Magnifying glass

Design techniques, Distorted, Tips and tricks, Tutorials

January 20th, 2009

Here’s an idea on how to place a small type text and still keep an accent on it. This technique helps you simulate the appearance of a text under a magnifying glass.

Web-to-print magnifying glass template

Before you start

Add a page frame (Layout/Page Setup/Add Page Frame). This will create a rectangular shape with the exact same size as the paper size of your template and place it as a bottom layer.
Input the dummy texts, turn them into variable web-to-print fields and set them to auto font resize.

In a nutshell, we will take a copy of the large dummy text and place a distorted version of it inside a circle as a PowerClip.

Draw the magnifying glass

Start of by drawing a simple magnifying glass. Here’s how the one used in this example was created.

Structure

Web-to-print hollow circle /

Select the Basic Shapes tool from the toolbox on the left and choose the hollow circle shape from the Perfect Shapes drop down in the top settings bar.

Web-to-print adjust inner circle /

Draw the circle and move the red node to make the inner cavity larger or smaller.

Add a Contour to the shape. You can use these settings as reference.

Web-to-print circle /

The result should be similar to this.

/
Next draw the handle and the little joint between it and the circle.

Note. You can copy the contour effect from the circle to the other parts of the magnifying glass by selecting the new shape, go to Effects/Copy Effect/Contour From… and click on the circle.

Web-to-print magnifying glass /

The result should be similar to this.

Glass

The glass in the middle of the circle is made up from:

a circle that will contain a PowerClip of the dummy text and
a glass glow on top of it.

Web-to-print glass PowerClip /

First you need to draw a circle that can fit inside the contoured one.

Web-to-print intersected circles /

To create the glass glow, draw a smaller circle and duplicate it. Move the top one towards top-left side, the result should be similar to this.

Web-to-print back minus front Select both circles and click on the Back Minus Front icon in the top settings bar.

Web-to-print glass glow shape /

The result should be similar to this.

Select the shape, activate CorelDRAW’s Transparency Tool from the left tool box menu and use these transparency settings.

Web-to-print glass glow /

The result should be similar to this.

Envelope

The text under the glass needs to appear magnified. We can use the Envelope effect to achieve this.

Duplicate the large dummy text and place the copy inside the inner circle of the magnified glass as a PowerClip.

Right click on the PowerClip, go to Edit Content, select the dummy text and activate CorelDRAW’s Envelope tool from the toolbox menu on the left.

Web-to-print drag nodes /

Drag the nodes and their arrows to achieve something similar to this.

Note. You only need to worry about the part of the text that will be visible through the magnifying glass.

Final touch

Gradients

Select the background shape and assign a simple two color, radial Fountain Fill to it.

Web-to-print fountain fill /

Repeat this step with the inner circle of the magnifying glass that contains the copy of the dummy text only this time, drag the highlight center towards the top-left side.

Web-to-print magnified text /

The result should be similar to this.

Object order

Web-to-print object order /

Positioning all the objects in the correct order inside the Object Manager (Window/Dockers/Object Manager) is important. Your Object Manager should look similar to this at the end.