Correct work with text in CorelDRAW. Basics of working with text in Corel Draw X7 How to create space between letters in Corel

Before you start using the CorelDRAW editor in practice, you need to consider that it is intended primarily for working with graphics, and not for layout. Therefore, the use of text here has an emotional and aesthetic orientation. This article will tell you how to work with text in Corel, thanks to which you will have a whole palette of tools to realize your ambitious ideas.

The implementation of text images in the final CorelDRAW product is carried out using objects of two classes:

• The first is a class of figured (artistic, English) text, capable of undergoing any metamorphosis supported by the program for graphics objects. It is a multi-level connected block.
• The second class is simple (paragraph, English) text, designed to reflect all kinds of text episodes in drawings.

Roughly speaking, a figured class is a drawing, and a simple class is a class of text enclosed in a frame, which, in turn, is inserted into a drawing.

Figure class

Attributes

Object attributes (characteristics, parameters) are operations available for use for them. Regarding text, there are parameters that are applied separately for characters and separately for text blocks as a whole. Let's take a closer look at them.

Character Attributes

Typeface (font) - designer image of alphabet symbols.

Corel contains standard and graphic typefaces (the symbols in them are images).

If they talk about font height expressed in points, then they mean size.

You can see the influence of the properties of the font and typeface in the picture with the texts.

If text characters change their thickness or slant, the text takes on a different style. The style then appears as regular, bold, italic, or bold italic text.

Of course, like Word, Corel has underline, underline, and strikethrough functions.

And also built-in standards for lines:

• single thin;
• single thick;
• double thin.

In addition, it is allowed to change the characteristics (standards) regarding the thickness of the lines, the distance from the text base and the size of the interline clearance.

Register conversion involves the use of parameters:

• small caps (Small CAPS) - lowercase text characters turn into uppercase ones without changing the height;
• capitalization (All CAPS) - converting lowercase characters into uppercase characters with capital height;
• no changes (None).

The group for character shift of text characters is represented by three components:

• horizontal (Horizontal);
• vertical (Vertical);
• angular deviation (Rotation).

The assigned parameters give the length of the shift in the text block in relation to the standard position.

The figure shows: in the initial line the characters are shifted vertically, then horizontally, in the bottom line one letter is shifted horizontally, vertically and with a rotation of 160 degrees:

Text

Editing text block by block is allowed by the following parameters:

Alignment - within line boundaries. Varies in six ways:

• Left - on the left side;
• Right - on the right side;
• None - no alignment;
• Center - along a conventional vertical line (in the middle of the line);
• ForceFull - by width (uniform distribution throughout the entire line).

Line spacing is usually specified by leading (linespace). Its value is a certain size between the bases of adjacent rows.

It is possible to force intervals (space) between words and characters in the text by changing the order set by the typeface.

Naturally, changing the spaces pushes the characters (words) apart or brings them closer together.

Creation-editing

Any text class is created using the Text tool.

Once it is selected, the available toolbar will look like this:

First you need to point the mouse at the point to place it. At this point, the cursor will appear in the form of a vertical bar familiar from other programs.

The next line is specified using Enter.

The set of new characters is significantly accelerated if you import it using a special button:

In general, all the elements in the upper part of the window are very convenient for assigning a format to characters directly as they are entered.

Of particular note is the F button, which brings up a formatting window containing all the available tools.

On the Character tab the following are available:

• headset selection;
• pin;
• style;
• additions with horizontal lines (underlining, etc.);
• converting lowercase characters to uppercase (Uppercase);
• index changes (Position);
• setting leading (Script - Script).

On the paragraphs tab (Paragraph), we found a setting designed to determine the line-by-line placement of words, change the specified spacing between characters (Character), words (Word), as well as a counter that sets leading (Line).

The remaining three tabs do not relate to curly text.

Buttons of the lower fragment of the window:

• By clicking the Import button in the window that appears, you can select a document whose text is transferred to the cursor location.
• The Options button brings up a context menu of additional functions, similar to many text editors.

Complete selection of a block can be done using the Select All button.

The following three-team group is called upon to find individual parts and change the text.

Subsequent ones are tested for errors in grammar and spelling.

The penultimate two commands control the display of tools at the top of the formatting window.

The bottom one is used to configure the Text tool.

Simple text

The difference between plain text and curly text is that it is contained in a paragraph text frame, which is itself an object. Its shape (rectangular by default) can change, and the frames themselves can be combined into a connected series.

Frame

Typing simple text is called by the same tool - Text.

However, before you write an episode, you first create a frame for it. Place the mouse cursor at the point of its intended angle, drag it diagonally - when released, a frame of the selected size is formed with the cursor inside.

When typing simple text, the cursor does not move to the new line automatically, but after it moves to the right edge of the line. And having reached the end of the frame, it disappears (characters are entered, but not reflected).

If you need to enter a large volume, it is better to use the Editing window called by the EditText command, or type it in a text editor and import using the Import command.

Chain of frames

Chains are used to arrange text in different fragments.

To add a new frame to an existing one, you need to move this icon with the mouse:

A series of frames is connected by colored pointers (not displayed when printed). Based on the location and fullness of the indicators, the frame’s place in the sequence is clear.

Flow around

When the frame intersects with any object, the text (inside it) can be given a streamlined mode.

This is set by the Wrap Paragraph Text button on the attributes tab. In addition to filtering by flow mode, you can set the spacing gap between symbols and the object.

Flow rules fall into two distinct categories:

• along the contour;
• and along the frame.

Attributes

The accessory attributes considered for the curly class are also acceptable for the simple class. However, the latter has additional ones.

Intervals

In the formatting dialog on the Paragraph tab:

The Settings key detects the availability of counters to adjust the character width density:

• largest interword (Max. wordspacing);
• min. interword (Min. word spacing);
• Max. intercharacter (Max. charspacing).

Gaps between paragraphs (spaces) are set by the “before paragraph” (Before paragr.) and “behind the paragraph” (After paragr.) counters.

Activating Hyphenation Settings causes word hyphenation to be adjusted:

In it you can manage the following parameters:

• By default, the Automatic hyphenation checkbox is disabled to activate it (and give access to other parameters);
• the default Break capitalized flag disables the prohibition of hyphenation of words with capitalization;
• the transfer zone (Hotzone) sets its latitude;
• the Minimum word length counter specifies its smallest portable part;
• parameters Min. characters before and Min. characters after specifies the number of characters “before” and “behind” the hyphen.

Changing the values ​​of Indents allows (in a consistent manner) subtle manipulation of their values. It should be taken into account that these values ​​are measured from the middle to the frame edge.

Tabs

The place in a line that separates the next part for alignment actions is called a tab stop. It has its own symbol.

It is added using the Add tab command and removed using the Delete tab command (after selection).

Its position can be specified using the coordinates on the Tabs page.

By placing the mouse in one of the cells on the right side, you can change the position of the tab stop by entering new values ​​(left column), select a position (central), coordinate with filling (in the right column).

The filling character is specified in the Character cell, the intercharacter space for filling in the Spacing cell.

The program allows the program to place in-frame text in columns. These columns can be the same width or different. Their adjustments are located on the Columns tab:

• the number of columns is determined in the Number of columns column;
• the column row width is in Width;
• distance between columns is given in Gutter;
• The Equal column width checkbox assigns the same values ​​to all columns after assigning parameters to the first column;
• The Paragraph frame width cell adds the lengths of the columns and the spaces between them.

Group of checkboxes at the bottom:

• maintaining the same frame width when changing it in columns and gaps - Maintain current frame width;
• maintaining equality between the frame width and the sum of all columns with gaps – Automatically adjust frame width;

Vertical smoothing in the Vertical justification set will allow you to choose options for placing text lines, grouping them at the top, in the center, etc.

Effects

This tab reflects the management of bulleted lists and polygraphic drop caps.

Initially they are disabled (and unavailable). Enabling them is achieved by selecting the Bullet or Dropcap marker (for a drop cap) from the set of effects.

Such a list is considered to be a certain order of paragraphs with a marker at the beginning of each.

On the tab dedicated to typographic effects, there are settings:

• selecting a sign (symbol) for the marker from the Symbol cell (their set is changed by the set typeface);
• an alternative way to select a symbol by specifying the code in the Symbol # cell;
• setting the point size in the Size cell;
• indicating the vertical shift of the marker along the base (Baselin eshift);
• selecting the interval from the left frame boundary to the marker symbol (Position).

Pay attention to the Hanging Indent toggle switch, which places the indent to the left of the line.

Initial letter

Everyone has probably seen how in ancient books the first letter of a paragraph was highlighted in a special way. This is what is called the Initial Letter.

You can control this effect in CorelDRAW by selecting Drop cap in the list:

• in the Droppedlines cell, the number of text lines is indicated, the total height of which is assumed to be equal to the height of the drop cap;
• in the Distancefromtext window, set the distance to the right of the drop cap to the text characters;
• the purpose of Dropped and HangingIndent is clear from the picture.

Converting classes

Mutual conversion is possible between text classes in Corel.

In order, for example, to turn a figured one into a simple one, you first need to select it with the Pick tool. And the transformation itself occurs using the ConvertToParagraph command in the Text menu.

The reverse process is assigned by the ConvertToArtisticText command in the same menu and also after selection.

If such an operation cannot be performed (this may happen), then the commands will not be available.

Some chips

Sometimes a design idea requires the text to be embodied in a non-standard form.

Text along object

Before you write text in a circle or around some polygonal object, you first need to create it. It can be a circle, arc, square, triangle - anything. The main thing is that it does not contain combined elements.

Curved text shape

If necessary, you can change the shape of the text itself without connecting it with the outline of a geometric object.

After activating the Interactive Envelope Tool function, the text will be surrounded by a dotted line with dots, by moving which you can transform it into the desired form.

And at the top there will be a panel that can be used to change parameters, instead of a manual cursor, which is not always possible or not everyone can do it.

It is important that the text remains “text” - it can always be changed in the usual way. And the result could be, for example, like this:

Text height

Finally, one more nuance for those who want to know how to set the text height in mm in CorelDRAW.

In order for the text to be displayed in millimeters, you need to select them in Tools - Options - Text - Default Text Unit.

But you need to keep in mind that the size of the point does not indicate the actual height of the character. It indicates the height of the rectangle in which the symbol fits.

Therefore, to determine the real sizes, it is better to compare them with objects whose size is already known (using additional rulers).

You learned a lot from this publication. Now you know about working with text in CorelDRAW.

Read our other articles and you will learn even more.

Leave your comments, ask questions.

Text editing in this version has not undergone major changes, but certain points have appeared that I will also consider here. The Corel graphics package gives us the ability to change the location of text, scale, apply various visual effects and fills.

I will try to fit the basic tools and capabilities of working with CorelDrawX7 text in this article.

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Figured and simple text.

Text in the CorelDraw graphic editor can be of two different types: curly and simple. Figured text is more flexible and convenient for artistic processing. Plain text is defined by boundaries beyond which it cannot go and is intended mostly for large amounts of information.

At any time we can change the text format from plain to curly and vice versa by right-clicking on our text and selecting “Convert to curly (plain) text” from the menu that appears, or by pressing Ctrl + F8.

To build curly text, we need to select the “Text” tool and left-click on the work field. We will have a cursor, and now we can enter characters to construct our text.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we can select an area using this tool, and the text constructed in this area will not be curly, but simple. Those. it will be inscribed in the area we have selected.

We cannot place simple text along a vector object; it is intended for large amounts of text information. And curly, in turn, is more suitable for highlighting more significant and not so large information.

Changing spacing in text.

You can change the spacing in the text either through the “Text Properties” side menu (Ctrl + T) or using the “Shape” tool (F10). I prefer the second option.

The “Form” tool gives us additional options for editing text. When we select this tool, we see that a marker appears under each letter (a white square, which if selected turns black), and arrows appear in the right and left corners to change the distance between characters as shown in the figure.

By stretching our text, using these arrows, with the Shift key held down, we increase only the distance between words, and by holding Ctrl we work only with kerning. In this way, you can edit both curly and simple text.

Filling text.

Changing the ability to work with text filling in CorelDrawX7 is a real innovation. Now we can fill text with texture, gradient, raster and vector images. Again, text conversion is not necessary.

Text wrapping.

In order for our image not to be superimposed on top of the text and not covered by it, we need to place it on top of the text and, by right-clicking, select the “Wrap with plain text” option. You can edit text wrapping parameters using the icon I highlighted in red in the picture.

Effects with text.

Effects with text in Corel are a separate topic for a long article.

Compared to earlier versions, in CorelDrawX7 we can apply effects without damaging the text information. Now we don't have to convert the text to curves.

In addition to transparency effects, we can apply lens, shell, bevel, extrusion, and even blend effects. What can I say, almost any effects previously available only for vector curves, we can now apply to text and then format this text by correcting punctuation marks or grammatical errors.

An unprecedented luxury for inattentive designers).

I will give some effects with text below.

“Shell” effect.

The “flow” effect.

Text in container.

In order to place text in a container, we need a vector object that acts as the container itself; it can be a star, an ellipse, an arbitrary rectangle, or any other closed vector object. After we have found a container for our text, we select the tool for creating text (Fig_2).

When we hover over our container, the cursor transforms, thereby giving us the opportunity to create text enclosed in the container.

The advantages of text enclosed in a container are simple editing of the container's borders. By changing the shape of our container, we edit the boundaries of the text placement.

“Apply font” window.

This innovation allows you to select and view different fonts in a separate window. Here we can change the words typed in these fonts and immediately see the changes.

You can call this window from the top “Text” menu by selecting the “font application” tab.

If earlier we had to work with text on a sheet, now we can type any word or expression in this window, select any number of typefaces to display, and then take the spelling we like and simply drag it out of this window into the work area. Very good, I would say.

Cancel transformations.

No matter how we twist or scale the text in any proportion, we can always cancel the transformations by going to the “Arrange > Transformations > Undo Transformations” menu. This feature doesn't only work for text.

Converting text to curves.

Once we've finished formatting our text, we need to prepare our file for printing and the first step is to convert the text into a vector object. To do this:

1. Select the text using the “Selection Tool” tool.

2. Go to the menu: “Arrange > Convert to Curve” or press “Ctrl + Q”.

This stage should be the final one, because after this we will not be able to format the text. Usually I leave a file with text, and for printing I save another one of the same kind, but with converted, crooked text. If you need to slightly modify the layout, you will not have to re-enter all the text.

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Import text.

It is possible to import text from various text editors: Word, Excel, etc. But sometimes a compatibility pack is required.

In order to import text, we need to select in the top menu: “File > Import”. Then select the text file and click “Import”.

I want to say that often importing text is not necessary; it is enough to select the text and use the standard technique “Ctrl + C” and “Ctrl + V” to copy and paste the desired text.

In conclusion, I want to give some simple tips when working with text.

1. Be careful, always re-read what you wrote before converting the text and sending it to print.

2. Save working files with converted and unconverted text.

3. At the initial stages, try to refrain from using gradient fills, shadows and other visual effects when working with a large amount of text. In the first item “Text Properties” (Ctrl + T) we can adjust the justification parameters, line spacing, and kerning.

Tabs. Allows you to edit the depth of embedded text.

Columns. This option allows us to adjust the number and width of columns, as well as the spacing between columns. A good alternative to typographic grid.

Markers. We can edit the properties of a bulleted list: change the type of marker, change the distance from the marker to the text border and from the marker to the text.

Initial letter. Change the settings for the first letter in a paragraph.

Application of the font. Window for preview and quick selection of fonts.

Edit text. A window for formatting text pops up.

Inserting a symbol. Here I think everything is clear: these are opportunities for inserting non-standard icons such as a copyright sign or an Arabic letter.

Insert formatting characters. This menu will help us insert characters such as em dash, en dash, hyphen, etc.

Convert… Let's convert curly text into simple text and vice versa.

Service symbols. Menu for working with service symbols.

Simple text. Here we can turn on and off the display of frames for plain text, as well as change other options for text.

Text along the path. With text selected, allows us to select a curve to place the text along the curve.

Straighten the text. We straighten the text we edited incorrectly.

Align. Align the text that was expanded by mistake.

Align to baseline. The text snaps to the document's baseline.

Use hyphens. We can use hyphens.

Options. Function for setting transfer parameters.

Spell checkers. Spelling, grammar, tesarius, etc.

Register. Displays a window for editing the register.

Prepare text for publication on the Internet. It does something creepy with the text, although nothing seems to happen to it... A very strange button.

Encode. Changing the character encoding.

What the font?!… This application does not work for me, perhaps because I need to register on the CorelDraw website as a fan of this program. Surely a very good thing - judging by the name, it should determine what font was used.

Text statistics. Shows the number of character lines, fonts used, etc.

Font list options. Allows you to adjust the font size in the drop-down list, you can select the type of font to display, etc.

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Study, work and don't be lazy! I hope you found this article useful.

Working with text in Corel Draw is very convenient - for text design it is one of the most convenient tools, because... Corel Draw has a ton of text effects that you can use without converting the text to lines.

Types of text

There are two types of text in Corel Draw - artistic and simple. Artistic text can be modified like any graphic object, but it does not cease to be text, even after applying effects. However, most automatic editing tools do not work with such text. Simple text can only be filled with color and placed inside the outline. At the same time, automatic hyphenation and spell checking are possible for it. In this regard, it is customary to design HEADLINES, SLOGANS, SHORT NOTICEABLE INSTRUCTIONS IN LITERARY TEXT. Simple text is used to design TABLES, LISTS and other text consisting of an impressive number of printed characters.

Tools

To type text, use the TEXT tool (on the panel it looks like the letter [A]). To type FICTIONAL text, click the mouse in the desired location on the screen. If you need to type SIMPLE text, use the same tool to draw a rectangle inside which the text will be located. A dotted frame with a inviting cursor for entering text will appear on the screen. The frame is a separate object, however it will not be visible in view unless it is filled with text. Any letter, even one consisting of very thin lines, is an outline, not a set of segments. Therefore, changing the text color is done using the fill tool.

To change the distance between letters in Corel (when this question arises, they usually mean the horizontal distance between characters - KERNING, or the vertical distance between the baselines of two adjacent lines - INTERLINING). So, to change these parameters and increase/decrease the line or letter spacing in Corel Draw 12, for example, you just had to select the tool<текст>[A] and, having selected your inscription, press RMB (right mouse button). In the menu that appeared, you had to select<свойства текста>and then in the window that opens, find the tab where you can actually change the necessary parameters (both in % ratio to the font size, and in numerical terms, according to the size of the font). In Corel Draw X3, line and letter spacing can be changed in the tab<текст><форматирование>.

Text effects

Below are the most commonly used text effects.

In addition to the color itself, the text can be filled with an ornament, gradient, texture (select the GRADIENT, ORNAMENT or TEXTURE tool from the FILL tool group).

You can make text transparent to varying degrees using the INTERACTIVE TRANSPARENCY tool (colloquially a glass).

In order to create 3D text, you must first fill the letters with color, and then use the EFFECTS/EXTRUDE command.
In the EXTRUSION effect menu, you can configure (in the order of the tabs): PERSPECTIVE TYPE, ROTATION, LIGHTING SOURCES LOCATION, SHADOW COLOR and BELOW ON THE FRONT SURFACE OF THE OBJECT (last tab). Even after using the extrusion effect, the text does not turn into lines. To change it, just select the TEXT tool and click on one of the letters.

The BLEND effect creates a smooth transition from one text to another. To get the effect, you need to create text and fill it with the desired color. Then duplicate it, and move the duplicate to the distance you need from the original, make it smaller and fill it with a different shade. Then you need to select both labels and use the EFFECTS/BLEND command. In the BLEEDING effect menu you can configure (in the order of the tabs): NUMBER OF STEPS (number of intermediate objects, by default there are 20), ANGLE OF ROTATION OF OBJECTS, SHAPE OF COLOR TRANSITION.

One of the most popular text effects in Corel Draw is TEXT ALONG A CURVE. It can be obtained using the FILL TEXT TO PATH command.
A curve (can be closed or open) must represent one object, not a group. In the effect settings menu you can adjust: ANGLE OF LETTERS relative to the curve, DISTANCE FROM TEXT TO CURVE, ALIGNMENT (at the starting point, at the center, of course).

To write text in an arc or circle, you must first draw a circle by taking the appropriate tool from the toolbar [O]. After the circle is drawn, take the tool<текст>[A], write the desired inscription anywhere in the workspace (leave the inscription selected). Then select it in the text properties tab and point the cursor at the outline of our circle. After the text is placed, it can be moved along the circle using the mark at the first letter in the form of a red dot. After we have settled the inscription, you can select the circle with the cursor and remove the stroke (make a zero outline).

Import/Export text

Text in Corel Draw can be imported either from a text file or from the clipboard (when importing, set to: ALL FILES). Imported text appears as PLAIN text. It can be converted to artistic form, edited and formatted. If you are not going to make the entire module in Corel Draw, but want to make only individual elements, you will need to export them in a format that your layout program can understand. The most common export formats: EPS, WMF (for vector graphics) TIFF (for raster graphics). For raster formats, the correct resolution is important (for serious, high-quality printing - at least 300 dpi). If the module contains effects that create the illusion of blur (lights, shadows, gradients), then anti-aliasing should be set to improved when exporting. If the module contains only objects with a sharp outline, then it is better not to install anti-aliasing at all.

When exporting to WMF and EPS format, you can choose to convert the text to curves or not. But still, at the end of the work, it is better to have two versions of the saved finished layout - in one of which all the fonts will be converted into curved lines. A situation often arises when, when transferred from one computer to another, the designed font in the finished layout disappears or is replaced by a completely different one, even if the same version of Corel Draw is installed on both machines. This happens because the set of fonts installed on the system is unique for each computer. Therefore, if you value your work and time, use the CONVERT TO CURVE tool (LAYOUT/CONVERT TO CURVE) after finishing working with the text.

In this article we will look at:

• indentations for the paragraph on the left, right and for the first line;
• “vertical” distances - between paragraphs and lines of text;
• horizontal distances between characters and words.

Paragraph indentations

To visually separate one paragraph from another, an indentation is often used at the beginning of the first line. This is the classic way of noting a paragraph. The beginning of the line moves some distance to the right, and we immediately see where the next paragraph begins. To make a paragraph stand out from all the others, you may need other indentations - right indentation at the beginning of all lines and left indentation at the end of all lines. In this way, you can separate the selected paragraph from the rest of the text, highlight it, and draw attention to it.
Let me remind you that indents can only be adjusted for Paragraph Text(Simple text).

Select a tool Text tool(F8) and place the cursor in the paragraph. At the edges of the selected area of ​​the ruler (along the width of the text block) you will see special markers, by dragging which you can adjust paragraph indents.

• Upper left triangular marker. Use it to set the left indent for the first line. That is, the distance from the left edge of the text block to the beginning of the first line.
• Lower left triangular marker. By moving it, we adjust the indentation from the beginning of all lines (except the first) of the current paragraph.
• Lower left rectangular marker. By dragging it, we simultaneously change the left indentation, both for the first line and for all the others. When you move it with the mouse, you will see a special symbol on the ruler in the form of a circle, which shows the current indent position.
• And finally, the right triangle marker. By moving this handle, you can change the right margin value. That is, the distance from the right edge of the text to the right border of the text block.

We looked at an interactive way to change indents by moving special markers with the mouse.
But all these parameters can be adjusted precisely. If you do not want the indentation for the first line to be, say, 7.453 mm, then select the command from the menu Text > Paragraph Formatting(Text > Paragraph Formatting). Docker will appear Paragraph Formatting, in which we are now interested in the group Indents(Indentation)

Counter First Line(First Line) specifies the indent value for the first line. Left(Left) - left indentation for all lines, Right(Right) - right indentation.
Use first line indents to separate paragraphs from each other. By using left and right paragraph indentations, we can highlight a separate paragraph.

Spacing between paragraphs and lines of text

Now let's look at the vertical distances. These are the distances between individual paragraphs and individual lines within a paragraph.
You can set spaces before and after a paragraph to separate it from other paragraphs. Such intervals are also called “ beats" Paragraph breaks (before and after a paragraph) are often used for headings of different levels. The main thing here is not to confuse paragraph margins (the spaces before and after the paragraph) and paragraph indents (the distance from the left/right edge of the paragraph to the borders of the text frame).
It is these two methods (padding and indentation) that are used to visually separate paragraphs. In the Russian printing tradition, typography often uses first line indents (sometimes the term “ red line"), the Western typographic tradition uses padding. There are no strict rules, so we are increasingly using the method of paragraph spacing, especially in electronic documents. In particular, this method is used on the cdrpro.ru website.

Paragraph breaks can only be used for Paragraph Text(Simple text). The point is that CorelDRAW considers Artistic Text(Figured text) regardless of size, as one paragraph. Naturally, for a text consisting of one paragraph, the concept of “spacing between paragraphs” loses its meaning.
To change the spacing before and after a paragraph, we need the same docker Paragraph Formatting(Paragraph Formatting), group Spacing > Paragraph and Line(Spacing > Paragraph and Line)

Entering numeric values ​​into counters Before Paragraph(Before paragraphs) and After Paragraph(After paragraphs), you can change paragraph spacing.
Counters for changing paragraph spacing can be placed on the “Text” toolbar or on Property Bar(Properties panel).

This is an element Tools > Options… > Workspace > Customization > Commands > Text > Space Before and After Paragraph(Tools > Options > Workspace > Customize > Commands > Text > Paragraph Spacing).

Now let's look at what line spacing is. As already mentioned in the article “Professional work with text (part 2)”, this interval is also called “leading” (that is, the distance between the baselines of adjacent lines). This option works for both Paragraph Text(Simple text) and for Artistic Text(Figurative text).

There are three units of measurement for leading and spacing in CorelDRAW.

• % of Char. height(% of character height). The figure shows that this is the name of the distance from the topmost to the bottommost element of letters.
• Points(points). You can specify not a relative, but an absolute value of the line spacing in points (pt). When accurately setting the spacing value in points, you need to remember that this value will remain unchanged when changing the font size.
• % of Pt. size(% size in pt). This refers to the font size (point size) in points. That is, if the font size is 12 points, then the leading at the counter value Line at 100%, will also be equal to 12 points.

Line spacing can also be changed interactively. But this is done not using markers on a ruler, but in a different way.

Move your mouse pointer to the lower right corner of the selected text block. There you will see a marker in the form of two lines and a small downward arrow. Pull it. Move it up and down. You will see that the line spacing smoothly changes - increases or decreases depending on whether you drag down or up.
For curly text ( Artistic Text), similar actions can only be performed with a tool Shape.

It is not recommended to replace spaces by adding a blank paragraph (that is, adding blank lines by pressing Enter). When you edit text or change style settings, paragraphs may change their position. If an empty paragraph (line) is at the beginning or end of a column or text block, then it will not go anywhere and the empty space will be visible. Spaces at the beginning and end of columns (text blocks) are not displayed, and the text looks correct.

You can also mention the following. The ideology of setting leading and paragraph spacing in CorelDRAW is somewhat different from that in word processing and layout programs from other companies. If you, say, in MS Word or Adobe InDesign, set a leading that is different from the default, it will also be applied to two lines from adjacent paragraphs. And in the paragraph properties you will not see any spaces appear.

In CorelDRAW, everything happens differently. We see a clear distinction between the concepts " spacing between lines of one paragraph" And " paragraph spacing" Therefore, by changing the leading for several paragraphs, we will see that the paragraph spacing remains unchanged. And in order for the distances between paragraphs to be equal to the distance between lines within paragraphs, you will have to set them manually. This approach is more logical, but not more common.

But when you interactively change the line spacing using the mouse, the spacing between paragraphs automatically increases proportionally.
The buttons for changing line spacing work similarly. 1 Line Spacing(Single spacing), 1.5 Line spacing(one and a half interval) and 2 Line Spacing(Double spaced).

These buttons are similar to those available, for example, in MS Word and do not work identically, but they look very similar. That is, they automatically change paragraph spacing according to leading. They can be placed on the Text toolbar (they are not there by default) or on the Property Bar. You can find them here: Tools > Options… > Workspace > Customization > Commands > Text(Tools > Options > Workspace > Customize > Commands > Text).

Spacing between characters and words

Now let's look at three types of “horizontal” intervals. Spacing between characters, specific spacing between pairs of characters, and spacing between words. These parameters apply to both types of text: for Paragraph Text(Simple text) and Artistic Text(Figurative text). We will need docker again Paragraph Formatting, group Language, Character and Word(Language, symbol and word).

Let's start with the last parameter. In the counter Word(Word) sets the amount of space between words. When developing any font (typeface), it stipulates what width the standard space character should have. The default value is 100%. We change it by increasing or decreasing the interword interval.

Parameter Character(Character) controls the spacing between characters. The intercharacter distance is also called " tracking" Tracking is measured as a percentage of the space character. Let's do a couple of small experiments. Let's set the tracking value for the phrase to 100%. After this, you can see that the spaces “disappeared”, the intercharacter intervals became equal to the intervals between words. Now let’s try to make this phrase in three typefaces with different character widths (see figure below).

It can be seen that the intercharacter distances are different for each font. This means that the space width for each typeface is developed differently (depending on the width of the characters).

From the above it follows that by increasing the text tracking (such a set is also called “ détente"), do not forget to increase the distances between words using the counter Word(Word), otherwise the words will merge and the text will become difficult to read.
When using intercharacter spacing, it is advisable to take into account some features of text perception. For example, text in large fonts looks better when the letters are spaced closer together than when using standard spacing. This is especially noticeable if the entire word is typed in capital letters. The degree of necessary tracking correction depends not only on the point size (size), but also on the headset. Some fonts require quite a bit of tracking adjustment, while others can do almost nothing.

Often, setting the character spacing is used to fit a given text in a given area. And sometimes they are used as a design technique.

And again, I want to draw attention to the difference in CorelDRAW ideology in terms of horizontal spacing. For comparison, let's again take the MS Word text editor and the Adobe InDesign layout program. When the tracking in these programs changes, the distance between words also changes accordingly. In CorelDRAW you have to do this manually.
You can also change intervals using the mouse. Move the mouse to the lower right corner of the frame with simple text

and pull the marker in the form of two vertical lines and an arrow to the right. We will see that the intervals between characters and at the same time between words increase! If we drag with the key pressed Shift, then only the intervals between words will change. And the pressed key Ctrl will allow us to change only the intercharacter intervals.
For artistic text (Artistic Text), similar actions can only be done with the tool Shape.

Now let's look at the specific spacing between pairs of characters. The concept “ kerning" is the distance between pairs of characters (letters). As you might guess, the intercharacter space should not be the same for all letters of the text. The shape of the letters is different and for different combinations it should also be different. That's why they talk about the so-called " kerning pairs" Kerning pairs are pairs of characters, for example, AW, Ta, HR, ACH, AU, GA, etc. For example, the distance between the characters A and H may be less than between P and N.

Typically, kerning is done in the direction of reducing the space, so that the protruding parts of one character extend into the space of the second character (in the picture above there is a pair of letters A and H). As a result, the placement of symbols becomes visually more uniform. Therefore, adjusting kerning pairs, that is, changing the width of the space between pairs of letters, is necessary to improve the visual perception of text. Brand fonts are equipped with kerning tables, i.e. a list of pairs of characters between which it is necessary to reduce the space when typing. If a font has a large table of kerning pairs, it will look good, evenly regardless of the size. Typically, each font has its own spacing for each pair of characters. This is determined by the artist designing the font. Therefore, it is advisable to change them only when it is really necessary.

How can you change kerning in CorelDRAW? For this we need docker Character Formatting(Character Formatting), called by the command of the same name in the menu Text. And the counter Range Kerning(Kerning).

Select the characters for which you need to change the kerning, and decrease or increase the value in the input field. You can simultaneously adjust the distance between any number of characters. Kerning is measured as a percentage of the size of the space character in a given font.

There are also buttons for changing kerning.

They are called Decrease Kerning(Reduce kerning) and Increase Kerning(Increase kerning). You can find them here: Tools > Options… > Workspace > Customization > Commands > Text (Tools > Options > Workspace > Settings > Commands > Text). And then place it on the “Text” toolbar (they are not there by default) or on the Property Bar.

And as often in the CorelDRAW environment, the operation of changing kerning can be done interactively - manually, using the mouse. To do this, select Tool Shape and click on the text. Small square markers will appear next to each symbol. To highlight the character you want to move, click on the marker. You can also select multiple characters. The rules are the same as with selecting objects. Having selected the necessary markers, you can move them left-right or up-down. In this case, the corresponding symbols will also move.

You can also use the cursor keys to move.
Any final words? Knowing the intricacies and techniques of working with text will reduce your time formatting text and will also help you create professional-looking documents.

And, of course, customize your CorelDRAW! This is a very flexible tool that allows you to customize your workspace to suit your needs. And although options for working environments are discussed in a separate topic “Who has what working environment Corel Draw”, let me place here an example of my Property Bar in “Text” mode.

This is not a model to follow, but an example, like the rather sparse default Properties Panel, can be supplemented with various controls.