How to get narrow outline on lettering?

[MktgGeek]

Hi All - I've attached an example of some buttons I'd like to be able to do on Xara Photo & Graphic Designer. You'll see there's a very narrow black outline around the letters. I've tried shadows, but can't get it to look like that. Does anyone know how this could be done on Xara? Thanks for your help!

[yourgotoguy]

Hey Kathleen,

Are you trying to create the effect on the picture you uploaded, or are you trying to get an outline around the letters?

[yourgotoguy]

all three of these can done easily, not sure what effect you are after.

[MktgGeek]

Hi Goto. Thanks for the reply. I have the button itself - the border and background fade, etc. I want to be able to recreate the lettering to make a new button. So, for example, I want to type About Us and then do whatever it is that makes the lettering pop - looks to me like its a slightly smudged outline around the letters?

Does that make sense?

[amoore]

It looks like a glow shadow. Shadow tool, third shadow type. Then experiment with the settings until you get what you want.

Drag a black swatch from the color line onto the shadow to change the shadow color.
Drag the black dot in the upper left corner of the text to shrink and position the shadow.
Adjust the Blur and Transparency values as desired.

[yourgotoguy]

You beat me to it lol. I would do exactly what amoore recommended! A very quick and rough idea of it is shown in my example above, the furthers on the left of the 3 button samples.

[MktgGeek]

Thanks Amoore and GoTo!! That was exactly what I needed. What I didn't know about was that pesky little black dot in the upper left corner! It's the simple things that get ya! Have a great weekend.