Can't fill with textured fills

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi,

I created a rectangle and am trying to fill it with a Coquille fill. But when I do, all that I get are little circles, no matter what textured fill I selected. This does not happen with Gradient. I am using CMYK and Pantone Process colors.

Am I doing something wrong? I've previewed it and it looks the same.

Newbie I am!

-paul w

[Judy Arndt]

Coquille and the other 'Textured' fills are a Postscript code fills, meaning
you'll only see the fill when it is output to a Postscript printer or via a
Postscript interpreter.

What are you needing the fill for? If you need to see it on screen, a Tiled
fill would probably suit your purposes better.

Judy Arndt

mmpup wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I created a rectangle and am trying to fill it with a Coquille fill. But when
> I do, all that I get are little circles, no matter what textured fill I
> selected. This does not happen with Gradient. I am using CMYK and Pantone
> Process colors.
>
> Am I doing something wrong? I've previewed it and it looks the same.
>
> Newbie I am!
>
> -paul w
>
>
>

[Martin Gamache]

If you create a PDF of your file via distiller or an eps printed to
distiller you will be able to see those fill on screen..
I regularly do this to preview postscript fills before outputting to print.

Of course it would be nice if Freehand could show postscript fills on screen
without these tedious work arounds...


mg





"mmpup" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:bv90dl$jfb$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Hi,
>
> I created a rectangle and am trying to fill it with a Coquille fill. But

when I do, all that I get are little circles, no matter what textured fill I
selected. This does not happen with Gradient. I am using CMYK and Pantone
Process colors.

>
> Am I doing something wrong? I've previewed it and it looks the same.
>
> Newbie I am!
>
> -paul w
>
>

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi Judy,

>>Coquille and the other 'Textured' fills are a Postscript code fills, meaning

you'll only see the fill when it is output to a Postscript printer or via a
Postscript interpreter.
<<

That makes sense to me!

>>What are you needing the fill for? If you need to see it on screen, a Tiled

fill would probably suit your purposes better.
<<

I am trying to re-do our logo. I would like the chimney to resemble a stone masonry one that log houses, lodges, etc... have (brick may work out but would rather have a stone one).

Thanks!

-paul

[Judy Arndt]

mmpup wrote:

> I am trying to re-do our logo. I would like the chimney to resemble a stone
> masonry one that log houses, lodges, etc... have (brick may work out but would
> rather have a stone one).

Draw the stones one by one with loving care. In authentic stonework, every
stone is unique. :-)

Judy Arndt

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi Judy,

>>Draw the stones one by one with loving care. In authentic stonework, every

stone is unique. :-)
<<

It's just a small logo for a biz card and letterhead. How would I do that (stone work) any way with FH? I have 4 books on it (MM Freehand 10, MM Freehand for Windows and Mac, Macromedia Studio MX 2004 for Dummies, and the earlier MX documentation) and all are extremely vague as far as detail and practical examples go (IMO) and not current with the latest PC interface.

I tried the Tiled option for a rectangle and there aren't options for effects under it. It's just Tile! I will study my books to see what I can come up with.

Thanks again!

-paul

[James E. Talmage]

>How would I do that (stone work) any way with FH?

Historically, one of the nice things about FH is that its various features
interfaces are usually less "in your face" than they could be if the
designers wanted to be sure no one missed the full capabilities which reside
just beneath the surface.

So while I wouldn't necessarily propose the following as the best solution
for a proper *logo* (which in my book should almost always be simple and
elegant and comprised of as few as possible carefully and delberately drawn
elements), I just wanted to take this thread as opportunity to describe some
of that "just under the surface" capability that newcomers to FH can so
easily miss.

There are two full toolsets within FH with which you can build your own
custom random "textures", and they are both well worth getting friendly
with. Once acquainted, you will find them infinitely valuable, because they
are both infinitely variable. They let you "invent" exactly what you need
one time, and then use it forevermore on future projects. The two feature
sets I have in mind are Graphic Hose and Brushes.

If I wanted to "lay bricks", I'd explore doing it with a Brush. This may
sound wierd at first, Brushes being applied as strokes rather than as fills,
but hear me out:

1) Paul liked the coquill fill, so look at that fill in the preview window
of the Object Pane of the Properties Palette. Study the fill.

2) Now get the drawing tool of your choice (the pencil, for example) and
draw a few (4 or 5 is plenty) squiggly closed paths imitating the shapes you
saw in the coquill fill. Fill/stroke them as desired.

3) In the Library tab of the Assets palette, select New Group from the
palette's menu. Name the group "MyBrick".

4) One by one, drag your 4 or 5 shapes onto the Group icon. They become
individual Symbols contained in that Group, and become named "Graphic-01,
Graphic-02, etc.

5) Draw a rectangle, proportioned roughly like a single brick. Ungroup it;
perhaps apply a little bit of the Roughen tool to give it a "random"
jaggedness. Fill/Stroke as desired. Drag this also into the MyBrick group,
but name this one "BrickShape".

6) Get the Line Tool and ShiftDrag a horizontal line. In the Object tab of
the Properties palette, select the stroke and change it to Brush. Click
Options and New to open the Edit Brush dialog.

7)In the Edit Brush dialog, name the new Brush "OneBrick". Click the +
button to add the BrickShape Symbol. Set the options for this Symbol to:

Paint
Count: 1
Spacing: Fixed
Angle Fixed
Offset Fixed
Scaling Fixed

8) Click the + button to add each of the 4 or 5 "texture" shapes. Set their
options to:

Spray (FH's Brushes treatment has this wonderful ability to individually set
each Symbol used in a Brush definition to either Paint [analagous to AI's
ArtBrush] or Spray [AI's ScatterBrush] behavior.
Spacing: Random
Angle: Random
Offset: Random
Scaling: Random

9) Referring to the Brush Preview, adjust the Min/Max settings for each of
the Random parameters so as to cause "texture" squiggles to vary, but to
stay fairly contained within the bounds of the rearmost BrickShape Symbol.

10) When you like what you see, OK the Edit Brush dialog.

Now, using your OneBrick Brush, you can "lay bricks" by simply dragging out
individual short lines with the Line tool. The "texture" in each brick will
be different. If you need to make the outline shape of the bricks more
random, you can draw a line in the opposite direction to flop the brick's
outline; and/or you can duplicate the Brush a couple of times and slightly
change only the brick outline Symbol in each Brush.

The key ideas to get from this exercise are:

..Don't fall into the trap of thinking Brushes are for use as only "strokes",
even though they are applied to object Strokes.

..Recognize the versatility inherent in being able to combine both Spray and
Paint behaviours in one Brush at the individual Symbol level. This lets you
create "objects" each with their own randomized "fills".

..Because after setting up one such Brush, you can edit each of its elements
at either the Brush or Symbol level, one such Brush can very quickly become:
A) a whole collection of visually similar, but different "object" Brushes.
For example, a set of red brick Brushes which are all the same, but with
slightly different fill colors; or B) a whole collection of functionally
similar, but visually very different Brushes for an unllimited number of
possibilities. The "OneBrick" Brush could be quickly turned into a
"OneWindowPaneWithSnowflakes" Brush.

JET

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Wow! Thanks for all that info!

I'll give it a try when I get back home.

Thanks again,

-paul

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi,

>>10) When you like what you see, OK the Edit Brush dialog.

Now, using your OneBrick Brush, you can "lay bricks" by simply dragging out
individual short lines with the Line tool. The "texture" in each brick will
be different. If you need to make the outline shape of the bricks more
random, you can draw a line in the opposite direction to flop the brick's
outline; and/or you can duplicate the Brush a couple of times and slightly
change only the brick outline Symbol in each Brush.
<<

How do I do that? I select the line tool and it draws a plain old line.

(I decided to do the chimney as stones instead of bricks)

Thanks,

-paul

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

How would I make a rectangle (chimney) then? I would like it to be uniform and not be ragged (the chimney is actually part of an L. you can see our logo (and eventually web-site!) that I am redoing at lodge-ical.com).

How come when I try to fill a rectangle with an effect I get little circles instead of what I selected, no matter what fill (besides solid) that I select?

Thanks,

-paul


mmpup wrote:

> I am trying to re-do our logo. I would like the chimney to resemble a stone
> masonry one that log houses, lodges, etc... have (brick may work out but would
> rather have a stone one).

Draw the stones one by one with loving care. In authentic stonework, every
stone is unique. :-)

Judy Arndt

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

How would I make a rectangle (chimney) then? I would like it to be uniform and not be ragged (the chimney is actually part of an L. you can see our logo (and eventually web-site!) that I am redoing at lodge-ical.com).

How come when I try to fill a rectangle with an effect I get little circles instead of what I selected, no matter what fill (besides solid) that I select?

Thanks!

-paul

mmpup wrote:

> I am trying to re-do our logo. I would like the chimney to resemble a stone
> masonry one that log houses, lodges, etc... have (brick may work out but would
> rather have a stone one).

Draw the stones one by one with loving care. In authentic stonework, every
stone is unique. :-)

Judy Arndt

[Odysseus]

"\"mmpup\" webforumsuser"@macromedia.com wrote:

>
> How come when I try to fill a rectangle with an effect I get little circles instead of what I selected, no matter what fill (besides solid) that I select?
>

If you look closely at the little circles, do they turn out to be Cs
(for "Custom")? If so, this is perfectly normal. FH's custom fills
are PostScript effects that require a PS interpreter (in a printer,
software RIP, PDF creator, &c.) for rendering; the program itself can
only represent them with the 'placeholder' pattern you're seeing.

--
Odysseus

[mmpup webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Yup, you're right. They are circles!

What fills aren't postcript? Doesn't look like any of my books mention that.

Thanks,

-paul



"\"mmpup\" webforumsuser"@macromedia.com wrote:

>
> How come when I try to fill a rectangle with an effect I get little circles instead of what I selected, no matter what fill (besides solid) that I select?
>

If you look closely at the little circles, do they turn out to be Cs
(for "Custom")? If so, this is perfectly normal. FH's custom fills
are PostScript effects that require a PS interpreter (in a printer,
software RIP, PDF creator, &c.) for rendering; the program itself can
only represent them with the 'placeholder' pattern you're seeing.

--
Odysseus

[Odysseus]

"\"mmpup\" webforumsuser"@macromedia.com wrote:

>
> Yup, you're right. They are circles!
>

I thought they'd be Cs.

> What fills aren't postcript? Doesn't look like any of my books mention that.
>

I'm not sure what you're asking, but when printing to a PostScript
printer through an appropriate driver everything FH does will be
described in PS -- including Basic, Gradient, Tiled and Pattern
fills. But these last can also be rendered otherwise when printing to
an inkjet or the like, usually by using the 'machinery' supplied by
the OS for displaying them on a monitor.

Look in the section of the FH manual that covers fills: IIRC it
clearly identifies Custom and Texture fills as PS effects. (Of course
PostScript fills are as well.)

--
Odysseus

[Ken Kehl]

Even if you don;t have a PS printer, Adobe Acrobat does a serviceable
job as a "poor man's" Postscript interpreter. If you have the full
version of Acrobat, you can print your document to the Acrobat virtual
printer, or use Distiller directly to make a PDF. This allows you to
get a quick preview of how the effect will render to a Postscript
device. You can also print the PDF to a non-PS printer.

I've heard that the newer Mac OS's have a PDF engine built-in, and
will make a decent PDF with no additional software.
______
Ken
ellipsis design
(remove the _xx_'s)