Drops shadows in Coreldraw

[danelectro 5]

Hi guys,

 

I have just been and done my introduction!!   I already have a little job to do on my vinyl cutter....but i've hit a real issue that I cannot get my head around.

 

I have trawled the internet for the answer, and tried so many times, but it's just not happening, so I'm hoping someone here can tell me where I'm going wrong!

 

I am using Coreldraw 9 (yes quite an old version) which is doing a good job, I want to do a drop shadow on text, with a bit of white between the letter, and the shadow, but i'm failing at every attempt.

 

Can you help me out, I have put an example of what I'm trying to do.

 

 

As you can see, I can get it how I want it to look on the screen, it's just transposing this to the cutter that I can't do.  This will be two colours, the lettering will be blue, and the drop shadow will be black.  I've tried contours around the text, outlines, just can't get it!!

 

Any help would be much appreciated

 

Thanks

 

Dan

[Monkey 252]

Have you tried a text with an outline layer over the same text on a different layer in your other color and moved to the location it needs to be? Then save as an EPS and open in cutting software and cut by color,.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Dan I don't know how to use coreldraw but I commend you on your question. Many newbies come on here and just ask someone to do it for them instead of how to actually do it for themselves.

 

There are several ways to accomplish what you are wanting and I'll give you some hints but they are from Illustrator which is totally different in terms and how you go about things. One way would be to add a white outline to the top object which will cause a separation like you are looking for. In Illustrator you would have to then outline the stroke so it is not just a colored line. That may be what you are having a problem with so far. Once the stroke is outlined you should be able to crop, merge or some such action into the shadow to cut it out of the way. (oh you will probably have to do some action to get the drop shadow as an object too) I often just copy the original word and paste it under the original to create the drop shadow effect. 

 

Another way to do the separation would be to build your drop shadow by copy paste method and place it under then select the top word and offset the paths which should create a new object bigger than the first. (You can decide how far to offset which will enlarge the gap) Once you have the offset object select both it and the lower one which is the shadow and use minus front or whatever corel does that is the same thing and it should cut away the areas you don't want leaving just the drop shadow.

 

I don't know if that makes any sense at all, especially trying to look at it from a corel standpoint. I tried a coreldraw free trial once and couldn't get anything done it is enough different from Illustrator. The overall actions are the same in the end but the program go at it from different directions sometimes.

[danelectro 5]

Thanks for the feedback guys....and the kind words.  I have to say I find it easier to learn if I can figure it out myself, but this one really had me stumped!!!!  It got to the point where my brain hurt!

 

I THINK I have it now though........another post on this fab forum gave me some hints. 

 

So this is what I did:

 

Write the text>

change the font and size>

copy & paste the text>

change the colour of the front text (just for ease of editing!)>

move the front text to create the dropshadow>

add a contour and adjust thickness to my liking>

click on the contour and click arrange-seperate>

click on the contour again and click TRIM then click the dropshadow>

click on the contour and hit delete....

...then it's just a case of cutting either the text or the dropshadow and pasting it on another page - again just for ease of viewing and to give my brain a rest!!!!

then I can just send it straight to Signcut via the little button....and hey presto it WORKS!!!!

 

I'm not sure if that's the correct way of doing it - (any comments good or bad are very welcome), or even the most efficient, but right now I'm pleased it works......even after spending a day trying to work it out!!!  lol

 

Thanks guys for the posts, they have been read and taken on board :-)  And thank you wildgoose for your kind words......I have to say I find it offensive when people just dive in on a forum and expect everyone else to sort the problem out for them, I hate that......I will only ask when i've exhausted all attempts......kind of like when you start headbutting the wall!!!!  lol

 

Cheers

 

Dan

[bikemike 711]

I know this is for X5, but some of the stuff should be the same.

 

http://product.corel...html/wwhelp.htm

 

 

[danelectro 5]

Thanks for that Mike, that is very useful, I didn't get any kind of instructions when I got my coreldraw!!!   so that's a great help, thank you

[Monkey 252]

Im also learning CorelDraw as I go. Its definitively a learning curve. Spent most of my designing life in AutoCad in another industry

[patrickjohnson 2]

These are very valuable details, I did not get any kind of instructions when I got my corel draw!!! so this is great help for me , Thanks,

[knucklehead 530]

That's exactly how I do it, with the exception of, when you have the original text sized, just hit the + key on the numbers side, and presto, there's your copy, just change the color, drop it down, add outline, etc...