Color, Strokes, and Fills > Applying fills > Applying lens fills |
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Applying lens fills
A lens fill transforms a selected object into any of six special-effect lenses that modify the appearance of objects underneath the lens by inverting colors or by changing the transparency, color, lightness, darkness, or magnification of the object.
You can stack up to eight lenses on top of each other; a ninth lens cancels the effect of the bottom lens.
Note: Repeatedly using lens fills, especially on top of each other, can add numerous objects to the document, increase file size, and cause printing problems.
You cannot apply a lens fill to EPS files, to clipping paths, or to text unless the text has been converted to paths. A lens-filled object can be pasted inside another object.
To apply a lens fill:
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Select an object. |
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In the Fill inspector, choose Lens from the pop-up menu. |
3 |
Choose a lens fill: |
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Transparency makes objects appear see-through. |
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Magnify enlarges objects under the lens. |
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Invert reverses colors to their complementary CMYK colors (their opposites on a color wheel) for a negative effect.
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Lighten lightens the colors of the objects beneath the Lens. |
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Darken darkens the colors of the objects beneath the Lens. |
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Monochrome displays colors underneath as monochrome tints of the selected color. The amount of lightness in the original color determines the tint value
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Monochrome lens |
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Lens fill options vary according to the type. |
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For Transparency and Monochrome lenses, choose a color using the color box or pop-up menu (see Applying color in FreeHand). |
Spot colors under a lens are converted to process colors for output. Use the Eyedropper tool to capture new colors created by a lens fill effect.
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For a Magnify lens, enter a value from 1 to 100 or drag the slider to set the times magnification of objects under the lens. |
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For Transparency, Lighten, and Darken lenses, adjust the effect by entering a value or dragging the slider, as follows: |
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For a Transparency fill, values range from 0 (completely transparent) to 100 (completely opaque).
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Transparency fill applied to circle |
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For a Lighten fill, a 0 value has no effect and 100 fills the path of the lens completely white.
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Lighten fill simulating ray of light |
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For a Darken fill, a 0 value has no effect and 100 fills the path of the lens completely black.
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Darken fill darkening water |
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7 |
Select Centerpoint to display a handle at the center of a selected lens. |
To reposition the center point anywhere in a document, drag the center point using the Pointer tool. Shift-click the center point to return it to the center of the lens. The center point disappears when you deselect the object. |
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8 |
Select Objects Only to apply the lens effect to objects, not empty areas, under the lens.
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Invert fill with Objects Only selected (left) and deselected (right) |
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9 |
Select Snapshot to capture the current contents of the lens, so that the lens can be moved anywhere in the document without changing the lens contents.
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Magnify fill at 3x with Snapshot selected to retain fill contents |
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Note: Choosing a new Lens type automatically deselects the Centerpoint, Objects Only, and Snapshot options. |
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To remove a lens fill from a selected object:
In the Fill inspector, choose None or another type of fill.
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