Home | Helps | materials palette

By jamesvalue

Materials palette


The materials palette , is a very important features in paint shop pro and it should always stays open while the program is running , if you discover it closed at the program start-up, you can open it through view>palettes>materials (F6) .

The materials palette

Materials palette's right side (these tabs don't change its functions whether in vector or raster mode)
1 - 2 - color and swatches definition tabs

Material palette left side (this side change its functions from vector to raster modes)
3 - foreground/stroke box (foreground=raster , stroke=vector)
4 - background/fill box (background=raster , fill=vector)

5 - foreground background color boxes

6 - buttons for item3- here you can assign a material among three to be used for item 3

The little black arrow , actually hides a flyout menu composed of three buttons :
color , gradient , pattern .
Those three buttons let you choose which style to assign to the item 3.
You can even texturize your styles by holding down the "texture" button , or assign "no-style" for the item3 , by pressing the "none" button.

Note - this is a very useful feature the "none" button infact while in "vector mode", let you quickly choose a combination of outline/fill or no-outline , only fill , or no-fill only outline and so-on , for the preset shape you're drawing.

7 - buttons for item4- Same as item6 , but referred to item4 instead of item3.

Materials palette in raster mode

While in raster mode , since item3 is the "foreground" style and item4 the "background" style of the material palette , we have to define what is "foreground" and what is "background".

Foreground is normally something associated to the left mouse button (LMB) , and background to the right mouse button (RMB)

Note - this limitations are valid for the "material palette" only .

Example1- raster mode



Open a new drawing 200X200 px , 24bit , transparent and raster background.

In the tools palette pick a paint and raster tool (for example the paint brush tool)
Then switch to the material palette.

Set the flyouts for item6 and7 to "color" (just click on the little arrow and choose "color")

Click on item3 and item4 to assign the colors , and then assign "red" to item3 and yellow to item4 (the exact RGB codes are not important for the moment)

You should have something like the image beside.


Go to the "tool option" menù and ensure that the below settings are applied (hardness=100 is very important)





LMB=Left Mouse Button
RMB=Right Mouse Button

Now using your LMB draw something on the canvas , then switch to the RMB and continue drawing .

Left mouse associated to a raster tool let you use the foreground style of the materials palette , while RMB let you use the background style , foreground and background styles in the example were just "colors" (red and yellow) , but the styles definition is up to you , you can infact set the material palette styles (item3 and item4), up to three different styles :
color , gradient and pattern .

Materials palette in vector mode

While in vector mode , since item3 is the "stroke" style and item4 the "fill" style of the material palette (vector mode) , we have to define what is "stroke" and what is "fill" for the material palette.

Stroke is an "outline" of a vector object, while fill is the "inside" of the same vector object. (see example 2 for further details)

Example2 - vector mode



Open a new drawing 200X200 px , 24bit , transparent and vector background.

From the tool palette pick the preset shape tool , that's a vector tool.




Go to the "tool option" menù and ensure that the below settings are applied





Then switch to the material palette.

Set the flyouts for item6 and7 to "color" (just click on the little arrow and choose "color")

Click on item3 and item4 to assign the colors , and then assign "red" to item3 and yellow to item4.

You should have something like the image beside.

Draw an ellipse on the canvas



the outside of the shape is defined by the item3 (stroke box), while the inside of the shape is defined by item4 (fill box).




You can of course use the materials palette to reach some interesting effects like the image below does.



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