I Shadow

I Shadow

Introduction

The I Shadow XTension lets you create real soft shadow effects on text, graphics or graphic boxes without ever leaving QuarkXPress. The soft shadows are made of TIFFs, and the user may choose the resolution of the shadow. Shadows can even overlap and be burned into underlying CMYK and RGB TIFFs on the document. I Shadow can also create simple drop and three-dimensional shadows for text and graphic boxes to cover all of the user’s shadowing needs.

I Shadow Preferences

The I Shadow preferences provide many different options to help fit I Shadow into the user’s workflow. To access the I Shadow preferences, select I Shadow… from the Preferences submenu, found under the Edit menu.

Drop popup menu — This control tells I Shadow to which folder or directo- ry the file dialog should default. Each time a shadow TIFF file is generated, a Save As file dialog appears, displaying the default fold- er or directory. The dialog allows the user to name the shadow file as desired, but the default file name is “Shadow Image”. The three options in the Drop popup menu that control the default folder or directory are Same as Document, Ask User and Use Path.

Same as Original — This popup menu setting sets the default burned image folder or directory to the same folder or directory that contains the image the shadow is being burned into.

Ask User — This popup menu setting sets the default folder or directory to the last folder or directory that was accessed.

Use Path — This popup menu setting lets the user choose a specific folder or directory to serve as the default directory each time a burned image is saved. When this setting is selected, a file dialog prompts the user to specify the folder or directory to be used, and that folder or directory name is displayed on the dialog below the popup menu.

Include Source Frame check box — If this control is checked, the entire select- ed box, including its frame, appears in the TIFF shadow. If the box is unchecked, only the area inside of the border on the box appears in the soft shadow. It is not recommended that the user check the Include Source Frame check box then create an outline shadow, since the result will be a filled-in shadow the size of the frame.

Same as Document — This popup menu setting sets the default shadow folder or directory to the same folder or directory that contains the original QuarkXPress document file.

Ask User — This popup menu setting sets the default folder or directory to the last folder or directory that was accessed.

Use Path — This popup menu setting lets the user choose a specific folder or directory to serve as the default directory each time a shadow is saved. When this setting is selected, a file dialog prompts the user to specify the folder or directory to be used, and that folder or directory name is displayed on the dialog below the popup menu.

Burned popup menu — This control tells I Shadow to which folder or direc- tory the file dialog should revert when storing shadows burned into underlying TIFFs. Each time a shadow is fused into an underlying TIFF, a Save As file dialog appears, displaying the default folder or directory. The dialog allows the user to name the revised underlying image as desired, but the default file name is “Burn Image” or “Dodge Image” depending on the settings used in the I Shadow palette. The three options in the Burned popup menu are Same as Original, Ask User and Use Path.

The I Shadow Palette

The I Shadow Palette contains all of the controls the user needs for specify- ing shadow attributes. To activate the I Shadow palette, select Show I Shadow from the View menu.

Creator for TIFF Images — This control displays the application which TIFFs generated by I Shadow will appear to have been created by. This association between the TIFF being created and an application is convenient because double-clicking on the TIFF file in the Finder will then launch its associated application. To choose an application, click the Select… button Use the Select Creator Type dialog to choose the desired application.

The controls on the I Shadow palette include:

Zoom button — Clicking the zoom button on the upper right corner of the

I Shadow palette minimizes the palette to conserve space onscreen. The palette may still be used to select settings from the Style popup menu, create soft shadows and burn shadows into underlying TIFFs while the palette is minimized.

Style popup menu — A popup menu that allows the user to store and retrieve shadowing setups so they don’t have to be repeatedly reen- tered on the I Shadow palette.

Replace Shadow if Modified check box — If I Shadow is used to create a shad- ow for an object, then the object is changed, the user may want to create a new shadow to reflect the changes to the original object. Checking the Replace Shadow if Modified check box tells I Shadow to delete the previously-created shadow before generating the new one.

Shadow button — The button with the image of an eye on it is the Shadow button. Clicking this button generates a soft shadow TIFF of the selected QuarkXPress item(s), using the settings on the palette. For more information about how to generate a shadow, see the Creating Shadows with I Shadow section of this manual.

Burn button — The button with an image of an eye on it with a dark streak across the button is the Burn button. Clicking this button fuses a shadow into an underlying TIFF on the document page. For more information about how to burn shadows into TIFFs, see the Burning Shadows into Underlying TIFFs section of this manual.

Blur field — The number of pixels around the edge of the shadow that are changed when the Gaussian blur is applied to the shadow. This value may be between 0 and 32. Larger values cause more notice- able blur effects. Keep in mind that higher-resolution shadows will need larger Blur values because the pixels are closer together.

Resolution field — The resolution of the shadow TIFF, measured in DPI.

This value may be between 32 and 400. A higher value entered in this field will mean a larger TIFF file size.

Shade field — The Shade field is actually a combination popup menu and editable field. The popup menu may be used to choose percentages in multiples of ten, while the field lets the user enter any value from 0 to 100. The Shade value determines how dark the shadow is.

Shadow Type field — This popup menu offers three options: Silhouette, Outline, and Ghost.

Silhouette — This shadow setting creates a shadow of all non-white pixels in the item being shadowed. This is especially useful when shading text because the inside sections of enclosed let- ters (like a and o) are not filled in with a silhouetted shadow.

Outline — This shadow setting creates a shadow that covers the area outlined by the outer edge of the item being shadowed. Any white areas on the item being shadowed are filled in, so enclosed letters (like a and o) have their enclosed areas filled in. This setting is recommended for shadowing solid objects and not for shadowing text.

X Offset field — The value entered in this field determines how far the shadow being created is horizontally offset from the original item on the QuarkXPress page. Entering a negative value in the X Offset field causes the shadow to be placed to the left of the item being shadowed. Any value is allowed in this field as long as the shadow remains on the spread that contains the item being shadowed.

Y Offset field — The value entered in this field determines how far the shad- ow being created is vertically offset from the original item on the QuarkXPress page. Entering a negative value in the Y Offset field causes the shadow to be placed above the item being shadowed. Any value is allowed in this field as long as the shadow remains on the spread that contains the item being shadowed.

The original image (left) and an outline shadow (right)

Ghost — This shadow setting creates a shadow by generating a grayscale image of the item being shadowed, then screening down the grayscale image according to the value in the Shade field. When the image is screened down 50%, areas of the shadow that were 100% black become 50% black, areas of the shad- ow that were 50% black become 25% black, and so forth.

TIFF Information Display area — This area at the bottom of the I Shadow palette displays information about any TIFF the user selects in the current document. The information it displays includes the full path name of the original TIFF file, the TIFF’s width and height, its DPI setting, and the TIFF type (such as RGB).

Saving Shadow Settings

Burn/Dodge popup menu — This popup menu is used to determine how a shadow is fused into an underlying TIFF image. The Burn setting darkens the shadowed areas of the underlying image, and the Dodge setting lightens the areas of the underlying TIFF affected by the shadow.

Darken/Multiply or Lighten/Divide popup menu — The options on this popup menu change depending upon the current setting of the Burn/Dodge popup menu. If the Burn/Dodge popup menu is set to Burn, this popup menu reads Darken/Multiply, and if the Burn/Dodge popup menu is set to Dodge, this popup menu reads Lighten/Divide.

Darken/Multiply — This popup menu allows the user to determine how much the background image is changed as the shadow is fused into the image. If Darken is chosen from the popup menu, I Shadow darkens the underlying image in direct proportion to the grayscale values of the shadow image. If Multiply is chosen, the shade of the shadow image has a more dramatic darkening effect on the back- ground image, so that if the shadow image is 50% black, the back- ground beneath that shadow may be darkened as much as 80%. Burning a shadow into an image with either the Darken or Multiply option selected does not darken the background image where the shadow image is white, and it darkens the background image to black where the overlying shadow is black.

Lighten/Divide — This popup menu also allows the user to determine how much the background image is changed when the shadow is fused into the underlying image. If Lighten is chosen from the popup menu, I Shadow lightens the underlying image in direct proportion to the grayscale values of the shadow image. If Divide is chosen, the shade of the shadow image has a more drastic lightening effect on the background image, so that if the shadow image is 50% black, the background beneath that shadow may be lightened to as little as 20% of its original color values. Dodging a shadow with either Lighten or Divide selected does not lighten the background image where the shadow image is black, and it lightens the background image to white where the overlying shadow is white.

At any time the I Shadow palette is active onscreen, the palette’s settings may be stored. To store these settings, select New… from the I Shadow palette’s Style popup menu. A small dialog appears, prompting the user to enter a name for the new setting.

Enter a name in the Style Name field, then click the OK button to store the style setting. Now, those palette settings may be restored to the palette at any time by selecting that setting’s name from the list of stored settings in the palette’s Style popup menu.

To remove unwanted stored settings from the list, select Delete… from the Style popup menu. The Delete Shadow Style appears, listing all of the cur- rently-stored settings.

To remove a setting from the Shadow Style list, select the setting’s name, then click the Delete button, or double-click the setting name in the Shadow Style list. Click the Done button to store the changes made to the list and continue using I Shadow.

Now set the values in the Blur, X Offset, Y Offset, Resolution and Shade fields. Select the type of shadow to be created from the Shadow Type popup menu. For more details about these controls, see the section of this manual titled The I Shadow Palette. Once all of the controls on the palette are set as desired, click the palette’s Shadow button.

I Shadow displays a file dialog, prompting the user to enter a name and set the location for the shadow being created.

Casting Shadows With I Shadow

Creating a soft shadow for text, graphics, QuarkXPress page elements, or a combination of the above is easy with I Shadow. To do so, first activate the I Shadow palette by selecting Show I Shadow from the View menu.

Next select the QuarkXPress element or elements to be shadowed.

When the user clicks the Save button, I Shadow generates the shadow TIFF file. Then the XTension creates a graphic box on the document page behind the original item, and it imports the shadow TIFF into this new box.

The shadow TIFF is a completely uncompressed grayscale TIFF image. The user may apply different stylistic effects to it such as colorizing the TIFF through the QuarkXPress Style menu, or the TIFF may be opened in an image editing program and altered there.

• The background TIFF must be a three-channel RGB or four-channel CMYK TIFF image. This TIFF should also be uncompressed or have only CCIT or LZW compression.

• Both the background and shadow TIFFs should not have any QuarkXPress effects applied to them (such as rotation, flipping, skew, contrast). The only exception to this is that the shadow TIFF may be inverted or colored by QuarkXPress.

• Neither of the images should be Missing or Modified. To check this, select Picture Usage… from the Utilities menu and make sure both images have a Status reading of OK.

Once the necessary TIFFs are in place, the user is ready to burn the shadow into the underlying image. To do so, first activate the I Shadow palette by selecting Show I Shadow from the View menu.

Soft shadows may be created for either single or multiple selected page ele- ments. Multiple-selected objects may be any combination of text and/or picture boxes, and even lines may be shadowed. It does not matter how many objects are selected when the shadow is generated, the shadow itself is always a single TIFF image.

Keep in mind that only the visible portion of a graphic is shadowed. If the user crops a graphic so that only part of it is visible on the QuarkXPress page, only the visible part is shadowed. Cropped out areas do not appear when shadows are generated.

Select the shadow TIFF and the background TIFF. Make sure the shadow TIFF overlaps the background TIFF, and that no other page elements are selected. The Burn button on the I Shadow palette becomes available.

Burning Shadows Into Underlying TIFFs

Shadows created with I Shadow may be fused into background images to help give a document an integrated, three-dimensional look. To fuse a shadow into a background image, a few requirements need to be met:

• Two TIFFs are needed, with the shadow TIFF overlapping the back- ground TIFF in graphic boxes on the QuarkXPress page.

• The shadow TIFF must be a grayscale TIFF. This TIFF should be uncompressed or should use only CCIT or LZW compression.

• The shadow TIFF must be in a standard rectangular box with a 0 pt corner radius.

Now select the way the TIFFs should be fused from the Burn/Dodge popup menu, then select the burn or fuse function from the Darken/Multiply popup menu. For more details about these controls and how they interact, see the section of this manual titled The I Shadow Palette. Once all of the controls on the palette are set as desired, click the palette’s Burn button.

I Shadow displays a file dialog, prompting the user to enter a name and set the location for the burn or dodge being created. If Burn was selected from the I Shadow palette’s Burn/Dodge popup menu, the dialog reads “Save Current Burn as”. If Dodge was selected from the I Shadow palette’s Burn/Dodge popup menu, the dialog reads “Save Current Dodge as”.

Creating a Simple Drop Shadow

I Shadow can also apply simple drop-shadows to text or graphic boxes. These simple shadows use only standard QuarkXPress objects. To create this kind of a drop shadow with I Shadow, first select the text box or pic- ture box to be shadowed. Next choose Shadow Box… from the Utilities menu.

When the user clicks the Save button, I Shadow fuses the shadow into the background TIFF, generating a new TIFF file. Then the XTension removes the original background image and replaces it with the new TIFF that has the shadow fused into it.

The Drop Shadows dialog allows the user to set all of the specifications for creating a drop shadow. Enter the desired offsets in the Down and Across editable fields. Then choose the color desired for the drop shadow from the Color popup menu. The color’s shade may be selected either by using the Shade popup menu or by highlighting the current percentage and typing in a new one. When all of the controls are set as desired, click the Shadow button to create the drop shadow. The box created for the drop shadow is always a graphic box, since graphic boxes take less time to print from QuarkXPress than text boxes.

Keep in mind that only the visible portion of the shadow TIFF is fused into the background TIFF. If the user crops the shadow TIFF so that only part of it is visible on the QuarkXPress page, only the visible part is burned into the underlying TIFF. However, areas of the underlying TIFF that are cropped out by the edge of the graphic box still have the shadow image fused into them if they fall into an area underlying the shadow TIFF. This allows the user to adjust the cropping of the background image without reburning the shadow.

Since the process of burning a shadow image into the background TIFF is too complicated to have a simple “undo” command, I Shadow includes a special Revert function. To access the Revert command, select the graphic box that contains the fused TIFF image, then choose Revert Burn/Dodge from the Utilities menu. I Shadow removes the graphic with the shadow fused into it from the graphic box on the page and replaces it with the orig- inal background TIFF. This process will fail if the background TIFF has been moved or deleted, or if the volume where it is stored is not available.

The 3D Shadows Dialog

I Shadow also makes it possible to apply simple three-dimensional shadow effects to text or graphic boxes. These shadows use only standard QuarkXPress objects. The 3D Shadows dialog contains all of the controls used to create these three-dimensional shadow effects within QuarkXPress. To activate the 3D Shadows dialog, choose 3D Shadow Box… from the Utilities menu.

Example: Clicking in the lower right corner of the shadow position indicator box moves the shadow to the bottom and right sides of the box.

Creating a Three-Dimensional Shadow

To create a simple three-dimensional shadow, select the text or picture box to be shadowed, then choose 3D Shadow Box… from the Utilities menu.

Offset field — An editable field that sets how wide the shadow should be.

Color popup menu — A popup menu which is used to choose the color the three-dimensional shadow should be.

Group Boxes check box — If this box is checked when I Shadow creates the three-dimensional shadow, conveniently grouping the elements of the shadow and the original box together.

Shades Controls: Down and Across — Two popup menus which allow the user to set the shade of the selected color which will appear in both the horizontal and vertical elements of the three-dimensional shadow. The percentages can also be edited by highlighting the current setting and then entering new values from the keyboard.

Gradient to Zero check box — If this box is checked when I Shadow creates the three-dimensional shadow, I Shadow applies a blend to the shadow, making the shadow appear to fade away as it stretches farther from the box.

Shadow Position Indicator — Found on the right side of the dialog, the shad- ow position indicator is the image of a box with a three-dimensional shadow. Clicking the mouse in any of the four corners of the indica- tor box changes the position of the shadow to the two sides nearest the corner.

Once all of the controls are set as desired, click the Shadow button. I Shadow quickly creates two picture boxes to the specifications entered in the 3D Drop Shadows dialog and, if the Group Boxes check box is checked, groups the shadow and the original box together.

Minimum System Requirements

I Shadow is designed for QuarkXPress 3.32 for the Macintosh, Power Macintosh, or Windows. I Shadow is network protected and is fully com- patible with floppy, RAM, or hard disks.

This manual assumes that you are familiar with standard Macintosh and Windows procedures such as basic use of the mouse, clicking, pulling down menus, copying files, and copying disks. If any of these procedures are new to you, please refer to your operating system’s user’s manual.

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