Tutorial for Creating a Custom Map Title using Xara Xtreme 2.0

Xara Xtreme 2.0 is a vector based drawing application, similar to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, except its priced where most people can afford it. Not only that, but its surprisingly easy to learn and use, unlike most graphics applications.

You will be required to at least use the 14 day free trial download of Xara Xtreme 2.0 to utilize this graphics tutorial.

Creating a Custom Map Title

The text tool in Xara Xtreme is very easy to use. Pictured to the right is the Xara Xtreme toolbar.

1. First select the Text tool or select the Text Gallery to view all available fonts. Since Anglosaxon.ttf is this months free downloadable font, lets use this one.

You can set the font size from the dropdown next to the font name listed in the menubar, or you can simply resize the text graphic to fit your needs, its all very simple to do.

For our example, type "hammerhall", as you can see Anglosaxon font comes only in all CAPs. This is both common and frustrating with many display fonts - Anglosaxon is a display font. Use it for titling only, not main text bodies.

2. At the bottom of the Xara Window is a color bar. I selected the gold, next to the orange, although you can click the color wheel symbol to the far left and change to any specific color you wish to use.

3. While the "hammerhall" is still selected, click the "bevel tool". You will see arrow handles appear at the corners of the text graphic. First select a corner arrow and slightly "resize inwards" this gives the text graphic a beveled in.

4. Now comes the magic! With "hammerhall" still selected, go to Edit menu at the top, and select "Copy Groups", which places a copy into the desktop. Then select "Paste in Place" which places the copy exactly on top of the previous "hammerhall".

5. Select the bevel tool again, but this time grab the corner arrow and nudge it away from the text, as if to enlargen the word. Make sure the bevel is beyond the first beveled "hammerhall", but not too much. Now go to the top menu, select "Arrange" and "Put to Back". Finally go to the color bar at the bottom of the window and select a darker color. In the example, I selected the burgandy color (text over says RGB 60%0%0%)

6. Finally, for an extra touch, select "hammerhall", then select the "Drop Shadow tool" on the toolbar. Place your cursor on "hammerhall" and slightly nudge down and to the right. Notice the feathered and faded drop shadow you create.

Very important, make sure the background color behind the text graphic is in the same color as your proposed map. Otherwise, don't create a drop shadow, and simply export your "hammerhall" graphic as a PNG image.

In PNG format, you can easily import the graphic as a CC3 tool or Dundjinni object. You can also use this as graphic clipart, if you are creating your map in a graphics package like Photoshop.

As you can tell you can adjust the bevel, colors and size freely to whichever looks best to you, or best matches the theme for your map.

That's it for Tutorial One. We'll explore more tools, next month when we build a custom Compass Rose graphic using Xara Xtreme!

Michael K. Tumey