti-alias. Works best when the contrast
between the image edges and the background is low.

3) Feather or anti-alias using a background color that is similar to the background color of your webpage. This works best if the background is mostly one color, or if the contrast between the different colors you use is low. -Helge

36 I'm still having file association problems?
1. Open Paint Shop Pro 7, and select File>Preferences>File Format Associations
2. In the resulting dialog, click the "Remove All" button, then click OK to close the dialog
3. Close Paint Shop Pro
4. Open My Computer
5. In My Computer, select View>Folder Options (it may say "Options" if running an earlier version of Internet Explorer)
6. Click on the File Types tab
7. Scroll through the list and look for 3 entries JPEG File, PSP File & Paint Shop Pro 7 Image or Paint Shop Pro Image. You may not see every one of these in the list.
8. For each entry that matches the description in the previous step, highlight it and click the Remove button, and click Yes to confirm remove of the file type.
9. Once you've removed them all, go back into Paint Shop Pro 7 and use the File>Preferences>File Format Associations to select the desired image types you want to open with Paint Shop Pro 7, and click OK to close the dialog box.

This should reset things to the way you want to use Paint Shop Pro. I'm not sure why there would be any lingering associations, but I've seen it with PSP (and quite a few other apps) before. Hope this resolves the problem -David.

Classic answer on changing file associations.