Congratulations! This software is one of the most powerful illustration packages, whilst still being fun to use. You can create beautiful illustrations, 3D-like logos and headlines, as well as airbrush drawing, or even photography-quality images. And everything in-between. The best way to start is to load some samples!|first.jpg
Each object you create has a set of properties - and they are displayed in the various floating windows. The toolbar on the right side can Show or Hide these properties. You may want to hide some properties that you are not going to use.|start.jpg
You can Hide the properties window by clicking the (x) button, or you may wish to Minimize or Maximize it by clicking the Roll-Up button, or simply double-clicking on the caption.|1.jpg
When you draw a Rectangle or a Circle, you can hold Shift to draw perfect Squares or Circles.|41.jpg
If you want to draw a horizontal or vertical line, use the Line/Path tool and hold SHIFT. To finish the line double-click or press the right mouse button|2.jpg
You can use the Quick Style, to quickly change the style of an object or just some of its properties. You can store your own style (or properties) in the Quick style. Just select an object with the desired style and click with the right mouse button on the Quick Style page.|3.jpg
You can use Color Memory to store colors that you often use. Hold Ctrl and click on any square. Ctrl-Left mouse button - and the current fill color will be saved, Ctrl-Right mouse button and the background color will be saved. To recall the color just click the right or left mouse button.|4.jpg
To align objects you can use Guidelines. Just click on the ruler and drag the horizontal or vertical guideline to where you need them. To delete a guideline, simply drag it out of the active window.|5.jpg
If you apply a texture to an object that's not all! You can change the size, the offset, the rotation or perspective of the applied texture. Just select the object and press the Texture Size and Rotation button.|6.jpg
You can apply various lights to an object. To start, you must first Enable 3D Lights in the 3D Lights Properties bar. You can edit the lights by selecting them in the Light list.|7.jpg
Package, is a revolutionary way to work on large documents. But not only that! You can also apply effects on top of the package the same way as on an object.|8.jpg
Package also gives you another option - interactive sharpening - when you resize the package. Just click on the light colored square near the top left and drag the slider. You can use this benefit on single objects - you can Package just a single object only|9.jpg
Another benefit of Package is the remote editing. Just double-click on the package and you'll go to the new document where you can edit the contents of the package.|10.jpg
You can paint with brushes directly on any object. Just click the Paint on Object Button and you are in a bitmap editing mode. When you are finished press the Arrow button or Esc key.|11.jpg
When you paint with brushes on an object, you can switch 'Show objects Above' option on the Brushes bar, and all the layers intersecting the object will become visible. This is great if you want to paint shadow or special effects under some objects.|12.jpg
With Paint new Bitmap you can draw directly on top of the canvas and when you finish the drawing it will become a new Object and you can apply additional effects as on other vector objects.|13.jpg
You can draw on the Bitmap object by double-clicking on it. In the case of an object created by drawing on canvas, you will edit it again on the whole canvas without transparency. Holding CTRL and double-clicking the object will open it in editor with transparency. |edtrans.jpg
To break a solid path to outline, use menu Object - Break Path. To close the outline object, use menu Object Close Path.|closepat.jpg
While in Brush editing mode you can use 'Clone from Bottom layers' brush. This for example, will enable you to create smooth transitions between two different objects. |clone.jpg
You can remove the drawing you did on an object by 'Remove Bitmap Layer'|Remove.jpg
Blueprint, is a method used to clone or draw an image from photography or from scanned material. First you'll need to load the Blueprint from menu Project-Blueprint-Load.|blue1.jpg
Blueprint then becomes a non-selectable bottom layer, but you can use its special feature - Onion skinning. By allowing this option the blueprint will always be visible as an overlay semi-transparent, top layer.|onionskin.jpg
Blueprint is not only great way to create shapes copying real photography, but in Brush mode, you can use the Cloning from blueprint option. Just click the small ball appearing near the Clone tool until it become blue.|clonefrombl.jpg
Tired of the textures, or you want to spice up an image... use GenetX procedural textures. There are millions of combinations of genes producing some of the most spectacular textures.|genetx.jpg
The Color Space color selector is a perfect way to select colors for brushes, because you can easily change the saturation or intensity of a particular color.|colspace.jpg
You can make the texture appear 3D with the 3D option on the Color & Texture Bar. With the slider you can adjust the positive or negative height of the texture. The 3D looks even better if you use Lights. You can easily create imitations of metal and plastic etc.|3dlook.jpg
Color Pick allows you to pick a color - any color from anywhere on the screen. The Color Pick can average colors. If you click on the right part of Color Pick window you will cycle through predefined sample sizes.|colorpick.jpg
It is easy to add a perfect sparkle to your image - draw a simple circle and then select Sparkle from the Effect bar.|sparkle.jpg
You can position an object with the Size bar. Just enter the new coordinates and press Enter.|size.jpg
The Size bar has a lock option, you can lock an object against horizontal or vertical movements.|size2.jpg
You can create a new bitmap from selected object by selecting the option 'New from selected objects' from menu Bitmap-Create. This will not delete the selected object, but create a new 'snapshot' bitmap in the same document.|snapsh.jpg
If you want to create a snapshot of a current document, select New Document snapshot from menu Bitmap-Create. This will create a new document from the snapshot bitmap.|snapsh2.jpg
The Bitmap Import allows you to resize the bitmap and crop it before you load it. To crop a bitmap, simply drag the two corner squares to frame the required image.|bitcrop.jpg
You can import a Windows Metafile wmf object and it will be translated into an editable object.|wmf.jpg
You can set the grid resolution on the Edit Guidelines & Grid in menu Edit. Then you just press the Snap to Grid button.|grid.jpg
While in Shape editing, you can move objects, if you hold the ALT button.|shapemode.jpg
Do you need to create a complex shadow from a selection of objects? Select the desired objects and use 'Bitmap Shadow from selected objects' from the menu Bitmap-Create. This will create a new bitmap object below the selection. Now you can resize it, change the transparency, or do anything you can do to a bitmap.|shadow.jpg
