Software Used: CorelDRAW 8
1.)
Using the text tool, type the letters SC (or any other letters
if you prefer).
Select the
text and change the font (I used Bold Bd BT) and the size to
150. 
2.) Change the text to no fill and black outline. You can do this by clicking in the X on the palette with the left mouse button for the fill, and then click with the right mouse button on the black well in the palette for the outline.
3.) From the Effects menu, choose Contour. Adjust settings as follows and click apply:
- Inside
- Offset: 1
- Steps: 1
4.) Now we need to separate all the objects so we have an inside and an outside for each letter.
4.a) Right click on the inside outline, choose separate, then right click again and choose ungroup. Once more you will need to right click on each inside outline (S and C separately) and ungroup again. This separates the inside lines.
4.b) Next right click on the outside text, choose convert to curves, then right click again and choose break apart. Now, looking at the object manager you should have four separate curves.
5.)
Select the outside of the S and then choose the Interactive
fill tool. From the property bar, choose fountain fill. Drag
Sea Green from the palette and drop it in the black square of
the interactive fill, drag pale yellow into the white square.
You should have something that look like the image to the left.
6.a) Right drag (drag the object with the right mouse button) the outside of the S that you just filled and drop it on the inside of the C. Choose copy fill here from the menu that pops up.
6.b)
Next right drag from the inside of the C to the inside of the
S and copy fill. Click the inside of the S and the interactive
fill tool, and change the fill angle to 180 in the property
bar. 
6.c) Right drag the inside of the S to the outside of the C and copy fill.
7.)
Drag a marquee around everything with the selection pointer,
and right click the white well in the palette to change the
line color to white. I didn't like the width of the letters
so I selected everything and used the side handle to make them
a little skinnier. You should now have something that looks
like this...
8.) Next drag a marquee around the two parts of the C and position it over the S so the top of the C lines up with the middle of the S and the intersections of the letters form a square. (See the final image for positioning).
9.)
Now we need to rearrange the stacking order. This is best done
using the Object Manager. I renamed each of my objects in the
object manager. You can do this by selecting an object, then
clicking on the selected object in the object manager and typing
a new name. Once you have named each object, drag and drop them
into the proper order in the object manager using the image
to the right as a guide.
Almost done...
10.)
Finally, draw a rectangle surrounding everything, change the
line color to none. Go to the Effects menu, choose Lens, in
the roll-up choose Heat Map, then click Apply.
That's it... all that's left is to export your image to whatever format you'd like. You might want to play around with different colored gradients for other effects.
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CorelDRAW Tutorials from your Guide
Sue
Chastain
Your Guide to Graphics Software
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Images:
Copyright 1999, S. Chastain, unless otherwise noted.
Screen shots captured with Corel Capture 8. Image conversion
and optimization with Ulead
SmartSaver Pro.
