Chapter 14. Getting Ready to Draw


IN THIS CHAPTER:

106 Set Draw Options

107 Create a New Drawing

108 Open an Existing Drawing

109 About Drawing with Draw

110 Print a Drawing

With Draw, you can generate drawings and graphics. Draw supports all popular graphics formats such as TIFF and JPEG, both for importing images as well as for the drawings you want to export. Here are just a few features Draw supports:

  • Vector graphics Use predefined geometric shapes to generate your drawings.

    KEY TERM

    Vector graphics Graphics defined by geometric shapes such as lines, curves, rectangles, and polygons. Internally, vector graphics are stored as mathematical values, helping to decrease file size .


  • 3D objects Create three-dimensional shapes to add depth to your images.

  • Light application Adjust the perceived light source on the objects you draw to add realism .

  • Object groups Logically group objects so that when you move or resize one, other objects adjust accordingly .

  • HTML/PDF Format Besides exporting a drawing in any of several popular graphics formats, you can also export your drawing in HTML or PDF format to make them easy to view on the Internet. See 36 Save a Document as a PDF File for help with PDF.

  • Multiple Slides Each Draw file can contain multiple slides; each slide contains a single drawing. In this way, you can keep related drawings together in a single file (such as artwork for a brochure, a print ad, and a newsletter). See 109 About Drawing with Draw .

Draw supports a gallery that contains numerous graphic images, animations, sounds, and web graphics such as buttons , bullets, and backgrounds that you can use to spruce up your drawings. You can make your drawings more consistent by taking advantage of Draw's grids and snap lines .

KEY TERM

Snap lines Also called snap-to lines and refers to logical lines that align the objects on your drawing to one another. When requested , an object shifts to the closest snap line as soon as you drag that object close to the snap line. Items aligned along the same snap lines will stay in alignment unless you move them relatively far from their snap lines.


If you're a graphic design artist, you'll be surprised at the tools you can get in Draw considering its free price. If you're not much of an artist, like this author, you'll be thankful that Draw's tools can help make your drawings more presentable when you need to create them.



OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox, and Thunderbird for Windows All in One
Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox and Thunderbird for Windows All in One
ISBN: 0672328089
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 232
Authors: Greg Perry

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