updated on 05 August 2022 | reading time: 3 minutes

Working with text

The Text tool is located between the Knife and Add Image tools. You can use it to add a text to the canvas. Shortcut: T

To insert text in your file, click once to create a single-line text box:

Or click and drag to create a text box with defined dimensions:

You can edit the text in the box or the text box itself.

A text box initially displays the default placeholder text “Your text here” selected and ready to be replaced. After creating the text box, just start typing to enter your text. You can also paste in pre-existing text copied from other sources.

Clicking an existing textbox with the Text tool allows you to edit the text.

Alternatively, double-clicking on a text box with the Pointer tool V also allows you to edit the text.

Pressing Enter while a text object is selected activates text-editing mode and selects all the text in the box. This is useful when you are starting a project with a Corel Vector template or for small text objects when you don’t want to zoom. You can quickly and easily overtype the sample text with your own text.

After typing your text, press Esc or click outside the text box to exit editing mode.

 

Tip: You can quickly fill the empty textbox with placeholder “Lorem Ipsum” text by typing in Lorem, followed by a space.

 

Many of the well-established shortcuts for text editing work in text boxes:

  • Select All text: / CTRL + A
  • Underline selected text: / CTRL + U
  • Make selected text Bold (works only if the typeface has bold weight): / CTRL + B
  • Make selected text italic (works only if the typeface has italic style):  / CTRL + I

Resizing a text box with the transform handles does not resize the text by default. However, the text in the box will reflow to fit the new size of the text box. You can scale the font size by dragging the red handle on the left-bottom side of the textbox.

If you check Autoscale Font in the text properties panel, the text will be resized like any other vector object. (“Autoscale Font” was called “Scale Font on resizing” in older versions of Corel Vector)

 

Be careful: The side handles will resize the text non-proportionally, which can result in distortion.

 

Text box sizing

In Corel Vector, you can have text boxes that are fixed in width and height or automatically resized to accommodate the amount of text inside the box.

When resizing the text box with transform handles, the Auto Width/Height setting switches to fixed sizing.

When there is not enough room to fit the text in the horizontally (Fix width), the text will continue on a new row. When the text doesn’t fit in the vertically, the text will be hidden (clipped) behind the text box bounding area.

If you set the height to Fix, you can align text vertically inside the textbox.

 

Tip: To switch from Auto to Fixed width,  double-click on the right-center transform handle. You can also toggle Auto/Fix height by double-clicking on the bottom-center handle.