Gobe Productive User's Guide - Graphics

- Working in the graphics environment
- Drawing tools
- Pre-defined Shapes
- Pen Attributes
- Fill Color
- Text Color
- Customizing inks
- Customizing ink sets
- Transparency
- Moving items
- Resizing & Rotating items
- Aligning Items
- Reshaping, reorienting & smoothing shapes
- Arranging, grouping & locking items
- Creating Outlines
- Views & Layers
- Styles

# Graphics

Perhaps the most flexible component of the Gobe Productive suite is the graphics environment. Designed as a true graphics environment, everything (even frames) are treated like graphic objects. You can rotate, shade, layer, and reshape items to create compelling documents.

The graphics environment is ideal for laying out graphics intensive documents such as newsletters, flyers, or training guides.

Graphics example. This image is displayed in 256 colors, your system resolution is likely to be greater.

## Graphics Terms

Before you begin working in the graphics environment, it is a good idea to review these terms. This documentation has some special terms used to describe some of the powerful graphic features in Gobe Productive.

> Color: Color refers to any solid color.

> Fill Color: The ink inside a shape.

> Gradient: A gentle hue transition from one color to another. Gobe Productive supports up to four color gradients.

> Inks: A generic term to refer to color, gradients, patterns and textures. Since all of these can be used as a fill, pen, or text color, the term Ink is used to refer to all four types.

> Ink Sets: Colors, patterns, textures, and gradients are selected from a palette of choices. These palettes are displayed based on ink sets. An ink set is merely a defined collection of colors, patterns, textures, or gradients. When you first start Gobe Productive, the application uses the default ink sets on the fill, pen, and text color palettes. However, you can create and load customized ink sets. You can also modify the ink selections in the default ink sets. See the topic Customizing Ink Sets for more information.

> Item: Refers to any graphic shape or frame (when selected). The graphics environment is a collection of many types of items, including frames and shapes.

> Pattern: Refers to any patterned fill, pen, or text color. Patterns can be edited and added at any time.

> Pen: The line around a shape.

> Layer: Have you ever seen how cartoons were made before computers? The cartoonist draws a background on a stock paper. Next, successive layers of clear plastic cells are placed over the background. On each cell is a piece of the cartoon character. One cell may have the cartoon character's body, while the next had only the character's mouth. The final product was a complete image of the cartoon and one complete frame. Layers work very much like this. Each layer of a picture is kind of like the plastic cells in old cartoon studios. Using layers, a single image or graphic can be broken down into component pieces, only to be reassembled at print time.

> Texture: A graphic image used as a fill, pen, or text color. Textures are a sub-set of the patterns ink set. Gobe Productive includes a few examples. You can add your own textures at any time.

> Reorient: To change how a curve progresses through a vertex. Reorientation allows you to rotate the flow of curves around vertices using vertex control handles. This provides a powerful way to design complex, curved shapes. See image to right.

> Reshape: Some curves and freehand items can be finely reshaped from their original shape.

If you are new to the graphics environment, it is a good idea to read the Working in the Graphics Environment topic. For a complete tutorial, see the Tutorial section.

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