PhotoPlus X2 User Guide - Serif

86 Painting and Drawing
• For a Pattern fill, set the Type to Pattern.
The blend options are the same, but in this mode instead of choosing a colour
you can fill a region with any pattern stored in the Patterns dialog. Click the
pattern sample to bring up the gallery of pattern thumbnails, then right-click
any thumbnail to choose a category from the bottom of the list. (See Using
patterns on p. 82.)
Gradient Fill Tool
Whereas solid fills use a single colour, all gradient fills in PhotoPlus utilize at least
two "key" colours, with a spread of hues in between each key colour, creating a
"spectrum" effect. You can fine-tune the actual spread of colour between pairs of
key colours. Likewise, a gradient fill in PhotoPlus can have either solid
transparency—one level of opacity, like 50% or 100%, across its entire range—or
variable transparency, with at least two "key" opacity levels and a spread of values
in between. (Remember that opacity is simply an inverse way of expressing
transparency.)
The Gradient Fill Tool lets you apply variable colour and/or transparency
fills directly to a layer. Five types of fill (Solid, Linear, Radial, Conical, and Square)
are available. Technically, a Solid fill is different (it uses just one colour) but in
practice you can also achieve a unicolour effect using a gradient fill.
Solid Linear Radial Conical Square
Applying a gradient fill on any kind of layer entails selecting one of the fill types,
editing the fill colours and/or transparency in a Gradient dialog, then applying the
fill. However, gradient fills behave differently depending on the kind of layer you're
working on.