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Understanding the Fill Palette Options in Corel Photopaint - Solid, Gradient etc
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Posted on February 17th, 2007
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CorelDraw and Corel PhotoPaint

Introduction

In this tutorial, I would like to help Photopaint users explore their fill color options a bit more in-depth and introduce you to the ability of going beyond a solid color when using fill.  By fill, I mean the inside of a circle, square, or any other drawing element you create that uses a fill color.  Many new comers to this application constantly use solid colors, then use complicated and time consuming methods of applying gradients or texture fills, when you can easily do it right from the get go.  In fact, you have 4 options to choose from when it comes to fill:

      
  • Uniform Fill (Solid color)
  •   
  • Fountain Fill (Gradients)
  •   
  • Bitmap Fill (Using other images)
  •   
  • Texture Fill (Pre-Formatted Textures and Styles)

Step 1 - We'll go through each option and I'll explain how you use each one and show you an example of the fill in action.  So go ahead and create yourself a blank document and then double click the fill color to access the Select Fill menu:






Select Fill Menu is open:




PART 1 - Uniform Fill

The Uniform Fill option is fairly straightforward and allows you multiple methods of selecting a solid color using various palette methods.  We'll go over the color models, mixers and palettes.

Step 1 - Click on the Uniform Fill button and click Edit





Once the Uniform Fill menu is open, you'll find 3 tabs, which provide you with 3 methods of selecting a solid fill color:

      
  • Models
  •   
  • Mixers
  •   
  • Palettes



All menus allow you to select various presets or save color selections to your current palette bar, or you can browse through the options, which allow you to change between color formats and various other color tweaks.  In this screenshot, you can see the color value options:



You can also name a custom color and add it to your Palette:



Here is the Color Mixer tab area, which offers you a mixer method of choosing a color:



And finally, Palette selections:



Step 2 - Once you've picked a desired solid fill color, click on the OK button and you will return to the main Fill Color menu window:



Step 3 - Now let's see our solid fill color in action!  You can use any shape tool that uses a fill, but in my case, I'll use the square tool.  Just remember to enable fill!





Now draw your shape to see the result of your color shape:



Tadaa!  Doesn't get much easier than that now does it?  Let's go on to Part 2 - Fountain Fill and I'll show you how you can quickly and efficiently create multi-colored gradient fills!



Part 2 - Fountain Fill

Now that we've accomplished the extremely simple solid color fill tool, let's step it up a notch with Photopaint's Fountain Fill, or what I simply call the gradient fill.  There are many ways to create gradients in your graphics, including using my favorite Interactive Transparency Tool, but this is quickest and easiest way to get perfect gradients without the hassle.  We'll go over the general functionality of the tool, but it's up to you to experiment with the various values to see how it affects the gradients.

Let's get started!

Step 1 - Begin by clicking the Fountain Fill button and then click edit to open the Fountain Fill menu:





Chances are the default setting for the Fountain Fill is still set if you've never used this before, so you'll probably see that yours is set to a black and white gradient conical shape.  This gives the 3D effect of looking down at a cone sitting with it's point up.



Let's go over the menus you see here...

Step 2 - The most important selection in this menu is the Fountain Fill Type!  This is where you pick the shape of your gradient:



Linear: This is a side-to-side style gradient (or up and down) and is one of the most common gradient fill types you will likely use.

Radial:  This is the typical gradient used to create spheres, orbs and other rounded 3D objects.  The gradient goes from outside to inside.

Conical: This is very similar to the Radial type, except it comes to a central point that looks like you are looking straight down at a cone sitting point-up.

Square: Same gradient style as Radial, except in the shape of a square.

Rectangular:  Same as Square type, but the gradient is drawn to suit a rectangular shape.

Here is a small sample of all the shape types available:



Step 3 - Now lets go over the shape options:

First off, every gradient has a "To" and "From" color, and you can have as many in-between colors as you like.  The "From" color is always the bottom color, and the "To" color is on top.  So if we were to create a typical sphere or square gradient, the "From" color would be on the outer area of the shape, and the "To" would be in the middle area.  So with this said, you will see "Center Offset" percentage with  horizontal and vertical values.  When this is set to 0 and 0, the "To" Color is set in the middle of your shape.  You can increase or decrease these values to move the centering of the "To" color up and down, and side to side.  You can also put your mouse cursor over the thumbnail preview area and click and drag the center around to the desired position.

Next up, you will see "Options" and these are very handy to master because they can completely change the look of your gradients.  First up is the "Angle" field.  Some Fountain Fill types have the gradients going from side to side rather than from the outside to the middle (Linear and Conical) and this controls the direction or angle of the gradient.  If you are using a dark to light style gradient, this will look like you're changing the angle of the light source.  You will then see a "Steps" field... this controls how smooth the gradient transition is.  The higher the number, the smoother the transition from one color to another is.  And finally, you have the "Edge Pad" field, which you can use to increase the outside padding of the gradient.  Increasing the percentage reduces the area affected by the "To" color.

Step 4 - Next step is to select your gradient colors.  By default, the color type is set to a two color blend, so click on either point to adjust the color or use the presets for some premade patterns.



If you would like to have more than 2 colors in your gradient, click on the "custom" radio button:



You can now see, add and adjust color points:



Simply double-click anywhere above the color bar and it will add a color point, indicated by a new arrow pointing down.



You can then select a color for that new color point:



Here I'll add another color point and keep it dark red:



Then I'll change the "From" color to black and click OK to continue:



Step 5 - Click the OK button on the main Fill menu and lets draw a new shape!



Let's use the Ellipse tool to draw a filled circle:



Then I'll go back in and select some new colors and draw another 2 color gradient circle:



Our circles!



That wasn't too bad was it?  You can continue to run through the various shapes and experiment with your own gradient patterns to pull off simple 3D effects, shiny menu buttons or interface bars!  The trick is to play around with all the different menu options and shapes and eventually you'll come up with some outstanding designs.

Next up, we'll look at Part 3 - Bitmap Fill!

Part 3 - Bitmap Fill

The bitmap fill is a fairly simple concept... it allows you to use preset or custom image files as fill textures on your shapes.  Corel Photopaint comes with TONS of preinstalled textures to choose from, but you can also create your own, or import downloaded texture sets from the web.

Step 1 Let's start off by clicking on the Bitmap Fill button and click Edit in the Fill menu:



Step 2 Once the Bitmap Fill menu open, you can click on the arrow to the right of the thumbnail preview and select a wide variety of preinstalled bitmap textures.  There's hundreds to choose from!



Or you can click on the Load button and browse your hard drive for images you want to use as a textured bitmap fill.



Step 3 I'll go with this pile of coins texture and I'll use the default texture fill settings for this example.  Feel free to play around with the settings to see what they do.  Once you've selected a texture and settings you wish to use, click OK.



Step 4 Once you're back to the Fill menu, click OK to return to your document.



Step 5 We'll use the Ellipse tool again and create an oval shape:



Now, in the sample above, we set the texture to Original Size, meaning the texture will not be re-sized according to the shape we are drawing.  Let's go back in to the Bitmap Fill menu and change this setting to scale the bitmap.  This will force the texture to conform to the shape we use.



Now draw a similar oval and see what happens:



You can see the bitmap has been automatically re-sized to fit the width and height of the fill area.  This can be very convenient when you want to apply large textures to a small area and keep the effect realistic.

That's it for Bitmap Fill!  Let's move on the final section, which covers how to use Texture Fills!



Part 4 - Texture Fill

The final fill type allows us to use a huge list of textures that range in bubbles to fractals, and we can control many factors to completely change the look of the textures.  Start off my opening the Fill menu again and clicking the Texture Fill Button and then click Edit.





Step 1 The first thing you need to do is select a Sample List from the Texture Library drop-down.  Simple click the drop-down and choose one of the sample lists:



Step 2 You can now click on the Texture List drop-down and select a specific texture type.  There are literally hundreds of combinations in here, so feel free to play around and find something you think looks cool.  I really like fractal looking shapes, so I'm going to choose the Dark Cloud texture in the Samples 8 library.



Step 3 Once you have a texture, feel free to play around with the color settings and see what you can come up with:





Step 4 Click the preview button to see how your texture looks with the new color selections:



Step 5 Click the OK button once you have a texture and color combination you want to use:



Step 6 Click OK in the main Fill menu to return to your document:



Step 7 Now lets use the Rectangle Tool and draw a square and see how our new texture looks!



Step 1 You can also use the Fill Bucket Tool to apply your new texture fill to other objects we've already created!  Click on the Fill Tool button of just hit F on your keyboard:



Step 2 Select an object on the Object Docker:



Step 3 Click on the object with the Fill Tool and voila!  You've applied a new fill using your selected texture:



Here's a fractal looking texture I liked:



And in just a few minutes using some basic Photopaint tools, I created a very weird looking shiny Easter egg!



You're done!  You've now completed a thorough tour of the entire Fill menu and how you can apply solid colors, gradients, bitmaps and textures to all your objects.  By mastering the use of the more advanced Fill options, you will be able to design and complete layouts and art pieces faster and more efficiently than ever.  Good luck, and if you have any comments or questions, please click the comment icon at the top of the tutorial and be sure to leave me a rating!

Thanks!
Dan
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