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Fireworks Effects: Looking at the Basic Fill and Stroke Tools

The power in Fireworks comes from the program's ability to combine many effects in one object. The heart of this power is the Fill panel, and we will take a close look at this powerful feature as our first stop.

If you have Fireworks experience, please bear with me for a few paragraphs. I am going to step through the basic fill functions in the interest of covering this subject completely. The fill and stroke functions in Fireworks are so easy to use, that even if you have just started with Fireworks today, you will be able to follow all the texture and style instructions if we pause to go over the basics.

Fill an object
You can control the fill and stroke color of an object in the Toolbox with the drop-down selectors as shown at the right. In this sample, the stroke color is black and the fill color is green.

However, if you wish to adjust the width and appearance of the stroke or the appearance of the fill, you must move to the Stroke or Fill panel. The Fill panel is shown at the left for the same object. Note that the color well is showing the color as displayed in the Toolbox.

When you draw an object, it will be filled and stroked with the current fill and stroke as shown in the Toolbox. To change the fill, make sure the object is selected with the Pointer tool, and click on the color well in the Toolbox, or in the Fill panel. Select a new color and the object will change to the new color.

As an alternative, you can select the Paint Bucket tool (shown here) and click on the object. The object will be filled with the current fill.

That is all there is adding a solid fill in Fireworks. From this point on, we will use only the Fill panel and Paint Bucket, since you cannot add texture or a pattern from the Toolbox, and that is essential to the rest of this discussion.

Editing a stroke
Stroke can be very handy when planning special effects in Fireworks. Not only can you add an outline to contain the potentially complicated patterns you will use, but you have another texture option. In addition to the preset selection of strokes, you can adjust the width and add texture to any stroke style.

Make sure your object is selected. In the Stroke panel, select the desired stroke style and assign a stroke color. Change the width of the stroke, if desired, by selecting a new tip size. Choose a texture from the drop-down list. Increase the Amount of Texture to apply the effect.

You must take a side trip to an earlier tutorial on Gradient Fills in Fireworks, though, if you are not familiar with this feature. We're about to learn some pretty cool tricks with solid color – keep in mind how much more versatile these effects will be if you can fade several colors and add texture, too.

Carry on to liven up your new fill by adding texture and patterns.

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Fireworks Effects Tutorial Index

Fireworks Effects: Choosing is the Hard Part
Looking at the Basic Fill and Stroke Tools
Fancy Fills
Adding Live Effects
Enhance Your Designs with Styles