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Illustration (vector) programs like CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator
make changing color, shape and scale of dingbat objects very easy. As
soon as you convert a dingbat from text to curves, you have access to
unlimited variations. The steps that follow will convert any text object
to curves.
Convert to Curves
Dingbats, like all fonts, are stored as outlines. To access full manipulation
options, the text must be converted to a graphic element.
With the Text Tool, choose a dingbat font and type in your character
(Sigil, character "m" used here). Change to the Pick Tool
and drag to a large working size. Do not worry about your final size
at this point, since vectors can be scaled at any time. Make sure your
dingbat is selected and choose Arrange>Convert to Curves.
The illustration at the left shows the object before and after the
convert to curves action has taken place. In the Pick Tool example,
note that there are now control points on the two white sections inside
the outline. These have become separate areas, though they are still
all one object - we will separate them in a minute.
In the Shape Tool example, you can see that nodes are now available
along all the curves. When the same object was text, only text tools
were available (line and letter spacing).
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Sigil font ©Scriptorium.
Used with permission.
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Separate the Objects
When the dingbat is converted to curves, it is assumed to be all one
curve. Not much more useful for manipulation than it was as text. In
order to allow manipulation of individual sections, we must break apart
the components so they become individual objects. Select the object
with the Pick Tool. In the Main Menu choose Arrange>Break Apart.
Don't worry if some of the areas fill in. When the object breaks apart
the original color fills all areas. Plus, the object that forms the
outline comes to the front. Note the status bar to confirm that you
have several objects now - in this case, 4 objects are selected.
There are two ways to reveal the hidden objects so you can change the
fill color. First, you can choose View>Wireframe from the Main Menu.
This takes all fill and outline information from the view, allowing
you to select and change object attributes. Note that the interior object,
which was invisible at normal view, is selected. However, this does
not let you see the order of the objects.
Since the largest object (the one forming the outline) usually comes
to the front when objects break apart, you must click very close to
the edge to select this object. Temporarily fill it with a contrasting
color. In this illustration, I have filled the outer object with yellow
(1), then from the Main Menu chose Arrange>Order>To Back (2).
Note the tiny artifact at the top of the object. This is quite common
when converting to curves and can usually be deleted. You may have to
extend the adjacent curve to duplicate the original, since this artifact
indicates that a piece of the curve was broken into a separate object
when it was converted.
In the final image (3), I have deleted the artifact, changed the outer
object to black fill and filled the two interior objects with white
to duplicate the original image.
Although this seems like a lot of work, it becomes automatic and goes
very quickly once you have completed the process a few times. Carry
on to the next page for more dingbat manipulation methods and tips on
preparing CorelDraw images for the Web.
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