Creating collages with Corel PaintShop Pro 2018

October 15, 2017 by agnescaruso Leave a comment

This post came about when I was exploring two things. Firstly, how to create a video on Adobe Spark, and secondly, how to better present some of the images in this video. While a lot of us use whatever app we like on our phone. This is great if you want to quickly share something but it is not the best way to present a high quality collage or create one for printing out.

So let’s see how to create a collage which can be created for online presentation, slideshow, large or small print, postcard for family… It is really up to your imagination how to use your creation.

You need to select the canvas size on which you will be working. When you are in Edit tab select File>New and then you can decide if you want to use one of the existing size presets or choose your own. Make sure that your layer is Raster and check if you have a color of the background selected or the layer is transparent. White or black usually works well for a variety of images, however, there are many other colors to choose from as well. While you can also select gradients and patterns, the best backgrounds are simple solid colors. The size of canvas can be in inches, millimeters, centimeters or pixels. You can also change the orientation of the canvas from portrait to landscape.

Once you have your canvas open, then you need to decide which images you want to add to it. To select images, go to Manage Tab and navigate to the images you want. Select the image/s you want and click on the Edit tab. The images will open up. you can adjust and crop images if you wish to at this stage, unless they are ready to go. In order to select multiple images use CRTL key.
Now your images are ready to put together on your canvas. Select all or whichever part of your image you want to use and copy selection. Now navigate to your canvas and paste selection as new layer. If your canvas is sized in inches or millimeters you may need to resize your pasted image. In order to resize an image make sure that you click on the Pick Tool (a little arrow). However, creating canvas in pixels can allow you to get around this problem.
Repeat pasting with other images you want to add to your collage. You end up with an image like this one and list of layers to the right showing each of the images and your background.
As you can see images overlap each other. The image which was added last will be on top of the one that was added before it. In this case, image of the dog in a hat is on top of three earlier images but under the last one opened, in top right hand corner.
There are two ways to adjust the overlaps. One by selecting Layers in Menu and navigating to Arrange. The second method, by rearranging the layers in the layer window on the right. Both ways will produce the same outcomes.
Now you can start being creative with your collage. Each image can be resized, moved around, rotated in any way you wish. I would suggest not rotating the images until you add your frames if you wish to add them.
You can add frames to each of the images to make them look special or stand out from the set. You can also add a frame to the entire canvas.
In order to add a frame to an image you selected. Under Menu> Image> select Picture Frame. From the drop down menu select the style you wish, make sure you are framing the current layer and have it inside the image, although outside is fine too, just test it and see what you prefer. Effects will vary with different frames and images.

You will notice in your Layer list there is a new layer called Raster X Picture Frame, with X corresponding to the layer which you framed.
At this stage you need to be careful as moving either frame or content layer will change how they appear. In order to prevent this from happening, select both layers and click on Merge selected under Layer menu or by right clicking. Once that is done you can rotate a framed image however you wish and frame stays with the image.
As a last step you may want to add some text to the entire creation. Select a text icon to the left of the image. At the top of the ribbon select the font, size, alignment, style and color. You can also select a text preset to the left of the same ribbon. An additional modification you can make is under Object menu, select Convert Text to Curves or Convert to Path. This will allow you to be a little more creative with the appearance of text on the collage.

Once you have created a collage you are pleased with, it is ready to be shared. As I mentioned mine was created to be added to Adobe Spark, but you can also share it as is, or add to some other presentation type. You can obviously print it out as well. Laying out prints can be done using Print Layout under File in Menu or by selecting Print and then choosing to apply template. You may also choose to just print it as is to fill an entire page or part of it.