Mastering Styles and Symbols

Posted on Apr 4, 2025 in Arts and Humanities

Understanding Styles and Symbols

When you want to apply, create, or store a wide range of styles to text, forms, or objects, the Style panel can assist you. If the current document contains a group of styles, the Style menu in the Properties inspector provides quick access (only if a style exists in that document; otherwise, it will appear empty until one is selected).

Applying Styles: A Step-by-Step Approach

Select the objects on the canvas to which you want to apply the style.

Creating Styles: Saving Attributes

A style can save the following attributes:

  • Fill type and color, textures, angle, and position gradients.
  • Stroke type and color.
  • Filters
  • Text attributes, such as font, size, style (bold, italic, or underlined), alignment, feather, tracking, spacing, scale, etc.

The steps to create a style are simple:

  1. Create or select a vector object or text with the desired filter, fill, stroke, or text attributes.

Working with Symbols

Symbols can be created from any object, such as text blocks, and saved in the library. From the library, they can be added to documents.

Types of Symbols

There are three types of symbols:

  1. Graphic
  2. Animation
  3. Button
Graphic Symbols

A graphic symbol is an object you created and worked with. Simply save it as a symbol.

Select the image you wish to convert into a symbol.

Animated Symbols

Another type of symbol is the animated symbol. The procedure for creating them is straightforward.

  1. Open the document with the object or image to be converted into a symbol. You can also create a new one if you want.
  2. Draw on the canvas.
  3. Select the object, go to the Modify > Symbol > Convert to symbol menu, or click F8.

A window will be displayed to name the symbol.

Button Symbols

A button symbol is regularly used as a link on a webpage. Most graphic or text objects can be converted into buttons.

The steps to create a button or convert an object into one are simple:

  1. Draw the object to be converted into a button.
  2. Select the Modify > Symbol > Convert to symbol option or click F8.

Animation Symbols: Core Concepts

Animation symbols are crucial for animations because they act as the “actors.” An animation symbol can be any object created or imported. Several symbols can be saved in one document. Each symbol has its own characteristics and behaves independently. They can be modified at any moment in the Animation dialog box. Symbols moving through the canvas or that appear and disappear can be created.

Animation Symbol Properties

  • Move: The linear movement of objects, measured in pixels. There is no limit to the number of pixels.
  • Direction: Measured in degrees (from 0 to 360). Move and direction values can be modified by dragging the animation handles on the object.
  • Scaling: Change in the object’s size from beginning to end, measured in percentage. The default value is 100%, but it has no limits.
  • Opacity: Fade in or out degree from beginning to end. It’s measured with values from 0 to 100, and the default value is 100 (without limits).
  • Rotation: Degree of rotation from beginning to end. The range of values is 0 to 360, but higher values will result in more than one rotation.
  • CW and CCW: Clockwise or counterclockwise direction movement.
  • States: An animation can have up to 250 states with the slider or by specification in the State box. States are created to produce the animations, and each one has its own associated properties. To observe the appearance of the animation while it’s being edited, a state is hidden or delayed. Each state’s associated properties are assigned a name. They can be organized and their time length can be determined manually, even moving objects from one state to another.
  • Layers: Animations use layers to organize objects that are part of the décor or background.

Creating Animation Symbols

Animation symbols can be created from scratch or converted from an object. When the symbol has been created, you must establish its properties to determine the number of states of the animation and the type of action (like scale or rotation).

When a symbol is created, it has 5 states by default. Each state will last 0.07 seconds.

Steps to Create Animation Symbols

Select Edit > Insert > New symbol.