DrawPlus X5: Text & Gradient Question

[RangeRooney]

Hello-
I've run into a couple separate issues and I'm hoping that there is somebody around here that can help me.

My first issue regards text. If I'm making a long of text that crosses between two colors, how can I make it so that the text in each part appears as a separate color? Let's say I have a page that is white on the left, and black on the right. Than suppose I have a word that crosses between the colors. How can I make the text in the white half appear black, and the text in the black half appear white. I imagine I could do it with two separate bits of text, but is there a way to do it so it would split half of a letter if the letter was on the border?

My second question is about gradiants. I found a neat picture, and I'm trying to do a similar effect.

Now, how can I do that color shading effect on an item, such as a circle or a box. If I create a gradiant and than put a circle over it, it is already halfway faded near the circle. I want it to be full color at the edge of the circle, than fading away to nothing.

I'm hoping somebody can give me a hand. I'm sure the solution is simple, and I'm just missing it, but I would definitely appreciate any help that you can give me.

Thank you!!

[Geoff Blanthorn]

Originally Posted by RangeRooney My first issue regards text. If I'm making a long of text that crosses between two colors, how can I make it so that the text in each part appears as a separate color? Let's say I have a page that is white on the left, and black on the right. Than suppose I have a word that crosses between the colors. How can I make the text in the white half appear black, and the text in the black half appear white. I imagine I could do it with two separate bits of text, but is there a way to do it so it would split half of a letter if the letter was on the border?

See attached. Create the text in a frame, and copy it so you have two identical versions. Change one to have the reverse colours, and use the crop tool to crop it, then place it over the other.

Geoff

[Geoff Blanthorn]

Originally Posted by RangeRooney My second question is about gradiants. I found a neat picture, and I'm trying to do a similar effect. Now, how can I do that color shading effect on an item, such as a circle or a box. If I create a gradiant and than put a circle over it, it is already halfway faded near the circle. I want it to be full color at the edge of the circle, than fading away to nothing.!!

See attached. You can adjust the fading of the background circle if you first apply a radial fill, then click on the Fill Tool button, and then use the Fill Editor (top toolbar). The foreground circle just has a plain fill and a white line.

Geoff

[RangeRooney]

The advice with the gradient worked great. Thank you very much. As for the text question, I like that solution but I'm curious. Would there be a way to have it switch in one of the letters? Right now you have the word Text. The letters TE are white in a black background. The letters XT are black in a white background. Would it be possible to have TE and part of the X as white in a black background, and the T would be black in a white background.

I hope this isn't too confusing. I'm hoping there is a way to do this.

Thanks for all the help!

[RangeRooney]

Actually figured it out myself. Thanks for the help tho, I appreciate it.

[civiliza]

For complimentary colours like Black and White, the following is very effective, and you don't need two copies of the text.

First draw your black and white background, then add your text on top. Change the Fill Colour of the text to white, and the Blend Mode (in the Colour Tab) to Difference. Once done, any of the text sitting on top of a black background will show white, and any on a white background will show black.

If you change the colour(s) of your background elements, the text will change to the complimentary colour, eg Blue background gives Orange text - have fun experimenting.

PS, I think that blend modes only came in with DrawPlus X4, so this cannot be used with older versions of DrawPlus.

[gerrycud]

Originally Posted by civiliza PS, I think that blend modes only came in with DrawPlus X4, so this cannot be used with older versions of DrawPlus.

...and X5. Thanks for the tip, Civiliza!

[stargazey]

"Now, how can I do that color shading effect on an item, such as a circle or a box."

You could also use Outer Glow, from the fx menu.

[Sandy]

Originally Posted by stargazey "Now, how can I do that color shading effect on an item, such as a circle or a box." You could also use Outer Glow, from the fx menu.

I couldn't get the hang of using Outer Glow for this? So I tried Feather in Filter Effects - results attached.

I chose for the two outer circles, colour: R 136, G 136 and B 188 - and then applied the Feather as Opacity: 77 and Blur as 7.4pt. All this applying just to the two outer circles, the green and red dots being solid colour as the original with white lines around them.

[stargazey]

test.jpg

Done rather quickly using Outer Glow. It would take a bit of messing with the various settings to get it spot on!