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Full-Color
Patterns
Because full-color images use the entire CMYK spectrum of colors, virtually
any color can be represented in a full-color pattern. These are more useful
for abstract work, where you want to use a more prominent background than
a solid color. Figure 6.6 shows how one of these patterns could be used
for a simple advertisement, and our example brings up an important point:
sometimes these patterns detract rather than contribute. We like the cleaner
ad better...
To create a new vector fill, use the Tools Ø
Create Ø Pattern command in the same
way as you do for two-color fills, but choose the Full Color option from
the Create Pattern dialog before you marquee-select the area to be used
for the pattern. You cannot change any of the colors in a vector pattern
from the Pattern dialog. When making your own full-color patterns, you
need to define all of your colors before you create the pattern.
FIGURE
6.6 Pattern fills can make striking backgrounds.
Perhaps too striking...
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| NOTE Full-color
vector patterns are saved as DRAW files, but with .pat
instead of .cdr filename extensions. You can open and
edit these files as you would any other DRAW file, or use any other
existing DRAW file for a vector fill. The vector fill patterns supplied
with DRAW are located in the Custom\Patterns directory.
Any pattern you create within DRAW is saved there; any DRAW file that
you create, name with a .pat extension, and place there
will be available for pattern use.
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Bitmap Patterns
Bitmap patterns are implemented like the other two pattern types, but
they make it possible for you to place full-color photographs or other
images within objects. You can import any bitmap image and use it as a
pattern by using the Load button in the Pattern Fill dialog, but you cannot
create bitmap patterns from selected objects. (Well, actually...you could
export an object in DRAW to a bitmap file and then load that file back
in.)
Although any external bitmap can be imported to use as a bitmap pattern
fill, remember that all of DRAWs supplied fills are designed to
create a seamless effect when tiled. So if the design of your imported
file is not symmetrical, it will not produce an attractive fill pattern.
We think that we improved our ad by using the bitmap pattern so in Figure
6.7.
FIGURE
6.7 Another try at a patterned background. Better...
PostScript
Patterns
These sophisticated fill patterns are, in essence, little programs written
in the PostScript page-description language. Although you cannot add your
own pattern, you can alter the existing ones significantly using various
controls provided in the PostScript Texture dialog.
Because DRAW has a built-in PostScript interpreter, you can preview
PostScript patterns on screen, provided you switch to Enhanced view by
going to View Ø Enhanced. This is
a tremendous time-saver, especially for anyone who customizes PostScript
patterns. And thats not all: you can also output them to practically
any printer, PostScript or non-PostScript.
Texture Fills
Texture fills are bitmap images that will display on any screen
and print to any laser printer or imagesetter. Texture fill patterns are
based on a library of bitmap images, all produced according to an engine
that allows individual aspects to be adjusted with breathtaking precision.
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| NOTE The Texture
Fill dialog contains the same Tiling options as in the Pattern Fill
dialog, including x- and y-axis controls; size, width, and height
adjustments; skew and rotate angles; and percent row or column offset.
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Figure 6.8 shows one of the more elaborate textures, a multicolored mineral
fill, along with the dialog box that created it. Twelve individual properties
make up this texture, and each component can be separately adjusted. The
color selection buttons are gateways to the Select Color dialog.
FIGURE
6.8 This texture fill makes for a (warning,
bad pun coming) rock-solid background.
Texture fills have a decidedly video-game nature, and the Preview button
is intended as a random generator of different textures. Each of this
dialogs primary controls has a lock icon next to it, and this takes
a bit of explaining. When you click on Preview, every element that is
not locked will change randomly. The Softness % value might change from
83 to 17, the Brightness % from 22 to 60, the Texture # from 5742
to 28475, and the colors to just about anything in the spectrum.
But if you manually change a setting, the Preview button shows you the
result of that change, without shuffling any other numbers. In other words,
locking any element prevents it from being randomly changed, but you can
always change an element manually, locked or not.
Wanted: More RAM, Larger Drives
These elaborate textures can devour memory, hard drive space, and
printer resources. If you apply them to large objects or put many
of them on a page, be prepared for some backtalk from your hardware.
As a test, we created a rectangle and filled it two ways, with a
simple fill pattern and with a texture. Here are the essential statistics
of the two operations:
| Fill Type
| Size of File
| Code Sent to Printer
| Time to Print
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| Uniform
| 14K
| 26K
| 3 seconds
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| Texture
| 119K
| 291K
| 17 seconds
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There are many different possible images for each texture. In the case
of the mineral fractal, you can browse among 32,767 different variations.
Browse these textures for yourself, but we suggest you not get carried
away. After all, lets say you wanted to see every possible permutation
of one of the simpler onessay Aerial Photography, which has controls
for just Texture #, Softness %, Brightness ± %, and Background and
Foreground colors. Lets see...32,768 textures, 0 to 100% for Softness,
Brightness settings ranging from 100 to +100, and millions of
possible values for the foreground and background colors. Thats
about 11,892,928,546,860,000,000,000,000,000 variations for just Aerial
Photography. And among DRAWs various texture libraries, there are
nearly 200 different texture fills, most of which have more permutations
than this one. We think you can see our point...
DRAWs Newest Fill Tool
We await two different types of responses from the greater CorelDRAW
community when the new Mesh Fill tool gets some mileage under its
belt:
- Sheer glee at the wonderful fill effects
it can produce
- Utter horror at the dreadful fill effects
it can produce
Like any new special effects tool, there will be equal parts use
and misuse, and well root for the former to prevail over the
latter. Mesh fills have been requested for some time now, as a more
flexible alternative to fountain or texture fills. When you reach
for the Mesh Fill tool, DRAW places a grid over the selected object.
Each quadrant of the grid can be filled with a color, and you do
that with a simple drag-and-drop from any color palette. Different
colors placed into neighboring quadrants will blend at the borders,
creating the effect of the colors meshing.
A fountain fill works in only one direction, and even a custom
fountain fill with multiple colors, set in a radial or a conical
pattern, is really just a linear effect. But a mesh can move across
a grid in any direction, changing colors on an electronic dime.
As you begin to work with mesh fills, youll notice that the
color placed most recently tends to predominate its neighborhood.
This means that youll want to be strategic not only in your
color choices, but in the order you define them. And as with fountain
fills, if you try to span too great of a color shift in a small
area, you will create a very harsh look.
The best mesh fills (like fountain fills) are ones that produce
the subtle color shifts that reflect the way light behaves in real
life. They can produce a measure of realism beyond that of simple
fountains or blends. Study the graphic below and youll agree
that the color shifts in the objects would require complex blends.
In fact, each of them was created with a mesh fill.
In the graphic, we selected the light bulb so you can see what
the grid looks like. You can shape the grid as freely as you do
nodes of any curve, providing even greater flexibility in the appearance
of your meshed objects. Youll see another example of a mesh
fill in Chapter 15, Figure 15.4.
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