The Xara Trompe L'Oeil Room Page 1
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Part One — Creating the Glass Title

We will be working with Pixels as our Units of measurement and use 0-255 for our Color Units. If you are new to Xara here is how to do this.

Right click on the page and select Page Options from the pop up menu. In the Units tabbed section, select Pixels from the drop down list and check the radio button next to Color Units: 0-255.

Go to the Grid and Ruler tabbed section. In the Major Spacing text entry box key in (exactly like this) 100pix and in the Number of Subdivisions, text entry box, key in 10. Press OK to close the dialog.

NOTE: The image we will be creating will be larger than my illustration space. Key is the whole word XARA.

Select the Text Tool and click on the page to place the insertion cursor. Key in XARA. Drag the text cursor over the text to select it and select Jellybean from the drop down Fonts list on the Infobar at the top of the screen. Select 72pt from the Size drop down list on the Infobar.

NOTE: The font Jellybean can be found on the Xara X CD in the Fonts folder. Place the Xara X CD in your CD disc drive. Open the Fonts Gallery on the Infobar (it's in the top right portion of the screen and and has an icon with an Aa).

Select Disc Fonts. Xara X should locate your CD drive and the Fonts folder. Click TrueType then press Add. An index of all TrueType fonts will be added to the Fonts Gallery. (The fonts are not installed, only the listings).

Jellybean is in the folder TrueType Fonts with Capitals Only. Scroll down to Jellybean, select it and press Install. Xara X will ask you to confirm you want to install this font. Press Install and next time you scroll though the Fonts list, Jellybean will be there. 

Using the Selector Tool (the Arrow pointer), select the text XARA, then select the Fill Tool. From the drop down list of Fill Types, select Linear.

The default fill is black and white. We will change the color in a minute. Drag the dark end of the fill path to the bottom of the text. Drag the lighter end of the fill path to the top. (See the mini-tutorial below).

Click the bottom square on the fill path to select it, then click the tiny color wheel icon to the left of the screen palette to open the Color Editor. Select RGB Model from the drop down list of color models. Enter the RGB values listed above. For example, for the first color, red, enter (220) in the R text entry box, enter 250 in the G text entry box and enter 240 in the B text entry box. Follow this procedure for all of the other fills.

NOTE: You can also drag and drop colors onto the fill path, or the control handles on either end of the fill path.

For those who are not familiar with Xara's Linear Fills here's a mini-tutorial.

Xara's default fill color is black. When you create any shape, Xara applies a black Flat fill.

To change a Flat fill to a Linear fill, select the object, select the Fill Tool, then select Linear from the drop down list of Fill Types on the Infobar.

Using the Fill Tool cursor, you can drag either end of the fill path to modify the direction of the fill. Hold down the Ctrl key to constrain the angle of the fill.

To modify the colors, click the control handles (the tiny boxes on either end of the fill path) and either select a color on the screen palette or drag and drop a color from the screen palette onto the control handle. You can edit the color using the Color Editor (click the color wheel icon to the left of the screen palette).

Select the Contour Tool, then click the XARA text to select it. In the Contour Width text entry box on the Infobar at the top of the screen, key in 8 and press Enter on your keyboard to apply this change.

Change the number of Contour Steps to one 1 and press Enter again to apply the change. Press the Bevel Join icon (that looks like an inverted U) to round the bevel. (No need to press Enter).

Select the contour with the Selector Tool (the arrow) and from the Arrange pull down menu, select Convert to Editable Shapes. With the contour still selected, select Ungroup from the Arrange menu. Ungroup  one more time to ungroup both the text and the contour shapes.

NOTE: Many of Xara's tools and effects are known as "Live" effects. This means that once applied, the effects can be modified at any time. Even if the the document is saved and reopened. To disable any live effect, Blends, Contours, Bevels, etc. use Convert to Editable Shapes.

You can also use Convert to Editable Shapes to convert text to paths or outlines.