Drop Shadow

Shadow: Specification

Related Information

Shadows

Shadow: Effect

Shadow: Distort

Color Well

These parameters control the primary color and appearance of shadows. Shadow may be applied to graphics, text, contoured text and graphics with associated text.

The top check box will turn a shadow on or off. The shadow needs to be "On" to enable most parameters on this palette. You can also turn on a shadow by selecting a named shadow from the Name popup menu.

The Method popup menu determines which technique is used to construct the shadow: Bitmap, Vector, or Image. Bitmap is the simplest technique. A bitmap shadow is controlled fully with the few parameters on the main "Drop" tab view of this palette.

The color of the shadow is controlled by the top Color Well . If imaging is not being used, transparency may still be achieved by applying an Opacity to the color using the normal Color Panel controls.

The Drop and Angle parameters control the position of the shadow relative to the primary graphic. The location, or drop, of the shadow is specified in polar coordinates by the Drop value (length) and Angle (direction).

The Blur parameter controls the "softness" of a bitmap shadow. This value is entered in Fine Scale units, commonly points which roughly correspond to pixels. A larger value will yield a softer or more blurred shadow. Blur only applies to the Bitmap shadow method.

Choose a named shadow using the Name popup menu. The menu shows the name of the shadow. Select a shadow and it is applied to the current graphic.

If a shadow is edited and does not match an existing named shadow, the Save menu selection is enabled. Select this item and a pull down panel will allow you to enter a name for the shadow. It is best to use a unique name for the shadow, but not required.

If a custom named shadow is not edited, or simply matches an existing named shadow, the "Remove" menu selection is enabled. Selecting the Remove item will clear the shadow from disk file. This action does NOT have Undo support and no warning check is provided, so use wisely.

One possible draw back of Bitmap shadows (or conversely an advantage for the Vector shadow methods) is their use at different scales. The Bitmap shadow is actually only well defined for a zoom factor of 100%. When a document is zoomed, EazyDraw makes a rough adjustment to the Blur Radius to provide the proper approximate appearance of the shadow. However the exact shadow is only shown on screen at 100% zoom and when printing or exporting. If a drawing is designed for a broad range of uses such as posters and web graphics, then one of the Vector techniques should be used. But when designing for one output medium, Bitmap shadows are easier and look better if a soft effect is desired. It is strongly advised to do a test print or export early in a design project to make sure the shadow settings are providing the desired appearance.

Shadows can be expensive with respect to CPU time. EazyDraw uses advanced caching and anticipatory algorithms to minimize CPU load. Normally you will not notice performance degradation. But if shadows are combined with other CPU intensive effects such as contoured text (i.e. a advanced shadow applied to contoured text)) you may notice increased redraw times. In these cases you may want to prepare the shadow with the desired effects then turn it off with the top check box while working on other portions of the drawing. All the shadow settings are held with the parent graphic even though the shadow is not being drawn. Turn the shadow back on for final production or use the drawing. If the file is saved with the shadow off, the information concerning the shadow is not retained.