Styling Type for a Satin Effect in Paint Shop Pro
A tutorial by Larry N. Bolch,
orginally for pioneer digital artist, Asha DeVelder.

See her digital painting at http://www.ashafx.com/


Paint Shop Pro has this neat little cluster of viewing controls. Top left is a button for zooming out, the little button in the middle lets you move the field of view about the image and the one on the right zooms in.

The down arrow sets a constant preview, so whatever change you make in the requester is shown on the actual image interactively.

Clicking the eye but not the arrow gives a view at that point. If the computer is slow or the effect is complex, this can speed things up.

Choose the text tool, or hit the x key for text. If the tool option window is not visible, hit the o key.
 
Select an appropriate line width for the size of type.
 
The foreground colour is the stroke and the background colour the fill. as you see.

Click on the canvas, with the text tool. As long as "Floating" is selected, you can drag the lettering in place later. You have a choice of left, centered, or right, so you can see the effect of the type on the screen. Though I did not, it is generally best to click on "Antialias" as well.

Obviously, you can select the font and the size here. If you change your mind about colours, that too can be changed by clicking on the colour patch under "Styles" By clicking on the little triangle, you can change from a flat colour to a gradient or a pattern, but we want a flat colour for now.
 
One can set kerning for the whole word, or kern each letter. Select the character and change the value. It impacts the distance to the next character on the right.
 

With a single word, Leading is not relevant. However, if you have more than a single line, Leading can be used to adjust line spacing. This is one requester where I always have the preview on constantly.

Once you hit "OK", the type will show up on the canvas and it will be selected. If you click outside of the selection it will become de-selected, but a Ctrl-Z will select it again. By clicking inside the selection, you can drag it anywhere on the canvas for positioning


Once the lettering is in position, select Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel.

 Note: By holding the Alt-key down and typing the underlined letters, you can select from the keyboard instead of using the mouse.

The Inner Bevel tool has great power in shaping the lettering. Again by having preview on constantly, you can interact with the effect.
 
In order to get the satin feeling, I kept both the Width and Depth low and used some Smoothness.
 
I chose an Angle of 315° which in effect brings the light in from 45° from the left. An elevation of 60° produced a very nice broad highlight.
 
I played with the Shininess, and liked what I found at 40%. I gave it an intensity of 40% (coincidence) and found that an Ambience of -50% matched the average level of the original colours chosen - at least closely enough.
 
All these controls are very interactive, so you can play with them until you see what you want. There is also the "Help" button on all these requesters which will bring up context specific help. Note also the button on the lower right with the two x and arrow. This will zero everything out, so you can start over again if you have reached a point of total frustration!
 
;-D
 
There are also a bunch of Presets included, if you want to try some. One of them might get you close to the effect you want, and you can hack the difference. You can also save the effect so you can use it later.


If you are content with smooth satin, you are through, but if you would like a little texture, choose Effects > Texture Effects > Texture...

The texture requester works much the same as the Inner Bevel requester. By clicking on the little tiny down-arrow on the Texture window, you can select a texture to work with. You will see the effect in the preview window, and on the canvas it the preview is turned on.
 
I have the lighting and Elevation angles roughly set to similar values as I did in the Inner Bevel requester. I found that the effect at 60° was a bit overwhelming so backed off to 50°.
 
A little bit of texture is a good thing. Too much texture can be pretty destructive. Use in moderation.
 
A somewhat different effect can be achieved by adding the texture BEFORE the inner bevel. This produces the effect of a colour variation in the material, since the Inner Bevel renders it smooth. I like this a lot if I am going for a metallic effect. It gives a feeling of reflections, or a bit of corrosion.

Final touch is a drop shadow. On the menu it is Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow...
 
Use the offsets for an appropriate amount of shift, keeping in mind the direction of light set in the Inner Bevel and Texture requesters.
The final results!