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Patterns Palette
Accessing Patterns
Editing Patterns
Color Palette
Color Fill
Gradient Fill

Using Patterns


You can apply a pattern as a fill for any graphic. In EazyDraw this is an additional fill affect that may be used independently or in conjunction with other color fill affect. The pattern fill is applied over (in front) another color effects of Fill or Gradient Fill . The controls at the top of the Patterns Palette allow you to manage these combined effects.

In order to be used as an overlay with other coloring, the individual pixel colors need to fully support transparency (Opacity on the color palette) , and some of the pixels will need to be at least partially transparent to allow the coloring in back of the pattern to be visible.

Images imported from other systems or certain file formats may not support transparency. If not, the individual pixel colors will need to be converted to support the alpha channel or opacity. This can be done with the Transparency check box near the top of the palette.

The Fill check box is used to turn the pattern on for the selected graphic(s). Check the box to use the pattern as the one and only fill affect for a graphic.

The Overlay check box is used to apply the pattern on top of other color fill effects. The individual pattern colors need to support transparency for this affect to be visible.

The Transparency check box can be used as an indicator to verify that the pixels of a bit map can support opacity as a color variable. The check box can also be used to explicitly convert the colors of all pixels to include or exclude the alpha channel (opacity value) byte. If the conversion is not possible the action will simply beep and no conversion will take place.

The example to the right demonstrates use of transparency and the overlay attributes. The pattern at the top is just transparent bricks. The next down has the transparent bricks overlaying a solid fill color. The bottom example has the transparent bricks overlaying a gradient fill.

Transparent pixels are discernable in the close-up view. You can notice that the background horizontal lines (which are by-the-way generated as a pattern) are visible through the pixel rectangle. You may want to apply a white color to a pixel to learn the recognize the difference. The difference is subtle by necessity since a specific color really can't be used as a visual clue.

If a graphic that contains a pattern is fliped or rotated, the pattern if flipped or rotated too. This is a convenient way to expand the capablities of the pattern panel in desiging patterns. It is usually a good idea when designing patterns to have them attached to a grpahic. This provides the transform capability mentioned here and provides Undo capability.