Designer uses a standard Windows-based interface.
The Designer's top section interface segments are described below.
Tabs represent subsets of Designer features. The tabs contain interrelated commands that are available to the user in an organized way – grouped, and labeled:
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File (background): opens the print form and document management panel.
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Home: offers commonly used commands such as copy/paste, print, and style commands.
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Data: offers data source related commands.
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View: gives you control over layout tools, zooming options and element markers visibility.
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Contextual tabs: appear after clicking an object. They allow you to define object-specific settings. The type of contextual tabs adapts to the selected object.
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Help: besides offering the access to F1 help, this tab leads you to multiple helpful resources that make your work with Designer easier and more efficient.
Ribbon is a rectangular area that spreads across the top of an application window. Related commands are divided into ribbon groups. The ribbon changes along with the selected tabs and adapts to the currently used tools using the contextual tabs.
The following Designer dialog boxes are equipped with a dedicated ribbon:
File tab serves as document management panel. The following options are available:
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Start: takes you to the Designer landing page.
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New: creates a new stand-alone label.
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Open: allows opening existing label.
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Save: saves the active label.
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Save As: allows saving the active label file by defining its name and location.
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Print: opens the printing form.
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Protection: prevents the label from editing.
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Close: closes the current Designer document.
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Options: opens the dialog for configuring the program defaults.
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About: provides software version information.
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Exit: closes the application.
Start panel takes you to Designer landing page. Use it to create or open documents, access recently opened files, preview files, and learn more about Designer.
New Label creates a new stand-alone label. New Label Setup Wizard opens after clicking this button.
Tip
There are two ways of opening new labels. You can open each additional document in a separate instance (window) of Designer. An alternative way is to open documents within the already opened instance. To select the way that suits you better, go to File > Options > Designer.
Open dialog allows opening existing label files.
Browse allows selecting the label on local or connected network drives.
Recent Files field lists the latest files that have been edited. Click any of them to open the file.
Save panel saves the active label using the same file name that was used to open it.
Note
If a file has been opened for the first time, Save directs you to the Save as on the File tab.
Save as allows saving the active label file by defining its name and location.
Recent folders field lists the folders that were recently used to save the label files.
Print opens the print pane. In Designer, the print pane hosts a powerful default printing form.
Printing form customization options are described here.
Protection prevents the label from editing.
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Prevent document from editing: locks the label. Enabling this option prevents any unauthorized changes on file – only copying and printing are possible.
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Requires a password to unlock document: prevents file editing with password protection. Check this option to set a password. A file becomes editable only after entering the correct password.
To customize the general program configuration of Designer, open the Options dialog which is accessible from the File tab.
Designer configuration options are grouped on the following tabs:
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Folders: allows you to set the default locations for storing the labels and picture files.
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Language: selects the user interface language. Select the preferred language from the listed options.
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Global Variables: storage location for global variables.
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Designer: enables you to configure opening behavior of Lighthouse for MAX.
When moving or sharing the documents you create in Designer, the locations of related documents and files might become inaccessible. To prevent broken references, define the default search locations that instruct Designer to search for the documents and files on alternative locations.
Use the Folders tab to define the default search locations for the documents and files that you work with in Designer. These folders serve as the default search location if:
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Designer cannot find labels on the specified locations. In this case, Designer searches for them in the Labels folder.
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Designer cannot find the connected database on the specified location. In this case, Designer searches for the database in the Database folder.
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Picture object file paths in labels are incomplete or missing. In this case, Designer searches for them in the Picture folder.
Note
Make sure read/write rights are granted to the account under which the Designer is running.
Note
When opening and saving your documents, Designer remembers the last used location. The next time you open or save your documents, Designer goes to the last used location.
Language tab allows selecting the Designer interface language. Select the appropriate language and click OK.
Note
Restart is necessary to make the user interface appear in the selected language. Make sure you save your work before closing the program.
Global Variables tab allows defining which location with stored global variables should be used:
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Use global variables stored in a file (local or shared): sets the global variable storage location in a local or shared folder. Enter the exact path or click Open to locate the file.
By default, global variables are stored in Globals.tdb file in: C:\ProgramData\Lighthouse\Global Variables\.
Designer tab enables you to configure opening behavior of Designer.
Opening Mode group defines how your Designer opens new documents.
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Display each document in its own window: If enabled, additionally opened documents appear in separate windows of Designer. This applies to both – newly created and existing documents.
If you decide to disable this option, additionally opened documents will appear within the currently active instance of Designer.
The About dialog page provides information about your Lighthouse for MAX product license, enables license purchasing (when in trial mode) and activation, and provides software details.
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Trial mode duration: information about the remaining days for product evaluation.
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Purchase License: button directs you to the Lighthouse for MAX online store.
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Activate license: button opens the Designer license activation dialog. After activating the license, this button is renamed to Deactivate License – after clicking it and confirming the deactivation, your copy of Designer is no longer activated.
Note
These segments are no longer visible after purchasing and activating the product license.
Home Tab provides access to frequently used commands and settings in the following ribbon groups:
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Clipboard: group temporarily stores the selected elements, objects or groups of objects.
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Font: group lets you define the font properties.
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Management: group provides direct access to the Dynamic Data Manager and Document properties – active label properties dialog.
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The Align group options define relative horizontal and vertical positioning for the object content.
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Objects: group allows you to align, group or arrange label objects.
Font group defines font properties:
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Show/hide printer fonts: button allows you to exclusively display internal printer fonts on the list of available fonts. Graphical fonts are hidden in this case. After pressing this button again, all available fonts are visible on the list once more.
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Font: defines the font family to be used in a selected object.
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Font Size: defines the text size in an object. Select the desired point size from the dropdown selector or enter it manually.
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Font Style: defines the object text stylistic characteristics of text, such as bold or italic.
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Alignment: defines horizontal text positioning in an object: Left, Center or Right.
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Justify: makes a paragraph aligned along the left and right object margins.
Tip
When changing a font during the design process, Designer remembers the last used font type and size.
Management ribbon group provides direct access to:
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Dynamic Data Manager dialog. Click the button to start managing the dynamic data sources that are connected to objects.
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Document Properties opens current label properties.
The Align group options define relative horizontal and vertical positioning for the object content:
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Align Objects Left: aligns objects with the left border of the first selected object or with the leftmost object.
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Align Objects Center: aligns objects with the horizontal center of the first selected object or with horizontal center of the largest object.
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Align Objects Right: aligns objects with the right border of the first selected object or with the rightmost object.
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Distribute Horizontally: distributes objects using equal horizontal spacing.
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Align Objects Top: aligns objects with the upper border of the first selected object or with the highest object.
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Align Objects Middle: aligns objects with the vertical center of the first selected object or with vertical center of the largest object.
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Align Objects Bottom: aligns objects with the bottom border of the first selected object or with the lowest object.
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Distribute Vertically: distributes objects using equal vertical spacing.
The Objects group helps you work with multiple objects.
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Group objects unites the selected objects and makes them behave as a single object.
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Ungroup objects: separates the grouped objects.
Arrange the positions of the objects so that they appear either in front of or behind each other.
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Send Backward: sends the element back one level.
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Send to Back: sends the element behind all other elements on the label.
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Bring Forward: brings the element forward one level.
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Send to Front: sends the element in front of all other elements on the label.
Delete allows you to remove the selected individual or group objects from your label template.
Data tab displays the Designer ribbon with groups that enable you to instantly connect an object with commonly used data sources, or to define data connections in more detail:
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Step-by-Step Database Wizard ribbon group opens database wizard for typical database connection types.
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Data Source Management ribbon gives direct access to Prompt Order dialog.
Database wizard is a guided process that allows the user to configure a connection to a database and to select which tables and fields will be used.
Edit Database allows you to edit all existing connected databases using a wizard.
The wizard additionally allows you to sort, filter records, and to define how many label copies will be printed per database record.
Data Source Management ribbon provides access to:
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Dynamic Data Manager: dialog for managing and connecting to various data sources.
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Prompt Order: dialog for defining the order of prompted variables on the print form.
Dynamic Data Manager is a dialog that enables the user to manage the dynamic data sources for label objects.
Label objects can be connected to multiple variables, functions, and databases.
To open the dialog, click the Dynamic Data Manager button in the Designer ribbon.
Read more about how to define the data sources in the following sections:
Variable Prompt order dialog defines the order in which the variable values are prompted at print time.
The dialog displays the entire range of currently defined variables.
To change the prompt order, select a variable from the list and change its position using drag and drop or Move up and Move down buttons. Repeat this step for each variable, whose prompting position needs to be changed.
View Tab gives you control over document zooming, marker visibility, visual aids and design surface rotation. It makes the following ribbon groups available:
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Zoom: defines design surface zoom level and Designer window zoom behavior.
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Object Markers Visibility: defines visibility settings for object properties.
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Alignment and Gridlines: sets object positioning behavior and defines properties for design surface gridlines.
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Rotation: rotates the design surface clockwise for 90 degrees per click.
Zoom group defines the design surface zoom level.
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Zoom to Document: displays the entire label in the Designer window.
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Zoom to Objects: displays all objects in the Designer window.
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Zoom In: magnifies the design surface by a percentage of the currently defined zoom level.
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Zoom Out: decreases the design surface by a percentage of the currently defined zoom level.
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Zoom percentage drop-down menu: allows you to type in or select the exact zooming percentage for your current document.
Alignment and Gridlines group sets object positioning behavior and defines properties for design surface gridlines.
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Display gridline guides: makes the design surface grid dots visible.
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Grid Size X: defines horizontal distance between the grid dots.
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Grid Size Y: defines vertical distance between the grid dots.
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Grid Offset X: defines the horizontal offset of the grid from the design surface center.
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Grid Offset Y: defines the vertical offset of the grid from the design surface center.
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Align to Objects: makes an object align with other objects on the design surface. When an object is aligned, a line which marks the object alignment appears.
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Align to Gridlines: aligns the selected objects with gridlines.
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Do Not Align: makes the object position independent of gridlines and position of other object(s).
Rotate view button rotates the design surface clockwise. Horizontal and vertical rulers adapt to the current position of the design surface.
Tip
Rotation type is defined by the printer driver. Certain drivers support complete 360 degrees rotation (90 degrees per click), while others allow 90 degrees rotation clockwise (portrait/landscape).
Contextual tab is a hidden tab that becomes visible when a specific label object is selected on the design surface. Contextual tabs appear on the right side of the standard Designer tab. The selection of displayed tabs depends on the object that you are currently editing.
When editing various label objects, the following contextual tabs appear depending on the selected object:
Design tab serves as a contextual tab that defines the layout and positioning of the selected label object.
The following groups of settings are available on the Design tab:
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General: defines object's visibility and printability on a label.
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Positioning: defines the object's position on the design surface.
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Arrange: positions the object relative to neighboring objects on a label.
General group defines the object's visibility and printability on a label.
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Not printable: when enabled, this option prevents the object from being printed on the label. The object remains visible on the label preview.
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Visible: when disabled, the object neither appears on the print preview nor on the printed label. The object is treated as if it does not exist.
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Name: allows you to enter object name and its description.
Positioning group sets the object location and size on a label.
Position button opens:
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X and Y: coordinates set the exact position on the design surface.
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Width and Height: object dimensions.
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Keep Aspect Ratio: makes sure both object dimensions change proportionally while resizing.
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Rotation angle: rotates the object clockwise.
Anchoring Point button defines the spot where an object is pinned to the design surface. Variable size objects increase or decrease their size in the direction that is opposite to the chosen anchoring point.
Keep Aspect Ratio: makes sure the object is resized proportionally.
Lock prevents the selected object from being moved during the design process.
Group objects: adds selected objects to a group.
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Group objects: unites the selected objects and makes them behave as a single object.
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Ungroup objects separates previously grouped objects.
Arrange: defines how objects are positioned in a group.
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Bring forward: moves the selected object up one layer.
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Bring to front: moves the selected object to the top of the object stack.
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Send backward: moves the selected object down one layer.
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Send to back: moves the selected object to the bottom of the object stack.
Barcode tab serves as a contextual tab that defines the type, layout and positioning of barcode object.
The following groups of settings are available on the Barcode tab:
Barcode group allows you to choose the barcode type and to set the dimensions of your barcode symbol.
Note
Settings in Barcode group depend on the selected barcode type.
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Barcode Type: defines the type of the barcode symbol to be used on a label.
Tip
By default, Code128 barcode type is selected. For more details about the available barcode types, see section Barcode Types and Available Settings.
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DataBar Type: if one of the DataBar barcode types is selected, DataBar Type defines its specific subtype to be used on the label.
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X dimension: width of the barcode's narrow bar in the selected Unit of measurement.
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Height: vertical dimension of your barcode in the selected Unit of measurement.
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Ratio defines the ratio between the barcode's narrow and wide bar widths.
Each barcode type's range of permitted ratios is limited by the standard. Designer only allows you to use valid ratios. By default, the ratio is set to 3. This means that the wide bar is 3 times the width of a narrow bar.
Note
The available ratios depend on the selected X dimension. If you are changing the X dimension, this also affects the selection of available ratios.
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Row height defines the height of a single data row in 2D barcodes. Row height is specified as a multiple over the X dimension.
Settings group allows you to configure barcode details.
Human Readable button defines the human readable content's layout.
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No human readable: makes the barcode appear without the human readable text.
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Above barcode: locates human readable text above the barcode.
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Below barcode: locates human readable text below the barcode.
Style group allows you to set custom properties for human readable text.
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Custom Font: enables font and font size selection. Internal printer fonts cannot be used as a custom human readable font.
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Auto font scaling: If enabled (default setting), human readable text grows or shrinks proportionally along with the changing size of the barcode. To set a custom size for human readable text, disable this option and select the appropriate font size.
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Bold: makes human readable text appear bold.
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Italic: makes human readable text appear italic.
Tip
Barcode Details differ according to the barcode standards. Define the options that are given with regard to the currently selected barcode type. Details for 1D and 2D barcodes are described in dedicated sections:
Tip
Check digit is derived from the preceding barcode digits and is placed as the final digit of a barcode.
Color: sets the barcode's line and human readable content color on the printed label.
Group objects: adds selected objects to a group.
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Group objects: unites the selected objects and makes them behave as a single object.
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Ungroup objects separates previously grouped objects.
Arrange: defines how objects are positioned in a group.
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Bring forward: moves the selected object up one layer.
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Bring to front: moves the selected object to the top of the object stack.
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Send backward: moves the selected object down one layer.
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Send to back: moves the selected object to the bottom of the object stack.
Shape tab serves as a contextual tab that defines the appearance of ellipse, rectangle and line objects.
The following groups of settings are available on the Shape tab:
Outline group defines how the line of the selected shape should appear.
Outline Style button options are:
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None: makes the object line invisible.
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Solid: makes the object line solid.
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Dot: makes the object line dotted.
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Dash: makes the object line dashed.
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Clear: makes parts of other objects underneath the line invisible.
Outline Color defines the color of the shape's line.
Thickness defines the object line's width.
Corner radius makes the rectangle corners round. Higher values make the curve broader.
Fill group defines the shape's fill style and color.
Fill Style options are:
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None: makes the object completely transparent.
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Clear: makes other objects beneath the active one invisible.
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Solid: fills the object with solid color.
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Right Diagonal: fills the object with diagonal lines that ascend toward the right side.
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Left Diagonal: fills the object with diagonal lines that ascend toward the left side.
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Vertical: fills the object with vertical lines.
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Horizontal: fills the object with horizontal lines.
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Cross: fills the object with crossed lines.
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Cross Diagonal: fills the object with diagonally crossed lines.
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25% of color: sets fill color opacity to 25 %.
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50% of color: sets fill color opacity to 50 %
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75% of color: sets fill color opacity to 75 %.
Background Color defines the color of the shape's fill.
Group objects: adds selected objects to a group.
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Group objects: unites the selected objects and makes them behave as a single object.
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Ungroup objects separates previously grouped objects.
Arrange: defines how objects are positioned in a group.
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Bring forward: moves the selected object up one layer.
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Bring to front: moves the selected object to the top of the object stack.
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Send backward: moves the selected object down one layer.
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Send to back: moves the selected object to the bottom of the object stack.
Picture tab serves as a contextual tab that defines picture resizing options and object arranging.
The following groups of settings are available on the Picture tab:
Resize group defines if the picture adapts to the label size at print time or not.
Picture Fit button opens the picture sizing options.
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Resize options: define how the source file dimensions adapt to the size of object at print time.
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Keep original picture size: disables resizing. The source file is displayed using the object with its original dimensions.
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Resize proportionally: makes the source file resize proportionally. The aspect ratio of source file dimensions is preserved.
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Resize to the designed size: resizes the picture horizontally and vertically to make it fit into the bounding box. Using this option will most likely make the picture distorted.
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Original size: displays the picture's Width and Height before resizing.
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Revert to original picture size: removes resizing actions.
Keep Aspect Ratio makes sure both object dimensions change proportionally while resizing.
Group objects: adds selected objects to a group.
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Group objects: unites the selected objects and makes them behave as a single object.
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Ungroup objects separates previously grouped objects.
Arrange: defines how objects are positioned in a group.
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Bring forward: moves the selected object up one layer.
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Bring to front: moves the selected object to the top of the object stack.
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Send backward: moves the selected object down one layer.
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Send to back: moves the selected object to the bottom of the object stack.
Text tab serves as a contextual tab that defines formatting of Text and Text box object.
The following groups of settings are available on the Text tab:
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Format: lets you define the text format.
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Text Settings: lets you define the layout of any textual content that is added to label object.
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Arrange: positions the object relative to neighboring objects on a label.
Format group lets you define the text format.
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Show/hide printer fonts: button turns visibility of printer fonts on the font list on/off.
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Font: allows specifying the typeface and its size. Fonts fall into two groups, OpenType fonts and Printer fonts.
Note
If the currently selected printer is a thermal printer, additional fonts will be visible on the list of available fonts. These are the Printer fonts identified by the printer icon in front of their names.
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The font may appear Bold, Italic, Underlined or as a Strikethrough text.
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Alignment buttons allow you to align the text to the left, center, right, or evenly.
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Font color: specifies font and underscore color.
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Increase/decrease font buttons allow you to gradually change the font size.
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Scaling: factor that defines how much the font is stretched from its original proportions.
Note
If the stretch factor is set to 100 %, the font has a normal look. If factor is 200 %, it means that font is twice as wide as normal. If it is 50 %, the font is half as wide.
Text Setting group allows defining the layout of any textual content that is added to the object.
Character and Paragraph button opens line and character spacing options:
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Line spacing: distance between each line in a paragraph.
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Character spacing: distance between individual characters.
Effects button displays the available text effects:
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Inverse: inverts the colors of text and background.
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Mirror: mirrors the text.
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RTL printing: prints the text from right to left.
Text Fit button opens the automatic text sizing options:
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None: disables the resizing. In this case, text field dimensions and font size do not adapt to the amount of inserted content in a text box.
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Ignore excessive content: removes the text content that does not fit into the object.
Tip
When enabled, the object only uses the amount of text that can be contained in the box. The remaining text is discarded.
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Adjust height to fit content: adapts the text box height to fit the content.
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Fit content by adjusting font size: sets the acceptable label object font size range. Font size adapts to the text box size automatically.
Group objects: adds selected objects to a group.
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Group objects: unites the selected objects and makes them behave as a single object.
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Ungroup objects separates previously grouped objects.
Arrange: defines how objects are positioned in a group.
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Bring forward: moves the selected object up one layer.
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Bring to front: moves the selected object to the top of the object stack.
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Send backward: moves the selected object down one layer.
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Send to back: moves the selected object to the bottom of the object stack.
Help tab provides direct access to various resources that help you design and use labels quickly and efficiently.
Help ribbon group includes buttons with links to the following resources.
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Help: Designer online help.
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Knowledge Base: online library of articles that describe many technical solutions, tips, and solved issues for labels.
Product ribbon group includes links to:
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Lighthouse for MAX Home Page: