Working with Basic Fills

Working with Basic Fills

TIP

If you do not see the fills for open paths, check the object preferences. (See Appendix C

The most common fill is the Basic fill. This is the equivalent of filling the object with a solid color. FreeHand provides you with many different ways to apply Basic fill.

To apply a Basic fill using the Fill inspector:

Select the object.

With the Fill inspector displayed, choose Basic from the Fill pop-up menu. This displays the Basic fill settings

Figure 1. Choose Basic from the Fill inspector list to display the Basic fill options.

Choose a color for the fill from the color list.

To apply a Basic fill using the Tools panel:

Select the object.

Click the triangle in the Fill color box at the bottom of the Tools panel . This opens the pop-up color palette

Figure 2. The Fill color box in the Tools panel.

Figure 3. The pop-up color palette in the Tools panel lets you choose fill colors.

Choose a color from the color palette.

The pop-up color palette is set by default to show the 216 Web-safe colors. You can change that setting to display the colors in the Swatches panel.

To change the display of the pop-up color palette:

Click the color box to open the pop-up color palette.

Click the palette triangle to open the options menu

Figure 4. Use the pop-up palette menu to display the colors in the Swatches panel.

Choose Swatches to display the colors from the Swatches panel.

To apply a fill color using the Swatches panel:

Select the object.

TIP

Make sure that Basic or None is chosen in the Fill inspector. If another type of fill is listed, you may not see the color you choose.

Click the Fill drop box in the Swatches panel. A black line appears around the box that indicates that the fill is chosen in the Swatches panel

Figure 5. The Fill drop box (circled) in the Swatches panel indicates the fill color of the selected object.

Click the name of the color you want as the fill in the Swatches panel.

or

Drag a color swatch from the Color Mixer onto the Fill drop box in the Swatches panel.

TIP

The box next to the Fill drop box controls the stroke color. (See Chapter 15 Strokes

TIP

If no object is selected, any changes you make to the fill color are applied to the next object you create.

To change a fill color by dragging:

Drag a color swatch from the Color Mixer or the Swatches panel directly onto the object

Figure 6. Drag a color swatch onto an object to apply a fill color.

TIP

You do not have to select an object to drag a color swatch onto it.

TIP

Hold the Shift key as you drag the color swatch onto the object to make sure that only the fill color changes.

In addition to the colors, there is another item in the Swatches panel called None. While not a color per se, the None fill is very important. When you apply the None fill to an object, the fill of the object becomes transparent . Fortunately you have three different ways to apply the None fill.

Figure 7. Selecting a fill of None lets you see through an object, as sen in the star on the right.

To change a fill to None:

Choose the object you want to become transparent.

Make sure the Fill drop box is selected in the Colors panel.

Click None in the Swatches panel. An X appears in the Fill drop box, indicating that there is no fill

Figure 8. Choose None in the Swatches panel to apply a transparent None fill.

or

Click the None icon in the Fill color box pop-up palette

Figure 9. Click the None icon (circled) in the Fill color box pop-up palette to apply a transparent fill.

or

Choose None from the Fill inspector list

Figure 10. Choose None in the Fill inspector to apply a transparent None fill.

TIP

Objects with no fill color are invisible unless they have a stroke applied. (See Chapter 15 Strokes