Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
and then pressing
ENTER
. The interactive control offers
scaling of highlighted text without the constraint of
whole-number values. You click the button to reveal the
slider and then drag to set a minimum value of 2 points
to a maximum of 32 points.
The size unit in the pop-up is set in Options | Units, where you have your choice between
Millimetres, Centimetres, Metres, Kilometres, Millipoints, Points, Pica, Inches, Feet, Yards,
Miles, and Pixels. Easier still, you can enter a value in a different unit than the current default
unit in the text area and Xara automatically converts it to the default unit. For example, if your default unit
is pixels, you could type
.25in
(no space between the number and the measurement) and Xara instantly
converts to 18 points.
N
Bold and Italic
Use these buttons on the Infobar to
specify a family member of a font used in the text that
is highlighted. However, the Bold and Italic buttons will
produce nothing except a warning when you've chosen,
for example, to call a bold member of a typeface that
has no bold member. You can remove italic and bold
attributes from text by highlighting the text and then
toggling the button to its original state.
Underline
N
The Underline feature adds an underscore
as an effect, which is useful for legal documents—
underscores are
not
used in good logos and other design
work. Although Underscore is an effect, an underscore
becomes a very real shape if you convert text selected
with the Selector Tool to Editable Shapes (
CTRL
-
SHIFT
-
S
).
Left Justify, Center Justify, Right Justify
N
Justification
(aligning successive lines of text) works with normal,
column, and paragraph text. It is worthy here to mention
that in most Western World countries, of these three
justifications, left justified text is most quickly read. Try
to avoid long lines of centered text to spare your readers
from visual whiplash as they scan uneven lines. Right
justification can be used effectively in design work, but
you need to be a seasoned layout person
in addition to
an accomplished typographer to cast column text in right
justification so it can be read without inducing headaches.
Fully Justify
N
Full justification is flush left and flush
right with respect to columns and paragraphs—this
option does nothing for plain, regularly entered text. Full
justification looks professional and polished but often
produces
rivers
—jagged white spaces running vertically
