July 22, 1998

Transparent Texture Fills

This tip is how to make those Texture Fills transparent for the Mac or Windows versions of FreeHand.

Textured (Custom for FreeHand 3) fills are great for neat effects to simulate Denim, Burlap or Mezzo textures (shown at right). The only problem is that when printed or exported, they have a solid white background.

With the following methods using ResEdit or a UserPrep file, you can use these fills for neat effects in your art.

There seems to be plenty of space for a little button to turn on or off transparency at the bottom.

hint, hint, nudge, nudge

This is how FreeHand displays the effect. It will always display as opaque, even after you've used the methods below, so don't be confused by this.

 

When printed or exported, the standard Texture fill creates an opaque background. Here I used the Medium mezzo texture. It is really hard to see when using lighter colors and isn't as cool to look at.

 

Using the methods below will remove the opaqueness from those Texture fills, so you can actually see the effect and give your objects a more realistic texture.

 

WARNING

Remember, not everyone will have these "hacks" installed on their computers.

If you decide to use one of these transparent texture effects for something that will be printed elsewhere, it's best to provide an EPS or PS file so that the generated PostScript code for the transparent textures will stay intact.

Just follow the links below for the platform your using.

Version: Depending on type of platform. Version is listed with type.

 
 


Transparent Texture Fills for Mac Versions of FreeHand

There are two ways to do this for FreeHand v7 and above. One is permanent and you need to use ResEdit. The other method merely requires you to download a file, add it to your UserPrep directory, and change a few settings in your Preferences. Users of older versions will have to skip down to the ResEdit method.

UserPrep Method (Version: 7 and above)

For this method, all you need is a UserPrep file that redefines the routine "texture" that's used inside the texturedict (the library of PostScript procedures that govern the printing of textured fills). Just download the file below.

File Download

Macintosh Stuffit File ttextures.sit

After unstuffing this archive, you'll see a file called "TransparentTextures.prp" and a Read Me file that contains instructions on how to use it.

Basically, you put the TransparentTextures.prp file in the UserPrep folder within the root FreeHand directory for v7 and above. Within FreeHand, go to the Preferences and choose Export (FH 8 and above) or input/output (FH 7). Next type in the name "TransparentTextures.prp" (w/o quotes) in the UserPrep area.

Now all of your Textures will export and print transparent.

ResEdit Method (Version: 3 and above)

With the help of the resource editing tool ResEdit, you'll be able to make those Textured fills transparent. If you are uncomfortable "Hacking" FreeHand with ResEdit I suggest going back up to the UserPrep method.

ResEdit can be acquired at most Mac related places on the Net. For beginners, ResEdit is a tool that allows you to edit the innards (resources) of applications. You can customize all kinds of things that are simple (icons, cursors, menus, etc.) and this example is a bit more complex, but worth it if you want more capabilities in FreeHand.

WARNING

When editing any application with ResEdit, you should always make a copy of the application first. Just select the version of FreeHand your going to edit and Duplicate it (Command + D). You can rename this to "FreeHand # mod" (# = version number your editing) so you know it's different than the original and keep it in the root FreeHand folder. You should always do your editing on the copy, so if you make a mistake you can trash the copy and start over.

Edits for FreeHand v5-10

1) First make a copy of FreeHand and open this copy with ResEdit. Scroll down until you see the "Post" resource.

This resource contains all the PostScript code FreeHand uses when you send your file to a PostScript printer or when creating an EPS file.

 

2) Now open the "Post" resource by double-clicking on it. You'll now see a long list of resources. Scroll down to the resource number 1149 and select it (don't open it yet).

When selected, choose the Open Using Template... option under the Resource menu.

 

You'll get a dialog that looks like this. Scroll down and choose the "TEXT" Template.

 

3) Now you'll see a window that has all the PostScript code that is generated when creating Textured fills.

You need to scroll down until you see the code listed at right.

The highlighted code is the code you'll be changing. This code controls the opaqueness seen in the fills.

      gsave
      [0 0 0 0] vc
      filler
      grestore
      supdict begin
      /txsave save def
      newinside
      vc
      etc...

 

4) All you have to do is add a Percent (%) symbol before the highlighted lines of code. This turns off the opaque option for the final output of the Texture Fills.

      %gsave
      %[0 0 0 0] vc
      %filler
      %grestore
      supdict begin
      /txsave save def
      newinside
      vc
      etc...

 

5) Save the changes to the copy of your FreeHand and quit ResEdit. Now when you print or export these Texture fills in this modified copy of FreeHand, they will be transparent.

Edits for FreeHand v4

Use all the steps as above, except in step 2, edit the Post resource number 1147 instead.

Edits for FreeHand v3.1

Use all the steps as above, except for the following:

  • In step 2, edit the Post resource number 10006. Use the STR# resource template when opening this resource.
  • In step 3, scroll down to the strings numbered 54-57.
  • In step 4, add the % symbol before the commands in these strings.

If you decide you don't like the effect or wish to make the effect but leave the solid background, you can either go back to your original copy of FreeHand or clone the object and fill it with a Basic color.

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Transparent Texture Fills for Windows Versions of FreeHand
Version: 7 and above (Thanks to Olav Martin Kvern for this great information)

On the Windows side, all you need is a UserPrep file that redefines the routine "texture" that's used inside the texturedict (the library of PostScript procedures that govern the printing of textured fills). Just download the file below.

File Download

Windows Zip File ttextures.zip

After extracting this archive, you'll see a file called "ttexture.prp" and a Read Me file that contains instructions on how to use it.

Basically, you put the ttexture.prp file in the Usenglsh -> UserPrep folder within the root FreeHand directory for both v7 and above. Within FreeHand, go to the Preferences and choose Export (FH 8 and above) or input/output (FH 7). Next type in the name "ttexture.prp" (w/o quotes) in the UserPrep area.

Now all of your Textures will export and print transparent.

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