Blend is one of the options in the Category list on the Effects tab in an object’s Properties dialog box.
This is a potentially spectacular feature providing alpha channel blending that basically allows you to apply a pattern of transparency to the object, rather than the overall Transparency option that affects all areas of the object equally.
There are a number of preset options providing graduated transparency in various directions, and patterns and shapes, which you select from the list provided. Below is an example of the Blades effect on a piece of text:
Selecting Blend from the Category list will open the Blend panel.
Select the subcategory of Blends required by choosing from the top list (with the blue background).
Select the blend style from the list on underneath the blend category list. Selecting different styles will highlight either the Min and Max options or the Mode panel.
Use the Min option to set the minimum amount of opacity for the effect. Use the spin buttons beside the Min box to set the level of transparency. By default, the percentage is set to 0%, which means the object will be fully transparent.
Note:
The Horizontal, Vertical, NW-SE, NE-SW, Centre and Circle styles use the Min and Max options.
Use the Max option to set the maximum amount of opacity for the effect. Use the spin buttons beside the Min box to set the level of transparency. By default, the percentage is set to 100%, which means the object will be fully opaque.
Use the Mode panel to set if the image used to create the blend alpha effect is stretched or tiled. The Stretched option will resize the graphic used by the blend to fill the area of the object’s bounding box. The Tiled option will use the existing size of the graphic and duplicate it until it fills the area of the object’s bounding box.
Note:
All styles listed below (and including) Blades in the styles list use the Mode panel.
Use the <custom> option in the styles list if you want to use your own image to create a blend alpha effect. The <custom> option is the last style in the list. Selecting this option will highlight the Custom box used to enter the image to be used.
Click on the Browse… button to search for an image that will be used as the blend alpha effect – this will open the standard Windows Open dialog. The name of the image file selected will be displayed in the Custom box.
Note:
You can use any colour or black and white image to create a blended alpha channel. If the image is in colour, Opus will convert the image to a greyscale image. Any part of an image that is solid black will be 100% transparent and anything a solid white is fully opaque (i.e. 0% transparent). The levels of grey are on a sliding scale of transparency, that is, darker greys are more transparent than lighter greys.
Click on the Apply button to save your changes.
Note:
An image can be imported in any of the following file formats: bmp, jpg, jpeg, pcx, png, tga, gif, tif, tiff, wmf and emf. You can import animated gifs to be used as a blend alpha effect; for example, the Static Anim option in the styles list is an animated gif.
The custom option for this effect also allows you to use your own image, such as a corporate logo or identifier, as a way to watermark images or text in your publication. Try it and see what happens!