Over the last nine months this EJ article series has been reviewing a number of the new features that can be found in CorelDRAW X3. If you’ve read these articles, you’ve seen exciting new Corel features in this version. This article will be our final look at the new features in CorelDRAW X3. I will take a look at the new text features as well as the text upgrades in version X3. There have been several improvements as well as changes to a number of CorelDRAW’s text tools. I say changes because some of the commands perform the same function but have been placed in a new docker or in a new location. Probably one of the biggest sources of confusion for those who upgrade any version of new software is when commands get moved to new locations. Some command names also have been “reworded” making it extra difficult to find your way around. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in Corel’s Text Tools. In this article we will be reviewing in depth the changes to Corel X3’s text tools. Experienced users will definitely notice that things have been moved around. However, I believe that in the long run, the changes will make it easier to add new text features to future versions. One of the CorelDRAW tools that most of us use all the time is the text tool. Although Corel did not add any major new text tools into the X3 release they did add some minor features that make it easier to work with text. Let’s take a closer look. |
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Display Text in Inches As I pointed out in a previous article, you can now specify text size in inches as opposed to points. In case you’re not familiar, the “point” system of measure is a system that evolved hundreds of years ago in the printing industry. The ability to use inches makes it easier for those who need to work in the standard measurement system. This will definitely make our lives easier. To change the text units to inches go to TOOLS | OPTIONS and in the left hand window click on “Text” and change the Default text units to “inches” (Fig. 1). Note: For the purpose of this article the text units default will be set to “points.” A word of caution is in order for engravers who prefer to work in inches. Engraving systems generally measure text based on the height of capital letters such as the letter “E.” In “typographic” measure, the letter height is denoted as the distance from the top of the “ascender” letters such as “E” to the bottom of the “descender” letters such as “g” or “y,” plus some extra built in white space above and below the characters which varies with the type style. |
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Displaying Fonts Visually In Their Own Style One of the newly changed features now allows you to view the font in the font menu so it is displayed in the style of the individual fonts. Figure 2 shows us that instead of seeing each font name displayed in the same generic font we can now view the font in its own unique letter style. This makes it easier for us to select the font that we want to use and to select fonts visually. In previous versions of CorelDRAW you could preview a font but you could only see one type style at a time. This type of preview created a lot of hassle especially when you were trying to compare different fonts from the same family. For example, fonts such as Swiss or Futura have a large number of variations of the same font. Figure 3 shows a screen capture of X3’s Font List. Here you can see, for example, a large number of Swiss fonts and their properties all at once. In previous versions you had to look at one as you moved the up or down arrow. You would have to go back to a font numerous times to compare it to another font. With some fonts having some slight variations, this necessitated spending a lot of extra time choosing the most appropriate font to use in your job. Did you ever wonder why they provide us with such a large variety of styles within each family? For example, one of the standard questions that I get asked by rotary engraving machine users is, why are there so many Helvetica fonts? A lot of engraving systems will have Helvetica and other fonts in a 1 line, 3 line, 4 line and 6 line configuration. |
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We have all these font configurations so that we can have the same “look” in a font when it’s engraved at different sizes. If we use the same cutter with a 3 line font and a 6 line font, the 6 line font will look disproportionately bolder. The one issue that everyone has with a rotary engraving machine is that you need to use different tip size cutters on various heights of characters. For example a letter height of .250" may require a .030" cutter with a Helvetica single line font while a 3 line Helvetica at the same height may require a .020" cutter. Thus, what most people do is use different Helvetica fonts with the different height of lines so that they can get away with one cutter and all the lines will be of similar thickness and look. We have a similar problem in CorelDRAW as there are a number of the same fonts with slight variations in the font. If you look at Figure 3 you will notice a number of Swiss fonts. Some are rounded, some are a block font while others are expanded or condensed. One of the problems with CorelDRAW, when we compare it to an engraving program, is that CorelDRAW does not easily condense text to fit within a given space. If we use Artistic Text, in particular, our text will run on forever, often going entirely off the plate. This is definitely not a desirable situation. By the same token if we use Paragraph Text, the text that we type will stay in the frame but the text will “wrap” to the next line below, the same as a word processor. This means that we may not get all the text on the line that we want it to be on. To provide us with an attractive layout, we can choose a letter style and size that provides a good fit for the amount of copy and amount of space available. For example, if we know that we are going to be using a lot of text on a line, or doing a job that requires a lot of text, we can use the condensed version of the font. If we use a normal font we might go beyond the engraving area. By condensing a font, we change its look and we invoke some uninvited font attributes that we do not want. Thus, instead of using a so called normal Swiss font we may use a more condensed font. Using the condensed version initially will provide us with a font look that is more normal than using the normal font, condensing it and having the font look “squished.” Figure 4 shows three versions of the same font at the same height but varying as to their condensation.
Character Paragraph Dockers One major feature that CorelDRAW X3 added are the Character and the Paragraph Formatting dockers. To access these dockers, go to the Text pull-down menu. The new text dockers are listed at the top of the pull-down menu (Fig. 5). In the next couple of sections we will discuss these two formatting dockers in greater detail.
Character Formatting Dockers As I discussed in previous articles, you can create two distinct types of text in CorelDRAW. The first type of text is Artistic Text. The second is Paragraph Text. Each one is used when you need to create certain types of text in CorelDRAW. Artistic Text is the predominant type of text that those of us in the Recognition and Identification Industry use. This is very well suited when you’re doing a plaque, sign or badge layout where you’re intermingling different styles, sizes and justifications in your layout. We tend to use Paragraph Text for certain jobs such as columns of identical text where we want text to “flow” in a certain area. My best example would be a plaque where there are three columns of names. Paragraph text is also used when you are creating brochures or storyboards where you are creating multiple pages of text and you need the text frames to link from one page to the next. This linkage allows the text to from frame to frame and page to page. When we select the Character Formatting command in the Text pull-down menu a docker will “dock” to the right side of the workspace. I have typed some sample text on the screen and selected it. Figure 6 shows us what the docker displays. This example docker gives us a number of the text attributes in one command area. In previous versions we had to go searching through a number of sub commands to find these commands. You will notice in Figure 6 that the selected font is Swis 721 Cn BT, the Font Style is Normal and Font Height is 34.0 pt. Right now the text is not justified, this is indicated by the unhighlighted Alightment button (slash through the lines to the right of the text height box). Figure 6 shows that I can change the justification by clicking on the down arrow (red box in Figure 7).
If you look at Figure 9 you will notice that we can change the Range Kerning on the selected text. Changing the Range Kerning requires that we select our text using the Shape Tool from the Toolbox (Fig. 8). Once your cursor turns into a black triangle you can select the text to be kerned. Figure 9 shows you what happens once you have done this. The Shape Tool allows us to increase or decrease the kerning or intercharacter spacing. To do this you can select separate nodes as in Figure 10 and reposition a single or group of selected characters. To proportionately space a text selection, adjust the percentage in the Range Kerning box (Fig. 9). Note: You don’t have to use the Shape Tool. If desired, you can double click on a line of text so that it becomes editable and then select the text you want. Figure 11 shows that I have selected one character (“t”) so any changes in the range kerning only affects this character. Below Range Kerning is Character Effects. By default, the window is minimized, so to maximize it you need to click on the arrows located at the right of the docker. Figure 12 shows us the Character Effects box when closed. Figure 6 shows the Character Effects box opened. Each of the five commands in this section allows you to change a number of attributes. For example if you have the text selected with the Text Tool, you can change the underlining as desired. If you click in the “none” area, you will have a pull-down menu which allows you a number of different ways to underline text (Fig. 13). You have the ability to apply eight different types of lines, or if this isn’t suitable you can click on “edit” and create a custom one. Figure 14 shows all five Character Effects applied to a line of text. The other command available in this docker is the Character Shift. To access these commands you will need to invoke the Shape Tool as we did with the Range Kerning command. You could also drag select the text that you want to change. Figure 15 shows the three Character Shift commands applied to one of the characters such as the “t” in “Font Text.”
Paragraph Text The other type of text that we can create in CorelDRAW is Paragraph Text. To add Paragraph Text, select your Text Tool and drag a text frame over to your workspace (Fig. 16). Once you have created the text frame you can begin entering your text. When you have some text entered in the box, open the Paragraph Formatting docker found under the Text pull-down menu. It will dock to the right side of the workspace (Fig. 17). As you can see there are a number of commands that are now easily accessible. Before version X3 we had to go through a number of steps just to reach some of these commands, and I find these changes to be a welcome addition. You can quickly change the justification of your text in the job via the alignment command shown in Figure 18. You can also see from Figure 17 that the spacing of Paragraph Text can be controlled from this docker. Additionally, you can control the line width by adjusting the % of Character Height, points or a % of Pt. size shown in Figure 19. Figure 20 shows the line spacing (leading space) changed to 200% of the character height. The Language, Character and Word spacing command section is below the Paragraph and Line section as shown in Figure 17. Here you can specify the spacing to be placed in between words, characters and language.
The final text change to be discussed here is the newly added feature called Insert Symbol Character. Figure 23 shows that this command is found within the Text menu. If you have symbol libraries loaded in your font directory, you can drag and drop symbols onto your desktop. Figure 24 shows the Awards symbol font available in the Insert Character docker. You can insert any of the symbols by either dragging the symbol from the docker onto your workspace as shown in Figure 25 or by invoking the text command, clicking on the workspace and then, while holding down the Alt key, type in the numbers listed at the bottom of the docker. Figure 26 shows us that this key combination is Alt + 055. This ends our discussion of some of the new changes and additions to the text functions within CorelDRAW. As this article has pointed out there are a lot of changes that have happened even since CorelDRAW 12, not to mention from previous versions. Considering that text is such an important part of the jobs that we do within our industry, knowing fully how to exploit the power of CorelDRAW X3’s Text Tools is something that we all need to learn and excel at. This article also concludes our discussion and review of the new features that you can find in the Corel X3 Suite of products. Whether you use just CorelDRAW or both CorelDRAW and PhotoPaint, you will find that there are a number of new features in this version. If you have not upgraded from a previous version hopefully this version will motivate you to do so. And by the way, if you do have X3, keep on practicing! |
