Creating a graphic style can take some time. So it might be better if you just use style-making software. There are many Mac shareware titles for making graphic styles. We have tried several of them in the past. We have reviewed eClick from Kinetic Creations before for our Japanese viewers. We also have reviewed Aquatint from Stick Software. If you have Adobe Photoshop, you probably know that this software comes with many shapes and styles. First, you select Custom Shape Tool from Tools. Then choose a shape. (See Screenshot 01.) Finally, choose a style from Styles and apply it to the shape of your choice. (See Screenshot 02.) That’s also exactly how Art Text from BeLight Software works. The price for the Standard edition of Art Text is US$39.95. And the application is available in Universal Binaries.
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Okay. Let’s see how Art Text works in more details. When you use Art Text, you need to decide whether you are going to apply a graphic style to text or a shape. You can switch between Text Panel and Vector Shapes Panel under Window. Or click on one of the right-hand side corners of either panel. (See Screenshot 03.)
At first, let’s see how to apply a graphic style to text. Choose Text under Window. At the bottom of the screen, type a phrase. You can change fonts and the font size easily. At the top of the window, there is a drop-down menu next to the label that says Category. There styles are actually called materials. So choose a category at first and then select a material of your choice. (See Screenshot 04.) At the bottom of the drop-down menu, you can select Create a Material to design your own material. (See Screenshot 05.)
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Next, let’s see how to apply a graphic style to a vector shape. First, you need to switch to Vector Shapes Panel. Just click on a right-hand side corner of Text Panel. Then select a shape of your choice. (See Screenshot 06.) There are actually two kinds of graphic styles in a sense. Earlier, we applied a material to text. You can use Fill and Stroke for a simple style as well. Click on one of the lower corners of the frame to switch between Fill and Stroke Effects and Materials.
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By the way, if you choose Toggle Styles under Window, a drawer opens either to the right or left. (See Screenshot 07.) Styles… What are styles? It appears that a style is a combination of text or a vector shape plus a fill/stroke effect or a material. For example, let me pick Cherry 2 from the drawer. (See Screenshot 08.) I can actually create the exactly same style. I just need to pict the right vector shape from Vector Shapes Panel. Then I just apply a material called Cherry from Artistic to this shape. (See Screenshot 09.) Next, let me pick a vector shape that looks like an elephant. Let me apply a material from Metal (See Screenshot 10.) Then if I click on the plus sign at the bottom of drawer, I can save the combination of the elephant shape and the metal material. If I didn’t save it, it would probably take me half a minute just to find the same shape all over again from the panel because Art Text comes with several hundreds of vector shapes. Likewise, I can type up a word, select a material and save this combination. (See Screenshot 11.)
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Finally, if I want to export the entire graphic style as a file, I just need to click on the button at the bottom right corner of the screen that says Export. Then I get to adjust the area to save. (See Screenshot 12.) And if I further click on the button that says Continue, the Save As window will appear. If you choose GIF and click on Options, then you will get an option for alpha transparency. (See Screenshot 13.) However, GIF won’t be the best graphic format because a style often contains blurred shadow, which will require more colors than GIF can support. (See Screenshot 14.) So you should choose TIFF for alpha transparency or JPG for the web use.
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The version we are using is Standard. According to the software developer, there is another version called Retail edition, which “contains additional 50 Bitstream fonts.”
ArtText is a product of BeLight Software, Ltd.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 is a product of Adobe System Incorporated.
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