PSP Basics - Hot Wax

Becoming fluent in hot wax and also selections will mean you can make quick but effective text and graphics.

Step 1:

1. Create a new image, 200 x 100, 64M colours
2. Select a light grey colour and enter some text
3. DO NOT clear the selection marquee (the "marching ants") from the text

   Whenever text is entered it is automatically selected. This is vital for nearly all text effects. So be ready to apply any text effects as soon as you have entered the text.

Step 2:

1. Set the foreground colour to white
2. Apply Image, Other, Hot Wax

   Note, at this stage the effect is barely visible.

Step 3:

1. Repeat the Hot Wax effect 3 times

   We are achieving a visible effect now. So, don't forget, you may need to apply Hot Wax more than once to get to where you want.

Step 4:

1. But, lets go back to step 2 and try something different.
2. Ctrl-H calls the Feather Selection dialog. You want to set the feather to just 2 or 3 pixels.

   The effect of the Feather Selection is to expand the selection, but the expansion is a sort of "weaker" expansion. So anything applied to the selection is at ful strength in the middle (the original selection), but weaker at the edges (the feathered area).

3. Set the foreground colour to white
4. Now Apply Image, Other, Hot Wax

   What we see now is much stronger straight away, but also seems more pleasing.

   In general, if you are applying Hot Wax, Feather the selection first.

Step 5:

1. If we now apply the Hot Wax effect again, we achieve a quite different look. We also need to apply only 2 or 3 Hot Wax applications, not 4 or 5.

Step 6:

1. Finally, we can also apply Hot Wax in different colours
2. The first example is our plain text, unfeathered.
3. Set the foreground colour to blue
4. Apply Image, Other, Hot Wax

   Note, again at this stage the effect is barely visible.

1. With the selection feathered, then apply blue Hot Wax we get this, quite a difference to the non-feathered version.

Comparisons:

Plain Selection Hot Wax once Hot Wax Four Times

Feathered Selection Hot Wax once Hot Wax twice