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font help

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archerdesign

New Member
Could someone please advise me on how to make the ugly black drop shadow on this Arial Black font? Im running Flexi Letter, and does not have an effect that'll do this for me. It will only do drop shadow. Im starting to work on these trucks this weekend and am begininng to freak out! :) Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Dave Archer
Vancouver, BC
 

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Trimline20

New Member
It is not a Drop shadow but is a BLOCK shadow. It appears that it may also incorporate a tiny outline around the lettering. (the photo seems to show an outline although the text vinyl appears to have been installed even with the top of the outline)

FlexiLetter should provide a variety of shadow styles including BLOCK (Effects > Shadow). The sub-menu drop-down in Design Central's Shadow tab will permit various Block shadow effects including incorporating an outline as a component of the shadow. It also permits control if the shadow extends behind the text, abuts the text or leaves a space between the text and the shadow.

One thing I see within your sample is the holes within the 'O's', 'D's' and 'A's' are filled in solid with the shadow colour.

To do that:

-Apply to the text a Block shadow with backing but without an outline.

-Separate the shadow from the text.

-Apply a small 'Contour' outline with backing to the shadow only (Effects > Outline). Even if the text does not utilize an outline, use the Outline tool set to 0" so that the lettering holes will be filled.

-Separate the outline from the shadow and ensure both the outline and shadow are the same colour.

-Weld the shadow and outline together thereby creating one piece of vinyl for both the shadow and outline.


All the best.

Mark
 
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archerdesign

New Member
Thank you Mark! I looked for the "Block Shadow" effect on FlexiLetter and there is none. It only allows for a Drop Shadow, which does not give me the same effect. I got ahold of Adobe Illustrator 11, and cannot find that effect in there either. I'm at a real standstill here for something that looks so easy. Thank you again for your reply.

Dave Archer
 
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archerdesign

New Member
I agree Deposit. Im a real little sign guy, and have had FlexiLetter since 1994. Its done everything I need it to do thus far. Sometimes takes me alot longer, but can usually get it figured out. I live in a very small town, and there is not much need for digital printing or fancy kinda stuff. On this kind of project I usually load it into AI CS2 and then export it as a AI Legacy file, which my FlexiLetter can read. Thanks again for any advice on this.

Dave Archer
 
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