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How to Make a Pen Tool Transparent

Advanced photo editing programs like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP and Paint.net provide photographers and designers with a number of different editing tools. These tools can be used to make small or significant changes to the picture. Photographers and designers can also change the intensity or "Opacity" of the "Pen tool" to make the changes it creates transparent. Using the "Layers" feature in these programs lets you make changes to the picture, then if you decide you do not like the changes, you can simply delete the layer.

Things You'll Need

Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.net

Instructions

- 1
  Turn your home computer on and open up Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.net. Photoshop is a program you buy; GIMP and Paint.net are free programs that can be downloaded off of the Internet.
- 2
  Click "File" and select "Open" from the dropdown menu. Use your cursor to navigate to the folder containing the image you want to work on. Highlight the image and click "OK" to open the picture in the program. Click "Layer" in the navigation bar and select "New Layer" from the dropdown menu. Click the layer thumbnail in the right margin to select the layer.
- 3
  Right click on the "Brush" tool in the left margin of the program. Select "Pen" from the list of hidden tools. In the settings bar across the top of the window, click, hold and slide the "Opacity" tab to adjust the intensity of the tool.
- 4
  Position the cursor over the section of the picture you want to work on. Click, hold and move your computer mouse to apply the transparent pen to your picture.
- 5
  Click "Layer" and select "Flatten Image" from the drop menu. Click "File" select "Save As" from the dropdown menu, give your edited image a new name or title and save the picture on your hard drive.

Photography