- 1). Open Paint Shop Pro 8 and create a new file. Type in the dimensions you want your blinkie to have. If you're not sure what size to make it, enter 300 by 300 pixels and you can crop the blinkie when you are done if you like.
- 2). Click on the Shapes tool in the toolbar, select the square and make sure the line is solid and only one pixel wide. Choose the outline and fill colors in the palette (the upper color is the outline, the lower color is the color that will fill in the square). Click and drag with your mouse to create a square that is 13 by 13 pixels. Copy and paste that square and set it up against the original. You must add a square for every letter you will have in your blinkie.
- 3). Select the "Pencil" tool in the toolbox and draw the letters inside each block. You can also use a free pixel font such as "Visitor," "Apple ][" or "04b_03." These fonts will look good on a very small scale and won't look blurry. (See Resources for download links.) Click the download link on the page for the font, open the folder for that font once it has downloaded and click on "Extract all files", which will "unzip" the folder so you can access the font file. Open the "Fonts" folder in your Windows "Control Panel" (located in the "Start" menu). Click on the font in the unzipped folder, drag it with your mouse and drop it into the Fonts folder. You will now be able to select the font in PSP 8 and use it in your blinkie. Place one letter into each block with the "Text" tool.
- 4). Go to "Layers" > "Merge" > "Merge All" to make your blinkie one layer. Crop your blinkie when you are done drawing. Click on "File" > "Jasc Software Products" > "Launch Animation Shop" to open the animation program that came with Paint Shop Pro 8. Since PSP 8 doesn't have an animation function itself, you will need Animation Shop to complete your blinkie. Copy and paste your blinkie into Animation Shop as a new animation.
- 5). Create a new frame after the first one by clicking "Edit" > "Paste" > "After Current Frame." Edit the second frame to start the animation sequence. You can do this by using the "Flood Fill" tool to fill the blocks or letters with a new color. For each block or letter that flashes a different color, paste after the current frame and fill it with the new color. Preview your animation by clicking the "View Animation" button.
- 6). Click on "Edit" > "Select All" to highlight all of the frames when you are done animating. Go to "Animation" > "Frame Properties" and enter a different number to adjust the blinking speed of your animation. If the default of 10 is too fast, make the number bigger and preview it. When you are satisfied with your blinkie, save it as a .GIF file.