Graphic Styles

[Custom_Grafx]

In Illustrator, they're called graphic styles, in Corel... I don't know if they exist but I'm assuming yes?

The "appearance" palette and the "graphic styles" pallets offer some pretty powerful stuff in case you never knew and well worth exploring.

You can basically set a huge number of styles onto the one object and save it as a graphic style template. This means you can then select anything, and apply the effect.

Fully scalable, editable and beautiful! Each effect is also editable afterwards for tweaking. In this department, unless things have changed since X3, corel has always had its weaknesses - admittedly though, I'm unaware if corel has similar functions.

This attachment is fully editable (you can change the text and it will automatically apply all the effects LIVE) - download and try if you will (illy cs4).

I made it just then, semi inspired by the nice Summa logo here on the forum.

Interested to see any more neat tricks and graphic styles that people have come up with, as there are so many combinations and possibilities. When you think outside the square a little, you can actually find quite a few loopholes to create some interesting illusions and access almost any desired effect, and then apply that to anything you like at the click of a button.

Note when you select it, it's only one object

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Bump!

No one uses this feature???!!

Whaaaaattt!!?!?!

 

[Flame]

You mean like a macro, or like a particular series of gradients?

Personally I find little use for either... but to each their own I suppose. Perhaps I'm missing exactly what you're referring to?

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Flame, in a sense it is similar to a macro.

Scenario when this might come in handy...

Say you have a client who loves a particular style which took alot of time to achieve. A mix of gradients, shadows, shifts, backgrounds, offset paths, etc etc.

You can keep the text live and editable, then apply your style at the click of a button. You can still edit your text and the look is there, applied, while you type.

Scenario I have used it in the past, on a menu board. Customer comes back a while later, and wants to add a heading, or change it etc. You don't need to start from scratch to get the effects happening, you just retype it and voila.

It's a productivity tool more than anything, but I would say not worth it unless you're applying a bunch of effects.

If you're familiar with PS, then it's like copying a layer style and pasting it to another layer. The beauty of it in illy is though, that it's still a vector and fully scalable. Also very easy to change any of the effect parameters, as they are all still 'live' and not permanently applied.

 

[Joe Diaz]

We sometimes find this handy. We do a lot of truck fleets. Where every truck is the same but the unit numbers. In corel, we just open a file (ie: truck #203) we select the unit number which might have gradients, contours, etc. We highlight the text, type in the new number (truck #204), the number changes but the style stays the same. Then we send it to print or plot... rinse and repeat. As long as you don't convert the text to curves this is automatic in corel.

If I wanted to apply that style to other text, you can use the Attributes eyedropper tool. It's similar to the color eyedropper tool, but copies over things like : Outlines, Fills, Fonts... Size, Rotation, Position, Perspective, Envelope, Blend, Extrude, Contour, Drop shadow, etc... And you can check and uncheck which effects or properties you want to carry over. So let's say you wanted to copy over only the font, contour and colors, but none of the other properties, you would just check, font, contour and colors. This works for other shapes too, not just text. I use it all the time, as I'm sure most Corel users do also. It's a huge time saver here.

 

[jiarby]

I do this in Corel with things like drop shadows, etc... you can save the settings and apply them to another object. You can also use the "copy proprties from" command.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Nice, but can you add as many things as you like? In illy, you can add as many strokes and fills as you like, and not only that, but apply effects/filters to each of those individually!

 

[signswi]

Use graphic styles all the time. Come up with an effect I like: save it out as a style for future use. Need to modify a job I did in the past with new type or whatever? Bring up the style instead of trying to remember all the steps I took years ago to make the effect.

Etc.

Do the same thing in InDesign (Object, Paragraph, and Character styles). Good habit to get into, if you've ever had to work in an agency or marketing department where you're getting copy straight from the copy editor and need to slam it through your branding package, re-mapping styles saves you enormous amounts of time. Use EVERY time saving device built into Adobe products, time is your most valuable asset.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Do the same thing in InDesign (Object, Paragraph, and Character styles). Good habit to get into, if you've ever had to work in an agency or marketing department where you're getting copy straight from the copy editor and need to slam it through your branding package, re-mapping styles saves you enormous amounts of time. Use EVERY time saving device built into Adobe products, time is your most valuable asset.

Sage advise right there.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Great, so there are some people here who use this

So I felt like playing around a little and made a record of 11 effects to my base text. You can literally add as many as you like it seems? Does anyone know if there's a limit?

Again, this is live, so you can retype the text, change the font, change the size of font, and all else will fall into place, including the background and the border.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to download and have a play with it (illy cs4).

Also, it's very easy to modify any of the properties via the appearances pallette.

Sorry I feel totally geeky for getting so excited about this feature, but it really is quite interesting to work with!

 

[JoshLoring]

Graphic styles are essential in illustrator. You can do amazing things and save them for future use. Graphic styles are my next favorite thing to brushes in photoshop. I've made them for everything from tattoo style shading to bling bling text. Graphic styles aren't limited either. I use them for 3d revolving of objects as well.
Enjoy them! You can really save time the more you create. I have hundreds.

 

[MikeD]

One simple one I use has all the attributes Wasatch requires for designating a cutpath; spot color (with appropriately named swatch,) stroke weight and mitre limit. On the extreme end with photoshop, you can do a similar things by recording an action that can be run to apply effects...then, export that action as a droplet and use your file management sys to apply that action (now a droplet) to batches of files. graphic styles, actions and droplets are big time savers and as you all know, time is money!
Nice Post, Custom Graphx! Very relevant!

 

[signswi]

I think we already had this thread? Using styles throughout the Adobe suite is just good practice. Especially if you ever get into InDesign. Has saved me thousands of hours over the years. With sign work it's not as crucial (good for branding as mentioned) but if you ever end up doing layout for a book or something type and object styles will save your life.