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The first time you attempt
to apply a drop shadow or other raster effect on an object you will
probably think that something is horribly wrong. As you view it on the
monitor, it will look soft and extremely bitmapped. Printing the page
to a laser or ink jet printer will probably give you unacceptable results
as well.
The reasons are simple, the fixes just as simple.
Clockwise from top left: the vector art without raster effects;
the background has been embossed, and the center has an inner shadow
at 72-dpi; the same art at 300-dpi; the same art at 144-dpi.
First the reasons: When a raster (or bitmap) effect is applied
to an object, the entire object is rastered - or turned into a bitmap
- causing the soft fuzzies you see. FreeHand has a default screen resolution
of 72-dpi, so if you enlarge the view of an object with that resolution
you'll naturally see the blockiness of the rastered image. The same
appearance will be apparent on a drawn object or a block of text.
Now the fixes: There are three ways you can solve your problem.
FIRST FIX - Go to File>Document
Settings>Raster Effects Settings, and change the resolution to something
higher than 72. There are defaults to choose from (72, 144, and 300-dpi),
but you can enter any appropriate number. Then be sure that the Optimal
CMYK Rendering option is checked. Since all raster effects are done
in RGB, this option will assure you that the image will convert correctly
to CMYK. There are two things to keep in mind as you do this: First,
there are always color differences when you change color models from
RGB to CMYK or the reverse. This isn't FreeHand's fault; it's a fact
of life and how color is reproduced. Second, setting the resolution
higher will cause the screen to take longer to redraw due to the need
to render the larger image onscreen (a 72-dpi image converted to 300-dpi
is 17 times larger than the original).
SECOND FIX - Select the object and go to the Object
panel. Click on the Options pop-up menu, and drag to Raster Effects
Resolution. The window shown below will appear. Click the Use Document
Raster Effects Resolution option to select it. This will cause the graphic
to use whatever you have set in the following menu item.
 THIRD
FIX - Leave the object's resolution set
to 72-dpi, but be sure that Use Document Raster Effects Resolution is
checked. Work with the project in the lower resolution until it's time
to go to print. At that time, change the document resolution to a higher
number, and you've got the best of both worlds.
Here, the art is shown at 300-dpi, but the vector lines have been
cloned (without raster effects) and placed above the graphics that contain
raster effects.
To get good output from non-PostScript printers, you must have FreeHand's Display Preferences set to High. Naturally, if you're working for the Web, the 72-dpi resolution
will be exactly what you need in the first place. Just don't go buggy
when you zoom in.
Sometimes you want to have the same text formatting
on different blocks of text, and you're just not in the mood to create
a style. Here's what you do. Use the Text tool to select some of the
text you want to copy, then go to Edit>Copy Attributes. Select the
text that you want to add formatting to, and choose Edit>Paste Attributes.
On the other hand, if you think there's just the slightest chance that
you may want to use that same formatting some other time, make a style.
Just select the text block and drag it over the Styles panel and release
the mouse. Naturally, you can't have mixed text formatting, such as
bold, italics, and different colors within the same text block. Caution:
Applying a style to a block of text changes ALL the text to that formatting
- no exceptions. We can hope for character styles in the next version
of FreeHand.
Every
issue, we try to bring you some news about the new features, bugs, workarounds,
and other information that can make your FreeHand life more comfortable.
Toolbox
Reorganization.
The Toolbox can float vertically or horizontally anywhere
on your monitor, or it can be locked to the top main Menubar - just
as in previous versions. But, now there are tool groupings to make tool
selection more convenient. For instance, the most common transformation
tools - Scale, Skew, Rotate, and Mirror - are all located in one tool
slot. A click and hold (or click and drag with a digital tablet's pen)
activates a pop-out menu containing all the tools. Drag to the tool
you want and release the mouse. In my style of working, I prefer the
tools to be out in the open where I can see and choose them quickly,
so I pulled the tools out of the nest by selecting Windows>Toolboxes>Customize,
making it more convenient for me.
Auto
Constrain.
If you want a perfect square or circle, you don't need to
hold down the Shift key anymore. Drag at an approximate 45¡ angle, and
the object is constrained automatically. Works like a charm. A tiny
red circle icon appears at the bottom of the cursor when you're on course.
Anti-Alias
View. This isn't anything like the old Flash Anti-alias
view in previous versions. It's true anti-alias that takes a bit of
getting used to if you've never used Illustrator and have been with
FreeHand for a long time. I was pretty used to seeing bitmapped vectors,
and the anti-alias softens lines up quite a bit. But after a week or
so I can't imagine working without it.
Pen
Tool Changes. Ahh, Macromedia changed the Pen tool so
it works more like it did in FreeHand 9. Thanks crew! They also added
some new Smart Cursor tricks that will be described more in detail in
later issues.
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