Happy Independence Day! (in just 3 clicks)
July 4th is Independence Day in the United States of America, so I thought I’d show off an impressive effect you can create in QuarkXPress with just three clicks:
All I did was type “1776”, convert it to outlines, import a picture, and apply the default drop shadow.
The steps:
- To convert to outlines, choose Item> Convert Text to Boxes.
- To import a picture, choose File> Import
- To apply the drop shadow, click the Drop Shadow tab in the Measurements palette and check the “Apply Drop Shadow” checkbox
- Marvel at your cleverness
Notes:
- The process actually takes more than three clicks, but conceptually it’s just three clicks. :-)
- The flag image came from iStockphoto.com.
Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.
This easy process would have been well appreciated back in the day when it took a Photoshop EPS file and third party drop shadow xtension to create the effect. Ironically I have not had much use for this effect with later day projects but it’s still nice to know that it can be easily done should the need present itself.
Another great tip! iStock & Shutterstock rock!