Members' Tutorials

Quickie Tut

Using Guides and The Position Numbers

I cannot draw circles or ellipses without using Guides. I rely heavily on the Position numbers at the bottom right of my workspace when I work for accuracy.

This tut is to show you how to use guides to do an exact halfway dissection of an image and to mark the exact center point of the canvas. I am writing this for beginners with the idea that you don't have any knowledge of how to use guides and what they are for. I will also explain what those gobbledygook numbers at the bottom of your workspace tell you and why they are valuable.

I imagine the information is somewhere in PSP's help files. If you are like me, those files may as well have been written in Martian when you are starting out.

No one explained guides and position numbers to me. I learned by trial and error. This is a breakdown of how to use them and what they are good for. Once you are familiar with Guides and those numbers, you will find yourself using them more and more.

Open a new image, 400 X 400 pixels, white background.

Make sure that Guide and Rulers are activated.

View > Guides
View > Rulers

Hover your mouse over the left ruler until you see the cursor turn into a drag cursor that looks like this.
actual size... visible size :)

Click and drag the line to the middle of your image - 200 pixels. Watch the guide position on your top ruler as it moves across the canvas and stop when it intersects the 200 pixel mark.

Check the guide position by the Position Numbers at the bottom of your workspace. They give you the exact position of your mouse cursor - where you are placing the vertical guide.

When you are close to 200 on the top ruler, let go of the mouse to set the first guide.

To make a horizontal guide, click on the top ruler and drag the guide to position Y: 200.

You should have a horizontal and vertical guide that intersect in the center of your image.
(The center point of your image is (x:200 y:200).

Not exact? Numbers won't land right on 200? No worries.

Hover your mouse over the guide's grab handle on the ruler until the cursor turns into a filled + plus sign. (#3 in the illustration below.). Doubleclick on the grab handle to bring up the Guide Properties window. Manually adjust the guide position in the Pixels window.

You can change your Guide color here.

When you want to clear the guides from your canvas, click on Delete.

What the same hill do all those numbers at the bottom of my workspace mean?

ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW ABOUT THE NUMBERS

A brief breakdown of what all these numbers mean. It's chock full of information that can help you place things accurately.

Image: 400 x 400 x 16 million --- the size and number of colors available in your image. 16 million colors are used in jpg and PSP formats. 256 colors are used in gif formats.

(x:200 y:0) -- tells you the position of your cursor on the canvas.

Since these numbers are telling me where I am placing my vertical guide, my cursor is at x:200 - X tells you the left to right position of your cursor. In this case, because I am dragging a guide, it doesn't tell me what my vertical position is.

The numbers reverse when you do the horizontal guide to read (x:0 y:200) when you drop the guide on 200 pixels from the top of the canvas.

This next part covers the times when those numbers get all jumbled and confusing. To the novice, they may be intimidating and you might think that those numbers are for super geeky people with a degree in quantum physics or something. I busted the code and am leaking it to you. When you are working with selections and need accurate dimensions and positions, those numbers are absolutely priceless!

Using the same image, I added guides at 100 pixel intervals.

In the illustration below, I used a rectangle selection starting at Point 1 and dragging the selection down and right to Point 2. I made a box of marching ants and a lot of numbers at the bottom of my workspace.

In PSP and every other graphic program I've seen, the horizontal position (X) is always listed first and the vertical position (Y), second.

Here's a breakdown of the numbers at the bottom of my workspace as I was dragging my selection tool across the canvas.

(100, 100) Starting Point for the selection (x:100 y:100) Point #1

-> (300, 300) Ending Point for my selection (x:300 y:300) Point #2

= (200 X 200) Dimensions of the selection. 200 X 200 pixels.

[1.000] gives the x, y aspect ratio. This is a perfect square so the X,Y dimension ratio is 1:1 and it reads [1.000]

If I made a rectangle 200 wide and 100 deep, this number would read [2.000] - telling you the aspect ratio is 2:1.

If I made a rectangle 50 wide and 100 deep, this number reads [.5000] The aspect ratio is .5 to 1.

The software is extremely accurate to read this ratio scale in 1/1000's of a unit.

By watching the position numbers at the bottom of the screen as you work, you will get an accurate reading position and side of your selections.

A word of caution for when you glance at the bottom of your workspace to check canvas or layer sizes. If you have multiple images open, PSP reads any image that your mouse is hovered over, closest to the desktop -- not necessarily the active image. Just make sure that your mouse is on the image you want the information for - no windows stacked beneath your active image. Left or right click somewhere in the active window to ensure PSP reads the active canvas.

If you are still awake after this technical tut, I congratulate you!

vetch