Shapes and Elements

In this article, we’ll explore all the options for creating and adding Shapes and Elements in Designer.

• Adding Shapes and Elements
• Shape and Element Options
  • Colors
  • Background
  • Link
  • Settings
  • Effects
  • Animate
  • Position
  • Lock & Copy Style

Adding shapes and elements to a design is a simple matter, but with Designer, there are tons of options to make your words really pop. From 

For more on the basic elements of Designer, see our Getting Started with Designer guide.

Adding Shapes and Elements

The Shapes option allows you to add premade shapes or elements to the design.

Choosing Shapes from the Top Menu will open the Elements tab on the Side Menu:

Here, you can choose between Shapes and Elements to add to the design. There are a vast number of these, so pick ones which suit your needs.

Clicking a Shape or Element will add it to the design:

Shapes are reactive and can be resized or rotated at will:

Shape and Element Options

The Shape or Element itself has a full set of options:

• Duplicate - Creates an exact duplicate of the selected shape or element
• Delete - Removes the selected shape or element from the design
• More
  • Copy - Copies the selected shape or element to be Pasted later
  • Copy Style - Copies the style of the selected shape or element to transfer to another shape or element
  • Paste - Pastes element from clipboard over selected shape or element
  • Duplicate - Creates an exact duplicate of the selected shape or element
  • Add Component -
  • Delete - Removes the selected shape or element from the design
  • Layer - Options to change the selected shape or element layer
    • Bring Forward - Brings selected shape or element up one layer
    • Bring to Front - Brings selected shape or element to the top layer
    • Bring Backward - Brings selected shape or element down one layer
    • Bring to Back - Brings selected shape or element to the bottom layer
  • Align Elements - Options to change the selected shape or element alignment
    • Left
    • Center
    • Right
    • Top
    • Middle
    • Bottom
  • Link - Add a URL to the selected shape or element.
  • Animate - Add an animation to the selected shape or element.

Clicking the Shape or Element will change the Top Menu and apply directly to the selection:

Colors

Selecting the Colors option will open the Colors section on the Side Menu. Selecting any of these colors will apply it to the selected shape or element:

Here, choose between preset colors, colors already used in this design, or through the Color Picker option.

Color Picker

1. Color Selector
2. Currently Selected Color
3. Color Slider
4. Opacity/Transparency Slider
5. Color Code Input
6. Code Switcher - Switch between hexademical, RGB, and HSLA color codes
7. Previous Colors Used

The Color Drop Tool lets you choose any color easily.

Background

Selecting the Background option will open the Background section on the Side Menu. Selecting any of these colors will apply them to the background of your shape or element:

Here, choose between preset colors, colors already used in this design, or through the Color Picker option.

Link

Selecting the Link option will allows you to turn your shape or element into a hyperlink. It will open the Link Options section on the Side Menu:

Clicking Add Link will prompt you to enter a URL or select an asset:

Once a link or asset has been chosen, more options will appear in the Link Options section:

Expanding the Scale section will provide this option for your asset:

Here, choose how the image will be scaled. There are three options:

• Fit (default) - Fits the image to the screen.
• Stretch - Stretches the image to fill the entire screen.
• Zoom - Zooms in on the image to fill up the entire screen. Not recommended for small images on large displays, as this will create blurriness.

Expanding the Settings section will provide these options for your URL or Asset:

• Duration (seconds) - When the link is clicked or tapped, how long the link or asset will display before returning to the main design.
• Preload - When checked, the website or image will load when the design does. This reduces the amount of time it takes for the website to pop up when the link is clicked. However, having numerous links needing to load may cause lag.

Expanding the Close & Nav Bar Styler section will provide these options for your URL or Asset:

This section refers to the button that will appear on your screens when it is pushed to them. Clicking or tapping this button will return you back to the original design.

• Icon Position - Shows where this icon will appear. Defaults to Bottom Center, but can be placed anywhere along the top or bottom, or turned off entirely.
• Icon Style - Allows you to set the styling of the icon. Choose from Label, Solid, Round, or Default (see above)
• Icon Size - Allows you to change the icon’s size. Choose from Small, Medium, Large, or Default (see above)
• Icon Color - Change the hexadecimal HTML color of the icon to better fit your design.
• Background Color - Change the hexadecimal HTML color of the icon background to better fit your design.
• Opacity - Slider allows you to change how opaque or transparent the icon background is.
• Show Navigation Bar - When checked, adds small navigation arrows to the icon. Allows you to navigate quickly through multiple links. Looks like this:

Settings

Selecting the Settings button will open the Data Mapping section on the Side Menu:

Hitting Make Data Mapping allows you to make the selected shape or element dynamic, mapped to one of your existing DataSources. See our article on Dynamic DataSources with OptiSync for more information.

Effects

Selecting the Effects option allows you to change a number of different aspects of your shape or element. It will open the Effects section on the Side Menu:

Here, you have numerous options. We’ll go over each of them in turn.

Expanding the Color section allows you to add color to the shape or element. 

This is functionally the same as the Colors option in the Shapes and Elements Top Menu. Here, choose between preset colors, colors already used in this design, or through the Color Picker option.

Expanding the Background section allows you to set a specific background color for the Shape or Element to sit on. 

This, too, is functionally the same as the Background option in the Shapes and Elements Top Menu. Here, choose between preset colors, colors already used in this design, or through the Color Picker option:

Expanding the Opacity section allows you to vary the opacity of the selected area - background and shape/element.

This can be adjusted to a slider. Shown below is half opacity:

Expanding the Outline section allows you to add an outline to the shape or element, but not the background.

You can select a color from a dropdown or use hexadecimal HTML, and use the slider to change its thickness:

Expanding the Shadow section allows you to create a shadow across your shape or element. By default, all the sliders will be white.

Applying a color will create a shadow:

Changing the sliders allows you to change the blur and offset the shadow along the X or Y axis.

With a transparent background, the shadow applies only to the shape or element itself:

Expanding the Gradient section will present several gradient options for your shape or element. Clicking any of these Gradient options will apply it to your shape or element.

Expanding the Texture section will present several texture options for your shape or element. Clicking any of these texture options will apply them to your shape or element.

Animate

Clicking the Animate button will open the Animate section of the Side Menu:

For more information on Designer’s Animation capabilities, see our Animation article.

Position

Selecting the Position button will open the Position section of the Side Menu.

• Bring to Front - Brings selected shape or element to the top layer
• Bring Forward - Brings selected shape or element up one layer
• Send to Back - Brings selected shape or element to the bottom layer
• Send Backward - Brings selected shape or element down one layer
• Align to Page - Options to change the selected shape or element alignment
  • Left
  • Center
  • Right
  • Top
  • Middle
  • Bottom
• Space Evenly - Aligns the shape or element within the larger box
  • Vertically
  • Horizontally
• Flip - Flips the selected shape or element
  • Horizontal
  • Vertical
• Position - Allows specific placement of shape or element in the design
• Resize - Allows precise resizing of the selected shape or element

Lock & Copy Style

Hitting the Lock button will lock the selected shape or element in place, preventing any changes being made to it.

This is useful when dealing with many elements after getting the shape or element exactly where you want it.

The Copy Style button allows you to quickly apply the style of the selected shape or element to another.

This is useful for quickly formatting numerous elements.

That’s all!

OptiSigns is the leader in digital signage software. If you have any additional questions, concerns or any feedback about OptiSigns, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@optisigns.com.