Shadow Effects
Within Fireworks, there are basically four types of Shadow effects:
Drop ShadowWhen you choose the Drop Shadow effect from the Effect list, you can control the distance of the shadow, the color of the shadow, the opacity of the shadow, the softness, and the angle. You can also convert your object to a knockout, which turns the original object invisible and leaves only the shadow object.
GlowControls Halo Offset, Opacity, Softness, and Color. The default color of Glow is red #DF0000.
Inner GlowWhen you apply the Inner Glow effect, you can control the Halo Offset, Opacity, and Color. However, the glow appears inside the object instead of outside the object.
Drop ShadowInner Shadow effects are the same as those for Drop Shadow. The Inner Shadow, however, makes the object look like a hole instead of a floating element.
Glow Effects
When you apply a Glow effect, you can control the offset of the glow to the object and the offset, or thickness, of the halo or glow itself. The Halo Offset makes the glow appear heavier, or darker and thicker, while the offset control moves the position of the glow itself closer or further away from the object to which you apply it.
Open the figure called glow offset.png from the files that accompany this article.
Notice that it contains the jack width offset with glow applied to it and the offset of 5, 10, 15, and 20 applied to four different versions of the original vector shape. In each of these cases, the glow moves closer or further in to the object, depending on the main offset setting.
Select the object labeled Offset20 and click the Information icon to open the Glow Control Panel (or double-click the effect name). (See Figure 4.)
Figure 4 The Glow Control Panel in the Property Inspector.
Change the Halo Offset from 20 to 25.
You can now see that the halo, or glow, is thicker.
To make the halo darker in color or more prominent, increase the opacity by clicking and dragging the Opacity slider.
To make the halo lighter or more transparent, decrease the percentage of opacity.
To make the glow appear hard-edged, slide the Softness slider to 0.
If you want your glow to take on a watercolor appearance, slide the Opacity slider to the 70-100 percent range.
When you are happy with the effects, save your file.