Who out there knows how to take a any font and by making a simple chain of commands create an outline and/or a center accent for any most any font? I use corel 7, so instruction towards it's direction would be helpful, but I would be interested in where to start with any program. It might be an outline gain and trace, but I kinda hope not.....I'm getting ready to do a sign where I have a black letter already cut and would like to add an azure or turqouis center accent to each letter, but I would be willing to start over and cut the black as an outline if it is possible and easier. Surely someone possesses this magic........Bronzeo
------------------ Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 bronzeo@prodigy.net http://www.imagemakerart.com
Posted by Tim Barrow (Member # 576) on :
Hey Bronzeo try clicking help menu then type contour in the search or select contour in the topic menu,... all the info you need is right there.
Thanks Tim, I haven't worked much with special effects on fonts, as I am new in the sign business, but I picked up on it pretty quickly. I am stuck on another thing in this effects area. I chose to extrude and create a shadow for my first project. (black letters on a grey background shadow. I seperated the two and have been trying to get the shadow image to convert to something, but it won't. I have even changed to bitmap and tried to trace it, but trace won't even recognize it. The autotrace pen in corel won't recognize it either. I won't allow very many options. I just want to plot the outline on vinyl for the shadow.....Thanks, Bronzeo
------------------ Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 bronzeo@prodigy.net http://www.imagemakerart.com
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Bronzeo...extrude is fine for print purposes but not for cutting vinyl.
Here's how I do a simple shadow in Corel. Type your word. "Duplicate" that word and move it to lower left or right as you wish. Use "contour" to create a small OUTSIDE contour around the original word. "Seperate" the contour from the original word. Select the contour only and use "trim" to trim the duplicate word that is going to be the shadow. "Delete" the contour. Now you have a word with a shadow, set your colors as you wish and start up the cutter.
That is one of many types of shadow/outline combos that can be created for cutting.
The words in quotes are all functions of Corel. Those, along with "weld", are pretty much all the tools you need to create special effects in Corel that are cuttable.
Almost forgot..To create a highlite in the center of your existing letters, use the "contour" function and this time do an INSIDE contour, seperate it, color it and there it is ready for cutting.
------------------ Dave Grundy shop#340 AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@odyssey.on.ca www.odyssey.on.ca/~dave.grundy "A PROUD $ supporter of the website"
[This message has been edited by Dave Grundy (edited April 16, 2000).]
Posted by Jack Davis (Member # 1408) on :
Thanks Dave, I accomplished that fairly easy. I liked the way the "stretched shadow" from the extrude command appeared, but I guess the program is thinking in 3 dimension, and simulating the 2, to the screen. You can tell by the amount of ram it takes to do the job. I'm not sure that it is going to be worth the difference to hand trace the extrusion for that effect. Your method is easy and very good. Thanks, Bronzeo
------------------ Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 bronzeo@prodigy.net http://www.imagemakerart.com
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Jack...Is this the effect you were looking for?
------------------ Dave Grundy shop#340 AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@odyssey.on.ca www.odyssey.on.ca/~dave.grundy "A PROUD $ supporter of the website"
Posted by Jack Davis (Member # 1408) on :
Actually, this is what I got when I used the extrude, but I could not convert it to anything that would trace or single outline. When the grey takes an outline it is with all the letters outlined also and I just liked it like this big splash shadow. Maybe you could do something with it as a gif that I have sent. I haven't tried that. Thanks for the support, Jack....... p.s. I would probably seperate the long dot on the I.
------------------ Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 bronzeo@prodigy.net http://www.imagemakerart.com
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Jack..That is the same effect as I showed above, only you have a shadow that goes down instead of up. I just went to do the same thing as you did with that letterstyle and that long a shadow. It would take a while to do because the letters are apced so far apart and the shadow is so long.
But here is the method (I'd suggest you try it with a simple letterstyle and a shorter shadow to start). Type a word. Duplicate the word and align it directly over top of the original. Duplicate again and also align directly over top of the other two. Select the top word and move down and to the right to where you want the shadow. Select the "shadow" word and use "weld" to weld it to the first duplicate. At this point you will have to delete the corner nodes as required to acheive a shadow that has straight sides. If this makes sense, great. If not I can e-mail you a CDR of the process so you can see exactly what I mean.
------------------ Dave Grundy shop#340 AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@odyssey.on.ca www.odyssey.on.ca/~dave.grundy "A PROUD $ supporter of the website"
Posted by Jack Davis (Member # 1408) on :
Thanks Dave, I will try it this evening. I understand your instructions. I haven't used weld much, but have played with it a little. The extruded piece, I thought should have traced as a bitmap, or gif.....Funny though the converted jpg shows fine in corel paint and is manageable, but in my photo viewer, which is quite good (viewpro) the damn thing shows up a blank rectangle. Something of the 3d vector is totally lost in the process. One other thing......Since I am just cutting it for a shadow, Do you think the plotter would cut it including the letterforms, and just not weed them (good,bad, or ugly thing to do?), or do you think like I, that the 3d extrusion would just confuse the roland cutter? Thanks a lot for all the help on this....Jack
------------------ Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 bronzeo@prodigy.net http://www.imagemakerart.com
