The Inspector is a window which can be used to make live changes to the style and size of pages and objects within the Layout Window. Some of the items included can also be accessed from other places in the software, such as the Colourway Menu and Views settings.
It is designed as a central location which gives access to these functions from one place with changes happening in real time, at the click of a button. Click on the Inspector button in the toolbar, or open it from the Colourway Menu > Inspector. Then click through the various buttons at the top of the window to see the options available.
Page
Page and text settings such as frame, title, date, page number and registration marks can be added to the Layout Window by selecting the appropriate boxes. Changes to these settings will be seen on the layout immediately.
The number of pages being viewed across and down can also be set here by changing the numbers displayed. Pressing Enter, Return or Tab on the keyboard updates the layout straight away.
Set page to enclose objects
The page height and width can be instantly adjusted in the Layout Window using the ‘Set page to enclose objects’ button, shown in the picture below. This function eliminates the need to access the Page Set Up window if you need to increase your page size in order to fit all of your objects on the page. To further speed up your workflow, you can add the ‘Set page’ icon to your toolbar.
In the picture below, the chosen placement of the colour palette falls off the bottom of the page:
By clicking the ‘Set page to enclose objects’ button in the Inspector, you can instantly adjust the page size to fit neatly around the colour palette, as shown below.
If you wish to then add a border to your page, you can add that using the height or width settings located above this button. Alternatively, you can set a default border in the Layout Window Settings .
Background colour
This refers to the actual page colour, not the background of any design objects. Choose either:
- Substrate - the colour which is set as the Substrate in the Layers Palette
- Blank paper - no colour / white
- Custom - choose any colour in the colour chip to the right of this option
Size
Select a colourway object and adjust its dimensions, angle of rotation or locked status:
- Enter new Width or Height measurements in your chosen units and then press enter, return or tab on the keyboard to update the change
- Change the angle of a selected colour way or colour way object such as a geometric shape, text box or embedded PDF either by clicking and dragging the wheel, or typing an exact angle in the field next to it. Pressing enter, return or tab on the keyboard updates the layout straight away
Alternatively, these objects can be rotated using the standard 90°, -180° and -90° options from Edit Menu > Rotate. To do this, follow the easy steps below:
- activate the object you want to rotate
- go to Edit Menu > Rotate, and select one of the rotation presets
Note: There are no default shortcuts for these rotation options, therefore you may wish to create your own. To learn how to do this, click here.
Lock selected objects by ticking the Locked box. Unlock by unticking the box. Nodes on the selected objects will turn red when they are locked.
Set as an annotation
Text, Dynamic Text, geometric shapes and colourway objects can be made into annotations simply by activating the object, and ticking Annotate. For further information about annotations, please read the Adding annotations to the Layout Window article.
Frame
Add a frame to your selected design object by clicking the appropriate field and entering an amount. Set outer and inner frames and alter their colours as desired by option clicking on the colour block. This will open you chosen colour picker.
Style
Choose whether your geometric shapes are solid shapes, or outlines, apply shadows and opacity effects to give depth and add watermarks to your layouts:
Convert a solid shape to an outline by activating the shape, and entering a value into the Edges dialogue box:
Tick the Shadow box to add a shadow effect to selected text, geometric shapes or design objects.
Change the opacity of selected geometric shapes, palettes, embedded PDFs or text using the slider or enter an opacity % manually. Pressing enter, return or tab on the keyboard updates the layout straight away.
Grid
View a grid over the Layout window to aid layout and arrangement of colourway objects. Enter a ruler origin as the starting point of the grid and set the required cell size for each grid square.
- Tick Show to see the grid in the Layout Window
- Ticking Snap to constrains placement of objects to grid intersections
- Tick Number to display coordinate references inside each cell on the grid
Hints
When moving objects around the Layout Window, your alignment will be aided by layout hints, which are blue dotted lines. They appear on the page when two objects become aligned, either by their sides, or centrally.
You can increase the benefit of these hints by adding a spacing value in the unit of your choice. When a value is added here, hints appear when the specified space is reached between two adjoining objects, as shown below.
The check boxes in this pane allow for objects to be automatically moved, and if necessary resized, in accordance with any changes made to the page size. This means you do not have to reposition objects if you wish to change your page setup.
In the template shown below, the Layout Window is set to A3 portrait. By anchoring the logo and other key objects on the page using the necessary check boxes, these objects retain their position on the page when the layout is changed to landscape.
The pictures below show the logo is anchored to the bottom right of the page as the page setup is adjusted, using the ‘b’ and ‘r’ check boxes. By ticking ‘fix width’ and ‘fix height’ you can also ensure the logo retains it’s size as the page is adjusted.
Note: Each object on the page can be set up to have individual anchor settings
Ignore set page
Set Page is used to quickly set the size of the Layout Window to fit neatly around your colourways. Simply arrange your colourways on the page, and click Set Page.
This works well with AVA’s printer drivers, because when you go to File Menu > Page Set Up, you can simply click Set From Document (unavailable when using the Mac®OSPrinter driver) and the page size will be set to that of your layout.
However, when making some templates there may be some objects you would prefer to leave off certain page sizes. For example, you may only want to embed your logo onto large page layouts, and leave it off smaller layouts. Or you may prefer to print your smaller layouts without annotations.