Several specialized drawing tools let you quickly create complex shapes in Canvas. Drawing grids, stars, polygons, concentric circles, cubes, and spirals is as easy as drawing rectangles. The following tools create specialized vector objects.
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Concentric Circles: Nested circles or ovals |
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Cube: Square and rectangular boxes in isometric views |
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Gridmaker: Rows and columns of boxes |
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Multigon: Stars and complex polygons |
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Spiral: Lines in spiral patterns |
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Registration Marks: Registration marks around a graphic for which you intend to print separations |
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EasyShapes: All kinds of shapes, including arrows, flow chart boxes, dialog balloons, symbols, and banners |
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Calendar: Calendars |
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Smart Lines: Connect objects with smart lines. |
In most cases, you can treat these vector objects like all others. You can move them and resize their bounding boxes. They can be rotated, flipped, and scaled. You can apply strokes, pen inks and fill inks to them. However, most of these objects are compound objects, which means that they are made up of separate objects. Therefore, some inks and other effects appear differently when applied to these objects than to simple vector objects like rectangles and ovals.
Some of the specialized objects have unique editing features. For example, you can twirl the points of a star, star outline, or framed star by dragging special handles. You can also specify the number of points of a star, the number of rows and columns in a grid, the number of rings in concentric circles, and the number of revolutions in a spiral. You can draw a cube with or without a perspective effect. Methods for drawing and modifying all of the specialized objects appear with the individual tool descriptions that follow.
You can also convert most specialized vector objects to paths, which lets you edit the object anchor points and segments (see Converting objects and text to paths).
The Concentric Circles tool draws nested rings of ovals or circles. You can set the number and spacing of the rings before or after you draw concentric circles.
Press Shift to constrain the bounding box to a square when you drag the Concentric Circles tool.
To constrain the faces of the cube to perfect squares, hold down the Shift key while drawing the back face.
Hold down the Alt key before you anchor the cube.
Do one or more of the following:
To reshape a cube by moving a side, double-click the cube to place it in edit mode. A black circular handle appears on each of the six faces of the cube.
When you point to a handle, the outline flashes on the corresponding side of the cube. You can drag the handle to move that side. Click outside the cube to leave edit mode.
The Spiral tool draws a smooth, spiraling curve. You can set the number of spiral turns before or after you draw a Spiral object.
Press Shift and drag.
The Gridmaker tool draws grids of rows and columns. Set the number of rows and columns before or after you draw a grid object.
Press Shift and drag.
If you set Boxes Across to 1, the grid has no vertical lines. If you set Boxes Down to 1, the grid has no horizontal lines.
Adjust the individual lines that comprise a grid by converting it to a path and then ungrouping it.
Use the Multigon tool to draw all types of multi-sided objects, including triangles, hexagons, pentagons, octagons, stars, circular starbursts, and similar shapes. To set the number of sides and the style of a multigon, configure the Multigon tool before you draw.
Press Shift and drag.
The available options depend on the selected multigon style.
Style |
Select the style of the multigon:
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Points |
For stars, framed stars, and star outlines, enter the number of star points from 3 to 100. For other styles, enter the number of sides from 3 to 100. |
Smooth |
Turn this option on to smooth the object’s angles. |
Inset Ratio |
Drag the slider to change the interior area of stars, framed stars, and star outlines. |
Pinwheel angle |
For stars, enter a value of more or less than 0 degrees to bend the points. Negative values bend the points counterclockwise. |
Presets |
Choose a preset style in the pop-up menu. |
When you save and delete styles, they remain saved or deleted whether you click OK or Cancel to close the Multigon dialog box.
You can edit Star Multigons (framed star, star, and star outline styles) to adjust the twirl and radius of the object’s points. The following procedures do not apply to frames, spokes, or wheels.
Double-click the Star Multigon object to put it in edit mode.
An outer handle and inner handle appear on one point of the star.
Use the Registration Mark tool to manually draw registration marks around a graphic for which you intend to print separations. Use the Registration Mark tool when:
In the Properties bar, set the location, default size, and fill color of the registration mark, then click the Create button.
This draws the first registration mark, and sets the defaults for registration marks in the current Canvas session.
If you want to place a registration mark in a precise location, you can select the registration mark in your document, and set the X/Y coordinates in the Properties bar.
For print production, you can draw crop marks around specific objects in your document. This is useful when you want to control the exact placement of crop marks, or you want to output several illustrations with crop marks around each illustration on one page.
Crop marks are short vertical and horizontal lines that indicate the border where an illustration or page can be trimmed.
When you use the Crop Marks commands, Canvas draws the crop marks as vector lines on the current layer in the document. Each crop mark consists of two lines. You can select the lines and perform operations on them as you would other vector objects.
Select the Use Registration Ink option to assign Registration ink color to the crop marks.
Registration ink appears black, but it prints on all plates when you output color separations. This option should be selected if you want the crop marks to print on all plates.
Select the Include Lunar Phases check box if you want lunar phases to appear on your calendar.
You can use EasyShapes to quickly add all kinds of shapes, including arrows, flowchart symbols, dialog balloons, symbols, and banners.
If the EasyShapes tool you used is one that creates a preset text object, an insertion point appears inside the shape. Type the text. When you finish, press Esc to end text edit mode.
If the EasyShapes tool you used does not create a preset text object, Canvas will create a text object if you begin typing. When you finish typing, press Esc.
You can also create an EasyShapes by entering values in the X/Y and width/height fields in the Properties bar and then clicking the Create button. By default, the X/Y coordinates are set at 0,0.
Use Smart Lines to link one or more objects to a single object. Draw multiple Smart Lines between objects and link Smart Lines to other Smart Lines. Smart Lines change length and angle to maintain connection to the linked objects. Or use the Polygon and Smooth Polygon Smart Line tools to draw connecting polygon lines between objects.
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Polygon |
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Smooth Polygon |
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Select the Smart Line with the Selection tool. The Properties bar displays the X/Y values coordinates for the start and end points.
If the Dogleg Connector or a Kinked or Smooth Kinked Smart Line is selected, the Properties bar contains additional information, which is not applicable to Basic Smart Lines.
Select the line and choose Kinked from the Type menu in the Properties bar.
Select the Kinked Smart Line and choose Smooth Kinked from the Type menu.
This tool is used to move the anchor points of a vector object. You can also add and remove anchor points.
These tools are used to draw polygon lines between objects.
Press Esc to exit edit mode.
If you move one of the objects, the connecting polygon line retains the connections between the objects.