Working with clipping paths in Macromedia

Working with clipping paths

You can fill a closed path with other objects: vector graphics, text, or bitmap images. These paths are called clipping paths, and the items they contain are called contents or paste insides. Contents extending beyond the clipping path are hidden, not deleted, and you can edit, move, and transform them.

Note: You can use a composite path as a clipping path only if you create the composite path before pasting objects inside.

When transforming a clipping path, you can choose whether the transformation affects the contents.

To create a clipping path:
 

Expanding a path

You can expand the stroke of a path to change a path into an object. For example, a simple path with only two points will become a closed, rectangular path with four points after you expand it.

When you expand an open path, the result is a filled, closed path. When you expand a closed path, the result is a composite path.

Expanding a stroke lets you edit its shape and add additional fills, such as gradient, lens effects, textures, and tiles.

To expand the stroke of a selected path:

1	Do one of the following:
	Choose Modify > Alter Path > Expand Stroke.
	Choose Windows > Toolbars > Xtra Operations, and click the Expand Stroke icon.
	Choose Xtras > Path Operations > Expand Stroke.
2	In the Expand Stroke dialog box, enter a value in the Width text box or adjust the width using the slider control.
3	Adjust the Cap, Join, and Miter Limit settings.
4	Click OK.

Insetting a path

Inset Path expands or contracts one or more closed paths by a specified amount and creates additional paths that follow the original path's outline. You can specify the number of additional paths as well as their location and spacing.

To create an inset path of a selected path:

1	Do one of the following:
	Choose Xtras > Path Operations > Inset Path.
	Choose Modify > Alter Path > Inset Path.
	Click the Inset Path button in the Xtra Operations toolbar.
2	In the Inset Path dialog box, enter the number of paths to create in the Steps text box. A value of 1 replaces the selected object; a larger value creates the specified number of paths. Inset paths are created as grouped objects.
3	For steps greater than 1, choose the spacing for the inset paths.
	Uniform spaces the inset paths evenly.
	Farther creates more space between the paths closer to the original and less space between paths farther away.
	Nearer creates less space between the paths nearer to the original and more space between paths farther away.
4	Enter an inset value in the units of measurement for your drawing, or adjust the inset using the slide control. Positive numbers place the new objects inside the original. Negative numbers place the new objects outside the original.
5	Adjust the Join, and Miter Limit settings.
6	Click OK.

Working with blends

You can create a blend from two or more paths that have the same fill and stroke type. Blending creates a series of intermediate objects between the original paths. Beginning with the bottom object in the stacking order, each intermediate object's shape, stroke, and fill becomes closer to that of the object at the top of the stacking order.

Freehand creates a blend as a group of objects. Ungrouping a blend discards its blend properties. You can modify a blend using the Object inspector or by modifying a sub selection of the blend group. FreeHand automatically regenerates the blend. You can create a blend between selected points on the original objects, creating different results than an object-to-object blend. The selected points determine the shape of the intermediate blend objects. Path direction can also affect blending.

Blends between spot colors result in intermediate steps using only tints of those spot colors and will print on two separation plates. When printing a spot-to-process blend, the spot color is set to overprint the process color. Steps in spot-to-spot and spot-to-process blends are set to process colors if the blend is ungrouped. This also occurs if incompatible colors or fills are chosen, or if the blends are exported to earlier versions of FreeHand or to applications such as Illustrator, which may not support spot colors in blends. Blends work with basic and gradient fills only. Blends do not work on bitmap images.