## Applying effects to graphic text

When you are formatting text in a graphic item, or GIF text in an HTML item, Freeway lets you apply a range of powerful text effects including a drop shadow, glow, background color, filter effect, outline, and shape effect.

You can combine effects for impressive results, and your text remains editable at every stage so you can make changes to the wording of your site without needing to manually rework the graphics.

- Click the paintbrush icon at the top of the Inspector palette to display the text effect options:

### To add a shape effect

- Click [Arrow] next to the Shape heading to expand the Shape section of the Inspector palette.
- Choose the effect from the Shape Effect pop-up menu.

Crack adds random cracks in the characters:

You can adjust the size, spacing, and depth of the cracks using the corresponding sliders:

Wobble adds a random wobble to the outline of the characters:

You can adjust the period, randomness, deviation, and smoothness of the wobble using the corresponding sliders:

### To add a drop shadow to the text

- Click the Shadow checkbox and click the [Arrow] to the left of the Shadow heading to display the shadow options:

- Choose the color for the drop shadow from the Color pop-up menu, and its opacity with the Opacity slider.
- Leave Global checked if you want this drop shadow to use the global angle for the page. Changing the Angle then affects all global lighting effects. Alternatively uncheck Global to specify the angle for this drop shadow independently.
- Specify the angle of illumination by dragging the pointer on the Angle control.
- Use the Offset slider to specify the offset of the drop shadow, and the Blur slider to blur the shadow:

### To add an outer glow

- Select the Glow checkbox and click the [Arrow] to expand the Glow section of the Inspector palette:

- Choose the color for the glow from the Color pop-up menu, and adjust its opacity, spread, and blur using the corresponding sliders:

### To add a background color to the text

- Select the Background checkbox and click the [Arrow] to expand the Background section of the Inspector palette:

- Choose the color of the background from the Color pop-up menu and adjust its opacity using the Opacity slider:

### To change the text color

- Click the [Arrow] next to the Text heading to display the text options:

- Choose the text color from the Color pop-up menu.
- Choose the draw option by clicking the appropriate button: Draw Solid, Draw Border Only, or Draw Solid and Thicken.

For the last two options select the border thickness from the pop-up menu.

- Use the Opacity slider to change the opacity of the text:

- Use the Filter pop-up menu to add an Emboss, Blur, or Scatter effect to the text:

### To add an overlay to the text

- Select the Overlay checkbox and click [Arrow] to expand the Overlay section of the Inspector palette:

- Click the button to select the Draw option, and choose a color for the overlay from the Color pop-up menu.

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