The Fill Panel

The Fill Panel is very similar to the Stroke Panel in that it allows you to modify the appearance of the fill of your vector shapes whether they be polygons or text. The Panel also allows you to apply a texture to your fill which will give it an organic appearance. The Fills you create can, in many cases, be modified by the Paint Bucket tool. 

At the top of the Fill Panel you will find the Fill Category drop down menu. This menu allows you to select from a range of gradient, pattern, and dithered fills.  The settings for Solid and None are self-explanatory.

You can create web safe color fills by selecting Web Dither from the Fill Category drop down menu. Select an object on your screen that contains a color fill that isn’t part of the web safe palette and select Web Dither as your fill. Fireworks will create a dithered fill that visually approximates the original color and can be displayed in any web browser at any color depth.   

Selecting a Pattern Fill allows you to use preset photo-realistic images for your fill. A sub menu called Fill Name will appear below the Fill Category drop down menu if you select this type of fill.  Fireworks provides you with a number of packaged patterns which you can augment by selecting "Other…" from the bottom of the Fill Name drop down menu.

The Gradient Fill options at the bottom of the Fill Category drop down menu can be modified in many different ways. You have standard gradients, such as linear and conical, and non-standard gradients, such as satin and wavy. You can access different variations on each gradient through the Fill Name drop down menu.  You can also edit the colors and appearance of your gradient if you select Edit Gradient from the Fill Panel Pop Out menu. An Edit Gradient Dialog box will appear.

You are presented with two windows. The top one displays the color ramp, a window that lays out the colors that the gradient uses, and the bottom shows you the way the gradient fill appears when it is applied. You can use a number of preset gradients if you select from the Presets drop down menu. You can also modify the colors and position of the colors within the gradient by selecting one of the swatches below the color ramp and {Clicking} and dragging. You can remove colors by {Clicking}, holding your mouse button down, and dragging up or down. You can add colors by {Clicking}on an empty spot below the color ramp. A new swatch will appear. You can change the colors by {Double-Clicking}on the swatch and modifying the color in the standard Fireworks color picker. When you are happy with your new Gradient you can select Save Gradient from the Fill Panel Pop Out menu, enter a name, and click O.K. Your gradient will be added to the list in the Fill Panel and can be used in any document you create.

Select the Paint Bucket Tool If you want to modify a singular instance of a gradient that you have applied to an object. Control arms will appear inside the gradient fill that will allow you to adjust its appearance

And now back to the Fill Panel Options…

You can change the color of your fills by selecting the color swatch to the left of the Fill Category drop down menu. The method of selecting color is exactly the same as that used for text. Please refer to that section for the particulars.

Select from Hard, Anti-aliased, and Feather to control the smoothness of the edge of your fill. A Hard edge is jagged.  An Anti-aliased edge gives you a well defined edge that is both smooth and crisp. 

Selecting Feathered allows you to blur the edge of your fill.

This slider allows you to adjust the amount of feathering you have applied to your edge. If you move the slider up to 100% the edge of your fill will become so blurred that it will hardly be recognizable.  It is important to note that a feathered blur can bleed outside of your stroke if the slider is set high enough. 

These settings are exactly the same as those in the Stroke Panel. Please refer to that section for the particulars.

Try applying a variety of fills to the circle that you placed in your document at the beginning of the unit.  Experiment with all the settings and try creating a new gradient fill.

You must select an object on your screen if you want to apply an effect. Try selecting the circle that we’ve used to demonstrate the Stroke and Fill Panel.

If you select Use Defaults the window below the drop down menu will become populated with 4 default effect settings. 

{Click} the On/Off toggles to see the how the effects look or {Click} on the "Effect Information" button to adjust the various settings for each effect.

You may, on occasion, import photographs into your document that need some form of color adjustment. The Effects Panel has a range of tools that allow you to make tonal adjustments to an image. 

Use the Brightness and Contrast sliders to increase or decrease the brightness and contrast of an image, layer, or selection. Try increasing Contrast to maximum and see what happens to "diana.png."

Use the Hue and Saturation Controls to increase and decrease the hue, saturation, and lightness of an image, layer, or selection. {Clicking} Colorize causes the image, layer, or selection to take on a duotone effect, where the image is tinted by two dominant colors.