This tutorial will show you how to create Contoured Text in Corel DRAW! I used Corel DRAW! 7.0 for Windows. Some things may be done differently with other versions.

I've had a number of people write and ask how the title on the Corel DRAW! box is done. You know the look. It has black text surrounded by a gold gradient.

The process is quite simple and, using it, you can achieve some really cool effects.

Open a new graphic. Choose the Text tool and enter some text. I used the Bedrock font at 200 points (see figure 3.1).

Choose Effects, Contour which will bring up the Contour roll-up (see figure 3.2).

Choose a color for the outline and the fill of the contour. Use a color for the fill that's different than the color of the text. This will make it easier to select the contour object later.

Choose the other tab in the contour roll-up and set the type to outside, the offset to 0.07 and the steps to 1.

Select the Pick tool to highlight the text and activate the Apply button in the contour roll-up.

Click Apply. This will give you an outline, or contour, around the text (see figure 3.3).

Choose Arrange, Separate. This will break the contour away from the text and enable you to apply effects directly to the contour object.

De-select the text by left-clicking outside of the current selection.

Select the contour by left-clicking on it with the Pick tool.

Note: If you have trouble selecting the contour and find that you keep selecting the text, send the text to the back after selecting it. This will make selecting the contour much easier. You can move the contour to the back after selecting it.

With the contour selected it's time to lay some effects on it.

Click the Fill tool icon and select the Fountain Fill Dialog option. This will bring up the Fountain Fill Dialog box (see figure 3.4)

Set the left end point to a pastel blue and add another white point and a brown point next to each other somewhere towards the middle. Set the Angle to -90.0 degrees. Click OK.

You should now have something like figure 3.5.

You can add a border around the contour by selecting the Outline tool and selecting a size for the outline. I chose a slim outline as seen in figure 3.6.;

You can apply many different effects this way, including the gold outline seen on the Corel DRAW! box.

Figure 3.7 demonstrates a bitmap fill applied to the text.

Play around with this and see what you can come up with and, above all, have fun.

Export the final image as a web-ready JPG or GIF and make sure you keep a copy of the vector drawing i.e. save the image as a CDR file so you can go back and make changes easily later on.

That's it!