Software: Ulead PhotoImpact 10 Author: MaryLou White Home Page: Wishing Well Tutorials Terms of Use: Please Read Title: My Stamp Gallery Skill Level: Beginner Featured Tools: Stamp Tool Additional Files: Your own stamps or tubes
Description: Add thumbnail images of your stamps to the Easy Palette. It makes the stamps easier to find and you can arrange them in categories such as flowers, trees, etc. This gives you a quick visual representation of your stamps just like the Ulead visuals in the Easy Palette.

BASIC MODE vs STANDARD

PhotoImpact 10 has two work modes, Basic and Standard. Basic Mode features a simplified workspace with larger buttons and the most common functions whereas the Standard mode displays all of the functions. We will be using the Standard mode in this tutorial. To check your mode, click Workspace on the Menu Bar. If the Standard Mode is greyed out, that means you are already in the Standard Mode. If not, click Standard Mode now. Warning: If you switch from Standard to Basic Mode, and you have custom settings, you will lose all your custom settings.

Setting Up the Gallery

Open your Easy Palette and look at the Gallery (left) side of the Easy Palette. You should see a category called Stamp Gallery. These are the same stamps that can be accessed by clicking on the Stamp Tool and using Select Stamp on the left side of the PI window.

The difference is, when clicking on the stamp tool, you can only see one image in each stamp even though it may have multiples in it. For example, the Button on the left menu only shows one green button but if you look at the button in the Stamp Gallery, you can see all of the buttons.

In this tutorial, we will be creating our own stamp galleries like those in the Easy Palette.

If you have not already done so, you will need to create a folder on your hard drive for your stamp files (.ufo files) - do not create it in the Ulead folder. A good name would be My Stamp Gallery. Put all your stamp (.ufo) and tube files (.tub) into that folder. Once you've done this, you can then add thumbnails that represent the stamps to the Easy Palette as described below.

1. Open your Easy Palette. Click on the down-arrow in the Gallery Manager and select Create. This will bring up the screen where we will create a new gallery for our stamp thumbnails.
   

2. Type in the name of your new gallery.
3. Click on the browse button and navigate to the folder you created for your stamp and tube files. Do not click OK just yet.
4. Select the My Gallery category from the drop-down menu on the bottom of the window - Click OK.

   You will see your new gallery in the Easy Palette under the My Gallery category. If you look in your stamp folder on the hard drive, you will see that a .smp file has been added. The .smp file is where the thumbnails are stored for the stamps you will be adding to the Easy Palette.

   

5. Your new My Stamp Gallery will have two groups under it, All and Custom Group 1. Right-click on Custom Group 1 and select Rename from the menu. Type in a name for one of your groups - such as Flowers, Leaves, etc. To add a few more groups, Right-click on My Stamp Gallery again and select New Group - type in the name of your group. You can add as many as you like.
   

Adding the Stamp Thumbnails

The thumbnails in the EasyPalette are representations of the stamps and not the actual stamps. When you double-click on the thumbnail, the effect will be exactly the same as if you had clicked on the stamp tool and picked that stamp from the Stamp Menu. Clicking on a thumbnail activates the corresponding stamp. Now that we have a gallery created, let's add some of our own stamps to the gallery.

1. Open a new image, 200x200 to be used for the thumbnail.

2. Click on the Fill tool and select Linear Gradient. Use two colors of your choice. Set the transparency to 50%. Fill your image. It should be a nice soft color. To use the gradient fill, hold down the left mouse button anywhere at the top of the image, drag it across the image to the opposite side, then release the mouse button. For example, start in upper left corner and drag to lower right. (You can also use a plain color but gradients make a nicer background).
   

3. Click on the Stamp tool to bring up the Stamp Menu, then select Add Stamp (note: you can pick a tube or stamp, it doesn't matter). Navigate to your new stamp folder on the hard drive and select your stamp.
   

4. Stamp your thumbnail with the stamp. Make a design of your choice. You may need to adjust the scale down for larger stamps.
   

5. When you're ready, right-click the thumbnail, Merge All. Make sure your stamp tool is still selected. If not. click on it again. On the attribute bar, click on the Add button.
   

6. The Add to Easy Palette screen will open. Type in a name for your thumbnail. Use the dropdown box and select your new gallery, and select the group where you want to store your stamp thumbnail.
   

   If you look in the Easy Palette, you'll see your new thumbnail has been added to your Stamp Gallery and it has a tiny stamp icon in the lower right corner. This means, when you double-click on this thumbnail, it will activate the stamp tool and select that particular stamp.

7. Last step - click the Stamp tool again and delete the stamp you just added to the drop-down Stamp Menu (not the thumbnail in the EP). It is no longer needed. This will not delete the stamp from your hard drive, it will just remove the stamp from the PI drop-down menu.

8. To use your stamps from the Easy Palette, simply double-click on the thumbnail. That will activate the stamp tool and bring up the correct stamp.

Some Working Hints

1. Use images on your thumbnails for variety. See the example above - the doll head was drawn on the background, then the hair stamped.

2. Delete all the stamps from the drop-down menu at the same time. Deleting the stamp from the menu does not delete it from your folder.

3. When you click on Add Stamp, you can select a .tub file and it will work just fine.