©kimlizzy 2005

You can start off with a ready-made picture/element or make a new one from scratch. I’m using a bear I made previously. Each Photo Stroke requires 3 files so I suggest you make a new folder in My Documents to make them easy to keep track of.

Open your picture/element

Open a new canvas and resize to around 6"x1" and 300dpi

*File/New

Drag your picture/element onto your canvas

Duplicate (Ctrl+d) as many times as required and place your pictures along the canvas

Align your pictures evenly

*Edit/Select All

*Format/Align Multiple Objects/Top

*Format/Align Multiple Objects/Space Horizontally

*Format/Centre Object on Canvas

Flatten the layers

*Edit/Flatten all Objects

Now save your picture as BMP. Eg: bear.bmp

Make the original picture the active layer by clicking on it in the Files stack.

Resize this image to 96ppi

*Format/Resize Image

You need to save this as PNG

*File/Save as………

Save it to the same folder as your BMP file. You MUST name it the same as the bmp file eg: bear.png

In order to make the photo stroke work you will now need to add the TEXT file:

Right click on the START button and select "Explore"

Click on Local Disc (C:) then browse down the list and click on the + next to Program Files

Browse down and click on the + next to Microsoft Digital Image 10

Now click on the + next to PiFiles

Now click on the + next to Paint

Now click on the + next to Brushes

Now click on phostrok

From the right hand pane, right click on the brwnrope text file and "copy"

Close off Windows Explorer.

Go to the folder you saved your png and bmp files into then "right click" and "paste" your text file in.

Right click on the text file and "rename". You need to name this file exactly as the other files eg: bear.txt

Double click on the file to open it. You need to change the Display name and the file names.

Where it says "Display name" change "brwnrope" to a descriptive name. Eg: Kim’s Bear

Where it says "Thumbnail file name" change it to exactly match your file name eg: bear.bmp

Where it says "Brush file name" change it to exactly match your file name eg: bear

Save your changes:

File/Save

You now need to copy these three files into the DIP Photo stroke folder.

*Edit/Select All

*Edit/Copy to folder

Navigate to the same phostrok folder you copied the txt file from.

*Edit/Paste

You can now close off this folder.

You’re done!

Go back to DIP and open a new canvas

Go to Effects/Paint Brush/Photo Stroke

Scroll down the selections until you find your new photo stroke.

Select a stroke size and try out your new creation.

example of "no ends" Photo Stroke

Example of "with ends" Photo Stroke"

*A little experimentation with the "length" information in the TXT file may be necessary depending on the type of picture you are working with.