How it Works
Bevel and embossing techniques are used throughout the world of pixels to add depth to your 2D artwork. Many graphics programs use a technique that produces smooth bevels. The bevel needs to be smoothed because otherwise you will get artifacts that give the bevel a chiseled look. However, smoothing out the artifacts also smoothes out any fine details so you always end up with soft blurred edges.
Chisel hard bevel
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Softened bevel
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Path Styler Pro's sharp bevel
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The reason for this is that the technique described above does not take into account the path that is often used to create the logo or title. Paths are used throughout Photoshop and Illustrator to describe the outlines of shapes such as circles, rectangles, and of course text. Shapes, also called vector objects, always have crisp edges when rasterized. But when you add a bevel to a shape in Photoshop, the shape is rasterized before the bevel is added, so the bevel itself is not crisp.
Traditional 2D bevel techniques operate on an image that has already been rasterized
Path Styler Pro, on the other hand, first adds the bevel to the path, and then rasterizes the shape, creating a crisp and clean image with sharp bevels that do not require smoothing.
The Path Styler Pro way to create bevels
Another advantage of using paths to create bevels is that in addition to the rounded joins at corners, you can now have beveled and mitered joins as well.
Rounded and Mitered joins at corners in Path Styler Pro
Path Styler Pro makes full use of its technique by allowing you to add multiple inner and outer bevels to the same path. This means that you are no longer restricted to only a single inner or outer bevel. Furthermore, each bevel in Path Styler Pro can have its own material, contour, textures, and procedural maps. Together with four colored lights, reflections, custom shaders, and a host of other high-end features, you can create a wide range of impressive designs fast and easy.
Make your images pop with sharp and clean bevels. From bright colorful titles for advertising to dark metallic logos, you can do it all with Path Styler Pro!
Path Styler Pro is available separately as a filter plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and as a live effect plug-in for Adobe Illustrator.