### Container tool

In iCalamus, you can easily create empty frame containers for several purposes.

Publishers use them as substitutes for layout areas which have not been created or designed. If you have switched frame guides visible, these container frames show the frame shape as a guide, together with a diagonal cross to indicate that they are empty. (We also use a diagonal cross to indicate transparent mode in color lists.)

If you want to shape or mask an image with a shape, iCalamus offers several ways to do so. The easiest and fastest way is to create one of the available container shape frames, place the image there, and you've made the masked image.

You can convert containers to normal frames afterwards by assigning new content to them.

Here is a list of the available container shapes. These are identical to the available normal shapes.

Choose the desired container type in the Container tool by right clicking on the Container tool symbol in the Toolbox panel. Alternatively, keep the mouse button pressed until the container tools menu appears, from which you can choose the container type. Now create a new frame in the document by dragging the mouse. If you press [Escape] before you release the mouse button, the currently shown container will be deleted immediately.

The 'simple' container shapes are listed in the first group. The 'dynamic' container shapes are listed in the last group, sorted by complexity. You can change the parameters of the dynamic containers by using the Edit Shape Parameters additional function in the "Frame inspector".