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You are here: Home / Archives for Artistic Effects

Artistic Effects

Fuzzy Shadow on Text Oddity

December 20, 2017 By Visio Guy Leave a Comment

Visio 2013/16 and newer have added wonderful formatting effects. But how they modify your shapes can be a bit strange. I’ve figured out a few of the odd cases and would like to share my findings with you!

[Read more…] about Fuzzy Shadow on Text Oddity

Filed Under: Illustration, Power User, Shapes, Visio 2013, Visio 2016 Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Effects, Fill Format

Illustrating a Hole in a Cylinder

August 13, 2012 By Visio Guy 2 Comments

Visio is a 2D drawing and diagramming application that doesn’t support 3D modeling functions. But if you like to draw and aren’t afraid of advanced functionality, you can create some decent affects and save the expense/learning curve of other programs.

[Read more…] about Illustrating a Hole in a Cylinder

Filed Under: Business Process Modeling, Illustration Tagged With: 3D, Artistic Effects, boolean

Crayon Visio Network Shapes, Revisited

August 16, 2011 By Visio Guy 10 Comments

Looking at the number page views and download stats, the original Visio Crayon Network Shapes seem to be quite popular.

I’m happy to announce that they have been improved and extended! If you’re designing a new network or planning modifications to an existing network, these shapes are great for visually emphasizing that you are currently in the DESIGN STAGE ONLY, or this is JUST AN IDEA and that you don’t plan on working over the weekend to implement it just yet!

[Read more…] about Crayon Visio Network Shapes, Revisited

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Network Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Illustration, Images, SmartShapes

Repeating Diamond Title Visio Shape

March 3, 2011 By Visio Guy 1 Comment

If you need a catchy title for your Visio diagram, then diamonds could be your best friend!

Today’s Visio SmartShape encases each character you type in it’s own individual diamond for that perfect Retro or Argyle look!

(Just what you were looking for, eh?)

[Read more…] about Repeating Diamond Title Visio Shape

Filed Under: Illustration, Shapes, Web Design, Wireframes & IA Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Quick Text, repeating shapes, SmartShapes, Text

Visio Wood Grain Fill Pattern

June 8, 2010 By Visio Guy 18 Comments

One of my customers asked me about wood-grain fill patterns for Visio.

I had thought that Visio shipped with some wood-grain custom patterns, but when I went looking, I didn’t find much.

So…

[Read more…] about Visio Wood Grain Fill Pattern

Filed Under: CAD Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Custom Patterns, Fill Format

Get Web Hex Color Values from Visio Shapes

May 14, 2010 By Visio Guy 5 Comments

Web designers and AI folks need to know what colors they are using. And they need to know precisely.

Bright red, Fuchsia  and Mauve just won’t do. They need exacting names like: #FF0000, #FF00FF and #E0B0FF.

Since more and more folks are using Visio for prototyping web sites and user interfaces, I thought it might be useful to create a SmartShape that displays the hexadecimal color value for a particular shape.

[Read more…] about Get Web Hex Color Values from Visio Shapes

Filed Under: Illustration, Shapes, ShapeSheet, Web Design, Wireframes & IA Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Color, ShapeSheet, ShapeSheet Formulas, Smart Colors

3D Beveled Button Visio Smart Shape

April 22, 2010 By Visio Guy 6 Comments

Need a sophisticated 3D button shape for your Visio presentations?

Whether you need to indicate buttons, highlights, important notes, corrections, status lights, or just cool visuals, this highly-capable Visio SmartShape will make your Visio diagrams pop off the page!

[Read more…] about 3D Beveled Button Visio Smart Shape

Filed Under: Flowcharting, Shapes, Wireframes & IA Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Control Handles, Right-Click Actions

Visio Tutorial: Advanced Fill Effects

September 9, 2009 By Visio Guy 12 Comments

advanced-fill-effectsWhile I was writing about the Visio Spectrum Shape the other day, I started thinking about the various ways that you could use this eyesore fabulous explosion of color in your own Visio SmartShapes.

While the spectrum offers a rainbow of tints, it only comes in one form: RECTANGLE. So what if you want to spice up some arrows, or circles, or…flowchart shapes?

[Read more…] about Visio Tutorial: Advanced Fill Effects

Filed Under: Illustration, Power User Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Custom Patterns, Fill Format, Gradient, Mask, Tutorial

Visio Spectrum Shape

September 2, 2009 By Visio Guy 5 Comments

visio-guy-spectrum1A rainbow spectrum can really liven-up a diagram and clarify a point that you are trying to make.

Whether you are trying to illustrate a broad band of choices or options, talking about a range of electromagnetic wavelengths, or going for the happy feeling that a rainbow gives, a colorful spectrum can help clarify your message.

Visio does not have multi-stop gradient fills that make spectra a no-brainer to create. With clever formatting and grouping, however, you can build a passable spectrum shape. But why bother doing it yourself when we’ve got a pre-built shape, waiting for you to download (for free)?

A visible-light spectrum can be used to illustrate many concepts. A few that come to mind:

  • Electromagnetic waves
  • Solar-energy concepts
  • A range of choices
  • A family of products
  • Levels of threat to national security (stop laughing!)
  • Sunshine on a cloudy day

Whatever you want to illustrate, our Visio spectrum shape is easy to use and quick to deploy.

Since the spectrum colors can be a bit overwhelming, I’ve added a feature to quickly set transparency and soften the effect. Just right-click the Visio spectrum shape:

You can easily set four levels of transparency. They look like this:

spectrum-shape-transparencies1

All in all, it’s a pretty simple shape to use.

Once you have mastered the spectrum shape’s features, you possess the power to create vision-destroying graphics like this:

spectrum-eye-pain-11

or this:

spectrum-eye-pain-21

Sorry about that.

Stuff like this can be used to make sure your audience is paying attention when you present your next PowerPoint at Monday’s status meeting!

But if you must get real work done, then you could use the spectrum shape to enhance your business diagrams, as shown in this concoction:

the-browser-spectrum1

or this one perhaps:

computer-spectrum1

Enjoy the spectrum shape!

Download “Visio Spectrum Shape”

s!Aj0wJuswNyXlhyiZlqlm5IuyTlsm – Downloaded 3915 times – 103.00 B

Filed Under: Illustration, Shapes Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Gradient, SmartShapes, spectrum

Visio Squircles

April 2, 2009 By Visio Guy 4 Comments

squircle-visio-shapeA couple weeks ago, I briefly glanced at my annoying Facebook page and noticed that people were commenting on the “new look”, which I was fortunate enough to not notice.

What did catch my eye was a comment from one friend, who noted; “Hey, the new Facebook has squircles!” Then another replied; “Yes, squircles are so Web 2.0!”

Naturally I was put off by how folks try to Out-clever-two-point-oh each other on Facebook, but I was nonetheless curious about squircles, because they sounded…well…visual!

[Read more…] about Visio Squircles

Filed Under: Shapes Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Geometry, SmartShapes, User-defined Cells

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