A Letterville Step By Step
Fatten Up A Thick & Thin Font
 By David Harding

Here is a step by step on how to fatten up a thick and thin font without totally destroying the integrity of it.

The following graphic shows University Roman BT in normal and various thickened modes.



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Aesthetic fonts have a precise relationship between the vertical and horizontal strokes. Just fattening it up all the way around changes the proportions between those strokes and kills the beauty of it.

The following shows the Corel outline tool dialog box with an equidistant outline, the least appealing option:



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The following shows the Corel outline tool dialog box with a distorted outline, which adds more to the vertical strokes than the horizontal, thus keeping more in line with the natural shape of the letters:



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The following shows the Corel outline tool dialog box with a distorted and angled outline, thus keeping the angled top serifs more delicate. Note that angling the outline adds a little more heft to the horizontal strokes, although we still have pretty good definition between the vertical and horizontal:
 


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You can also use similar techniques to add thick and thin strokes to curved swooshes and lines you may create.

This doesn't tell how to do it in Flexi but you can convert the outline to curves in Corel and import it into Flexi (that's what I do). I don't know enough about Illustrator to know if this technique will work with Illustrator.
 

 

David Harding
A Sign of Excellence
Carrollton, TX
dmharding@asignx.com

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