This tutorial will teach you how to use the Blinds effect in several ways with the program Paint Shop Pro.
Let's start with the basics. Open an image with a background the colour of blinds you would like to use.
Then, go to Effects - Texture Effects - Blinds.
A box will pop up. To change the colour, click in the colour and select a new one from the palette. Unchecking the horizontal box makes the blinds vertical. 'Light from left/top' changes if the blinds start one pixel from the top/left of the image, or flush to the border. I suggest keeping this box checked. Width obviously changes to width of the blinds, most people use 2. Opacity changes how dark the blinds appear, change this depending on your image and the desired effect.
This is your end product. While not bad, there is more that can be done.
Start with an image now whose background is solid, and with which you want the blind effect to be on ONLY the image, and not the background. Select the Flood Fill tool.
Now, choose a colour which is clearly not present in your image by hovering over the colour palette and clicking, then fill the background with this colour.
Now, find the height and width of your image, which is found in the bottom right of your screen.
Create a new image by clicking the paper icon or going to File - New.
Make sure your height and width are the same as your original image, and the background colour of the new image is the background colour you would like. (Just click it to change this)
Now click the little arrow inbetween the two colours. (When you hover you will see 'Swap Materials'.) The colour you used to fill the background of the original image should now be switched.
Making sure your ORIGINAL image is selected, go to Edit - Copy, or press CTRL+A then CTRL+C.
Then select your new image, and go to Edit - Paste - Paste as a transparent selection.
(Image resized, click to view full)
Your image, minus the background, will show up on your cursor. Click to place it when you have it where you want, however, DO NOT deselect it.
Go back to Effects - Texture Effects - Blinds. You can now choose any colour and only the image will have blinds across it! When you're done, hit OK.
Now click the Selection Tool, then right-click in the background.
Congratulations, you're done!
There is still more that can be done with blinds, this time using layer effects. First open a nice colourful image.
Make sure you can see your layer menu on the right! If you can, it looks like this:
If you see nothing mentioning Layers, go to View - Palettes - Layers.
This will open it, but it may cover all other palettes. If this happens, click the 'Resize' button highlighted in red to modify the size.
If you see the below, click the Open button highlighted in red.
Now, right-click 'Background' and go to Duplicate.
You will now see this.
Right-click this new layer, then go to Duplicate. It will now look like this.
Now, select the first Copy by clicking on it.
Go to Effects - Texture Effects - Blinds. I suggest have an Opacity of at least 50%, maybe higher. I also suggest white for the blinds colour, though you may change this. Click OK. You will NOT see a difference, don't worry! Now double-click the first copied layer. Set the Blend Mode to Screen, and set opacity at 65%. (You may choose to change this later) Click OK.
Double-click the second copied layer. Set Blend Mode to Overlay, and opacity at 85%. (This can also be changed) Click OK.
Congratulations! You are finished.
