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PhotoPlus Tutorials

Advanced Scanline

.: This tutorial (for PhP9 & 10 users) shows how to apply an effect similar to TV scanlines. Even if you don’t want to create scanlines, this tut shows how you can apply other patterns to your images.

Don’t be put off by the word “advanced”, this is an easy tutorial to complete.

When creating the scanline effect, we need to draw a very small image that we will define as a “Pattern”, this pattern can then be tiled to fill a region or the whole image.

Step 1

Start a New Image and set the dimensions to 18 by 18 pixels. Set the Background to transparent, then click OK to close the dialog.

Select the Navigator tab and drag the Zoom slider all the way to the right, so the zoom is at 1600%. Resize the image window so that you can see all of the canvas.

Now go to the menu File > Prefrences... and select the Layout tab. Set the Grid Spacing to 1 pixel for both the Horizontal & vertical gridlines, then OK your changes.

Turn the grid on by selecting it’s command in the View menu, or better still by using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+G.

Step 2

Select the Paintbrush tool,       and on the Brush Tip tab,

select the smallest brush (Round01).

On the Colour tab, set the foreground colour to black.

Paint the pattern I have created here.

Note: Strictly speaking, the pattern really doesn't need to be this big. A canvas size of 1 pixel wide by 3 pixels high, would be sufficient to hold the top-left pixel and the two underneath it, which are the only ones required to create the scanline effect (the pattern is tiled, when used), but there is no way you would recognise it in the Patterns dialog at such a small size.

Step 3

Next we need to get PhotoPlus to turn this image into a pattern, but before we do that, you might like to create a new pattern category, to hold this, and any other patterns you make.

Step 4

Open up an image you want this effect applied to and add a New Layer.        This new layer will hold the scanline effect. If you still have grid lines switched on, turn them off (Ctrl+G).

We can apply our new scanline pattern in a couple of ways:

1. Flood fill the layer or a selected region of it. Doing it this way is slightly different depending whether you are using version 9 or 10.

PhP9: Click Edit > Fill..., set the Type: dropdown to ‘Pattern’. Click the Pattern: swatch and find your new scanline pattern (switch categories by right-click in the Patterns dialog). Click OK to fill the layer.

PhP10: You can also do it the same way PhP9 users can, but you can also do it by using the Flood Fill Tool,      

and then, on the Context Bar, set the Fill: dropdown to Pattern and click the Pattern: swatch, to select the pattern you just made, then click on the image to fill.

2. You can use the Pattern Tool        to paint the pattern (using any of the brush tips).

Make sure the image zoom is at 100% to see the effect correctly. If the zoom is lower, you may not notice any change at all!

Depending on the image you use, this effect can look way too strong (much better if it’s subtle). To tone down the effect, either lower the layer Opacity and/or change the layer blend mode via the dropdown (Overlay and Soft Light modes, work well).

Step 5 (optional)

To make white scanlines, make sure you have the layer with the pattern fill selected in the Layers tab, and then go to the menu Image > Adjust > Negative Image. Again, the effect could be quite strong, so reduce it by use of the layer opacity and/or the blend mode.

You can of course make other patterns, such as vertical and diagonal scanlines, and you are not just limited to scanline effects.

Here are some of the kind of patterns you could make...

To save you some work, I have saved all these patterns, and more (28 in total), as transparent Gif’s and zipped them up. Click on Patterns.zip to download. Then unzip them, and open each one in PhotoPlus and select Edit > Create Pattern..., to add them to your copy of PhotoPlus.

Do this by first selecting the Pattern Tool,       then (PhP9 users) switch to the Tool Properties tab and click on the Pattern: swatch. With PhP10, Serif have replaced the Tool Properties tab with a new context sensitive toolbar, which they strangely call the Context Bar ;-) and the Pattern: swatch is here - click it.

This will bring up the Patterns dialog. Right-click and choose Add Category..., call it something like scanlines.

Now, to add our image to the pattern dialog, just go to Edit > Create Pattern... and select which category you want it stored in. You can now close the image, as you will no longer need it.