Technical notes index
Photo with curved shadow in Swift Publisher 2

PHOTO WITH REFLECTION IN SWIFT PUBLISHER 2

The photo with a fading reflection beneath it, much used by Apple in Pages, Coverflow and so on, can be replicated in Swift Publisher 2, though it has to be set up individually rather than being applicable to the photo in one operation.

1. Drag your photo into Swift Publisher 2 and size. This effect works best on a black or at least dark background.

2. Select the photo and hit command-d to duplicate it. Open the Inspector and open the first pane (Geometry): flip vertically (picture, left).

3.  Control-click on the duplicate and choose 'Crop Image'. Click on the selection point at top centre and draw downwards until the picture is cropped to about half its original height (picture, right).

4. Drag the inverted image until its top is aligned exactly with the bottom of the original image. With it still selected, go to the third pane of the Inspector (Image) and click on the first mask to provide the fade (picture, left).

5. Set the Opacity slider to a suitable value - around 40% seems to work well - and you have your image (right - click on it for a larger version).