Zoner Draw 4 Tutorial - 3D Buttons

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This is the first tutorial from series of tutorials for Zoner Draw 4. First of all let me tell you few words about this product. Zoner Draw 4 helps you quickly and easily draw graphics that meet your widest possible needs. Use it to create brochures and leaflets, illustrations, business cards, price lists, letterheads, postcards, titles, greeting cards, maps, building plans, and more. Its clean, intuitive, and well-organized environment makes even its most powerful functions easy to use for anyone.

To get more information about Zoner Draw 4 please visit www.zoner.com or read the review from Tim Skyrme at About.com's graphics software site.

You can download 30-day trial version of Zoner Draw 4 here.

1. Draw 3 concentric circles on the page. The easiest way to draw concentric circles is using the grid (File | Document Properties..., Grid tab) or guidelines: pull out a vertical guideline from the left ruler, then a horizontal one from the top ruler, and center the circles on the intersection of these guidelines. In either case, draw the circles from their center by holding Shift as you draw.

Be sure to draw the circles from largest to smallest, so they do not hide one another. (If you've already drawn them in a different order, select the circle you see and use the Objects | Order | To Back menu item.)

2. Display the Fill gallery (Ctrl+1), then select a linear gradient fill (fountain fill) that starts at dark red and ends at light red. Give the fill an angle of 45 degrees.

Apply this fill to the first and third circles (select them and click the green-checkmark button in the Fill gallery).

Click the 'Swap colors' button to switch the order of the colors in this fill, then apply it to the middle circle.

3. Select all the circles, then left-click the null-color box (the one with the "x") so they will have no pen color.

4. Now you just need to add text. The example here uses artistic text with a basic shadow.

5. Other modifications - This simple tip demonstrated an interesting visual effect created simply by of joining objects that have gradient fills facing in opposite directions. Use your creativity and try making interactive buttons using JavaScript and two button images - to create the second image, just delete the smallest of the circles.

You need not limit yourself to just round buttons, of course. You can also achieve quite attractive results using regular polygons, or rectangles with rounded corners. You could also vary the button colors, but you should make certain to use light and dark shades of one color.

--By Pavel Minar

To get more information about Zoner Draw 4 please visit www.zoner.com.