An Easel composition consists of some combination of images,
captions, and frames. Frames are the simplest elements, though they gain
some interesting features when they are "attached" to an image.
For a quick intro to frame basics, see Adding,
Editing, and Removing Frames. For a full discussion of what you can
do with frames, read on.
In its most basic form, a frame is a transparent rectangle
bounded by a single black line 1 pixel thick. In its most elaborate form,
it is a series of concentric outlines of variable thickness, color, and
spacing. You have the opportunity to set the properties that determine
a frame's appearance whenever you create one, and you can edit them at
any time by right clicking on the frame and selecting Edit
Frame on the frame menu
that pops up. If the composition has multiple frames, you can modify all
of them simultaneously by selecting Edit All Frames.
Whenever you create a new frame, the suggested property values will be the same as the last frame created.
The shape of a frame remains a rectangle until/unless you attach it to an image with an oval, burst, or freehand crop, as discussed below.
Easel allows you to add frames to a composition either
one at a time or as a set. To add a single frame, you position the mouse,
drag a rectangle where you want the frame, then edit its properties in
the frame editor. When adding a frameset, however, no positioning or sizing
is involved. Instead, you specify the number of rows and columns, and
Easel then divides the entire composition into a grid, like a comic strip.
Once a frameset has been created, however, the frames that comprise it
have no special properties, and can be individually moved, sized, and
edited.
Although you can use Easel frames as stand-alone graphic elements, they are designed to integrate closely with Easel images. Whether you want to fit an image into an existing frame or, conversely, fit a frame around an existing image, Easel has tools and capabilities that make it easy to do.
In cases where you want to fit an image into an existing frame (eg, see the comic strip sample), fill-the-frame cropping mode is the tool of choice. FTF cropping is a special case of constrained cropping, and is virtually identical to fill-the-hole cropping except that the image crops, resizes and locates to fill the frame instead of a "hole" in the composition. To crop an image to fit a frame:
Drag the image so that the upper left corner is inside the frame
Turn on FTF cropping mode by right clicking the image and selecting Crop/Set Cropping Aspect/Fill-the-frame mode on the menu that pops up.
Perform the crop by again right clicking the image, selecting Crop/Rectangle, and dragging the desired rectangle. When you complete the crop by clicking inside the rectangle, Easel will crop, resize, and position the image to fit the frame exactly.
Although it can be done manually, the easiest way to fit a frame around an image is to "attach" the frame to the image. Better yet, when a frame is attached to an image, it not only resizes and positions itself to fit; if you move or resize the image, the frame moves/resizes with it. Also, an attached frame assumes the shape of any crop -- an oval crop gets an oval frame, etc. The image at the top of this topic shows a frame attached to an image with a burst crop.
To attach a frame to an image, right click the frame, select Attach Frame on the popup menu, then click anywhere on the image. Repeat this process to unattach a frame.
An attached frame cannot be manually moved or resized; you must unattach it first.
A final choice is to have the image fit into the frame without changing the frame or cropping the image. If you start a new composition, add a frameset, and immediately add the same number of images as there are frames, OR if you select a single empty frame and then add a single image, Easel will fit the uncropped image into the frame as best it can, filling the frame in one dimension but not the other (except in the rare case where the image and the frame have the same aspect ratio).