Plain Fill

Use the Plain Fill buttons to fill closed rectangles, ovals, splines, poly lines, and freehand shapes with a single color. There are three types of fills: None, Even/Odd and Non-Zero. For simple shapes, the Even/Odd and Non-Zero fills give the same results, but for more complex shapes, the fills may differ. You don't need to understand how the fills are determined to use them; just try all three types and use the one which gives the results you want. Set the color of the fill with the Plain Fill color well that is at the bottom of the inspector. If you want a fill with multiple gradations of colors, use the controls in the Fill inspector to control your fill (see Fill Inspector later in this chapter).

If you would like to know how the fills work, here's a brief explanation. Each method determines whether a point is “inside” the shape by extending an imaginary ray from the point in any direction and examining each place where the ray crosses one of the boundary lines of the shape.

Even/Odd: Count the number of times the ray crosses a boundary line. If the number is even, the point is outside the figure. If the number is odd, the point is inside.

Non-Zero: Starting with a count of zero, add one each time a boundary line crosses the ray from left to right and subtract one each time a line crosses the ray from right to left. If the result is zero, the point is outside the figure; if it's non-zero, the point is inside.

None

Even/Odd

Non-Zero

6

TOC | PREV | NEXT
Created by Stone Design's Create on 4/26/2003