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This User Guide, and the software described in it, is furnished under an end user License Agreement, which is included with the product. The agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses. Trademarks DrawPlus is a registered trademark of Serif (Europe) Ltd. All Serif product names are trademarks of Serif (Europe) Ltd. Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged.
Contents 1. Welcome .......................................................... 1 Existing features ............................................................................................... 4 New features.................................................................................................... 12 Installation........................................................................................................ 15 2. Getting Started ...............................................
Contents 4. Lines, Curves, and Shapes ............................ 55 Selecting one or more objects ................................................................... 57 Drawing lines and shapes ............................................................................ 59 Editing lines and shapes............................................................................... 65 Using QuickShapes ........................................................................................
Contents Erasing and adding to objects ................................................................. 117 Resizing objects ............................................................................................ 118 Rotating and shearing objects ................................................................. 120 Flipping objects ............................................................................................ 122 Locking/unlocking an object...............................................
Contents 10. Applying Special Effects ............................... 181 Creating borders .......................................................................................... 183 Creating blends............................................................................................ 184 Creating rough edges ................................................................................ 186 Adding drop shadows ...............................................................................
Contents 13. Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets ............. 253 Pressure sensitivity ...................................................................................... 255 Using pen tablets ......................................................................................... 259 14. Index.............................................................
Contents
1 Welcome
2 Welcome
Welcome Welcome to DrawPlus X4—the design and illustration solution from Serif, packed with all the features expected of award-winning design software. From decorative page elements and logos to full-page illustrations, scale drawings, multi-page publications, and Stopframe or Keyframe animations—DrawPlus X4 does it all.
4 Welcome Existing features As you might expect from powerful design software, DrawPlus is packed with a comprehensive range of design tools and options in an easy-to-use user environment. Document • Multipage Document Support From startup to printout, the versatile DrawPlus engine sustains your creativity. Choose from a wide range of preset document types, including booklets and folded documents. Work on pages right side up... automatic imposition assures correct order and orientation of your output.
Welcome 5 • View Quality Draw in one of several drawing modes to view objects at optimum quality (Normal mode), unsmoothed (Draft) or as single-pixel outlines (Wireframe). • Professional-Standard Drawing Features Features like converting text to curves, defining custom envelopes, fully customizable drop shadows, layers, and scalable vector graphics give complete creative power. Combine two shapes into one... Subtract for cropping and masking... Intersect to carve out unique shapes and regions.
6 Welcome • Object Default control Set your intended object’s default line colour/style, fill, and transparency before even drawing your object! As a more powerful default control, Synchronize Defaults lets you adopt a currently selected object’s attributes for future objects; For example, select a red brush stroke, to subsequently paint in red, then a green brush stroke to paint in green; all or selected attributes can be affected. Global and object-specific defaults can be reset independently.
Welcome • 7 Transparency Effects Transparency can make the difference between flat, ordinary visuals and sparkling realism! And DrawPlus provides it all—a full range of transparencies for shading, shadows, reflections, depth effects, and more. Lines, brushes, and shapes • Versatile Line Drawing Sketch using calligraphic lines with an adjustable pen angle. Add rounded corners when and where you need them... and choose different end caps and joins.
8 Welcome • Brushes Unleash the painter within you, with DrawPlus's powerful Paintbrush Tool and the supporting Brush tab's galleries! Pick from natural media brush types such as acrylic, charcoal, dry paint, pastel, pen, and watercolour, or create your own. Using a pressure-sensitive pen tablet? Pressure sensitivity is supported (via a Pressure tab) with preset or custom pressure profiles and control over the maximum and minimum pressure applied.
Welcome 9 • Perspective Effects Get a new slant on things... With a context toolbar flyout full of presets plus a built-in tool for freeform adjustments, the Perspective Tool lets you tilt and skew text (or any other object) for truly “spatial” results! • Roughen Tool For jagged, jaunty edges on text, lines, or QuickShapes, just drag the tool up or down for subtle or bold results. • Border Wizard Vastly flexible Border Wizard instantly adds borders to the page or to individual objects.
10 Welcome • Stopframe Animation Tap the power of QuickShapes to turn out Web stopframe animations in no time—using advanced features like onion skinning, backgrounds, overlays, and frame management. • Keyframe Animation Produce smooth, professional and quick-to-design animations as Adobe® Flash® files, all from within the Storyboard tab. The Easing tab defines editable envelope profiles for defining the rate of change of an object's transformation and attributes.
Welcome • 11 Professional Print Output PDF publishing to the PDF/X-1 or PDF/X-1a file format is a great choice for professional output from DrawPlus. Deliver with confidence to your print partner, safe in the knowledge that your single composite print-ready PDF drawing includes all fonts and colour information for spot or process colour separation. Select file information, crop marks, registration targets, and densitometer/colour calibration bars for inclusion in your PDF.
12 Welcome New features Ease of Use • Snapping power for fine positioning (p. 37) Align objects relative to nearby objects by using colour-coded dynamic guides; vertex snapping let's you snap to an object's natural corners and points. Great for engineering drawing, flow charting, and general precision layout. An in-built candidate system for snapping to objects "in focus" is used. • Add text to a path easily (p.
Welcome 13 • Colour Palette Designer (p. 146) Create your own palettes from colour spreads based on accepted colour theory (Monochromatic, Complementary, Triadic, and more). You can add suggested colours automatically, or mix your own colours to create the new palette. Spreads are perfect for simulating various skin and natural tones. • Colour Picker Tool (p. 144) Sample colours directly under the cursor or, for artefacted, halftone or dithered images, by averaging colours under a shaped region.
14 Welcome Images • PhotoLab for non-destructive adjustment and effect filters (p. 173) The powerful PhotoLab studio packs a punch with an impressive selection of editable adjustments, creative, and artistic effects (pencil, water colour, oil, and more). Use integrated Red-eye and Spot-repair tools for easy retouching. Apply filters to selected areas of your photo by using brush-based masking. Apply adjustment/effect combinations or save your own as favourites for future use.
Welcome 15 Installation System Requirements Minimum: • Pentium PC with DVD/CD drive and mouse • Microsoft Windows® XP (32 bit), Windows® Vista, or Windows® 7 operating system • 512MB RAM • 689 MB (recommended full install) free hard disk space • 1024 x 600 monitor resolution Additional disk resources and memory are required when editing large or complex documents.
16 Welcome First-time install To install DrawPlus X4 simply insert the DrawPlus X4 Program CD into your DVD/CD drive. The AutoRun feature automatically starts the Setup process. Just answer the on-screen questions to install the program. Re-install To re-install the software or to change the installation at a later date, select Control Panel from the Windows Start menu and then click on the Programs Uninstall a program option.
2 Getting Started
18 Getting Started
Getting Started 19 Startup Wizard Once DrawPlus has been installed, you're ready to start. Setup adds a Serif DrawPlus X4 item to the All Programs submenu of the Windows Start menu. • Use the Windows Start button to start DrawPlus (or if DrawPlus is already running, choose New>New from Startup Wizard... from the File menu) to display the Startup Wizard.
20 Getting Started • Import PDF, to create a design from an existing PDF file. • Learning Zone, to access videos, tutorials, support information, and more. Use the Choose Workspace drop-down menu to choose your workspace appearance (i.e., Studio tab positions, tab sizes, and show/hide tab status). You can adopt the default workspace profile , the last used profile , a range of profile presets, or a workspace profile you've previously saved.
Getting Started 21 If the design is exactly what you want then all that is left is for you to print it or export it. If you want to personalize the design or add to it then you need to know how to work with lines, shapes, and text. To create a drawing from a design template: 1. Launch DrawPlus, or choose New>New from Startup Wizard... from the File menu. You'll see the Startup Wizard. 2. Select Open>Design Template. 3.
22 Getting Started 3. Select a document category from the left-hand pane (and a subcategory if applicable). Categories contain preset document types or if you select Regular, you can choose from standard document sizes presented in Portrait or Landscape sub-categories. For custom sized pages, choose the Custom Page Setup... button at the bottom of the dialog. 4. Select a document type thumbnail from the right-hand pane and click OK. The new document opens.
Getting Started 23 To open an existing document from the Startup Wizard: 1. Select Open Saved Work. In the Documents pane of the Open Saved Work dialog, you'll see either your computer's folder structure for navigation to your DrawPlus drawings (Folders tab) or a list of most recently used drawings (History tab). Preview thumbnails are shown in the adjacent pane. 2. Select a thumbnail from the pane, then click Open.
24 Getting Started Opening other file types Opening images as a new document DrawPlus allows a comprehensive range of image file formats to be opened, each as a separate DrawPlus document. From the document, you can add your own text captions, lines, shapes, or apply image adjustments and effects. You can save your design changes as a new project or just export the image (with or without adjustment), while preserving its original properties. To open an image: Open on the Standard toolbar. 1. Click 2.
Getting Started 25 To import a PDF: 1. From the Startup Wizard, select Import PDF. 2. Navigate to, then select the name of the file, and click Open. 3. From the dialog, you can perform font substitution, choose text control options, import individual or all pages in the PDF file, and auto crop to the PDF page area. • The font list shows the fonts which are needed to represent the imported PDF text accurately and their current status, i.e. Font Status The font is...
26 Getting Started 4. Choose a Text option, where Tight attempts to preserve the physical position of text in the original PDF (by preventing text wrapping), while Flow makes text editing easier, but at the expense of original text accuracy (by allowing text to wrap, making paragraphs from lines, and applying list formatting). 5. Enable Import only page to choose an individual PDF page to import. Otherwise, all PDF pages will be imported. 6.
Getting Started 27 Opening AutoCAD files DrawPlus opens AutoCAD® .dwg and .dxf files quickly and easily. Using the same process as that for PDF files, this creates an opportunity to not only view engineering layouts and designs (up to AutoCAD 2006) in DrawPlus, but to edit the drawn objects and to save the drawing as a DrawPlus drawing (.dpp). On file open, a DXF/DWG Options dialog provides options to scale the imported file objects, position the artwork on the page and merge objects onto one layer.
28 Getting Started Closing DrawPlus To close the current document: • Choose Close from the File menu or click the window's button. - or - Close If you have a middle mouse button (wheel), click it when you hover over the document tab at the top of your workspace. If the document is still unsaved or there are unsaved changes, you'll be prompted to save changes. To close DrawPlus: • Choose Exit from the File menu. For each open window, you'll be prompted to save any changes made since the last save.
3 Working with Pages
30 Working with Pages
Working with Pages 31 Setting up a document A document's page size and orientation settings make a fundamental difference to its layout, and are defined when the new document is first created (see Starting with a new drawing on p. 21). If the Startup Wizard is turned off, or you cancel the setup dialog, a new document defaults to A4 (Europe) or Letter size (US) in Drawing Mode.
32 Working with Pages 4. Adjust the document Margins to your specifications. You can set the left, right, top, and bottom margins individually, or click the From Printer button to derive the page margin settings from the current printer settings. The dialog also provides options for Balanced margins (left matching right, top matching bottom) or for two Mirrored margins on facing pages where the "left" margin setting becomes the "inside," and the "right" margin becomes the "outside.
Working with Pages 33 Setting measurement units and drawing scale For precision drawing, you need techniques that allow you to position and draw accurately without effort, that will also be of use at any scaled size. Such techniques make use of rulers and guides for actual-size or scaled drawings. Rulers The DrawPlus rulers mimic the paste-up artist's T-square, and acts as a measuring tool and guide creator. The rulers that surround the page allow you to measure the exact position of an object.
34 Working with Pages tab onto the page and release to To set a new ruler origin—simply drag the set the position of your new origin (cross-hair guides and the HintLine toolbar help this positioning). Double-click on the intersection to reset the origin back to its default position. All guide positions are recalculated as the origin changes position. Double-click on the ruler intersection to make the rulers' zero point jump to the top left-hand corner of the selected object.
Working with Pages 35 Creating guides If you want to position objects repeatedly on the same horizontal or vertical boundary then guides can be used. DrawPlus lets you set up horizontal and vertical guides—non-printing, red lines you can use to align one object with another. Guides are “sticky” as long as you have Snap to Guides turned on (via Tools>Options; Layout>Snapping), i.e. a moved object will behave as if it is attracted to a guide as you move it close to the line.
36 Working with Pages Drawing scale You can create scale drawings (such as a garden design or model diagram) by setting a ratio other than 1:1 between page units and ruler units. For example, you might wish to set one page centimetre equivalent to 0.5 metre, a good scaling ratio for designing gardens of a typical size. Use Dimension tools (above) in conjunction with scale drawings for on-the-page measurements, which automatically update as you move objects. To change the drawing scale: 1.
Working with Pages 37 For clarity, the dialog also reports the Printed page size (in page units, as shown in the Page Setup dialog) and the Scaled page size (in "real world" ruler units). When creating graphics for the computer screen, as opposed to the printed page, it's useful to set a drawing scale ratio of one inch (Page Distance) to 96 pixels (Ruler Distance).
38 Working with Pages All snapping options are described as follows: Snap to Guides Objects will jump to visible ruler guides. Snap to Margin Objects will jump to align with defined page margins. Snap to Page Edge Objects will jump to the absolute page edge. Snap to Grid Objects will jump to align with a visible grid's dots, lines or dashes.
Working with Pages Snap to Margin Centres Objects jump to margin centres (i.e., the centre of the page in relation to the page margins). Snap to Page Centre Objects jump to the page centre (i.e., the centre of the page in relation to the page edge). Snap to Units Objects will jump to snapping measurement units, independent of ruler measurement units. For example, a shape can be resized by pixel on a supporting pixel grid.
40 Working with Pages Use dynamic guides A moved object can be aligned precisely with an already placed object, using optional vertex snapping. See Snapping with dynamic guides below. Using the snapping grid The Snapping Grid, when enabled, appears as a matrix of dots, lines or dashes covering the page. It's especially useful as an alignment aid on the page when Snap to Grid is also enabled.
Working with Pages 41 Snapping to QuickShapes (Quick Star) Snapping to irregular drawn shapes Snapping to line/curve nodes Snapping to rotated pictures For ease of use, dynamic guides always use a candidate system where objects previously selected, hovered over, or newly created become the focus for snapping. All other objects can't be snapped to until they are "activated"; The last several "activated" objects are included in each snapping operation.
42 Working with Pages To disable dynamic guides and snapping to vertices: Snapping button (Standard 1. Click the down arrow on the toolbar) and select Options.... 2. From the dialog, uncheck Dynamic guides or just Snap to Vertex. Viewing pages The HintLine toolbar at the bottom of the screen displays the current page number and provides a number of controls to let you navigate around your pages.
Working with Pages 43 Zooming The HintLine toolbar also allows the user to view and/or edit the page at different levels of detail. You can zoom in/out step-by-step or by a userdefined/preset amount. Panning is also possible. The Current Zoom setting on the toolbar displays the current zoom percentage, with 100% representing an actual-size page. Click over the value, then type to enter any zoom percentage up to 5000% or select a preset zoom from the flyout list (includes fit to Full Page or Page Width).
44 Working with Pages Adding and deleting pages DrawPlus lets you add one or more pages before or after a currently selected page; you can even make use of an object "cloning" feature which copies objects from a chosen page. To add one or more new pages: 1. Select a page from which to add page(s) before/after. 2. Click 3. On the Page Manager's Insert Page tab, specify the following: 4. Add/Delete Pages on the HintLine toolbar.
Working with Pages 45 To make a page a background for other pages: • From the Pages tab, right-click the intended background page and choose Set as Background (to undo choose Unset as background). The page is named Background and is applied to other pages already present. Anything you subsequently add to the background page will be replicated to other pages immediately.
46 Working with Pages Using design aids DrawPlus provides a number of design aids to assist you as you draw. Each is designed to improve stroking lines/brushes, page composition, and focused design on specific areas on the page.
Working with Pages 47 To rotate your canvas: Either: 1. Click Rotate Canvas on the HintLine toolbar (don't click the down arrow). 2. Hover over your workspace until you see the rotate the canvas clockwise or anti-clockwise. 3. Once you're happy with the degree of rotation, release the mouse button to reposition the canvas. cursor, then drag to - or - • Click the down arrow on the Rotate Canvas button (HintLine toolbar) and choose a preset angle from the drop-down list.
48 Working with Pages By aligning objects to intersecting horizontal and vertical lines (rather than just centring objects on the page) you can create designs with greater visual interest. When a grid is applied to your page the displayed context toolbar lets you alter the grid's colour and opacity, and reset or delete the grid. (See online Help.) The grid is actually an overlay which appears as an ‘Overlay Layer’ in the Layers tab.
Working with Pages 49 Using divine proportions Divine proportions in DrawPlus involve overlaying a grid over your design for aesthetic proportioning of design elements. The grid uses the classic golden ratio principle commonly encountered in: • classic drawings (e.g., da Vinci's Vitruvian Man). • musical instruments (opposite). • buildings (Athen's Parthenon). • modern iconic design (Apple iPod). The golden ratio can be understood using a cello as an example—the ratio (0.
50 Working with Pages Isolating an object For focused editing, DrawPlus X4 provides the Solo mode. This allows you to temporarily isolate selected object(s) on the page that you are currently designing (all unselected objects disappear!). In doing so, you avoid having to move objects to other layers or lock object unnecessarily. To isolate an object: • Select the object, then click Solo Mode on the HintLine toolbar. After editing, click the button again to return to normal editing mode.
Working with Pages 51 To create a new document window: • Select New Window from the Window menu. The same drawing shows in a new window (e.g., Drawing1:x where x represents the window number). You will need to position your windows and set your magnification level for side-by-side comparison. Updating defaults When you create new objects in DrawPlus, the way they look depends on the current default settings for that particular type of object.
52 Working with Pages To see what the current defaults are for a particular object type, simply create a new object of that type. Although you can switch Synchronize Defaults on or off globally, it is also possible to independently switch on or off attributes which synchronize with, or update to, the currently selected object. To change which attributes synchronize: 1. Defaults flyout Choose Synchronization Settings... from the (Standard toolbar) to optionally select attributes (e.g.
Working with Pages 53 To set object defaults manually: 1. With Synchronize Defaults disabled, create a sample object (the object type matching the set of defaults you’re updating, and alter it to use the specific properties you plan to use as defaults. - or Use an existing object that already has the right properties. 2. Right-click the object and choose Update Defaults (or choose Update Object Defaults from the Format menu).
54 Working with Pages
4 Lines, Curves, and Shapes
56 Lines, Curves, and Shapes
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 57 Selecting one or more objects Before you can change any object, you need to select it using one of several tools available from the top of the Drawing toolbar. Pointer Tool Click to use the Pointer Tool to select, move, copy, resize, or rotate objects. Rotate Tool Click to use the Rotate Tool to exclusively rotate an object around a centre of rotation. You can also use the Rotate Tool to move or copy objects.
58 Lines, Curves, and Shapes Selecting multiple objects It is also possible to select more than one object, making a multiple selection that you can manipulate as if it were one object, or turn into a grouped object (p. 123). To select more than one object (multiple selection): 1. Choose the Pointer Tool or Rotate Tool. 2. Click in a blank area of the page and drag a "marquee" box around the objects you want to select. Release the mouse button.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 59 Selection using a lasso For more detailed multiple object selection, using a fixed marquee or Shift-select may be too inflexible. Instead, you can draw an irregular-shaped lasso around one or more objects in a complex design. To select using a lasso: 1. Choose the Pointer or Rotate Tool. 2. With the Alt key pressed, draw a "lasso" around the objects you want to select. 3. Release the mouse button. All of the objects within the lasso region are selected.
60 Lines, Curves, and Shapes Choose one of the line tools shown below from the Drawing toolbar. The Pencil Tool is used to sketch freeform lines. The Straight Line Tool is used to draw straight lines. The Pen Tool is used for drawing complex, combination curves and shapes in a highly controlled way by using a series of "connect the dots" mouse clicks. As soon as you draw a line, or choose one of the line tools when a line is selected, you'll see the line's nodes appear.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 4. 61 (optional) To set the degree of smoothing to be applied to the line (and subsequent lines), set the Smoothness value on the context toolbar above your workspace. Click its right arrow to display a slider—drag right, then left. You’ll see your drawn line—still selected—smooth out (with fewer nodes) as you drag right, and become more jagged (with more nodes) as you drag left.
62 Lines, Curves, and Shapes To extend a line: 1. Move the cursor over either of the end nodes, a small cursor will appear. Click at that location. 2. The line that you drag out will be a continuation of the existing line, as a new line segment. To draw a curved line: Pen Tool from the Drawing toolbar's Line Tools 1. Choose the flyout. 2. From the displayed context toolbar, choose to create your drawn segments in Smooth joins or Sharp joins creation mode.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 5. 63 To extend an existing line, click beyond the end of your current curve to create a new node (thus creating another curve segment). Normally, curve segments end in a symmetric (evenly rounded) corner (4), with control handles locked together. (4) (5) 6. However, you can press the Alt key while drawing the segment to define a "cusp" or sharp corner (5). This locks the control handle on the last created node. See Changing nodes and line segments on p. 69. 7.
64 Lines, Curves, and Shapes To close an existing curve (with a straight line): 1. Select the curve with the Node Tool, Pencil or Pen Tool. 2. Close Curve on the context toolbar. A Straight segment Click appears, closing the curve. To close a curve (without new segment): • Select the curve with the Node Tool, and drag from an end node (note the Node cursor), moving the line, onto the other end node (a Close cursor will show); releasing the mouse button will create a shape.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 65 Editing lines and shapes To edit lines or shapes, you can manipulate their segments and/or nodes, allowing you to: • Redraw part of a curve • Reshape a line (or curve) • Simplify a line (remove nodes) • Enhance a line (add nodes) • Change the type of node or line segment • Convert to straight line segments • Adjust a shape • Join two lines together Redrawing part of a curve With the Pencil Tool, it's easy to redraw any portion of a curve.
66 Lines, Curves, and Shapes 3. Keep the mouse button down and drag to draw a new line section, connecting it back to another point on the original line. Again, the cursor changes to include a curve when you’re close enough to the line to make a connection. When you release the mouse button, the original portion is replaced by the newly drawn portion. Reshaping a line The main tool for editing lines and shapes is the Node Tool.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 67 Select nodes and drag. Selection can be by one of the following methods: Hover over a single node and click to select the node. Shift-click for multiple nodes. Drag out a marquee to select multiple neighbouring nodes Drag out a lasso (with Alt key pressed) to select multiple nodes otherwise difficult to select via a marquee. Once selected, a node becomes highlighted and control handles for the adjacent line segment(s) will appear.
68 Lines, Curves, and Shapes When using the Pen Tool, pressing Ctrl while clicking a node lets you edit the curve directly. You can't edit multiple nodes simultaneously. By changing the type of node you can change how the adjacent segments behave. As a shortcut when selecting nodes, you can press Tab or Shift-Tab to select the next or previous node along the line (following the order in which nodes were created).
Lines, Curves, and Shapes • 69 To delete a node, select the line with the Node Tool then the node itself and click the Delete Node button on the context toolbar (or press the Delete key). The node will be deleted, along with any associated attractor nodes, and the line or shape will jump to its new shape. With the Pen Tool selected, you can also delete a node by clicking on it. You can also use the Node Tool to reposition the nodes, and reshape the line or shape, by dragging on the new handles.
70 Lines, Curves, and Shapes At a Symmetric Corner, nodes join line segments with the same slope and depth on both sides of the node. Note: Normally, Custom segments you draw with the Pen Tool end in a symmetric corner. Smart Corner nodes automatically determine slope and depth for a rounded, best-fitting curve. If you attempt to adjust a smart corner's handles, it reverts to a symmetric corner.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 71 Adjusting a shape As described on p. 64, you can easily turn a curve into a shape by connecting its end nodes. You can go the other way, too—break open a shape in order to add one or more line segments. To break open a line or shape: 1. With the Node Tool, select the node on the closed curve where you want the break to occur. 2. Break Curve on the context toolbar so that the line will Click separate.
72 Lines, Curves, and Shapes Using QuickShapes QuickShapes are pre-designed objects that you can instantly add to your page, then adjust and vary. QuickShapes are added from a flyout containing a wide variety of commonly used shapes, including boxes, arrows, hearts, spirals and other useful symbols. To create a QuickShape: 1. Click the down arrow on the QuickShape button on the Drawing toolbar, then select a shape from the flyout. The button takes on the icon of the shape you selected. 2.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 73 All QuickShapes can be positioned, resized, rotated, and filled. What's more, you can "morph" their designs. For example, dragging the handles on a Quick Polygon will change the number of sides to make a triangle, pentagon, hexagon, or other polygon. To adjust the appearance of a QuickShape: 1. Click on the QuickShape to reveal sliding handles around the shape. These are distinct from the "inner" selection handles. Different QuickShapes have different handles. 2.
74 Lines, Curves, and Shapes However they were created, all converted objects behave in a similar manner. For example, you can create some text with the Artistic Text Tool, convert it to curves, then use the Node Tool to edit the curves that make up the letters, just as if you had drawn the letter shapes by hand using the line tools. The conversion process loses all of the special properties inherent in QuickShapes and text.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes • 75 From the context toolbar, select an item from the Perspective Presets flyout closest to the effect you’re after. The first item, User Defined perspective, retrieves the last drawn custom perspective shape used in your current DrawPlus session. You can still use the cursor and handles for adjusting perspective. Applying envelopes An envelope distortion is one that you can apply to any object to change its shape without having to edit its nodes.
76 Lines, Curves, and Shapes To remove an envelope: • Select the envelope with the Envelope Tool, then choose Envelope from the Envelope context toolbar. Remove To create/edit your own envelope: • Select the object(s) with the Envelope Tool. • Drag the nodes and handles accordingly. DrawPlus automatically selects the Node Tool when an envelope is applied.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 77 Try the Gallery tab (Office folder) for flow chart (above), network, and organization chart symbols, then simply add connectors between objects. A key feature of connectors is that if you move any connected object at a later date, the connectors will follow. To create a connection: 1. Select Connector Tool on the Line Tools flyout (Drawing toolbar). Hover over an object so that default connection points become visible.
78 Lines, Curves, and Shapes 3. Click the connection point on the object and drag to the destination object—you'll see potential "target" connection points display (in red) on the destination object. When the pointer is over a chosen connection point release the mouse button. (You’ll see a box appear around the point when a connection is imminent.) A connector line will appear between the two connection points.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 79 To edit the selected connector's properties (line weight, colour, weight, style, and end): • Select options from the Connector context toolbar at the top of your workspace. Connector types We've used the Auto Connector Tool exclusively so far. However, this tool exists among a selection of connector tools, each designed for different uses.
80 Lines, Curves, and Shapes Adding dimension lines and labels DrawPlus lets you add dimension lines with text labels showing the distance between two fixed points in a drawing, or the angle formed by three points. For example, you can draw a dimension line along one side of a box, measuring the distance between the two corner points. If you resize the box, the line automatically follows suit, and its label text updates to reflect the new measurement.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes • 81 Dynamic guides You can snap a dimension line to a dynamic guide, creating "freefloating" dimension lines that don't actually touch objects (as above). Use this for neatly presenting horizontal or vertical dimension lines. Guides will be offered to snap to when your line approaches objects on the page. To draw a dimension: 1. Dimension Tool from the Drawing toolbar’s Select the Connecting tools flyout. (The flyout shows the icon of the most recently selected tool.) 2.
82 Lines, Curves, and Shapes Click where you want to start the dimension line (e.g., on a connection point), then drag and release the mouse button where you want to end the line (maybe on another connection point). The illustrations below show the result of dragging between connection points on two QuickSquares A pair of parallel extension lines with end nodes appears from the two points. Between the two extension lines, the dimension line and its label "float.
Lines, Curves, and Shapes 83 To complete the dimension line, move the mouse again to position the floating line or arc and its label—note that they respond independently— and click when they are where you want them. (You can always change the positions later.) The dimension line appears. Once you've added a dimension line, you can freely adjust node/label positions, format the line, and format the label text via context toolbars.
84 Lines, Curves, and Shapes To view your Gallery: • Click the Studio's Gallery tab. • Select a folder or category from the drop-down menu. The items from the folder's first listed category are displayed by default. To use a design from the Gallery: • Drag any preset design directly onto the page. You can modify, then drag the design back into your own custom category. To copy an object into the Gallery: 1.
5 Using Brushes
86 Using Brushes
Using Brushes 87 Selecting brushes DrawPlus supports a wide range of brushes, all capable of producing: Stroke brush effects: • Draw (graphic pencil, marker pen, pen, pencil) • Paint (bristle, stipple, wash) Spray and photo brush effects: • Airbrush, splats, spray can • Effects (bubbles, glitter, neon, smoke, fur, clouds) • Grunge • Nature (fog, grass, snow) • Photo (rope, chains, zippers, flowers, embroidery, textured edges) Painting inherits the principles of Drawing lines and shapes (se
88 Using Brushes The Brushes tab lets you select a brush type from a range of categories. You can also view brushes currently being used in your document, and edit brushes (p. 91) or create your own brushes (see online Help). Stroke and spray brush types are indicated by symbols, respectively.
Using Brushes 89 Applying brush strokes The Paintbrush Tool is used exclusively to apply brush strokes to the page. The tool is used in conjunction with the Brushes tab, and a supporting context toolbar. To apply a brush stroke: Paintbrush Tool from the Drawing toolbar. 1. Select the 2. Display the Brushes tab and choose a category from the drop-down list, then a brush. 3. Select a Colour, Width, or Opacity from the Brush context toolbar. 4.
90 Using Brushes 6. (Optional) Enable Select-on-Create to leave the brush stroke selected on the page. If disabled, the stroke is left deselected. 7. (Optional) Enable Fill-on-Create to fill the unclosed curve produced by the brush stroke with the default fill colour. 8. With the stroke. brush cursor, drag across your page to create a brush Photo brushes, available from the Brushes tab (Photo category), can be recoloured just as any other brush type.
Using Brushes 91 Editing brush strokes It's possible to alter any previously drawn brush stroke with respect to its properties, brush type, and shape. To change brush stroke properties: • Use the Brushes context toolbar to adjust the properties of a brush stroke once applied to your page. To change brush stroke type: 1. Select the brush stroke. 2. Go to the Brushes tab and select firstly a brush category, then a brush type from the displayed gallery. The brush stroke adopts the newly chosen brush.
92 Using Brushes
6 Working with Text
94 Working with Text
Working with Text 95 Entering text You can create different types of text in DrawPlus, i.e. Artistic Text, Frame Text, or Shape Text, all directly on the page. Artistic Text Frame Text Shape Text It's easy to edit the text once it's created, by retyping it or altering properties like font, style, and point size.
96 Working with Text To enter new artistic text: Artistic Text on the Drawing toolbar's 1. Select flyout. 2. To create artistic text at the current default point size, click where you want to start the text. - or For artistic text that will be automatically sized into an area, click and drag out the area to the desired size. 3. To set text attributes (font, size, etc.) before you start typing, make selections on the Text context toolbar.
Working with Text 97 Working with Unicode text On occasion, you may wish to import text in a foreign language, e.g. you may want to include a foreign quote in its original language. To work outside the standard ASCII character set, DrawPlus allows Unicode characters to be pasted (using Edit>Paste Special...) from the clipboard into your drawing. To retain formatting, use "Formatted Text (RTF)" or for plain text use "Unformatted Unicode Text.
98 Working with Text Retyping text You can either retype artistic, frame or shape text directly on the page, or use the Edit Text window—great for managing large amounts of text (overflowed shape text or otherwise) in a simple word processing environment. To retype text on the page: 1. Select the object and then select Drawing toolbar's 2. Artistic Text (from the Text flyout) in either order. Type new text at the selection point or drag to select text, then type to replace it.
Working with Text The text. 99 Node Tool can be used for special adjustments on artistic For greater control over the shape of the artistic text characters, try converting the artistic text to curves. As curves, you can position every character individually and even edit the character shapes, exactly as if you had drawn the character shapes by hand using the line tools. For details, see Converting a shape to editable curves on p. 73.
100 Working with Text To scale the frame or shape text: • Click Overflow to autofit the frame or shape text to its container. This first applies small point size changes, then small leading changes, then adjustments to the paragraph space below value, until the text fits. Other settings are not affected. - or - • Use Autofit on the Text context toolbar. For incremental scaling, use the on the same toolbar.
Working with Text 101 Fitting text to a path DrawPlus allows you to make artistic text conform to a curved baseline (such as a drawn freeform line or curve), custom shape or a preset shape (QuickShape). To fit text to a path: 1. Select the curve or shape. 2. Select 3. cursor, Hover over the curve or shape's outline until you see a then click at the point on the line where your text is to begin. 4. Begin typing your text. The text will be placed along the curve or shape.
102 Working with Text Spell-checking The Spell Checker lets you check the spelling of selected artistic, frame, or shape text, as well as all text sequentially throughout your DrawPlus document. Multilingual spell checking is supported by use of over 10 spelling dictionaries. By default, the spelling dictionary is set on program install (according to Windows Control Panel's Regional and Language Options), i.e. your dictionary is set to the operating system's language.
Working with Text 103 When a problem is found, DrawPlus highlights the problem word on the page. The dialog offers alternative suggestions, and you can choose to Change or Ignore this instance (or all instances with Change All or Ignore All) of the problem word, with the option of using Add to add the problem word to your dictionary. DrawPlus will also let you Suggest an alternative. 6. Spell checking continues until you click the Close button or the spellcheck is completed.
104 Working with Text
7 Working with Objects
106 Working with Objects
Working with Objects 107 Copying, pasting, cutting, and deleting objects To copy one or more objects to the Windows Clipboard: 1. Select the object(s). 2. Click the Copy button on the Standard toolbar. If you're using another Windows application, you can usually copy and paste objects via the Clipboard. To paste an object from the Clipboard: • Click the Paste button on the Standard toolbar. The standard Paste command inserts a clipboard object onto the page.
108 Working with Objects Making duplicates • Select the object while holding down the Ctrl key, then drag the copied object to a new position. Use duplication when rotating or shearing an object—the result is a new copy at a new angle, possibly overlapping the original object. Making multiple copies in a grid If you need to clone single or multiple objects, you can use the Replicate feature to avoid repetitive copy and paste operations.
Working with Objects 109 For replicating multiple objects on different layers, enable the Edit All Layers button on the Layers tab. Now, instead of working with the layers one at a time, we can include all objects (once selected) on all layers, permitting perfect replication. Applying a transform The Transform feature lets you make multiple copies of one or more selected objects, with a transformation applied to each successive copy in the series.
110 Working with Objects Cropping an object DrawPlus includes the Crop Tool for cropping objects (and images) on the page. Cropping discards unwanted "outer" regions of an object while keeping the remainder visible. To crop an object: 1. Select an object and then on the Drawing toolbar, click the Tool. Crop 2. Click and drag an edge or corner handle towards the centre of the object. As an aid, applying a Rule of Thirds grid helps the composition of your design during cropping.
Working with Objects 111 3. A 3 x 3 grid is superimposed on top of the object. 4. Drag a corner or edge grid handle to crop the image. As you do so, the grid repositions itself. 5. Manipulate the image to improve its framing. • Click and drag on the crop window to pan the image. For best results, aim to position your main subject of interest at a point where any two gridlines intersect. • To rotate or zoom into or out of the object, use the adjacent control bar.
112 Working with Objects Zoom In/Out Rotate anticlockwise/clockwise • To select the crop window • To select cropped objects • To uncrop a cropped area • To crop an object using a preset shape • To reshape a cropped area. Select bar. Crop from the control Select Cropped Object(s) Click from the control bar. The original object is selected. Click Uncrop with the crop window selected. With the crop window selected, choose a QuickShape from the Crop Shape drop-down menu.
Working with Objects 113 Copying an object's formatting Format Painter is used to copy one object’s line and fill properties directly to another object, including between line/shape and text objects. To apply one object's formatting to another: 1. Select the object whose formatting you wish to copy. 2. Click Format Painter on the Standard toolbar. When you click the button, the selected object's formatting is "picked up." 3. Click another object to apply the first object's formatting to it.
114 Working with Objects Moving objects You can move any selected object anywhere you want and drop it back onto the page or pasteboard by releasing the mouse button. To move one or more objects: 1. Select the object(s). 2. Click and drag the Move button. The object moves. - or Click within the selection and drag. changed to become a Move cursor. Note that the Pointer cursor Use the keyboard arrows to move in increments. To set exact horizontal and vertical positions, use the Transform tab.
Working with Objects 115 Cutting with a freeform or straight line is possible by drawing the line across the object (or by sweeping the knife cut in and out of the object multiple times in a zig-zag pattern). By hovering over resulting "split" fragments you can click an unwanted fragment to delete. Alternatively, you can deselect the Knife Tool to move the cut fragments apart (see carrot illustration).
116 Working with Objects 4. Using the cursor, drag a freeform line across any object(s) you would like to split (unselected objects on which the line traverses will not be split). Instead, press the Shift key as you drag for a straight line. 5. Hover over, then click to remove the unwanted cut area(s). - or With the Pointer Tool, drag the newly split fragments apart instead. Instead of performing a freeform (or straight) cut, you can cut using preset cutter shapes.
Working with Objects 4. 117 Click the Cut button in the lower-right corner, then click the unwanted area under the cursor to create your new cutout shape. Erasing and adding to objects DrawPlus lets you take a "virtual" eraser to your drawing, letting you remove portions of your selected object(s) on an individual layer or across multiple layers. The extent of erasing can be controlled depending on the tool's currently set erasing nib width and pressure setting (if using a graphics tablet).
118 Working with Objects To add to a selected object: 1. Select the Freeform Paint Tool on the Drawing toolbar's Vector Edit flyout. 2. (Optional) From the context toolbar, set a Width to define the nib width which will be drawn. 3. (Optional) Disable Select-on-Create if you want to create new objects every time you use the tool (you might want to create a series of shapes without switching tools). 4. cursor over the object and drag over an object Position the boundary.
Working with Objects 119 To resize an object to a fixed aspect ratio: Pointer Tool. 1. Select the object(s) with the 2. Position the cursor over one of the object’s handles—you will notice that the cursor changes to a double-headed Size cursor. 3. Drag from a corner handle (above) to resize in two dimensions (by moving two edges), while maintaining the selection's aspect ratio (proportions). To resize to any aspect ratio, with the Shift key depressed, drag from an object's corner handle.
120 Working with Objects Rotating and shearing objects The Rotate Tool lets you both rotate and shear (slant) one or more objects. To rotate one or more objects around a centre point: Rotate Tool on the Drawing toolbar's 1. Click flyout. 2. Click to select the object, then hover over a corner handle and, when you see the cursor change, drag in the direction in which you want to rotate the object then release the mouse. (Use Shift key for rotating in 15 degree intervals.
Working with Objects 121 To rotate selected object by set degrees: • For 90° anti-clockwise: click • For 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, 180°, 275° anti-clockwise: click the down arrow on the Arrange tab's Rotate button and select a value. Once set, clicking the button will rotate the object by the chosen value incrementally. Rotate 90° on the Standard toolbar. To shear or copy shear an object: Rotate Tool on the Drawing toolbar's Selection flyout. 1. Select 2.
122 Working with Objects Flipping objects You can flip selected objects horizontally or vertically. To flip an object: • Select the object(s) with one of the selection tools (Pointer, Rotate, or Node). • To flip the selection left to right, click Flip Horizontal on the Standard toolbar. (Top and bottom stay the same.) • To flip the selection top to bottom, click same toolbar. (Left and right stay the same.) Flip Vertical on the You can use equivalent options on the Arrange tab (or Arrange menu).
Working with Objects 123 You can still alter a locked object’s fill, line, or transparency properties. Grouping objects The advantage of converting a set of objects into a group is that it is easier to select and edit the objects all at the same time. The only requirement for grouping is that multiple objects are selected in advance (see p. 58). To create a group from a multiple selection: • Click Group below the selection.
124 Working with Objects Combining, cropping, and joining objects DrawPlus includes some powerful tools to carve new shapes out of old shapes—the Combine, Crop, Clip, Add, Subtract, and Intersect buttons on the Arrange tab. Combine Merges two or more objects into a composite object, with a clear “hole” where their filled regions overlap. The composite takes the line and fill of the bottom object. Click the button again to break apart.
Working with Objects 125 Creates one new object that’s the sum of any two selected objects, whether or not they overlap. Add Add, along with Subtract an Intersect, are Join commands, where you actually produce a permanent new object out of any selected objects. The action can’t be reversed, except by using the Undo command. A Joined object can be edited with the Node Tool, while a combined, cropped or clipped object cannot. The objects need not be overlapping.
126 Working with Objects Aligning and distributing objects Alignment involves taking a group of selected objects and aligning or distributing them, or both—the operation is applied to all of the objects selected. To align two or more objects: 1. Using the Pointer Tool, Shift-click on all the objects you want to align, or draw a marquee box around them (or use Edit>Select All), to create a multiple selection. 2.
Working with Objects 127 To distribute two or more objects: 1. Using the Pointer Tool, Shift-click on all the objects you want to distribute, or draw a marquee box around them, to create a multiple selection. 2. Distribute Horizontally or In the Align tab, select Distribute Vertically to distribute objects vertically or horizontally, respectively. 3.
128 Working with Objects To change the object's order: • To shift the selected object's position to the front of other objects (on top), choose Bring to Front on the Standard toolbar (or Arrange tab). • To shift the selected object's position behind other objects (on the bottom), choose Send to Back on the Standard toolbar (or Arrange tab). • To shift the object's position one step toward the front, choose Forward One on the Arrange tab.
Working with Objects 129 choose which layer you are editing and thus make changes without fear of modifying anything on another layer. In essence, by building up your drawing from multiple layers you make it much easier to edit. Each layer is situated along with other layers (if present) within a stack on the Layers tab—the uppermost layer is applied over any lower layer on the page. You can also expand each layer entry for a tree view of objects associated with that layer.
130 Working with Objects To delete a layer: • In the Layers tab, select the layer’s name and click the Layer button. Delete If you delete a layer, all of the objects on it are lost! So if you want to keep any of them, move them to another layer first. You can move layers up or down in the stacking order to place their objects in front or behind those on other layers, move objects to specific layers, and even merge layers.
Working with Objects 131 To merge a layer: 1. Activate the layer you want to merge to by clicking its entry. The layer is highlighted in blue. (Note that the active layer becomes uppermost in the workspace.) 2. With the Ctrl key pressed, select a single or multiple layers that you want to merge into the activated layer. 3. Merge button. The contents of the merged layer(s) Click the appear on the active layer and the previously selected layers disappear.
132 Working with Objects To select objects on a particular layer: • In the Layers tab, if the Edit All Layers button is disabled, click the chosen layer and either: • Click the layer's object on the page. - or - • In the Layers tab, click the Expand icon on the chosen layer entry to reveal all associated objects. You'll see objects named automatically, e.g. "Curve, 2 Nodes", "Closed Curve, 5 Nodes", "Quick Rectangle", etc., each with their own preview.
Working with Objects 133 To select any object on any layer: Initially, objects which are on layers that are not selected are also visible, but you may find that you can’t select an object as it is on a different layer. This can be slightly confusing at first as you frantically click on an object to no effect! But of course, you can change this state of affairs.
134 Working with Objects To move an object to another layer: • Select the object, right-click and choose Move Object to Layer.... From the dialog, select the specific destination layer. - or - • Select the object, right-click and choose Move Object to Active Layer. The object moves to whichever layer was previously active.
8 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency
136 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 137 Setting fill properties Any closed shape, such as a closed curve or QuickShape, or text has an interior region that can be filled. The fill type can be solid, gradient, bitmap or plasma. Those that use a single colour are solid fills. Let’s take a moment to run through them. Fill types fall into several basic categories, illustrated above: • Solid fills, as their name implies, use a single colour.
138 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency The HSL Colour Wheel is made up of four key components—the line/fill swatches, the outer Hue wheel, Saturation/Lightness triangle, and an Opacity slider. The Line/Fill swatches govern whether the selected colour is applied as a line colour, solid fill, or both simultaneously. The small circles shown in the wheel and triangle indicate the current setting for hue and saturation/lightness, respectively. Drag either circle around to adjust the overall HSL value.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 139 To apply a solid fill colour via the Swatch tab: 1. Select the object(s) and display the Studio's Swatch tab. 2. Set the Line/Fill Swatch at the top-left of the tab so the Fill Swatch appears in front of the Line Swatch. 3. Pick a thumbnail from either the Document Palette or from another palette shown in the Palettes drop-down list (drag from the thumbnail onto the object as an alternative). To change a fill's shade/tint (lightness): 1.
140 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency To edit an object's fill colour(s) and tint: 1. Right-click the object and choose Format>Fill.... 2. (Optional) From the dialog's Model drop-down menu, choose a different colour model (e.g., RGB sliders). 3. Depending on the selected colour mode, use the Colour Wheel, Colour Picker, or combination of slider and colour spectrum (or use the input boxes) to set your colour value.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 141 Blend modes The Colour tab hosts a Blend Mode drop-down list for blending overlapping object colours together in various ways. You'll find blend modes described in detail in Understanding blend modes in online Help. Setting line properties All lines, including those that enclose shapes, have numerous properties, including colour, style, line ends, weight, join (corner), and cap (end).
142 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency Changing line style A series of buttons arranged along the top of the Line tab set the line style. No line, Solid, Dash, Double, and Calligraphic styles can be applied to freeform lines, and outlines of shapes, images and artistic text alike. Brush Stroke and Edge Effect apply brushed The last two effects, or fringed edges to images and text with stroke/spray or edge brushes, respectively.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 143 Two styles called Brush Stroke and Edge Effect let you apply a brush, chosen from the Brushes tab, to your line or your object's edge. You'll see your current brush shown in the Line tab. Both effects look great when applied to artistic text titles or to picture edges (see Scarlet illustration).
144 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency Sampling colours Use the Colour Picker tool to sample (and then reuse) any colour in your DrawPlus workspace. The picked colour can then be made the current line or fill colour in DrawPlus. Various sampling methods can be used depending on the type of object fill or screen area to be sampled. Point sampler Use for picking up an individual pixel colour directly under the cursor.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 145 To sample colours (via Colour Picker Tool): 1. On the Drawing toolbar, click 2. From the context toolbar, choose a colour picker type (e.g., Point Sampler). Colour Picker. Square and Circle Sampler types allow you size the sampling region by using the Colour Picker Size option. Gradient Sampler offers a Gradient Picker Sensitivity option, for controlling the level or detail to which the gradient is sampled. 3.
146 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency To sample colours (via Colour tab): • Select Colour Picker, hold the mouse button down, and drag to the target area then release. The colour under the cursor is picked up in the adjacent swatch. • Click the Colour tab's Line or Fill swatch, then the Picked Colour swatch to transfer the colour to the chosen swatch.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 147 Adding colours to the Document Palette Colours are added manually or automatically from the Colour tab or taken directly from an object's line/fill into the user's Document Palette. The palette also stores commonly used colours (e.g., Red, Green, Blue, etc.). Colours can be added, edited, deleted, or renamed within the Document Palette as in any of the other Swatch tab's palettes.
148 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency To add a colour (from a selected object): Palette Menu and select Add Fill from Selection. 1. Click 2. In the dialog, choose a name and click OK. To add a colour (directly from any palette): • Right-click the palette swatch and select Add to Document's Palette. To add colour spreads (using Colour Palette Designer): Colour Palette Designer on the Document Palette's title 1. Click bar. 2.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 149 To add a bitmap fill (from an imported picture): Palette Menu and select Add Bitmap Fill.... 1. Click 2. In the dialog, navigate to the bitmap, select the file name, and click Open. Working with gradient fills Gradient fills are those that use gradients—small "spectrums" with colours spreading between at least two defined key values. Specifically, gradient fills include the Linear, Radial, Elliptical, Conical, Square, Three Colour, and Four Colour types.
150 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 4. Click and drag on the object to define the fill path (a solid line). The object takes a simple Linear fill, grading from the current colour of the object, ending in white (objects filled with white will grade from white to black, to show contrast). (A) Node (Start key colour), (B) Node (End key colour), and (C) Fill Path To apply a gradient fill (Swatch tab): 1. Select an object. 2. Click the Swatch tab and ensure the accordingly. 3.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 151 Editing the fill path If an object using a gradient fill is selected, you'll see the fill path displayed as one or more lines, with circular nodes marking where the spectrum between each key colour begins and ends. Adjusting the node positions determines the actual spread of colours between nodes. You can also edit the fill by adding, deleting, or changing key colours. To adjust the gradient fill path on a selected object: 1.
152 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency Experiment to discover new effects! For example, you can widen or narrow the gradient’s extent, even drag either node completely outside the object. Or, for a Radial fill on a round shape, try placing the start node near the figure’s upper edge, off-centre, to create a reflection highlight. For details of how to edit and manage gradient fills, see online Help.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 153 A plasma fill, sometimes called a fractal fill, is a bitmapped pattern with dark and light regions, useful for simulating cloud or shadow effects. Again, the Swatch tab hosts a selection of these fills. Once you've applied either type of fill to an object using the Swatch tab (see Setting fill properties on p.
154 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency Working with mesh fills A mesh fill works like a gradient fill but uses a more complex fill path, with a grid or "mesh" of many nodes representing separate key colours. The overall effect, especially useful for multifaceted highlighting, arises from the colour gradients that spread between each of these nodes. As an example, the Mesh Fill Tool can be used to dramatic effect on a sports car's bodywork.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 155 In addition, the areas between four nodes called "mesh patches” can be recoloured or moved individually or in multiples. As for curved lines you can add, delete, and move one or more nodes at any time. (A) Node and (B) Patches in a mesh fill Setting opacity Key point! In DrawPlus, opacity is a property of colour; both can be set in the Colour tab in combination.
156 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency The Opacity slider (Colour tab) can be used to alter the opacity of a specific colour, whether that colour is a solid fill (in an object or on a line), or a node's colour on a gradient fill path. Opacity can be applied locally to each object; the default is 100% opacity, i.e. the object is fully opaque. For solid fills, the opacity change will be made uniformly across the object's interior (see disc illustration).
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 157 To apply solid opacity: 1. Select the object(s) and display the Studio's Colour tab. 2. Drag the slider to the left for a reduced opacity setting (e.g., 20%); drag right to increase opacity. This makes objects appear semi-transparent, or if set to 0%, fully transparent. To apply solid opacity (to a fill path): 1. Select the object(s) and display the Studio's Colour tab. 2. Click the 3. Click on any displayed node along the fill path.
158 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency Transparency can also be applied along a custom drawn transparency path using the Transparency Tool, in the same way as the equivalent fill path (see p. 149). Transparency paths are easily editable. Transparency effects are applied locally to each object. Applying different transparency effects won't alter the object's fill settings as such, but may significantly alter a fill's actual appearance. Let’s check out the Transparency tab.
Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency 159 To apply gradient transparency with Transparency Tool: 1. Select an object. 2. Click the 3. Click and drag on the object to define the transparency path. The object takes a simple linear transparency, grading from 100% transparency to 0% transparency in the direction you drag. Transparency Tool on the Drawing toolbar. You've freeform control over where the path starts and ends, and the direction in which the path will be drawn.
160 Fill, Lines, Colours, and Transparency
9 Working with Pictures
162 Working with Pictures
Working with Pictures 163 Importing pictures Pictures that can be imported into DrawPlus can belong to one of several groups: • Bitmapped pictures, also known as bitmaps or raster images, are built from a matrix of dots ("pixels"), rather like the squares on a sheet of graph paper. They may originate as digital camera photos or scanned images, or be created (or enhanced) with a "paint" program or photo editor.
164 Working with Pictures To import a picture from a file: Insert Picture on the Drawing toolbar. 1. Click 2. From the dialog, locate and select the file to import, then click Open. The dialog disappears and the mouse pointer changes to the Picture Size cursor. What you do next determines the initial size, placement, and aspect ratio (proportions) of the picture. 3. Either: • To insert the picture at a default size, simply click the mouse.
Working with Pictures 165 • You can always resize a picture as required, after it has been placed, by dragging its handles. For the finer points of resizing, see Resizing objects on p. 118. • The Picture context toolbar appears automatically when you select an image on the page. Use the toolbar to quickly adjust contrast, brightness, Red Eye or apply Auto Level or Auto Contrast. For more advanced image adjustment and effect filters, click the Picture context toolbar's PhotoLab button.
166 Working with Pictures To launch Image Cutout Studio: 1. Select an image to be cut out. 2. Select Image Cutout Studio from the displayed Picture context toolbar. Image Cutout Studio is launched. Your original image, if linked, is unaffected in Image Cutout Studio. However, embedded images, when cut out, are altered permanently in the DrawPlus document. Choose an output It's essential that you choose an output type prior to selecting areas for keeping/discarding.
Working with Pictures 167 To create a vector-cropped bitmap: 1. Select Vector-cropped Bitmap from the Output Type drop-down menu. 2. Drag the Feather slider to apply a soft or blurry edge inside the cutout edge. 3. Drag the Smoothness slider to smooth out the cutout edge. 4. The Inflate slider acts as an positive or negative offset from the cutout edge. Selecting areas to keep or discard A pair of brushes for keeping and discarding is used to enable parts of the image to be selected.
168 Working with Pictures For Show transparent mode, a different Background colour can be set (at the bottom of the Studio) while Show Transparent is enabled; this may help give better contrast at cut edges while fine tuning. To select image areas for keeping/discarding: 1. Keep brush or In Image Cutout Studio, click either Discard brush from the left of the Studio workspace. 2. (Optional) Pick a Brush size suitable for the area to be worked on. 3.
Working with Pictures 169 Autotracing Instead of manually tracing a design, it's possible to automatically convert bitmaps back into vector objects by using autotracing. Its main function is for speedily reworking bitmapped logos (for further design modification), but its use is not confined to this. In fact, both greyscale and colour photos can equally be autotraced for eye-catching artistic effects.
170 Working with Pictures The autotracing process is performed in a studio environment, which makes use of the above profiles. The studio gives the opportunity to preview before tracing, and customize chosen profile settings further to your liking. Most profile settings are unique to the profile. To autotrace a selected image: 1. AutoTrace button Click the drop-down arrow on the (Standard toolbar) and select a profile from the menu. - or Click screen.
Working with Pictures 4. Click Trace to trace your logo, photo, or other bitmapped artwork. It's best to keep clicking this button to update your main window after any adjustment. If you want to abort the autotracing process, you can click the Cancel button on the progress bar. 5. (Optional) For fine-tuning your traced output, several options are possible: • 171 For removing colours in traced logo output, right-click on the palette colour you want to remove.
172 Working with Pictures Creating custom profiles Adjusting any slider means that you've modified your chosen preset profile. If you want to keep the settings for future autotracing you can save the profile to a new name and reuse it from the drop-down menu (on the profile selection screen or within AutoTrace studio). To save a custom autotrace profile: Save Current Profile. 1. Click 2. From the dialog, enter a custom profile name.
Working with Pictures 173 Applying PhotoLab filters PhotoLab is a dedicated studio environment that lets you apply adjustment and effect filters to photos, individually or in combination. PhotoLab offers the following key features: • Adjustment filters Apply tonal, colour, lens, and sharpening filters. • Effect filters Apply distortion, blur, stylistic, noise, render, artistic, and various other effects. • Retouching filters Apply red-eye and spot repair correction.
174 Working with Pictures Photos present in your scrapbook display in the Images tab, which is hidden by default. To display this tab, as illustrated below, simply click the button at the bottom of the dialog. (A) filter tabs, (B) Main toolbar, (C) Main workspace, (D) filter stack, (E) Images tab Filters are stored in the Favourites, Adjustments, and Effects filter tabs, and are grouped into categories.
Working with Pictures 175 Applying filters 1. Select the photo you want to work on. (If the photo is framed, select it and click Select Cropped Object.) 2. Click 3. For ease of use, when you open PhotoLab, the Filters stack on the right contains some commonly-used filters (such as White Balance and Lighting). These filters are disabled by default. PhotoLab on the Photo context toolbar.
176 Working with Pictures 5. (Optional): • Repeat steps 1 to 4 to add more filters to the Filters stack. Filters are applied to a photo cumulatively, in the order in which they are added to the Filters stack. The most recently added filter always appears at the bottom of the stack. (See To reorder filters, p. 176.) 6. • Disable, reset, and/or delete filters in the Filters stack. (See p. 176.) • Use zoom in/out buttons or a percentage magnification for detailed work.
Working with Pictures 177 Retouching PhotoLab's main toolbar provides some useful retouching tools. These are commonly used to correct photos before applying colour correction and effects. • Red-eye tool, to remove red eye from a human subject. • Spot-repair tool, to remove blemishes from human skin and material surfaces. For instructions on using the retouching tools, see online Help.
178 Working with Pictures To apply a mask: Mask drop-down menu, select New Mask. 1. From the 2. In the Tool Settings pane, select the 3. Adjust the settings to suit your requirements. For example, adjust Brush Size to paint larger or more intricate regions. 4. In the Mode drop-down menu, choose one of the following options: 5. Add Region tool. • Select: Choose this if you want to apply the filter only to the regions you paint. This is the default setting.
Working with Pictures 179 You can create additional masks for the same filter, as above, and then choose between them. You can only apply one mask at any one time. By using the Mask menu's New From> option you can also base your new mask on an existing mask, which may be applied to the current filter or to any other filter in the stack. This is useful when working with Favourites filters that contain multiple adjustments. To edit a mask: • Expand the drop-down to edit. Click Edit Mask.
180 Working with Pictures Importing scanner images In recent years, the increasingly more sophisticated image management software supplied with scanners means that DrawPlus leaves the photo management aspect of importing scanned images to the manufacturer's software (installed with the device on your computer).
10 Applying Special Effects
182 Applying Special Effects
Applying Special Effects 183 Creating borders The Border Wizard lets you create a border around the whole page or a selected object, or within a specific page region. It's possible to create your own border from a current object selection or from a preset border style. To create a border: 1. (If creating a border around an object) Select the object first. 2. Select Border Wizard... from the Insert menu. 3.
184 Applying Special Effects Creating blends Blends enable you to “morph” any shape into any other shape via the Blend Tool. If the two shapes are separated in space, each step creates an intermediate shape, to create a kind of morphing effect where the colour, transparency, and line properties all change along with the object shape during the blend process. For more complex blending possibilities, objects can be multiply-blended (to/from other blends) to create truly stunning illustrations.
Applying Special Effects 185 To create a blend with the Blend Tool: Blend Tool button on the Drawing toolbar. 1. Select the 2. (Optional) From the displayed Context toolbar, choose: 3. • the number of “morph” Blend Steps to be taken between both points (to increase/decrease the smoothness of the blend). • a Position or Attribute Profile for non-uniform blends—use for rate or transform and blend, respectively. (See Using blend profiles in online Help.
186 Applying Special Effects Blends in Stopframe animation For Stopframe animation of simple objects, you can make use of blending between objects to create frames automatically. You can perform this operation in Drawing mode (then Convert to Stopframe Animation) or from scratch in Stopframe Animation mode. See Stopframe animation tips and tricks in online Help for more information.
Applying Special Effects 187 Adding drop shadows You can apply simple drop shadows by using the Shadow Tool. When applied, the selected object is given a sense of depth. The Shadow Tool offers freeform control of the drop shadow effect. With its onthe-page control nodes and supporting Shadow context toolbar, the tool offers various adjustments such as Opacity, Blur, and X (or Y) Shear. Nodes appear on the object for fine control.
188 Applying Special Effects With subtle Shear and Scale adjustments you can produce skewed shadows for realistic 2D lighting effects. The example opposite has had adjustments to Shear X and Shear Y, with blurring and reduced opacity. Once you’ve created a basic shadow, you can further edit it as needed using the Filter Effects dialog. Applying drop shadows with Shadow Tool 1. Click the Shadow Tool on the Drawing toolbar.
Applying Special Effects 189 Applying 2D filter effects You can apply some depth to your objects by applying an embossing effect. • From the Effects tab, adjust the Material Thickness setting on your selected object. The greater the value, the greater the embossed effect. Making feathered edges Feathering applies a softer edge to your objects, such as embellishments or cut materials. The effect is especially useful for presenting a photo on the page.
190 Applying Special Effects Gaussian Blur Zoom Blur Radial Blur Colour Fill Feather Outline Motion Blur DrawPlus additionally provides the Shadow Tool for applying a shadow to an object directly on your page. Control handles let you adjust shadow blur, opacity and colour. See Adding drop shadows on p. 187. To apply 2D filter effects: 1. Click Filter Effects from the Drawing toolbar. The Filter Effects dialog appears. 2. To apply a particular effect, check its box in the list at left. 3.
Applying Special Effects 191 Colour Fill The Colour Fill effect applies a colour over any existing fill, and lets you achieve some effects that are not possible with other controls. For example, you can use Colour Fill to force everything in a complex group to a single colour, or recolour a bitmap in a solid colour (effectively ignoring everything but the transparency). Feathering Feathering is a filter effect that adds a soft or blurry edge to any object.
192 Applying Special Effects Using 3D filter effects 3D filter effects go beyond 2D filter effects (shadows, bevel, emboss, etc.) to create the impression of a textured surface on the object itself. Keep in mind is that none of these 3D effects will "do" anything to an unfilled object—you’ll need to have a fill there to see the difference they make! The Studio’s Effects tab is a good place to begin experimenting with 3D filter effects.
Applying Special Effects 193 To apply 3D Effects: • Choose Filter Effects from the Drawing toolbar (or choose Filter Effects... from the Format menu, or right-click the object and choose Filter Effects...). • Check 3D Effects in the Filter Effects dialog. • Adjust the "master control" sliders here to vary the overall properties of any individual 3D effects you select. • Blur specifies the amount of smoothing applied (in point size).
194 Applying Special Effects 2D Bump Map The 2D Bump Map effect creates the impression of a textured surface by applying a greyscale bitmap you select to add depth information, for a peak-andvalley effect. You can use 2D Bump Map in conjunction with one or more additional 3D filter effects—but not with a 3D Bump Map. 3D Pattern Map The 3D Pattern Map effect creates the impression of a textured surface by applying a mathematical function you select to introduce colour variations.
Applying Special Effects 195 3D Reflection Map The 3D Reflection Map effect is used to simulate mirrored surfaces by selection of a pattern (i.e., a bitmap which possesses a shiny surface) which "wraps around" a selected object. Patterns which simulate various realistic indoor and outdoor environments can be adopted, with optional use of 3D lighting to further reflect off object edges.
196 Applying Special Effects 3. Choose one of the thumbnails and adjust percentage Scale and Opacity if needed. 4. Click OK. The button will change to indicate that a paper texture has been applied, e.g. . Existing or any subsequently new objects will adopt the paper texture once applied. To remove a paper texture: 1. Click the button on the layer from which you want to remove a paper texture. 2. From the dialog, simply click the Remove button.
Applying Special Effects 197 • texture: control how texture is extruded on objects with non-solid fills. • viewing: present your object in three dimensions. • material: controls the extent to which lighting has an effect on the object's surfaces (great for 3D artistic text!). An always-at-hand 3D context toolbar hosted above your workspace lets you configure settings—each setting contributes to the 3D effect applied to the selected object.
198 Applying Special Effects To add dimensionality: 1. Select an object and click Instant 3D on the Drawing toolbar. The object immediately adopts 3D characteristics with an orbit circle displayed in the object's foreground. You'll also notice a 3D-specific context toolbar appear above your drawing. 2.
Applying Special Effects 199 Applying Pseudo 3D Pseudo 3D produces a object projection to follow one of three separate planes (top, front or right), either by using an Isometric projection (default) or other more complex projection. By bringing together transformed objects on each plane you produce the illusion of working in three dimensions, from a simple cube (below) to more complex 3D shapes, text, etc.
200 Applying Special Effects Notice how the displayed angles on each of the above projections are shown after each name. Practically, projection drawing can be challenging as it's sometimes difficult to visualize objects that appear three dimensional. To aid drawing, you can use the snapping grid which shows automatically in the page background; the grid intelligently switches to the current plane that you're working on. Whichever plane is set, drawn objects will then snap to the grid on the same plane.
Applying Special Effects 201 Selecting objects on the same plane: • From the Select All On Plane option on the Edit menu, choose None, Top, Front, or Right from the menu. To project an object to a different plane: • Select a previously projected object, and with the Ctrl key depressed, choose a different plane from the 3D Planes drop-down menu. Using Advanced Pseudo 3D Up to now we've assumed that you've applied a default isometric projection.
202 Applying Special Effects Creating a custom projection: • From the Projection Properties dialog, pick a preset projection, and modify Angle and/or Scale values for one or more axes. The projection's name changes to Custom. Saving a custom projection: Save. 1. Click 2. In the dialog enter a name for the new projection, and click OK. The entry will appear at the end of the drop-down menu.
11 Creating Animations
204 Creating Animations
Creating Animations 205 Getting started with animation What is animation? Like flip books, Disney movies and TV, it’s a way of creating the illusion of motion by displaying a series of still images, rapidly enough to fool the eye—or more accurately, the brain. Professional animators have developed a whole arsenal of techniques for character animation—rendering human (and animal) movement in a convincing way.
206 Creating Animations 3. From the Start From Scratch dialog, select a document category from the Documents pane (and a sub-category if applicable); categories are optimized for the animation type. For custom sized pages, choose the Custom Page Setup button at the bottom of the dialog. 4. Select a document type thumbnail from the right-hand pane and click Open. The new document opens.
Creating Animations 207 You can modify page characteristics such as page size, orientation, number of pages, and snapping from the Pages context toolbar. To save an animation: • Choose File>Save... DrawPlus saves animation documents in the proprietary .DPA format (Drawings are saved as .DPPs). Working with Stopframe animation In Stopframe animation mode you'll be working predominantly with the Frames tab.
208 Creating Animations To view the Frames tab: • Unless the tab is already displayed, click the bottom of your workspace to reveal the tab. handle at the To clone the current frame to a new frame: • Select a frame in the Frames tab, and choose Clone Frame. The frame is added after the selected frame. Alternatively, use the Blend Tool to automatically create "intermediate" stopframes in steps between objects. To generate a new blank frame: • Choose Insert Frame from the Frames tab.
Creating Animations 209 To change frame sequence: • Drag the selected frame to a new position in the frame order. When the dragged frame's thumbnail creates a slightly wider space between two frames than usual, release the mouse button to place the frame to be moved. To delete a selected frame: • Click Delete Frame from the Frames tab.
210 Creating Animations Previewing Stopframe animations You can preview your animation prior to export at any time either directly from your Frames tab (shown in a Preview window) or from within your default web browser. To preview in the Preview window: • Click Preview on the Frames tab. The animation loads into the Preview window and begins playing at its actual size and speed. Notice that you see only the drawn portion of the animation— any extra surrounding white space is cropped away.
Creating Animations 211 Working with Keyframe animation When compared with Stopframe animation (see Getting started with animation on p. 205), Keyframe animation offers a more powerful and efficient animation technology—it saves having to declare every frame, letting your computer do the hard work! Essentially, the technique lets you create only user-defined keyframes through which objects animate, with each keyframe containing Key objects which can be assigned a position, rotation, attributes, etc.
212 Creating Animations Supporting tabs Keyframe animation mode also presents other tabs that support the Storyboard tab. These are exclusively used within keyframe animation (and do not show in normal or stopframe animation mode), i.e. • The Easing tab is used for applying linear or non-linear changes between key objects with use of editable envelopes (e.g., to change object position, morph, scale, rotation, skew, colour, and transparency).
Creating Animations 213 Getting started You can enter Keyframe animation mode via File>New>New Keyframe Animation or by converting your existing drawing by using File>Convert to Keyframe Animation. Basic keyframe animations are created in a specific order: 1. Select a Page Setup from the context toolbar specific to your keyframe animation. 2. Create object(s), either static or for animation, on the page. 3. From the Storyboard tab, insert the number of keyframes and their duration via a dialog. 4.
214 Creating Animations 3. (Optional) Under the Background Colour section, change the animation's background colour by clicking on the dialog-wide colour swatch. The dialog lets you pick up a colour from a range of dropdown colour modes, your Document Palette or via a colour selector (drag and click anywhere on your computer screen to set).
Creating Animations 215 To insert keyframes: Insert. 1. From the Storyboard tab, select a keyframe and choose 2. From the dialog, choose the Number of keyframes to add to the Storyboard tab. Set a default Keyframe duration for each created keyframe. 3. Choose to add keyframe(s) at a Location before or after the currently selected keyframe or before/after the first or last keyframe. 4. (Optional) Check Insert blank keyframes if you don't want to include run forward objects in your keyframes.
216 Creating Animations Keyframe duration Keyframe duration represents the amount of time in between each individual keyframe. The value is set according to how the keyframe was created, i.e. • • Inserting keyframes (blank or otherwise) lets you set the keyframe duration in an Insert Keyframes dialog (default 1 second). A splitting operation will create new keyframes whose duration will be a division of the selected keyframe's duration (by the number of keyframes to be split).
Creating Animations 217 Adding sound To complement the visual effect of your keyframe animation it's possible to add audio. Sounds can be added either for the duration of a specific keyframe, or when an action is applied to an object event (see Applying actions on p. 224 for details on actions and events). To add an audio clip: Sound icon 1. On the Storyboard tab, click on the keyframe's (located below the frame's thumbnail). 2.
218 Creating Animations 6. 7. Either: • To insert the movie at the movie's original size, simply click the mouse. - or - • To set the size of the inserted movie, drag out a region and release the mouse button. (Optional) Use the object toolbar controls to run forward/backward to the end/start of the storyboard (or by a set number of keyframes). Previewing keyframe animations You can preview your animation at any time either in a web browser or in Flash Player (Version 8.
Creating Animations 219 Keyframe object control We've just looked at storyboard control. However, a whole series of important object control tools are also available in keyframe animation. They are available on an object toolbar, displayed in-context under any selected object. Initial grouped objects show run forward, and grouped object buttons Objects along the animation run show buttons for conversion to key objects, and object placement and attributes buttons in both directions.
220 Creating Animations Once run forward or backward, you can move an object on any keyframe (normally the last) to make animation work. Objects that are not moved are called tweened objects, and show as transparent square nodes (see illustration; B) which are automatically created between any two key objects (A). If you move any of these interim tweened objects you change your animation to follow a non-linear path (see illustration)—as a result, the tweened object becomes a key object (C).
Creating Animations 221 To change object placement: 1. Select the object whose positional information you want to apply forward or backward. 2. From the object's toolbar, click either: • Update placement backward to make a previous object's position match the selected object's position. - or - • Update placement forward to do the same to later object positions. 3.
222 Creating Animations 3. From the dialog, choose to Run Length either to the beginning/end of the storyboard, or to objects a set number of keyframes before/after the currently selected object (choose the Run length drop-down menu, pick N Keyframes and enter a number of keyframes to copy to). 4. Click OK. You'll also find some useful options on the Run menu which can also be used to manipulate objects between keyframes or along the whole animation run.
Creating Animations 223 Rotate on path Check to allow an object (e.g., an arrow) to automatically rotate with changes of direction along an animation path. Uncheck for the object to follow the path but not to re-align to it. Obey camera If using the Keyframe camera feature, when the option is checked then a selected object will be panned or zoomed into. When unchecked, the object remains static, ignoring the camera. Use when text (company logo, a message, etc.
224 Creating Animations As well as switching the Autorun feature on and off, you can also check one of the following options (click the down arrow on the Autorun button) to change how Autorun operates: Creation and Placement By default, an object will be created on every subsequent keyframe and object placement is mirrored throughout the subsequent keyframes of your storyboard.
Creating Animations 225 • Sound: increase/decrease volume, play/stop sound, set volume. • Timeline: go to marker, animation frame, animation playback control (stop, play, rewind). DrawPlus makes use of ActionScript, a language specifically designed for Adobe Flash applications, to allow a high level of interactivity between the exported Flash SWF and the user (e.g., a web visitor).
226 Creating Animations We've looked at actions assigned to objects, but a keyframe can equally have an action associated with it. Especially useful on a starting keyframe, an Effect Action can be used to hide one or more selected objects before having them displayed on the second and subsequent keyframe (great for text introductions!). Actions are applied to keyframes via the Frame Actions dialog, which offers the same actions as those that can be applied to objects.
Creating Animations 227 Creating markers Working in a similar manner to bookmarks, markers work along with actions, allowing jumps to particular keyframes on the storyboard. Markers are positioned between keyframes along the storyboard and need to be activated for use. Each marker can be named, which is especially useful for marker identification when you're using multiple markers along your storyboard.
228 Creating Animations Affecting change over time (keyframe animation) DrawPlus uses the term envelopes to describe editable motion paths (or profiles) intended to define the rate of change (acceleration/deceleration) to an object's transformation or physical attributes (colour or transparency) in your animation run. Envelopes are applied, created, modified and saved in the Easing tab. A series of envelope types can be applied between key objects in your animation or throughout the entire animation run.
Creating Animations 229 To apply an envelope: 1. Display the Easing tab. 2. Select an object from the Storyboard tab to which you want to apply the envelope. 3. Select a profile from the Envelope type drop-down menu (Easing tab). The displayed profile will be linear by default, unless you've applied the envelope previously. 4. Pick a preset profile from the down menu below the profile window.
230 Creating Animations To reset a selected envelope: • Click Reset. The profile reverts to be linear (default). To save your custom profile: 1. Modify the profile shape from an existing preset (or create from scratch). 2. Select Add Easing Profile from the Easing tab's Tab Menu button to save it. The new profile will appear at the bottom of the drop-down menu below the profile window. To delete a profile preset: 1. Select Manage Easing Profiles... from the Tab Menu. 2.
Creating Animations 231 Exporting animations Exporting your stopframe or keyframe animation outputs your animation to a file which can be shared or viewed, either standalone or when included as part of a web page.
232 Creating Animations Flash Lite/i-Mode Use if you're intending to export a keyframe animation for mobile users operating mobile phones, personal organizers, and more. The format is optimized for viewing on smaller screen displays. The outputted file type is the same as that for Flash export, with a SWF file extension. To export to Flash Lite/i-Mode: 1. Choose Export>Export as Flash Lite/i-Mode... from the File menu. 2.
Creating Animations • 233 Windows Media audio and Video. The WMV format is best supported on PCs running Windows Media Player, although some other software even on other platforms can play WMV video. WMVs are Advanced Systems Format (.ASF) files that include audio, video, or both compressed with Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs. To export animation as video: 1. Choose Export>Export As Video... from the File menu. 2.
234 Creating Animations Image Within Stopframe animation, this option lets you create an animated GIF by default, which we'll focus on here. For keyframe animation, you can export a single keyframe as any type of image format. The .GIF format is ideal for web as it's universally supported by web browsers, and, as it's a multi-part format, it's capable of encoding not just one image but multiple images in the same file. A .
12 Publishing and Sharing
236 Publishing and Sharing
Publishing and Sharing 237 Previewing the printed page Print Preview changes the screen view to display your layout without guides, rulers, and other screen items. Special options, such as tiled output or crop marks, are displayed. Depending on your currently set printer's capabilities, your preview will show in either greyscale or colour. To preview the printed page: • Choose Print Preview from the File menu.
238 Publishing and Sharing To set up your printer or begin printing: • Click Print on the Standard toolbar. The Print dialog appears. To print: 1. On the General tab, select a printer from the list. If necessary, click the Properties button to set up the printer for the correct page size, etc. Set the page size from the Advanced button. Depending on your printer driver, to print text with shading or custom settings, enable the "Send True Type as Bitmap" option. 2.
Publishing and Sharing 239 Printing special formats In Normal drawing mode, using Page Setup and printing options, you can set up pages for a variety of document types, such as Special Folded documents (greetings cards), Large documents (posters and banners), and Small documents (business cards, labels, tags). The Print dialog's Layout tab lets you specify other printing options, including scaling, thumbnails, multiple pages, and tiling.
240 Publishing and Sharing To print a poster or banner from a standard size page: 1. First create your standard sized page (e.g., A4). 2. On the Print dialog's Layout tab, check Print tiled pages for overlapped multiple sheets. 3. Set the As in document "% Scale factor" to print at a larger size (e.g. 300%).
Publishing and Sharing 241 Multiple pages per sheet • Under "Multiple Pages per Sheet" on the Print dialog's Layout tab, select an option. The multiple page options are enabled when you are working with a page from the "Small" documents category in Page Setup. You can select the number of times to repeat each page, and tell DrawPlus to skip a certain number of regions on the first sheet of paper.
242 Publishing and Sharing Publishing as PDF PDF (short for Portable Document Format) is a cross-platform WYSIWYG file format developed by Adobe to handle documents in a device- and platformindependent manner. The format has evolved into a worldwide standard for document distribution which works equally well for electronic or paper publishing.
Publishing and Sharing 243 Also inquire whether or not to Impose pages; this option is fine for desktop printing of a folded drawing or one that uses facing pages, but a professional printer may prefer you to leave the imposition (page sequencing) to them. If you checked the General tab's Preview PDF file option, the resulting PDF file appears in the version of Acrobat Reader installed on your system. 4. Click OK to proceed to export.
244 Publishing and Sharing You can export at any time by using Export as Image or Dynamic Preview; the latter option allows editing during preview—great for pixel-accurate editing of your intended output. You can even compare side-by-side views using different export settings. For converting DrawPlus objects into pictures on the page, use Tools>Convert to Bitmap.... For export as AutoCad drawings, use Export>Export for CAD/CAM on the File menu.
Publishing and Sharing 245 To export as an image: 1. Choose Export>Export as Image... from the File menu. 2. (Optional) From the Export Area section, you can scale the image to a new size if desired (change pixels), or adjust the dpi (dots per inch) setting. For graphics to be used on-screen, it's best to leave these values intact. The export can be based on the whole Page, Selected Area (see Defining a region for export on p. 246), or Selected Items. 3.
246 Publishing and Sharing Defining a region for export DrawPlus lets you export a specific region in your design. The region, shown as a bounding box, is actually a layer overlay which can be resized, repositioned over the export area and shown/hidden. The Image Export dialog is used for the actual export process. To define an export region: 1. Overlays and select Export From the Standard toolbar, click Overlay from the drop-down menu. A bounding box is overlaid over your page. 2.
Publishing and Sharing 247 Dynamic preview Although the Image Export dialog's preview options lets you see how your export will look, it's time-consuming to repeatedly export your graphic until you get the output exactly as you want it. Instead, you can use Dynamic Preview, which lets you swap to a preview-and-edit mode, showing how your graphics will export directly on the page. It also lets you edit that output while still previewing, and set up the exported file's name, format and other settings.
248 Publishing and Sharing To toggle between Normal and Preview Mode: • Click Dynamic Preview on the HintLine toolbar. If you've multiple documents loaded, you'll notice the current document's tab at the top of your workspace indicate the change to preview mode. To revert to Normal mode, click Dynamic Preview again. While in this mode, any object can be manipulated or modified as if you are working in normal drawing mode, but what you're seeing is an accurate portrayal of your graphic to be exported.
Publishing and Sharing 249 Sharing via DRAWPLUS.COM You can share your design by print, as a distributable electronic PDF, or via the drawplus.com website. Publishing your design to website means you can share your design and ideas with a community of like-minded designers! The drawplus.com website is designed specifically as a design community. By uploading your completed design to the website, just like other DrawPlus users do, you add to the collection of published designs in the community.
250 Publishing and Sharing • Make new friends! Social networking meets designing! Use email or user discussion forums to build friendships with other DrawPlus designers, especially those you add to your friends list. Even upload photos of yourself! • Profile management Manage your tagline, password, timezone, language, and email notifications. To share, three stages need to be carried out—register on the website, setup account information in DrawPlus, and then upload your chosen design to the website.
Publishing and Sharing 251 If you've already registered but not added your account details, click Login. This takes you to your account details where you can enter details as described in the next section. So you don't forget to set your user account details, you'll get a reminder to register every eight days if there are no details set. You can register on the website, then transfer your username and password over, or cancel to register later. Setting up account details in DrawPlus 1. Select Options...
252 Publishing and Sharing Uploading Once you've successfully created your account you can upload your design, with the option of including only specific or all pages. To upload your design: Share. 1. On the Standard toolbar, click 2. In the Share dialog, uncheck pages you don't want to upload (use the scroll bar for more than three pages). 3. (Optional) For the upload you can choose a different account to upload to—enter a different Username and Password.
13 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets
254 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets
Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets 255 Pressure sensitivity When painting, or drawing lines and curves, DrawPlus lets you take advantage of pressure sensitivity in a variety of ways: • via an installed pen tablet. • via the Pressure tab (if pen tablet is unavailable). via a pen tablet Your pen tablet and DrawPlus work in perfect harmony for a truly authentic drawing and painting experience, with in-built pressure sensitivity as you draw and paint. See Using pen tablets (p.
256 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets The pressure chart may appear a little daunting at first! It becomes a lot clearer if you imagine the chart when it is superimposed over a brush itself—it represents one half of a brush stroke along its entire length exactly. Of course, the same profile shape will be mirrored on the lower half of the stroke. The same would apply to a pencil or pen stroke. To apply a pressure profile: 1.
Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets 257 Edit an existing pressure profile from the preset drop-down menu to create profiles quickly. You can save the current pressure settings to your own saved pressure profile— this allows you to store and reapply your settings at any point in the future. To save a new pressure profile: • Click the tab's Tab Menu and select Add Pressure Profile. Your new profile is automatically added to the bottom of the drop-down list.
258 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets Here’s how the degree of width/opacity changes the stroke's appearance. Pressure tab Brush Edit dialog Result Width: 100% Opacity Variance: 100% Width: 0% Opacity Variance: 100% Width: 100% Opacity Variance: 0% Width: 0% Opacity Variance: 0% Width: 50% Opacity Variance: 50% The first example shows the default behaviour when pressure is applied. These settings are stored independently of the currently chosen pressure profiles.
Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets 259 For some preset brushes, stroke width and opacity are set differently to (and override) the Pressure tab's global settings. This is to more accurately represent the inherent characteristics of that particular brush. It is possible to adjust these settings further or to apply settings to a brush currently without such settings. To adjust stroke width or opacity with pressure (per Brush): 1. Right-click on a brush in a Brush tab's category, and select Edit.... 2.
260 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets Using Pressure Studio DrawPlus's Pressure Studio acts as an interface between your tablet and DrawPlus, purposely designed to: • Calibrate pressure response (below) for multiple input devices, so that DrawPlus tools respond more predictably per device. • Set up your tablet's key assignments from within DrawPlus (if your tablet supports function keys).
Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets • 261 Disabling of pressure input globally, to allow DrawPlus to operate without tablet pressure sensitivity. To launch Pressure Studio: • Select Pressure from the Standard toolbar. The Pressure Studio is displayed. Before calibration, practise drawing with your input device in the practice area! The calibration process is described in detail in the online Help.
262 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets To customize your function keys: 1. With the Functions tab in view, select an alternative tool from the drop-down list. Pressing the appropriate key on your tablet will activate that tool in DrawPlus. 2. Click OK. The Functions tab is not shown if your tablet doesn't possess function keys. To revert to the tablet's default key assignment: 1. Select the "Tablet Default" option from a specific key's drop-down list 2. Click OK.
14 Index
264 Index
Index 2D filter effects, 189 3D filter effects, 192 Instant, 196 Lighting, 195 planes, 199 Pseudo, 199 actions (Keyframe animation), 224 Actions tab, 212 ActionScript, 225 Add/Delete Pages, 42 Adobe Acrobat (pdf files), 242 importing, 14, 24 publishing, 242 Adobe Illustrator (opening), 26 aesthetic proportioning, 49 airbrushes, 87 Align tab, 126 alignment, 98 of objects, 126 of text, 98 Alpha-edged bitmap, 166 animation, 205 exporting, 231 Keyframe, 205, 211 actions in, 224 adding movies to, 217 adding sou
266 Index Blend Tool, 184 blending, 184 stopframe animation, 186 blur, 191 blur effects, 190 Border Wizard, 183 borders, 183 creating, 183 Bring to Front, 128 brush strokes, 12, 89 applying, 89 editing, 91 brushes, 13 altering opacity with pressure, 257 altering width with pressure, 257 textured, 87 Brushes tab, 87 business cards, 240 camera TWAIN-compatible, 180 canvas resetting, 47 rotating, 46 cards business, 240 printing, 239 setup, 31 changing views, 42 Choose Workspace, 20 Clipboard operations, 107 cl
Index cutting objects, 107, 114 cutting out pictures, 165 output for, 166 selecting areas for, 167 defaults manually setting, 53 resetting, 53 synchronize, 51 updating, 51 design aids, 46 divine proportions, 49 multiple windows for, 50 rotating canvas, 46 rule of thirds, 47 solo mode, 50 design templates, 20 dimension lines, 80 Dimension Tool, 14, 81 dimensionality (Instant 3D), 196 dimensions, 33 setting units and scale, 31, 36 distribution of objects, 127 divine proportions, 49 Document Palette, 14, 146
268 Index outline, 190 perspective, 74 Pseudo 3D, 199 roughening edges, 186 shadows, 187 Effects tab, 192 ellipse fills, 149 ellipse transparency, 158 Emboss effect, 189 Envelope Tool, 75 envelopes, 75 in Keyframe animation, 228 Erase Tool, 117 estimating download time, 245 Export Optimizer, 12, 231, 243 exporting, 231, 242 animations, 231 drawings, 243 HD photos, 245 objects, 243 overlays, 246 PDF files, 242 Serif Metafiles, 245 via Live Export Preview, 247 Feather Edge, 189 Feather effect, 190 feathering,
Index Glow effects, 189 gradient fills, 14, 137, 149 gradient transparency, 158 graphics tablet, 259 greetings cards, 239 grid show or hide, 40 snapping, 40 grouping objects, 123 guides Dynamic, 37, 40 ruler, 35 snapping to, 37 Image Cutout Studio, 165 images (see pictures), 163 i-Mode export, 232 importing PhotoCDs, 164 pictures, 163 scanned images, 180 Serif Metafiles (smf), 163 imposition, 242 in PDF publications, 242 of folded documents, 239 Inner Bevel effect, 189 Inner Glow effect, 189 Inner Shadow e
270 Index closing, 64 connectors, 76 curved, 62 defining colours, 146 dimension lines, 80 drawing, 60 editing, 65 extending, 62 filling unclosed, 63 joining, 71 reshaping, 66 setting defaults, 51, 141 smoothing, 61 straight, 61 styles for, 142 Lock Position, 122 margins of page, 31 markers (Keyframe), 227 marquee selection, 57 Material Thickness, 189 measurement units, 33 Mesh Fill Tool, 154 mesh fills, 154 metafiles, 163 morphing (blends), 184 Motion blur, 190 movies (Keyframe animation), 217 adding, 217 m
Index brush effects, 143 edge effects, 143 properties, 12 QuickShapes, 72 replicating, 108 resizing, 118 rotating and shearing, 120 scale, 33 selecting complex objects, 59 selecting one or more, 57, 123 selecting, in groups, 123 setting defaults, 51 shearing, 121 splitting, 114 storing in Gallery, 83 transparency effects on, 157 tweened (Keyframe animation), 211 obstructive objects, 79 onion skinning (Stopframe), 209 opacity, 155 opening AutoCAD files, 27 DWG/DXF files, 27 PDF files, 14, 24 picture as a do
272 Index importing, 163 importing PhotoCD images, 164 importing TWAIN images, 180 in PDF files, 242 open picture as a document, 24 tracing, 169 with transparent regions, 165 Pillow Emboss effect, 189 plasma fills, 14, 137, 153 plasma transparency, 158 Pointer Tool, 57 posters, 31, 239 printing, 239 setup, 31 PostScript, 242 prepress print options, 242 pressure sensitivity, 13, 255 Pressure tab, 255 previewing, 231, 237 graphics dynamically, 247 Keyframe animations, 218 printed pages, 237 Stopframe animatio
Index Run Backward (Keyframe Animation), 219 Run Forward (Keyframe Animation), 219 sampling (colours), 144 saving, 207 animations, 207 documents, 27 Scalable Vector Graphics, 26 scaling, 33 of drawings, 36 storyboard (Keyframe animation), 216 scanning, 180 Select on Create, 90 selecting objects, 57 multiple, 58 with lasso, 59 Send to Back, 128 Serif Metafile Format, 163 Serif Transparent Video (STV), 232 setup, 31 animations, 206 documents, 31 Shadow Tool, 187 shadows, 187, 189 applying, 188 shape text, 95
274 Index Gallery tab, 83 Layers tab, 129 Line tab, 141 Pressure tab, 255 Storyboard tab, 214 Swatches tab, 137, 146, 149, 152, 154 Transform tab, 114, 118, 121 Transparency tab, 157 STV format, 232 SVG/SVGZ, 26 Swatch tab, 137, 146, 149, 152, 154 SWF export, 231 Synchronize defaults, 51 system requirements, 15 tab Actions, 212, 225 Align, 126 Brushes, 87 Colour, 14, 137, 147 Easing, 212, 229 Effects, 192 Frames, 207 Gallery, 83 Layers, 129 Line, 141 Pressure, 255 Storyboard, 214 Swatch, 137, 146, 149, 152,
Index Fill, 149, 152 Frame Text, 96 Freeform Paint, 118 Knife, 114 Mesh Fill, 154 Node, 57, 66 Paintbrush, 87, 89 Pen, 60, 62 Pencil, 60 Perspective, 74 Pointer, 57 QuickShape, 72 Rotate, 57, 120 Roughen, 186 Shadow, 187 Straight Line, 60, 61 Transparency, 157 tracing, 169 colour bitmaps, 169 creating custom profiles for, 172 greyscale bitmaps, 169 logos, 169 photos, 169 profiles, 169 Transform tab for precise repositioning, 114 for precise resizing, 118 for precise rotation and shearing, 121 transparency
