Re: Centering Text

by =?iso-8859-1?Q?St=E9phane?= Bergeron <stephberg(at)videotron.ca>

 Date:  Mon, 24 Jan 2000 18:09:58 -0500
 To:  hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org
 References:  erols
  todo: View Thread, Original
At 01:35 PM 24/01/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi folks - I need to create a series of text buttons with the text=
 perfectly
>centered in each one so that when I use mouseovers, the text doesn't appear
>to shift.  I have PaintShop Pro 6.0, which does a great job on the text,=
 but
>doesn't have a centering feature that I can locate.  I have Photoshop 5.0,
>which doesn't offer italics for the same font that PaintShop Pro offers in
>italics. I have MS Image Composer which centers objects perfectly, but the
>anti-alias feature makes the black text too soft and gray.  Oh yeah, I have
>Fireworks as well, but have never used it.
>
>Does anyone have any suggestions on how I might do this?  I want each=
 button
>to have text in black for the mouseover, and gray for the default.  Trying
>to center manually in PaintShop Pro is too imprecise for my needs, or I'd
>stick with that.

If you have Fireworks I suggest you open it and learn it... ;-)  For Web=20
graphics it's the best I have found and it can do what you describe very=20
easily (and quite a lot more...).  If you purchased the downloadable=20
version you can get the manual from Macromedia's site (in .pdf=20
format).  Also, if you have version 2.0 and can afford to upgrade to=20
version 3.0 I'd strongly suggest you do so.  For Web graphics, I personally=
=20
find that Fireworks is better than any of the editors you=20
mentioned.  Although I never tried MS Image Composer, I own Photoshop 5.0=20
and have tried PSP 6.0 extensively when it came out... I ran back to=20
Fireworks and Photoshop very quickly.  I use Photoshop very little now for=
=20
Web work; not because it's not good but because I can work a lot faster in=
=20
Fireworks and I also prefer to work in a vector environment.  I find that=20
FW is the best of both worlds.

Now, creating buttons in Fireworks is very easy and version 3.0 has a=20
specific button editor where you create the different states for your=20
buttons, save them as reusable symbols (like in Flash) and you can preview=
=20
them right in the work environment.  It's equally easy to create them in=20
version 2.0 using frames and layers but you won't be able to preview them=20
in Fireworks.  In both versions you can position your text box(es)=20
precisely using an inspector (the Info palette).  Since Fireworks is a=20
vector based tool you can center and align objects very quickly and easily.

If you need other specific help with Fireworks don't hesitate to contact me=
=20
privately or through the list.  Both versions manuals have very useful=20
tutorials you can go through quickly to learn the basic features.

HTH!

St=E9phane Bergeron

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