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Miscellaneous
Tips and Tricks For Deneba Canvas™ 6 |
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Tip No. 1: Setting Up The Default Page
When you click File > New or startup Canvas,
it loads the default "Blank" illustration
template. The dimensions for this page is 8.138 x 10.562
inches and is based on the "Custom" illustration
size. For printing convenience many prefer to work with
US letter size (8.5 x 11 inches) and the document setup
must be changed each time a new illustration is created.
To avoid this, open a new blank illustration document
as usual, but before doing anything else click Layout
> Document Setup, then change the illustration
size from "Custom" to "US Letter".
Then click File > Save As and choose Canvas
Template (*.tpl) from the "Save as type" pulldown.
Give it a name (e.g. US_Letter.tpl) and save it in the
folder where Canvas stores its templates (on Windows®
systems, C:\Program Files\Canvas 6\Templates, or on
Macintosh® systems, Macintosh
HD:Canvas 6™:Templates). Quit and restart Canvas,
then close the default document without saving. Next
click File > New and choose your new template
from the list of new illustration templates. Canvas
will continue to present you with the last template
used to create a new document and this new template
will become the default document each time you start
Canvas until you create a new document using a different
template.
Tip No. 2: How To "Flatten" An Image
If you create images using layers or a stack of paint
objects on a single layer or a combination of both and
you wish to flatten (merge) the paint objects into a
single paint object there is no specific command for
this purpose. In order to do this, select all the paint
objects you wish to merge and click Image > Area
> Render to render them into a new, single paint
object. This will not destroy your original paint objects,
rather it will create a brand new paint object from
them and the originals will remain unharmed. Make sure
the preferences allow selection of objects across visible
layers (more
help here).
Tip No. 3: Transferring
A Selection From One Image To Another
Sometimes you will copy a paint object then create
a selection on one of the copies and realize you need
to use the same selection on the other copy. There is
no command or provision for loading a selection from
one paint object to another but there is a provision
for attaching and detaching a channel mask. Rather than
create a new selection from scratch and risk a mismatch,
simply save the selection as a new channel. Then open
the Channels palette and drag the new channel downwards
into the channel mask slot (visuals
here). Next click Object > Transparency >
Detach Mask. Select the other paint object and click
Object > Transparency > Attach Mask. In
the Channels palette, drag the mask from the channel
mask slot upwards into the alpha channels area (visuals
here). You can now place the paint object into edit
mode and click Image > Select > Load, and
the selection will be available to load.
Tip No. 4: Applying Global Color Changes To Spot
Colors
Sometimes you will want to change a spot color after
it appears in many places throughout the document. Canvas
does not maintain links to the objects using inks, so
changing them will not affect the objects to which they
are applied. Instead of changing each object individually,
use the "Find" command for this purpose (more
help here). First edit or create the new color you
wish to use. Then click Edit > Find and choose
either the fill or pen attribute. A list of all the
colors used throughout the document will appear. Choose
the color you wish to replace from the list and click
"Select". Canvas will select all the objects
having the fill or pen ink chosen. Once the objects
have been selected, simply click the ink you wish to
replace it with in the Inks palette.
Tip No. 5: Store Image Layers In Default Order
The default order in which layers are added and numbered
are from bottom to top. Layer 1 will be on the bottom
followed by layer 2, then layer 3 on the top, etc. Images
and their layers can be saved as individual Canvas files
which themselves can be reused and placed into other
Canvas documents. When this is done, Canvas will place
the layers in the default order whether they were saved
that way or not. For example, if you create an image
with the layers numbered 1, 2 and 3 from the top down
rather than from the bottom up, Canvas will rearrange
the layers into the default order when the image is
placed into another Canvas document. To prevent this
from happening, always store layered images using the
default numbers and order.
Tip No. 6: Moving The Selection
Marquee In a Paint Object
In Canvas there is no tool to move a selection marquee
as such. But you can float a selection and make it transparent.
Here's how. Make your initial selection then click Image
> Select > Float (that floats a copy of what's
under it without disturbing the original pixels). Then
here's the trick...Pull up the Channels palette and
set the Floating Opacity value down to zero if you want.
Now you can see what's under it while you move it around.
You can even use the arrow keys to nudge the marquee
a pixel at a time.
Tip No. 7: Identifying Object Stroke And Fill Attributes
In Canvas the Object Specs palette can be used to identify
some of an object's attributes, however you won't be
able to identify stroke and fill attributes with this
palette. To do this, bring up the configuration manager
of the appropriate palette and select the object having
the attributes you wish to identify. The attributes
will appear in the configuration manager.
For Example: Select an object having a stroke width
you wish to identify. Bring up the Strokes palette,
click the Pen tab and expose the Strokes manager. The
stroke width will appear in the manager.
For Example: Select an object having an ink color you
wish to identify. Bring up the Inks palette, click the
Color tab and expose the Inks manager. If the ink color
you wish to identify is used as a fill, Click the Fill
ink button and the specs for the ink color will appear
in the Inks manager.
Tip No. 8: Displaying the Text Ruler in The Default
Document
The text ruler is a handy tool bar that appears at
the top of the document window when you click Layout
> Display > Show Text Ruler. It has controls
for text alignment, font selection, point size, text
attributes (bold, italic, underlining, etc.), leading,
tracking, text color and text box properties (stoke,
fill and line attributes). The Text Ruler is part of
the document window. If you would like the Text Ruler
to appear when you start a new document, then you have
to display the Text Ruler on a blank document then save
it as a template (see Tip No. 1 above).
That's all for now...more later
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