Datasheet

FIGURE 1.3

Flow documents resize optimally for their window size and screen resolution, and can contain user

interface elements such as, the slider and buttons shown here.

Blend offers a wide range of text controls. Labels are available to provide access key support, so

that users can access controls easily from the keyboard. Blend’s enhanced typographic support

allows you to add different styles of type while using the same font — you can add swashes and lig-

atures and more to your user interface. You can also use Expression Design to create sophisticated

typographic designs and import them for use in Blend.

For more about enhanced typography, see Chapter 10.

Incorporating animation into your design

Blend provides you with multiple timelines in which you can animate your vector objects, controls,

3D objects, video, or bitmap images on 3D planes — practically anything you could want to ani-

mate. You can define two points on a timeline as keyframes, and Blend fills in the changes in the

objects on the timeline between the two keyframes. On a keyframe you can change something

about an object, such as color, rotation, position, size, and any combination of those or more, and

Blend creates the animation between the two keyframes for you. For example, you can animate

buttons to move or rotate when you move your mouse over them. Or you can animate colors of

controls to change when you use them. You can also connect an object to a motion path that

defines the path on which the object moves between the keyframes.

CROSS-REF

Exploring New User Interface Techniques

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