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Freehand: Shadows, Smudges, and Embossing

Freehand allows you to add emphasis to your paths by adding shadows, smudges, and embossing effects to them. The details are below our examples. (With each function here, you can see your changes before you make your decision if you click Apply.)

Face with drop shadow added Face with smudge added Face with emboss effects added
Drop Shadow Smudge Effect Emboss Effect
Drop Shadow
A drop shadow makes it appear as though your path is a three-dimensional object and there is a light source shining upon it. To create a drop shadow, open the Xtra tools toolbar and double-click the drop shadow tool.

Smudge Effect
You can also use the smudge tool to simulate the effect of a drop shadow. If you use the "soft edge" feature, you can generate a long drop shadow. To create a smudge, open the Xtra tools toolbar and double-click the smudge tool.

Emboss Effect
The emboss effect makes your object look as though it is raised up from the "surface" of the screen. A pretty neat effect if done well. (Whereas with our example above, it just looks silly.) To emboss a path, select it, open the Xtras pull-down menu, choose Create and then Emboss.

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