Logo Design Studio Pro Guide – Part
Working with Graphics
Logo Design Studio Pro includes professionally designed graphic objects that you can add to your logo project, as well as the ability to add digital pictures. You can rotate, resize, and crop these images as you see fit.
Adding Objects to the Canvas
The Objects can be found in a slide-out pane on the left of the logo canvas; simply move your mouse pointer over this tab to get it to slide out. Once the pane is out, you can keep it open permanently by clicking the pushpin icon at the top right of the pane. If the Objects tab does not appear to the left of the logo canvas, you can add it by clicking the Objects button, found in the View menu.
This will display the Objects dialog in the upper portion of the left-slide out pane. Choose one of the object categories to display the objects associated with it in the lower half of the dialog.
Click on one of the objects to select it; the background around it will appear blue. Move your mouse cursor over to the work canvas; then click on the canvas to add the object. Your object will appear on the canvas with each of its component layers surrounded by sizing handles. To move the entire object as a unit, select the Group option under the Group drop-down in the Arrange section of the Home menu.
To move only some of the layers, click on the canvas to deselect the object’s layers. Then, click an individual layer to select it and drag it to another location on the canvas. (You may also select multiple layers and group them to move them as a unit.) To delete selected object layers, press the Delete key on your keyboard.
You can manipulate the object or any of its layers by using the sizing and rotational handle dots that appear around the object or by using the object manipulation tools in the Advanced Tools slide-out pane on the right of the canvas that appears when an object on the canvas is selected. The Advanced Tools pane also allows you to adjust the width and height of the selected item on the logo canvas.
You can also change the color of any selected object(s) or object layers by using one of the color options from the Color menu tab, and you can add special effects to the way the object or its layers appear by using the choices in the Effects menu tab.
Note: To prevent object layers, or other objects from being selected accidentally, first select each element you want be left alone, then lock their layers. You can then do a Select All on the unlocked layers, group them, and move them without disturbing the other elements.
Modifying Objects on the Canvas
You can modify different characteristics of the objects on the Logo Design Studio Pro canvas using the program’s intuitive set of tools. Using these tools you can easily modify the size, position, appearance of each layer in a design object and easily add color, images and effects to them.
Note: The following instructions can be used with individual object layers or entire objects. Because objects come onto the canvas ungrouped, you must first group all the layers together to manipulate the object as a whole. Otherwise, you will be able to manipulate only the individual layer(s) you selected.
Resizing Object Layers
To resize an object layer on the canvas, click the object you want to resize. It will be surrounded by a group of sizing handle dots; when you move your cursor over one of them, it will change to a two-headed arrow, indicating the directions you can move the cursor to enlarge or shrink the layer. To enlarge your object layer, hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor away from the shape’s center; to shrink your layer, drag the cursor toward the layer’s center.
Advanced Object Layer Manipulation
You can use the following options under the Shapes tab of the Advanced Tools menu with objects. (To display the Advanced Tools slide-out pane, click the Advanced Tools button on the right sidebar or in the View menu.)
Adding Color or Images to Object Layers
To change the color of an object layer, select that layer and click the Color menu tab. (You may select several layers for recoloring.)
Adding Effects to Object Layers
You can add Outer Glow, Drop Shadow, Bevel, Blur, and Emboss effects to your selected object by clicking on the Effects menu tab, and then choosing the effect you want by checking the box in the upper left of the corresponding section of the Effects menu.
Note: If you are not satisfied with the results, use the Undo button on the Home menu to restore your object to the way it was before you made the change. You will probably have to do this for the first few times you create logos until you become more comfortable with the program.
Adding Pictures to the Canvas
You can import and manipulate any graphic, image or picture located on your computer directly into Logo Design Studio Pro using the buttons found in the Graphics section of the Insert menu tab.
Inserting a Picture
Click the Picture button. A browser window will open. Navigate to the filename of the picture you wish to import, select it, and click Open. Your picture will appear in the upper left corner of the canvas. Click the picture to display a set of sizing and rotation handles around it. You can drag the picture to any other location on the canvas or resize it by dragging one of the sizing handle dots. You can rotate it by positioning your cursor over the rotation handle (your cursor will change to a set of four directional arrows), clicking your left mouse button, and moving your mouse left or right to rotate the picture.
Cropping a Picture
Cropping a picture is a four-step process:
- First, select the picture you wish to crop.
- Next, click the Select button in the Graphics section of the Insert menu. Drag your cursor over a section of your picture and release the mouse button.
- A set of sizing handles will appear on the picture. Drag these handles until they encompass the area you wish to keep on the canvas.
- Click the Crop button.
The sizing handles will change color, indicating that the selected area is now a cropped version of your original picture. You can move, resize, and rotate the cropped picture on the canvas using the sizing handles. Your original picture will remain on the canvas.
If, after selecting the area to be cropped, you decide not to create a cropped image, simply click anywhere else on the canvas. The sizing handles will disappear.
Note: These instructions are for adding pictures to the canvas. If you wish to use a picture as the background image for your logo project, you do that by using the Fill With Picture option on the Color menu.
Working with the Pen
Logo Design Studio Pro’s Pen drawing tool lets you draw freehand shapes as collections of straight and curved line segments (Bezier curves). You can then modify your drawings by increasing or decreasing the curvature of any of the segments that make up the shapes.
Drawing
Click the Pen button in the Drawing section of the Insert menu. Once clicked, the Pen button will remain highlighted, and the drawing feature will remain active, until you click any of the other control buttons on the Insert menu.
Note: Once you click another button on the Insert menu, your drawing is finished. Clicking the Pen button again will start a new drawing.
Hold down your left mouse button. As you move the mouse, notice that a line is drawn on the canvas in the opposite direction from which you are moving your cursor, but in a length equal to the distance you are moving your cursor. Release the mouse button to stop the line drawing.
Clicking the mouse button again will cause a line segment to be drawn from your original starting point to where the cursor currently is. Repeatedly moving the mouse again and clicking the left button will add more line segments, each running from the previous cursor position to the current one.
If, instead of releasing your mouse button, you keep it held down after clicking it, the last line segment you added will curve in the direction opposite you are moving your cursor. The shorter the distance between the two segment endpoints (the most recent and next most recent cursor positions) and the more you move your cursor, the steeper the curve. (If you move in the direction of the last line segment, the line will appear straight and be drawn in the direction opposite that your cursor is moving.)
Changing the Segment Curvature
Click the Direct button in the Shapes section of the Insert menu or the Direct Selection button in the Selection section of the Home menu. The Pen button will de-highlight, and your drawing will display a collection of dots at the points where your cursor had been. These dots are the endpoints of each segment in your drawing.
Move your cursor over one of the endpoints; it will change to a two-headed arrow. When you click your left mouse button, you will see either one or two red squares, with thin lines tracing from them to the endpoint. These are control points, which serve to define the shape of the curve. (One way to think of the arrangement is as if you were to draw an ellipse using a pencil and a rubber band strung over two pushpins. The pushpins serve as the control point, the rubber band as the tracing lines, and the pencil as the segment endpoint.)
Keep the mouse button held down. As you move the endpoint, the lengths and curvatures of the line segments attached to that endpoint will change, deforming them. When you have deformed the segments to your satisfaction, release the mouse button.
Resizing the Drawing
To resize the drawing, click the Object Selection button in the Selection section of the Home menu or the Object button in the Shapes section of the Insert menu. Your drawing will be surrounded with a set of sizing handles; when you move your cursor over one of them, it will change to a two-headed arrow, indicating the directions you can move the cursor to enlarge or shrink the drawing. To enlarge your drawing, hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor away from the shape’s center; to shrink your drawing, drag the cursor toward the drawing’s center.
Coloring the Drawing
When you begin a freehand drawing, the default color of the Bezier curve segments is black.
To change the color of the drawing, use the options on the Color menu. Click the Stroke button, then select either Solid Color or Gradient Color. Select the desired color.
You can also fill in the space defined by the drawing. Click the Fill button. You can now use any of the color options, including Fill With Picture and Clear Stroke/Fill, if you wish to remove a color or image you don’t like.
Notes: Filling occurs whether or not your drawing is a closed shape. What gets filled in, however, may not be what you expect.
It is possible to use the Fill With Picture and Clear Stroke/Fill options with the Stroke button, but the former option will display only a series of colored lines, and the latter will erase the drawing from view.
Adding Effects to Drawings
You can add Outer Glow, Drop Shadow, Bevel, Blur, and Emboss effects to your drawing by clicking the Effects menu tab, and then clicking the checkbox(es) for the section(s) whose effects you wish to apply to your shape.
Before selecting a color option, select the Fill button to apply the color option to the interior of the shape or the Stroke button to apply the option to the shape border.
Advanced Drawing Manipulation
You can use the following options under the Shapes tab of the Advanced Tools menu with freehand drawings. (To display the Advanced Tools slide-out pane, click the Advanced Tools button on the right sidebar or in the View menu.)
- Click Duplicate to duplicate the drawing. The new drawing appears lower and to the right of the original and may be moved and manipulated by selecting it.
- Click Delete to remove the selected drawing from the canvas.
- Slide the Opacity slider to the right to make the drawing more opaque, to the left to make it more transparent.
- Slide the Stroke slider right to widen the thickness of the drawing outline, to the left to make it narrower.
Working with the Pencil
Logo Design Studio Pro’s Pencil drawing tool lets you draw a continuous straight or curved line freehand. You can then modify your drawings by increasing or decreasing the curvature of any of the many individual segments that make up the drawing.
Drawing
Click the Pencil button in the Drawing section of the Insert menu. The Pencil button will remain highlighted, and the drawing feature will remain active, until you click any of the other control buttons on the Insert menu.
Hold down your left mouse button. As you move the mouse cursor over the canvas, a trailing line will appear behind it. Release the mouse button to stop the line drawing.
Changing the Segment Curvature
Click the Direct button in the Shapes section of the Insert menu or the Direct Selection button in the Selection section of the Home menu. Your drawing will become a large collection of dots where your cursor had been. These numerous dots are the endpoints of each segment in your drawing.
Move your cursor over one of the endpoints; it will change to a two-headed arrow. Hold down your left mouse button and drag the endpoint in any direction. Your line segments will stretch themselves out to that endpoint from the two endpoints formerly adjacent to it. To see the results of your deformation, click the Object button in the Shapes section of the Insert menu. The segment endpoints will disappear, and the deformed drawing will be surrounded by a set of sizing handles.
Resizing the Drawing
To resize the drawing, click the Object Selection button in the Selection section of the Home menu or the Object button in the Shapes section of the Insert menu. Your drawing will be surrounded with a set of sizing handles; when you move your cursor over one of them, it will change to a two-headed arrow, indicating the directions you can move the cursor to enlarge or shrink the drawing. To enlarge your drawing, hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor away from the shape’s center; to shrink your drawing, drag the cursor toward the drawing’s center.
Coloring the Drawing
When you begin a freehand drawing, the default color of the Bezier curve segments is black.
To change the color of the drawing, use the options on the Color menu. Click the Stroke button, then select either Solid Color or Gradient Color. Select the desired color.
You can also fill in the space defined by the drawing. Click the Fill button. You can now use any of the color options, including Fill With Picture and Clear Stroke/Fill, if you wish to remove a color or image you don’t like.
Notes: Filling occurs whether or not your drawing is a closed shape. What gets filled in, however, may not be what you expect.
It is possible to use the Fill With Picture and Clear Stroke/Fill options with the Stroke button, but the former option will display only a series of colored lines, and the latter will erase the drawing from view.
Adding Effects to Drawings
You can add Outer Glow, Drop Shadow, Bevel, Blur, and Emboss effects to your drawing by clicking the Effects menu tab, and then clicking the checkbox(es) for the section(s) whose effects you wish to apply to your shape.
Before selecting a color option, select the Fill button to apply the color option to the interior of the shape or the Stroke button to apply the option to the shape border.
Advanced Drawing Manipulation
You can use the following options under the Shapes tab of the Advanced Tools menu with freehand drawings. (To display the Advanced Tools slide-out pane, click the Advanced Tools button on the right sidebar or in the View menu.)
- Click Duplicate to duplicate the drawing. The new drawing appears lower and to the right of the original and may be moved and manipulated by selecting it.
- Click Delete to remove the selected drawing from the canvas.
- Slide the Opacity slider to the right to make the drawing more opaque, to the left to make it more transparent.
- Slide the Stroke slider right to widen the thickness of the drawing outline, to the left to make it narrower.
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