Filling an Element with an Image

You can fill any element or page with an image. Comic Life comes with a variety of useful textures and effects for common situations, you can also choose an image of your own.

    To fill an element with an image:
  1. Select the element you wish to fill with an image.
  2. Click on Inspector in the toolbar, and then click the Graphic button.
  3. In the Graphic inspector, choose Image, Colorized Image, Tinted Image or Lightened Image.
  4. To pick an image click on the image well and choose an option from the pop-up menu:

    Halftones: A selection of halftone fills with variety of dot sizes.

    Speedlines: A selection of dynamic speed line effects.

    Textures: A selection of textures.

    Tiles: A selection of screen tone tiles. Best when used with the Tile image scale option.

    Choose: Presents a file picker where you can select an image of your own. You can also simply drag an image in to the image well if you prefer.

  5. Choose an image scale from the pop-up menu.

    Scale to Fit: Resizes the image to fit the element's dimensions as well as possible. If the element's shape is different from that of the original image's, parts of the image may not appear; blank space may also appear around the image.

    Scale to Fill: Makes the image appear larger or smaller, sizing it to ensure the element is completely covered by the image, even if the element and image have different shapes.

    Stretch: Sizes the image to fit the element's dimensions but distorts it if the element has a shape different from that of the image.

    Original Size: Places the image inside the element without altering its original dimensions. If the image is larger than the element, you see only a part of the image in the element. If the image is smaller than the element, there is blank space around it.

    Tile: Repeats the image inside the element, if the image is smaller than the element. If the image is larger than the element, you see only part of the image inside the element.

  6. If you chose Colorized Image or Lightened Image Fill, click the color well (the right of the image well) to choose a color. Colorizing an image preserves blacks and whites and applies the selected color or gradient to all the mid-tones. Lightening an image replaces any color that is darker than the selected color or gradient.

    If you chose Tinted Image Fill the color is applied to everything except the blacks. To adjust the tint amount drag the slider to the right or left.