Coloring

Shapes and text can be filled with a solid color (with or without transparency), a color gradient, or a tiled image. Access to the Shape Fill dialog is through the shape properties dialog box and the Shape Fill tool on the left toolbar.

To fill with a solid color:

Select Solid Color at the top of the dialog. You can (1) enter red, green, and blue (all 0 to 255 in range) and a transparency value (0 to 100 in range), (2) select with your mouse from the color wheel (partially shown), (3) use red, green, blue, hue, saturation, and lightness sliders (press the button on the left under the transparency value), or (4) use an eyedropper (press the button on the right under the transparency value) to select a color from another shape on the drawing canvas. To view the shape fill before committing, press Preview. On OK, the shape fill is applied to all selected shapes.

To fill with a color gradient:

Select Color Gradient at the top of the dialog box. A gradient fill is comprised of up to eight color pointers. The color associated with the selected color pointer is shown underneath the gradient definition bar. The color of the selected color pointer (it is the color pointer which is depressed) can be changed by (1) entering red, green, and blue values (all 0 to 255 in range) and a transparency value (0 to 100 in range), (2) selecting with your mouse from the color wheel (partially shown), (3) adjusting the red, green, blue, hue, saturation, and lightness sliders.

The color gradient can be either linear or radial. Color pointers can be dragged to the left or right along the gradient definition bar to change the gradient effect.

A color pointer can be added by pressing the small button with the plus sign. The mouse cursor turns into a color pointer with a + in the middle. Click at a position on the gradient definition bar. Then change the color of this color pointer. A color pointer can be deleted by pressing the small button with the minus sign and the selected color pointer is deleted.

An example of a selected rectangular shape filled with linear gradient is shown here. Only a shape with points can be filled with gradient color. To fill text with gradient color break it apart into a shape with points (Transforms/Break Apart Text).

The rotational orientation and position of the gradient fill can be adjusted with Rotate/Shift Gradient Fill under Transforms.

Moving the center of the gradient fill to the right shifts the gradient to the right.

Moving the cursor around the center rotates the gradient.

To fill with an image:

Select Image at the top of the dialog box. Use the Browse "..." button to locate your image file. Bmp, jpeg, tiff, pcx, and png file formats can be imported. Transparency in png files is ignored at this time. If you use the same image with the same filename multiple times throughout the movie, KoolMoves is smart enough to store the image only once in the exported Flash™ movie. If the image is larger than the shape, only the upper left portion of image will fill the shape. If the image is smaller than the shape in any dimension, the image will tile to fill the shape. Only a shape with points can be filled with a image. The transparency of the image can be adjusted with a slider.

You can preview the fill by pressing Preview. On pressing OK, the fill, either color, gradient, or image, will be applied to all currently selected shapes and, if the fill is color, to all selected text.

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