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 December
20, 1998
Dashed Line Editing Techniques
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The Dash Editor has been around ever since FreeHand™ 1 and really hasn't changed at all. To access the editor, just Option (Alt) + Click on an existing dashed line in the pull down menu of the Inspector palette. Depending on what dashed line you pick and how your document measurement is setup, you will see a dialog box like shown at right. Here you can choose how many units of measurement are turned On or Off for the line in four different instances. The one major downfall of editing dashed lines is that anytime you edit a dashed line, even if it's a line that already exists, FreeHand™ will add it to the dashed line pull down menu. You could end up having 50 dashed lines with very little difference between them making it difficult to choose the right one. |
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On:
Off:
12
2
2
2
2
2
0
0
The first number is where
the line will start. So for the above example 12 will repeat
after the last instance of 2. If the value of 0
is entered, it will skip to the next number entered.
On:
Off:
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
By playing around with different
On/Off combinations and line weights, you can achieve certain
special effects. Above I created a line that Cartographers would
use to symbolize a railroad line on a map.
The first line is a basic 1 pt. line. Then I cloned this line and gave it a 6 pt. weight with the above dashed line measurements. There is a similar way to create this type of line in the PostScript Line Effects tip in the Tips Archive.
By moving some of the lines around
or adding color, you can add even more flare to the effects. Above
I used the same dashed line as above but gave it a Red
color. I then moved the Black line down a few points. You
can save the lines as Graphic Styles for later use to apply
to curvy lines for example.
The above line is an example of using
many different dashed lines with different colors and end cap
options. Something like this could be used for a fancy border
for example. Below is how the above line is broken down.
On:
Off:
4
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
On:
Off:
4
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
Basic 7 pt. Line with Red.
Cloned, then Basic 6 pt. Line with Black.
Cloned, then 4 pt. Line with White and Round Caps using Dash Editor:
Cloned, then 3 pt. Line with Green and Round Caps using Dash Editor:
Cloned, then 2 pt. Line with Yellow and Square Caps using Dash Editor:
On:
Off:
4
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
Speaking of railroad tracks and borders,
I created this fun border above at right using a combination of
the above techniques and the Expand Stroke operation.
I started by creating a square with a thick line weight of 10 pt. and a corner radius of 10 pt. for the curves, then applied a custom dashed line. After giving this line a Brown color, it took on the appearance of railroad ties. For the tracks overlaying the ties, I cloned the line and reduced the weight to 7 pt. I then applied the Expand Stroke operation on this line, entering 7 as the value. Then I just removed the fill and gave the resulting shape a 1 pt. line.
These are only a few ideas of how you can really get creative with the Dash Line editor. If you have any great techniques you'd like to share, please send them in via the Feedback page. 
