Hello there, been wanting to do a Xaralx tutorial for some time now. I was'nt sure what I wanted to write about, but since the last few days there have been some questions around the Fill Tool, I have decided to write about it.
This is going to be a really simple tutorial, aimed at beginners of Xaralx. If you have been using Xaralx or some other vector illustration application for some time, it is highly possible you wont be learning anything new. Most of this stuff I've learned by just using Xaralx, so in that sense this one might even seem a little – in lack of better words – duh. So, let's get started then shall we?
The Fill ToolThe Fill Tool (
FT from now on) is located in the middle of the Toolbar on the left side of the drawing area. It's icon is a Paintbucket with orange and green color pouring out of it. You use the FT to create gradients i.e two or more colors that fade into each other.
When you click the FT icon, you'll notice the “tool info bar†changes and shows you the FT:s options.
The first drop-down menu is for the kind of gradients you can create. The second one let's you select if you want a Simple or Repeating gradient. With the third one you can adjust how the FT blends your gradients. The fourth and final drop-down menu is for selecting bitmaps when using an texture or image fill. The Arrow button opens the Profile window where you fine tune some of the gradients, we'll get into that later. And last but not least the End/Star Colour thing just shows you if you're using a “named†or “local†color, not important for this tutorial (someone write a short tutorial on how to use that, it's supposed to be a great feature but I don't know how to use it!).
To use the FT, create a shape and click the FT icon and then click and drag over the shape. Make sure the shape is selected.
If you want to change the colors of the gradient either click - with the FT - the node you want to change the color of, or by pushing the TAB key you can select which node to change the color of. When you've selected the node you want to change color of, click on a color from the color bar at the bottom of the window or using the Color editor.
By moving the nodes up and/or down you can adjust the amount of the colors to show, like so:
Tip1: Holding the SHIFT key down while creating the gradient, creates a Circular gradient.
Tip2: Holding the CONTROL key down while dragging, will make a straight line. Really usefull when working with small gradients. Works with most of the tools.
Tip3: When moving nodes you can use the Arrow keys on your keyboard. Hold SHIFT down to make longer “jumpsâ€. Works with most of the tools.Adding more nodes to a gradientTo add several nodes to a gradient, just double click on the gradient line with the FT. Change the color of the new nodes the same way as for the first two. You can also change the positions of the nodes.
You can add as many nodes as you want.
Fill typesAs I mentioned earlier, you can change the fill type in the first drop-down menu on the tool bar. Most of the fill types are pretty self-explanatory.
Circular and Eliptical fills work the same way as the Flat fill. You can click and drag the middle node to move it around the shape.
The bitmap fill let's you fill any object or shape with a texture or image. First import the image you want to use for the fill and then select it from the fourth drop-down menu. You can adjust the density and the angle of the fill by dragging the nodes.
Fractal cloud and plasma fills are usefull when you want to create some variety into a shape such as a background.
All the fill types basically work the same way. Click, drag, move nodes around and change their color.
Change Fill Effect
The Fill Effect – also know as the third drop-down menu
– adjusts how colors are blended in a gradinent. Simplest way to explain it is to tell you just try it. The choices are Fade (default), Rainbow (adds a color to the gradient) and Alt Rainbow (same as Rainbow only its a different color). I've never used this feature.
Profile
The profile editor is for fine tuning your gradient. Clicking the Arrow opens the Profile editor. You can either select one of the pre-defined profiles (five all-in-all) or drag the rulers at the bottom. The top ruler adjusts the Glow of a gradient and the bottom one adjusts the width of it.
To square this one of I'm adding some examples of different gradients, enjoy.
OK, that's it for this time. If you think something is missing please tell me and I'll add it. Thank you for reading
I hope you've learned something. And always remember “
Talent only covers 1%, the rest is just hard work.â€
