www.belightsoft.com/disccover | Start of Help > Editing the Content of Disc Labels and Covers |
Text boxes, images (built-in clipart or images you import) and Smart Shapes are the types of objects you can work with in Disc Cover.
All operations on objects can be made by using the Inspector or the program menu. Some of them - using a context menu (to open it, Ctrl-click or right-click on an object). The object must be selected before you perform any operations on it.
To select an object, click it with the Selection tool. To select several objects, either click them holding down the Shift key - objects will be selected one by one. Or press the mouse button to select objects with a frame. All the objects touched by the rectangle will become selected.
To move an object, drag it with the mouse.
For precise movement, select an object and use the arrow keys on the keyboard. For faster movement, press Shift+[Arrow key].
On the Geometry tab you can enter the coordinates of the object to place it into the exact location. Measurement units can be changed in the program Preferences (Cmd-,).
When you move an object with the mouse, it snaps automatically to guides and edges of other objects. You may toggle the snap function on or off if you hold down the Cmd key as you move the object. To turn it off permanently, clear the Snap checkbox in the program Preferences. When an edge of the object you are moving aligns with another object, a smart guide is displayed (blue dashed line).
The commands Move to Center (Horizontally) and Move to Center (Vertically) from the Format menu move the selected objects to the page center along the horizontal or vertical axis.
The Circular section on the Geometry tab of the Inspector controls the location of an object on the disc design element. The Angle control rotates objects around the disc center. The Distance value sets the distance between an object and disc center.
Don't confuse Angle controls from the Rotate and Circular sections. They are different.
The size of an object can be changed with the mouse: select the object and drag one of the handles on its border. To resize an object preserving its aspect ratio, use the corner resize handles. Side handles resize that particular side only. To inverse the action of corner handles, hold the Shift key down.
On the Geometry tab of the Inspector, you can enter the dimensions of the object to make it of the exact size. Measurement units can be changed in the program Preferences.
When you set a new size and Fix aspect ratio is selected, the side proportion will be preserved.
Several images can be resized together. When you resize a group of selected images, they have a common selection frame and behave like a single image.
To rotate the selected object, use controls from the Rotate section on the Geometry tab of the Inspector. Unlike text, images can be flipped vertically and horizontally. Text can not be flipped. To get text flipped in your document, convert it to an image.
To rotate an object with the mouse, click on it to select. Then move the cursor over a corner handle of the selection frame. When the cursor icon turns into a bi-directional arrow, drag the handle to turn the object.
Several objects can be rotated together. When you rotate a group of objects, they move around the center of the selection.
Objects can be grouped together. A group of objects behaves as a single object when you move or resize it.
To group objects, select them and press Cmd-Opt-G, or Ctrl-click (right-click) on selected objects and choose Group in the pop-up menu. The group function can be also found under the Format menu.
To ungroup, press Cmd-Opt-Shift-G or choose the Format > Ungroup menu item.
Disc Cover supports nested groups. This means, a group of objects can include a smaller group.
Controls, available for individual objects, may be locked when a group is selected.
To edit text, double click on it. Or select the Text Box tool in the toolbar and click on a text box.
Double-clicking on an image opens the Edit Image window. Here, you can crop the image or apply Core Image filters if you're using OS X 10.4 or higher.
The Fill controls are located on the Fill & Shadow tab of the Inspector window. Use a pop-up menu (1 in the picture) to choose a way to fill an object.
All the fill options are available for Smart Shapes. To all other images, only gradient fill can be applied.
You can change the fill color (9) and opacity (10).
Color Fill lets you change the background of text.
Linear Gradient Fill produces gradient filling of an image.
The Color buttons (11) let you choose two base colors for the gradient.
The Blend slider (12) redistributes space among colors. When the slider is in the middle, the margin between colors lays in the center. When the slider was moved to the right or left, one of colors takes almost the whole space.
Angle (13) changes the direction of gradient.
The Center slide bar (14) shifts colors.
Radial Gradient Fill creates circular gradient.
The Color buttons (15) let you choose two base colors for the gradient.
Radius (16) changes the size of the color spot in the middle.
Center (18) moves the color spot out off the center.
When the color spot is not in the center, the Angle control defines its offset direction.
You can fill a Smart Shape with an image.
The Scale type pop-up menu defines how an image will be inserted into a smart shape. Scale type is explained in the Working With Smart Shapes section.
The Browse button lets you choose an image. Or drag and drop an image from the Source panel into the box (20).
Border lines can be made visible/invisible by using the Line check box on the Fill & Shadow tab of the Inspector.
Use the Color button (2) to change the color and opacity of a line.
Adjust the thickness of the line using the Thickness controls (3).
The Pattern pop-up menu lets you choose dashed, dotted and other types of lines.
To add and control shadow of an object, use the Shadow section on the Fill & Shadow tab of Inspector.
The distance from the shadow to the object (6), its angle (5) and blur (7) can be adjusted with the help of the respective controls.
The Color button (8) lets you change the color and opacity of the shadow.
A shadow can also be added to text (to the letters), if you select a portion of text and apply the shadow as described above. Note that shadow controls in the Inspector produce different shadow than controls in the standard Font dialog.
The Alignment tab of the Inspector has several options for aligning objects. Select two or more objects and click one of the align buttons. You can align left edges, right edges, top edges and bottom edges. You can also align the centers of the objects vertically or horizontally.
If you need to align several objects, select them first. Open the Alignment tab of the Inspector and select the type of the alignment you need. The same commands can be found in the menu: Format > Align.
The commands from the Format > Distribute menu and the Distribute section of Alignment tab of the Inspector affect how the selected objects are distributed on a page. These commands are used to create equal spacing between objects, and can be used only for three or more objects.
Distribute > Spacing Horizontally – move the middle object(s) horizontally to make the horizontal spacing between the edges of the objects equal.
Distribute > Spacing Vertically – move the middle object(s) vertically to make the vertical spacing between the edges of the objects equal.
Distribute > Centers Horizontally – move the middle object(s) horizontally to make the spacing between the vertical axes of the objects equal.
Distribute > Centers Vertically – move the middle object(s) vertically to make the spacing between the horizontal axes of the objects equal.
Objects can also be distributed in a radial or circular way. The respective buttons are located in the Circular section of the Alignment tab. These operations require at least 2 objects.
The left button distributes the objects to create equal angles between imaginary lines passing through the centers of the objects and originating in a common center. The distances from the objects to the center will be arbitrary and depend on their original position.
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The right button places the centers of the object on an imaginary circle. The distances between the objects may be different and depend on their original position.
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If you apply both commands one after another, the objects will be placed on an imaginary circle and the distances between them will be equal.
Objects in the same layer may form a stack, laying one over another. To change position of the object in the stack, use the Bring Forward, Bring to Front, Send Backward, Send to Back commands from the Format menu to change the display order of objects.
When you add objects to the document, each subsequent object lays over the existing ones in the stack. In other words, the image added later will cover the ones added earlier. The commands described here help to arrange the order in which objects appear in the layout.
The table below demonstrates how the commands move the light blue square.
Command | Before | After |
Bring Forward places the selected object one level higher. (Opt-Cmd-F) |
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Bring to Front places the selected object above others. (Shift-Cmd-F) |
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Send Backward places the selected object one level lower. (Opt-Cmd-B) |
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Send to Back places the selected object below others. (Shift-Cmd-B) |
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The commands listed in the table above affect objects within the current layer (background or foreground).
The commands Move To Background and Move To Foreground from the Format menu move the selected object to another layer. If you move an object to another layer, it will appear in front of other objects in this layer.
In some cases you may need to select an object that is fully covered by another one and cannot be accessed by mouse click. For instance, to resize or move an image used as the background for text. The easiest way to access lower objects is using the throughout selection.
Click several times on the pile of objects holding down the Cmd key. Each time you click, the next object behind the current one will be selected. If the front object is not transparent (is a picture, for instance), you will see only the selection handles of objects behind.
Keep the Cmd key pressed to bring up the context menu for lower objects.
If you need to bring an object to the front, select it as described above and choose the Format > Bring to Front menu command.