Working with Smart Shapes

Smart Shapes can be used to decorate your document or for other purposes.
To add a shape, open the Smart Shapes tab on the Clipart panel by using the Window > Clipart > Smart Shapes menu or simply click on the tab. Drag and drop a shape to the design or click on it.

Most shapes behave like ordinary images - they can be moved, resized. Other operations on shapes are available in the Inspector window. Open it by using the Inspector button on the toolbar or through the Window > Inspector menu.

Operations common for different objects are described in Basic Operations on Objects.

In the Inspector you can change attributes of the selected shape. The main difference between shapes and images: shapes are vector objects, so you have more control on them.
Each shape has Border Line and Filling as attributes. You can find them on the Fill & Shadow tab. You can also apply a shadow to a smart shape, change its transparency and so on.

The Smart Shape can be filled not only with solid color but with an image. To insert an image into the Smart Shape, select the shape, then drag and drop the image from the Clipart into the shape.
The alternative way is the following:

1. Select the shape.
2. Open the Fill & Shadow tab of the Inspector (menu: Window > Inspector > Fill & Shadow).
3. Enable the Fill option.
4. Choose Image Fill in the drop-down list.
5. Drag the image into the box on the left from the Browse button.
6. Choose the appropriate way of filling in the Scale type option.

When you resize a Smart Shape, the inserted image gets resized too.

Scale type affects how the image will be modified when inserted into the Smart Shape.

• Fill - does not change the aspect ratio of the image. A part of the image may not be seen in the Smart Shape.
• Fit - the whole image gets into the Smart Shape, the image sides proportion will not change. Blank space may be left inside the Smart Shape.
• Stretch - the whole image gets into the Smart Shape, the image may be deformed.
• Tile - does not change the aspect ratio of the image. If the Smart Shape is not big enough, the image will be partially cut off. If the Smart Shape is bigger than the image, it will be filled with multiple copies of the image.
  To change the size of the inserted image, move to the Image tab of the Inspector, and adjust the Tile slider.

Special Attributes

To some shapes the Curve and Side Count parameters (from the Geometry tab of Inspector) can be applied.

For example, the 5-point Star can change the number of rays by means of the Side Count control and the angle of rays by means of the Curve control.

In addition to Smart Shapes, Swift Publisher has a collection of Basic Shapes: circles, rectangles, arrows and other. They are PDF vector images (that is, they don't have the special attributes of smart shapes). To find them, open the Clipart Collection tab of the Clipart panel and select Basic Shapes in the pop-up menu.