| Blend Fills There are 3 kinds of Blend fill; Graduated, Starburst, and Dual Blend. Graduated Fill  Graduated Fill blends or fades the selected foreground color smoothly into the selected background color. You can set the fade angle by using the direction dial. To use the dial, drag the indicator in the direction that you want for the fill. You can click the lines around the dial to set the fade angle, or you can set the fade angle by clicking the scroll arrows. The angles that paint and print the fastest are 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees, representing north, south, east, and west on the dial. Starburst Fill  Starburst Fill is a fill pattern made up of concentric circles, graduating between the foreground color and the background color. It can have a linear or logarithmic taper and can be set to fade in or out. “Fade In” centers the background color, graduating outward to the foreground color. “Fade Out” centers the foreground color and blends concentrically outward into the background color. As with Graduated Fill, you specify the type of taper by using the taper menu, and you specify the type of fade effect by using the fade menu. Dual Blend  Dual Blend is a more complex type of graduated fill. Dual Blend fades from the background color to the foreground color and back, or vice versa. It can have a linear or logarithmic taper, and you can control the fade angle by using the direction dial. When Fade In is selected, the object or shadow fills with the foreground color on the outer edge, graduating to the background color in the center, then back to the foreground color again. Fade Out is the reverse of Fade In. The object or shadow fills with the background color on the outer edge, graduating to the foreground color in the center, then back to the background color again. You specify the type of fade effect by clicking the fade menu, located to the right of the taper menu, and selecting Fade In or Fade Out. As with Graduated Fill, you set the fade angle by using the direction dial or by clicking the scroll arrows. To change the blend colors make sure that you have the object you want to change selected and in the Style Workshop either Fill, Inline or Outline selected. The area labeled "Colors" that has 2 rectangles representing the foreground color and the background color is used to set foreground and background colors. When either Inline or Outline are selected there is also a corresponding checkbox that needs to be checked. The checkbox allows you to turn on or off the inline or outline.  When you click on the on Fore rectangle the Colors panel will open. Choose a color from any of the installed Color Pickers. Your selected object in the Main window will change to the new color.  Under the heading "Fill Kind" there 2 choices. When Fill is selected, the object is filled with the current color or image that is selected. When Stroke is selected the object is outlined in the current color or image that is selected  The Softness area has 2 popup slider controls. The first one controls the Blur. Blur works by softening the hard edges of the object and to smooth out the transition between 2 colors. The Noise slider allows you to add interesting texture effects similar to that of a bad television signal.  Fill Opacity is used to set the overall transparency of the selected object. You can also add an Opacity Mask to your object by choosing one of the predefined opacity masks from the Mask palette or by using the either of the Fill Opacity sliders. The In and Out sliders control the object's transparency based on the values of black and white in the mask with white being visible and black being transparent.  Outlines and Inlines Both outlines and inlines are drawn around the outside boundaries of the characters in an object. The inner line is called the Inline and the outer line is called the Outline. If you make them the same color, the result looks like a fat outline (this is also determined by the line weight; see “Line Width Slider” below). If you make them different colors, or patterns, you can create many effects. A white inline with a black outline, for example, can create a formal or classic look. If you only want a single line around a type character, you can use either an inline or an outline, and the result will look the same. To create either an Inline or Outline, select Inline or Outline and and make sure that Inline or Outline checkbox is checked. The same fill options are used for the main object, shadow, inline, and outline. The current inline or outline fill is displayed in the box next to Inline or Outline. The current fill color, image or pattern is highlighted in the appropriate palette. Unchecking either the Inline or Outline checkbox turns off the existing inline or outline. Note: Shadows with Three-D Block fills cannot be inlined or outlined. Use the Zoom Effect option to create block inline, outline effects. Line Width Slider  When either Inline or Outline are selected, a line width slider appears near the bottom of the Style Workshop. The line width slider gives you choices of line widths, ranging from a hairline (one point or pixel wide) to a line forty points thick. |