This is simple and fun way for Making your own Pyramid Papers. Once you have the hang of it you will be able to make square, round, oval and rectangular pyramid papers from almost any image you like. Again we will be using Paintshop Pro 8 (newer version is Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3) to make these but it should be possible in Photoshop and GIMP as well.
First we need to make a new A4 sheet. As normal go to File / New and put in the correct parameters, 1245 x 1755 pixels at 150 DPI (if that doesn’t mean anything to you then you should read our post on images sizes in the Image section). I tend to use a white coloured background at this stage. Once you have set these just click the OK button.
Next we are going to add a second transparent layer to the A4 sheet. This isn’t strictly necessary for the image we are going to do but it maybe with other images later.
To do this you will need to use the layer window. If you can’t see it just press F8 and it should appear. (If you are using other programmes just look for layers in your tool bar / pallets list).
Click the top left button in the layer window which is “New Raster Layer” and when the pop up window appears just click OK. Next, again in the layer window, just click the “eye” in the background layer. This will turn off the background and leave you with a transparent image (normally show with lots of little “Boxes”. As soon as you have done this make sure you click on the top layer in the layer window “Raster 1” as this is the layer we will be working on.
Ignore the image we have just created for a minute as you need to open the image you want to use for your pyramid. Once opened make sure it is the correct size for you, you can do this by looking in Image / Image Information….If it isn’t the correct size you resize it using Image / Resize, remember you are working in 150 DPI (you can see our separate article on resizing images for more details). What size you need will depend on what you intend to do with the finished pyramid image.
Next you need to copy your picture (Ctrl+C) and then swap to your A4 sheet and paste it on there (Ctrl+E). You will notice that the image remains
selected and that is just what we want. Go to Selections / Modify / Contract and a box will pop up. In this box we will use the “Number of Pixels” box to shrink the selection. In the example here we put the number 30 in that box. You will be able to preview what this will do if you click the “eye” on the far right of the pop-up box. If you click on this preview tool you will see on your main A4 sheet how much the selection will contract. If you are not happy with it you can alter the number in the pixels box and preview again.
You can keep doing this again and again until you are happy with it. When you’ve settled on an amount click “OK”. The pop up box will disappear and the selected area will shrink. Now just copy again (Ctrl+C) and paste again (Ctrl+E). This will give you a copy of the small image. Again this will be selected so again you can contract the selection (Selection/Modify/Contract) and again copy and paste. Just keep repeating these steps until you have the number of layers you want in your pyramid.
When you have finished, if your pyramid has a lot of white in it, you may wish to change the colour of the background so cutting out will be easier. To do this just go to the layer window, turn the background layer back on by pressing the ‘Eye’ and ensure it is highlighted. Now you can colour the background by flood filling with any colour you choose. Obviously you should choose a light colour so you don’t waste too much ink and a colour which isn’t in your pyramid image.
Finally you will want to save your image and / or print it out.
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This process can be used on all sorts of images, round ones, rectangular ones, oval ones and square ones. You will be able to use any images you choose including family photos.
Making your own Pyramid Papers.
Authored By: Bob Prentice.
