Paint Shop Pro Brush and Airbrush Settings

Here are viewable samples of the Paint Shop Pro brush and airbrush settings. It's MUCH easier to tell what each parameter does by looking at a sample! It's almost impossible to describe the difference between "Hardness", "Opacity", and "Density" with words.

The dialog box looks like this. Settings are:

Shape (Round, Square, Left Slash, Right Slash, Horizontal, Vertical)

Size

Hardness (Defines how sharp or diffuse the edge each instance of the brush mark is. "Instance" means one click of the mouse.)

Opacity (How dark or light each instance is. It's almost identical to changing a "Brightness" setting.)

Step (How many instances are placed when you drag the brush - higher numbers are fewer instances)

Density (How many pixels are placed with each instances. The instance ranges from completely filled to just a few dots.)

The icon on the upper left next to the "spray can" allows you to select "Use precise cursors" and "Show brush outlines". "Show brush outlines" displays an outline of the brush in the size you have selected.

The "tool" icon on the upper right simply allows you to change to another tool (same as the menu on the left side of the Paint Shop Pro window).

These two sets of images show the effect of different "Step" settings.
The image on the LEFT shows the effect of changing "Step" from 10 to 100. This image was done using the Air Brush.
The image on the RIGHT shows one fundamental difference between the Air Brush and the Paint Brush.

The Air Brush will fill in between the Step size if dragged slowly.

But the Paint Brush will deposit an "instance" only after the Step size has been reached. For example, if you have the Step set to 100, whether you drag the Paint Brush fast or slow, it will wait until you have dragged the brush 100 pixels before it will deposit another "instance".

Thus, the image on the LEFT was created by dragging the Air brush rapidly.

So how did I do this? (In case you're curious)

I created tables using HTML for the various categories - Brush Type, Parameters, and Step.

In the middle of each square is a dash, to be used to indicate where to click with the mouse.

Then I did a screenshot of each table and then opened the resulting "JPEG" in Paint Shop Pro and used the airbrush with various parameters. I clicked once on each dash with the indicated parameters. Then I did a screenshot of the results.
All of this resulted in the graphics shown above.

Some Graphics Showing the Effect of Air Brush "Click-and-Drag" Behavior. For each image, the top brush "Shape" is "Round", the bottom brush Shape is "Vertical". Some Notes (about the Airbrush): If you drag the Airbrush fast, it can produce a diffuse pattern (for low values of "Opacity"). If held in one spot or dragged slowly, the pattern becomes darker, just as if you held a spray can of paint in one spot. The pattern is lighter for high "Step" values and darker for low step values. But the airbrush smoothes out the discrete steps.
For this set of 4 AIRBRUSH images: Hardness = 100 Opacity = 20 Density = 100 The first sample is Step = 100.
Step = 50
Step = 25
Step = 10

For this set of 4 AIRBRUSH images: Hardness = 100 Opacity = 100 Density = 20 The first sample is Step = 100.
Step = 50
Step = 25
Step = 10

Some Graphics Showing the Effect of Paint Brush "Click-and-Drag" Behavior. For each image, the top brush "Shape" is "Round", the bottom brush Shape is "Vertical". Some Notes (about the Paint Brush): For starters, the Paint Brush is much lighter than the Air Brush for lower values of Opacity or Density. The Paint Brush is much smoother for low values of opacity and small Steps (25 or less) than the Air Brush. The Paint Brush makes discrete steps, for higher "Step" values. When you drag the brush it deposits a pattern only after you have moved so many pixels (either rapidly or slowly). The Air Brush fills in between the steps. The Paint Brush does not get darker if you move slowly or pause in an area. But if you rebrush the same area, it then gets darker. (See the fourth image under "Density = 20" below this set of four images)
For this set of 4 BRUSH images: Hardness = 100 Opacity = 20 Density = 100 The first sample is Step = 100.
Step = 50
Step = 25
Step = 10

For this set of 4 BRUSH images: Hardness = 100 Opacity = 100 Density = 20 The first sample is Step = 50 (100 omitted).
Step = 25
Step = 10
Step = 25, with extra strokes

Paint Shop Pro Brush and Airbrush Settings

Some Graphics Showing the Effect of Air Brush "Click-and-Drag" Behavior.

Some Graphics Showing the Effect of Paint Brush "Click-and-Drag" Behavior.