Adding a Second Outline Around Words

'Cinco de Mayo' with blue outline added.

Now we'll add the second outline. This outline will wrap around the whole word, not individual letters. Finalize the position, rotation and alignment of all letters before proceeding.

Select the primary layer on Layer palette for 'Cinco de Mayo'. It is probably named 'Vector 1' unless you've re-named it. Right click this layer button and select 'Duplicate'.

Change the - to a + to fold up and hide all sub-layers for 'Copy of Vector 1'. This makes for less visual clutte'.

Switch to 'Vector 1' (the bottom layer) and select the layer button(s) for all of the 'Cinco de Mayo' text. We only want the bottom layer text selected. Be careful not to select any of the top layer. This is the reason I suggest you make your selections from the Layer palette instead of clicking directly on the letters or dragging a selection around them.

With all letters on bottom layer ('Vector 1') selected and the Pick tool active. Select the Properties icon on the Tool Options palette to bring up the Vector Property dialog. Change the outline/stroke color to dark blue (from color swatch) and change the stroke width to 7. Click OK to close. If you are working with a different size font or stroke than this demo, just try doubling the width you used for the green outline.

Your lettering should now have a green outline around the yellow gradient and a blue outline around just the 'outside' portions of the lettering (as shown in screen shot). You could stop at this point, convert to raster and add some drop shadows, but we're going to embellish the letters a bit more.