Rolled Background Preview

Instructions for “Rolled Paper Preview”, using PSP.
I was asked yesterday about how backgrounds can be presented with a "rolled" look.
Hoefully, you can follow this in other programs. This is how I do it:

Open a new file at your usual page size e.g.12x12” @300ppi.

Fill with a black to transparent gradient (with the black running vertically)

With your pick tool, drag the fill to the centre of your page keeping the black at the page edge. Duplicate the layer and mirror the new layer. “Merge down” the upper layer. You now have black at each edge and transparency in the middle.

However  many paper rolls you want, divide 12” by that number. Let’s say you want to display four backgrounds. Each roll would need to be 3” wide. Again with the pick tool, drag the gradient across the page until it fills 3”.

Select the blank part of the page (selection tool) and then invert the selection. Edit, copy,  then edit paste “as new selection”. Repeat across the page. Merge layers if you need to, but in PSP using “paste as new selection” you will not need to.

When using this gradient, have it as the top layer, with your backgrounds stacked below. Taking the appropriate selections from the gradient page, select each background layer in turn, deleting the unwanted parts.

You may need to lower the opacity of the gradient and try “overlay” and “hard light” to see which gives the better result.