Add and Edit Text in CorelDraw (Place Shapes, Symbols, and More)

This tutorial demonstrates how to add both types of text to a document: artistic and paragraph. Then, once the text has been added, text in CorelDraw, you'll learn how text objects can be edited, from changing fonts and colors to editing the characters themselves. And you'll see how artistic text can be positioned along a curve, and paragraph text can fit inside any closed shape.

Tools you need to edit text in CorelDraw

This is what you must necessarily have for text editing in CorelDraw:

• CorelDRAW graphics package: you should join creativity and productivity in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite: the professional design toolset for vector illustration, layout, photo editing and typography.
• Clipart collection: 300 clip art elements in a variety of design styles.
• Graphic design package: Ideal for hobbyists and home businesses.
• Wacom Intuos Pro Large: This super-slim 17″ tablet offers the perfect drawing space and natural creative control for illustration, editing or digital design.

Maybe you may be interested: How to Align and Position Objects in CorelDraw

Adding and editing text in CorelDRAW

Next, you'll learn how to create and edit both types of text: artistic and paragraph. We'll also look at how to fit text to curves and shapes.

Adding and editing artistic text

There are two types of text you can create with the tool Text in CorelDraw: Artistic and Paragraph. Adding artistic text is simple: activate the tool Text, click once where you want to start the text, change the default font or size if you want, and start typing. You can include line breaks by pressing EnterClicking on a blank space completes the text.

After selecting the text with the tool Select, you can perform some standard edits, such as moving, resizing, or stretching in one direction.

• If you click again, you can rotate the text.
• The arrows along the sides of the bounding rectangle can be used to cut and skew the text.
• To change the color of the text, click on a color swatch in the option Color.

When the docker Text is open (go to Window > Dockable windows). You can do even more. In the section Character, you can switch to a vector fill and choose the pattern, or try a texture fill or a gradient fill. For any of these fill options, clicking the Fill Settings the fill properties open.

Editing text characters in CorelDraw

When you double-click a text object, you can edit the characters in the text. Another way to edit text in CorelDraw is to activate the Text Edit tool. Text and click once on the text.

After dragging to highlight some of the characters, you can use the settings in the Property bar or in the docker Text to change only those characters. When selected text, you can also change the kerning, which is the space between characters.

Adding and editing paragraph text

Paragraph text is typically used for large amounts of text, which is placed inside a text frame. You can type the paragraph text, if you don't have much to say, but it's usually easier to have the text available in another application, where you can use it. Ctrl + C to copy it first.

To add paragraph text, activate the tool Text. As with artistic text, you can change the paragraph font settings now or after you add the text. Click and drag to set the text frame that will contain the text. Then press Ctrl + V to paste the copied text.

While the paragraph text is selected, you can move it or use the handles to adjust the size of the frame. You can also change the text properties in CorelDraw for the entire frame. You can, for example, change the text color to blue.

Or you can double-click to edit the text and make changes to only the selected characters.

If the text frame in CorelDraw turns red, this indicates that the frame is too small to contain all the text. To fix this, select the text again and expand the frame until it turns blue. In this example, the frame was also filled with a background color.

Adding text to a path or curve

With both types of text, is not limited to straight lines and rectangular frames. Let's start by adding artistic text to a path. Use the tool Bézier (which you can find in the floating menu of the tools group Freehand on the left toolbar) to trace mountain ridges.

Then select the text and go to Text > Wrap text to path. Now place your cursor along the curve and click to adjust. You can still make changes to the text itself.

Or let's say you have a curve but no text yet. Activate the tool Text and move the cursor over the curve so that the cursor icon change to a curve symbol.

Start typing and the text will automatically adjust to the curve.

When this text is selected, you can move it by dragging a white square or you can scale it. red rhombus, glyph, can be used to move the anchor point of the text.

Add paragraph text to a shape

You don't have to use a rectangular frame for your paragraph text either. Any closed shape can be used. Use the tool Ellipse to draw an ellipse on the page and use the docker Properties to give it a wider outline and a transparent filling.

Let's say that in this ellipse you want to place a text that is in a document Word, which already has some formatting. This document must be closed before it can be used for import.

With the tool Text enabled, when you move the cursor to the ellipse, you can get two cursor icons. If you click when you see the curve icon, you will be placing text along the outline of the ellipse, as we saw above with the Bezier curve. But whenever a closed shape is identified, when you move it a little bit inwards, the icon changes to a frame, meaning that the paragraph text will fill the shape.

Click when you see the frame icon. Then add text by typing, pasting, or importing. To import text In CorelDraw, go to Archive > Import. Because you are importing while the tool Text is enabled, CorelDRAW filters the search to display only file formats that support text and not image formats.

Select the file with the text you want to use. You will then be presented with options to keep or discard the fonts and formatting of your text document in CorelDraw. Choose the options you want and click Accept.

In this example, the shape is not quite suitable for this text, so We will convert the ellipse into a curve activating the tool Selection, right-clicking on the ellipse and choosing Convert to curves. Then we use the tool Shape to change the shape of the curve and the text updates accordingly.

With the tool Selection, you can double-click the frame to edit the text itself. You can make changes directly or use the window Edit text to change text in CorelDraw while presenting it as easy-to-read paragraphs.

If you use OpenType fonts, you can take advantage of the interactive feature Opentype de CorelDRAW. If you drag to select a character for which there are alternatives Opentype, you will see a small triangle below the character. Clicking on this triangle will reveal some of the stylistic sets that can be used instead.

Linking and combining text frames in CorelDraw

We can combine text frames. Furthermore, we can divide text frames into subcomponents: characters, words, lines, bullets, paragraphs and columns. We can click on the text frames before or after typing the text. When we resize any linked frame or modify the text size, the amount of text within the next frame will automatically adjust.

When we select any object or text frame, the blue arrow represents the direction of the text flow. We can show or hide these arrows. We can remove the links between multiple frames, and between objects and frames.

To separate and merge paragraph text frames

To split and merge text frames, follow the steps below:

Step 1: choose any text frame. When we combine any text frame, hold the button Shift and apply the tool Select to choose subsequent text frames.

Step 2: press Object and select any:

• To combine

• Pull apart

If we first choose the text frame along with the columns, the (combined) text frame will have these columns.

You may want to know: How to Create a Text Outline in Photoshop

Align text using a baseline grid

We can align text within the frame or within different frames by applying a baseline grid. This is useful, for example, if we want to align multiple text frames that include different spacing, font sizes, and font types.

To align paragraph text to the baseline grid

The steps are listed below:

• Step 1: press the option View, then go to Grid and then head over to Baseline Grid.

• Step 2: choose the text frame.
• Step 3: press Text > Align to baseline grid.

Additionally, we can right-click on a text frame and select the Align to Baseline Grid option. We can align two or more selected frames at the same time.

Select text

CorelDraw allows us to choose text to edit particular characters or change it as an object. For example, we can choose single characters to modify the font to choose the text object such as the text frame. Therefore, we can rotate it, resize it or move it.

To select the text object in CorelDraw

The steps are listed below:

• With the tool Select, press the artistic text to choose the artistic text.
• With the tool Select, press the text frame to choose the text frame.

We can apply the tool Select to choose different text objects in CorelDraw. To do this, we have to hold down the button Shift and press all text objects.

To choose the text to edit

This is what you should do:

• With the tool Text, scroll through the text to choose paragraph text or specific artistic media characters to edit.
• With the tool Text, press the text frame to choose the text frame to edit.

Converting, editing and searching text in CorelDraw

We can search for text within the document and replace it automatically. Additionally, we can search for special characters, such as an optional dash or hyphen. We can edit text directly within a dialog box or drawing window.

To find a text in CorelDraw

The steps are listed below:

• Step 1: press Edit, then go to Search and Replace and then press Search text.

• Step 2: Type a text you want to find inside the text box. If you want to find the exact case of the text we describe, enable the check box Match case.
• Step 3: press Search text.

To edit a text in CorelDraw

The steps are listed below:

Step 1: press tool Text.

Step 2: implements any of the following tasks:

• Click on the artistic text to edit the artistic text.
• Click the text frame to edit the paragraph text.

Also, we can edit any text by pressing Text > Edit text and create modifications to any text using the dialog box Edit text.

To convert a text in CorelDraw

The steps are listed below:

• Step 1: press the tool Select, select the text and press Text > Convert to artistic text to convert paragraph text to artistic text.

• Step 2: select the tool Selection, select the text and press Text >> Convert to paragraph text to convert artistic text into paragraph text.

• Step 3: press the tool Selection, select the text and press Object > Convert to curves to convert paragraph or artistic text to curves.

Adding glyphs, symbols and special characters

Using an Insert Character docker, we can insert and search for glyphs, Symbols and special characters from some OpenType fonts. The characters added in the font are classified as follows:

• Common Equipment: Contains arrows, separations, punctuation marks, numbers, artistic symbols, mathematical symbols, currency, among others.
• Deeds: Contains several scripts supported by selected fonts, such as Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Han, Hiragana and Katakana, Cyrillic or Latin scripts.
• Opentype: Contains several functions of Opentype provided by select sources, such as alternate notation forms, fractions, discretionary ligatures, standard ligatures, and more.

We can also use the list of recently used special characters to copy various characters that we frequently apply. This list absorbs the font attributes of the most frequently applied characters and the OpenType features that have been used. We can manage this list by deleting characters that we no longer need.

To insert a glyph, symbol or special character

These are the steps you must follow:

• Step 1: with the tool Text, we click where we want to include some special characters.
• Step 2: press Text > Insert characters.

• Step 3: go to the option insert character and choose any font type from the list box Source.

• Step 4: Double-click the character in the list of characters and glyphs.

When you can't search for a character you want, then open a character filter list box and enable a check box Full source.

Take a look at: 8 Best Programs to Open PSD Files Without Photoshop

Final thoughts

CorelDRAW It provides various ways to manipulate and add text. We can create two types of text objects in CorelDraw: paragraph text and artistic media. Artistic media can be used to add any short line or single word of text. Paragraph text can be used to create text-heavy documents such as brochures or newsletters.

Thank you for reading this article! We hope you found this tutorial useful in learning how to write and edit text in CorelDraw. We would love to hear your feedback in the dedicated section at the bottom of the page.