Rounding corners on text?

[Crewood]

I know it's possible to round the corners of a square or an oblong in CorelDraw, but is it possible to round the corners of a shape or text?

At work I use Signlab when cutting vinyl and by slightly rounding the corners of text and shapes it helps prevent the sharp edges of the vinyl being caught and lifted when washing or cleaning graphic signs on cars and trucks etc.

Regards....Mike

[sallybode]

With DRAW X3, you have the Fillets, Scallops and Rounds Docker which makes rounding text quite easy. You must convert text to shapes in order to use it. It will warn you if the round you chose is not approrpriate and for you to reduce the radius. However if you forget to change your shapes to text, DRAW will ask you if you want to change to shapes and then proceded to the rounds/scallops/chamfers.

For CorelDRAW 10, 11, 12 and X3 there is also a free script from obersonplace.com. This script will not run if you haven't converted the text to shapes. It isn't able to round all the text but does well on individual letters which means you will need to break your text apart to do this. It actually makes a new shape with the rounded corners behind your text, this you can fill with any color and eliminate the outline if you choose.

This is a VBA script and requires you know how to run and install scripts. There is an adequate description at the oberonplace.com site of how to do this. The handies way to use scripts is to assign them to a small bitmap graphic and then add them to a toolbar. This can be done in Options/Customization/Macros. All installed scripts are listed in here and you can either assign a picture/button to a script or a keyboard shortcut. Elsewise you will be running the script from the VBA player. Which works just as well, but it is a lot more convenient to set it up as a button.

There are many scripts out there for CorelDRAW, these scripts extend the function of the program. You can also write your own, or record your actions and play them back.

Oberonplace.com has an associated forum and the members there are quite helpful in troubleshooting scripts if you should need help specifically with writing scripts.

[Crewood]

Thanks for the help Sally.

Regards....Mike

[Grafixman]

Would like to see some samples on how it came out.
I'm still on Draw 11 and I used the rounded corners script, but it requires straight lines and ithe result is hard to splice back to the original curved portions of the text. I don't see how it would be practical to do it that way. But perhaps things are easier in X3?
I also tried exporting the text as a high resolution bitmap, round off the mask in Photopaint and create a clipping path from the rounded mask, but the results are squiggly and too inaccurate.
The last thing I could think of is to perhaps apply a moderate outline to the text, then set the lines to have rounded corners, then convert the outline to shape and work on that. Looks like a good way to go, but still a bit of work separating and recombining the shapes. Plus inner corners are not rounded in this method...

[sallybode]

Gman, you ought to be able to use the round corner script from oberonplace.com just as well as if you have version 12 or X3. The X3 one is very slick and works well.

But I tried it with Arial Bold, you may get different results in a different font.

You can also get a rounded corner effect with making the font thin, then outlining it with an outline with curved joins, and a bold stroke.

The zipped file has a version 11.cdr file. But I have included a .pdf with explanation for anyone who has an older version of DRAW to see.

All text was converted to curves so you can see the page as I intended it.

[Grafixman]

Great examples, Sally.
But you used TEXT, which is basically all straight edges.
Perhaps you were using the Oberon CurveWorks script? The freebie RoundCorners macro works only for paths made of straight line segments, so if you were to use it for something with curved and sharp edges, like S or Q, you'd have to select all nodes then click the straight edge icon to be able to use the RoundCorners script. Getting the result to show curved edges again requires a lot of work...
The examples in your pdf using outlines and rounded joints are about the same as the ones I'm talking about. Works well even with thin fonts, but if you would examine the inner angles (like the T, K,E, X in the red bottom example) you would notice that those edges are not rounded. The rounded joints are applied on the outer side of the outline. I could think of a workaround, like separating the angled part and reapplying the outline to force it get rounded, though. So it's not impossible, just a bit more work.
One thing I noticed is that Draw doesn't have the option for rounding corners in the contour tool. Xara has that, I think...

[sallybode]

I was not using the Oberon Curves scripts and I did not go out of my way not to use the letter "S", just didn't happen to type it. But I see what you mean, but all words are not made up of such letters, if a person was averse to upgrading, they have to accept that they are not going to have all the advantages of the upgraded program. But it isn't a lot of work, you add two stablizing nodes to opposite sides of the square corner and then delete the one in the middle. And adjust the edit handles. It really doesn't take that long.
The top example I did manually, in the length of time it took me to look up the script as I haven't made buttons for my toolbars as at work. The second examples were done using the fillet and round docker, and I ran it twice with reducing the radius to finish the rounds I couldn't do at first. But if you note, it rounds were I wouldn't like it rounded also.

So it is good to know both ways and how to make the most of your time to get the result you want.

[Grafixman]

I'm all for upgrading, but this graphics things being just a hobby and all, there's no rush for me. Perhaps Mike could consider purchasing the CurveWorks script, since it sounds exactly what he needs for his business. Having the right tool to do the job quickly and efficiently is essential in professional works.
I'd tackle the difficult corners manually too, Sally, if I ever need to do something like that. Faster and less fiddly than automated methods sometimes.
Played some more with homegrown solutions. This is not done in Corel Draw, but in Inkscape. I like Inkscape's method of doing offset or contours, since it rounds corners and avoids the spikes you often get with Corel's contour tool. Plus the paths are cleaner, too. None of those densely packed nodes you get in Draw. Inkscape is free, so there's nothing to lose trying it out. You can save the results as svg files that you could easily import to Draw, too.
Your latest examples looks a bit over rounded, Sally. Perhaps scaling the letters really big before rounding them could be a solution?
Too much time on my hands, obviously....

[sallybode]

You can choose whatever radius you prefer for as much rounding or as little as possible, Gman. And Curveworks I'd recommend downloading the trial to see if it does what you need since oberonplace.com allows that, if it is for you, then buy it, it isn't that expensive. It all balances out for what is the greatest value. In most versions of DRAW when you change a font to text you get more nodes than you need, but you can select all nodes and then reduce these to a more manageable quantity, there is a button on the Property bar. Breaking shapes is a good idea to maximize editing. But you can minimize your nodes all at once, a setting of 9 works well if dealing with Arial, but if you are dealing with a serif font, you will needs be have more nodes and a greater reduction may not have enough integrity, for a very curvy font, a setting of 3 may work best. The more nodes you remove, the less the curve may be exactly like the font anymore.

It is in tracing that you often get a ton more nodes than are necessary. I've tried several and keep with X3's trace because it lets you optimize quite well, assign colors within the trace function. Individual areas which will benefit from node reduction are up to the artist's preference. The best traces are done by hand. And for that I find Xara faster and import back to DRAW to process in my line of work.

The outline mode is useful if you are getting spiking in contours to help to eliminate the spikes but as you can change line properties on Contours to be rounded joins, this often ends spiking problems, if you have outlined text to make it more bold or to gain effects, and are exporting to .pdf, choosing round endcaps and joins prevents spiking there as well.

Though Xara is very fast, if you have to deal with output to vinyl cutters or sublimation or printing multiples or spot color, DRAW has tools which make these things easier than Xara. It isn't so much loyalty to a program as choosing the most efficient way to complete the job on time.

The main advantage of Inkscape is it is free. X3's tracing function is not like earlier versions of DRAW which has not been really upgraded for years.

Anyway, it is good for me in my job, but X3 is in many ways the most difficult DRAW to learn as there is so much you can make it specialize to do. It is unlikely that everyone will see the exactly same side of the elelphant. But there is a lot there.

[Grafixman]

I agree with what you say, Sally.
Mike, download and try the curveworks script to see if it does what you want before buying it. But if you have X3, there are built in options for rounding corners already, it seems. Changing the node type from cusp to smooth is the way I do it to prevent spiking when using the contour tool too, Sally. One disadvantage is that you have to do it manually. They really should provide the option for automatic rounding of sharp edges for contour.
Inkscape is free, and it is a big plus, but it really has a lot of features not found in Draw. The latest version also has edge blurring, something that is still harder to do in Draw. Also, the transparency for objects is more easily accessible. In Draw, you have to apply the interactive transparency tool or use the transparency filter if you want transparent objects. It's just a matter of sliding the slider in Inkscape. Cleaner paths is another thing, and the node simplification is better too, imo. I just discovered that doing an linked offset twice, once inward, then again outward, does the corner rounding pretty well in Inkscape.
Drifting way off topic with my Inkscape rant. Sorry.
What I'm saying is that we have access to a lot of tools these days, and making them work together is a good way of getting things done. Each program has their own strengths and weakness, and you should capitalize on that.