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Any exciting technique leads a designer to say, "Cool!
How do I make my own?" There is no fact more certain. In fact, considering
the focus on professional designing that this column has, I would not
have offered this tutorial had there not been a custom element to this
feature. Custom element may be an understatement. You can not only adjust
styles, but whatever your mind can imagine can be set as a style, a very
valuable feature for the repetitive world of Web design. Let's start with
adjusting and move on to creation from scratch. |
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Combined styles resulting in a unique texture. The
text shown here has the one of the original styles applied since the
texture in the combined style is too heavy for text.
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Combining styles
Warning! This can be an addictive activity. You can combine the styles
included with Illustrator to create new styles, often with very interesting
results. The designer Flinstones look at the left was created by combining
the Stone 4 and Cartography-Mountains styles in the RGB fills library.
The text shown below is in the plain Stone 4 style, which is one of
the benefits of combining styles. Often one of the styles will provide
a great accent texture, or in this case, allow matching text that is
legible. In the combination style the text was a series of blobs.
To combine styles, select the styles you would like to combine in the
Styles palette. Click on the icon for the side menu and select Merge
Styles. A new style will be created and placed at the end of the styles
list. If you would like to assign a name to this style, double click
on the style and type the name in the pop-up window. The new style is
instantly ready to be used in the same way as the default styles, including
combining with others.
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Editing a style
I wanted a little color in the sample above, and created a new style.
I first filled an object with the style from above. I used a teal outline
to give the effect that is shown here. Once I was satisfied with the
look, I then created a new style.
To create a style, select the object containing the attributes you
wish to save as a style. Click on the icon for the Style palette side
menu and select New Style. Type a name for your style when asked, or
accept the default name. Once again you have a new style ready to use
on other objects.
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You can do the same without starting with a style at all. Create an
object, add fills, brushes, transparency. Perfect the look, and then
create a style. Click on the icon for the Style palette side menu and
select New Style. Type a name for your style when asked, or accept the
default name.
In the sample at the left, I created a rectangle with a brush stroke,
and a solid fill. I set the object transparency to 65%. I then created
a style from the rectangle, as described above. It was a one-step process
to add that style to a circle and star. Note how they all have the same
transparency as well as fill and stroke.
There is no limit to the styles that you can create. For repetitive
elements, it is well worth creating a style even if you have a solid
fill and an outline. Remember, you not only save time, but you also
increase consistency when you use automated features. The phone may
ring 25 times before you finish your design, which wipes all memory
of settings from your mind. But Illustrator does not forget when you
have saved a style. For that reason alone, styles are worthwhile, but
there is more.
Wouldn't it be nice to change your mind, even when you have created
75 objects with your fill. You can change your mind and all 75 items
in a flash if you have used styles. Read on.
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