LXI 26 is new from the ground up, but it’s not brand new. The sign design tools and functions in LXI are based on decades of signmaking industry expertise. The impact of any digital graphic is based partly on the quality of its design. Since most commercial signs and graphics include text, mastering the LXI26 text tools can be an important aspect of your success. There are too many for a comprehensive look at all of them in one article. For now, let’s take a 30,000 foot view of all the things you can do with LXI26 text tools.
For simplicity’s sake, we’ll focus here on the tools available in LXI RIP Design and Master Plus 26. LXI Expert shares most of the essentials, but there may be some features discussed here that aren’t in LXI Expert. Click here for a full list of LXI 26 Features by Level. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s see what’s in the toolbox.
LXI 26 Text Tool Boxes
Actually, we should say what’s in the LXI 26 tool 'boxes'. There are three resources from which you can manage text and fonts in LXI26. These are the Basic Text Tool bar found in the default LXI26 user interface, the Smart Bar Text Tools that load when fonts are clicked, and the Text-related effects in the Transform Menu. Let’s take these one at a time and see what’s what.
Basic Text Tool Box
As noted above, LXI 26’s default toolbox includes the most essential text design tools. These are nested in the toolbar menu at the left edge of the workspace, and can be opened with a mouse click. Depending on which level you purchased, there are six or seven menu options here. The full list includes Text Compose, Frame Compose, On-screen Kerning, Underline, Search and Replace, Menu Board, Convert to Barcode, and Convert to Braille. Let’s take a closer look at these options (See Fig 1).
Text Compose & Frame Compose: This is where the fonty fun begins. Click the Text Compose tool to start typing text into your LXI26 workspace. The text is created where you designate with a mouse click and is added to the workspace in a free-form style as you type. There are no constraints applying any alignment or justification to the characters.
To begin adding text in a defined space with boundaries and automatic justification, select Frame Compose. This allows you to add text in a pre-defined space or virtual frame. You can define the frame’s dimensions and decide whether the text is added justified left, right, or centered.
The Frame Text tab controls are used to adjust the size and margins of the text frame. From top to bottom, the X and Y values represent the position of the top-left corner of the text frame. The width and height values determine the size of the text frame. As you type, the text will be constrained to fit inside the frame. Using the enter key adds a line. Otherwise, the text is automatically condensed to fit.
On-screen Kerning: Kerning is the art of adjusting the spaces between typed letters. Because kerning is a hallmark of good graphic design, it’s supported in two of LXI 26’s three text-related toolboxes. The On-screen kerning can be activated here, and there are kerning tools in the Interactive Smart bar. The On-screen kerning tool places handles under each character that allow you to make minute adjustments on the fly (Fig 2). You can also use the node at the end of a line or word to expand or condense the kerning across multiple characters.
Underline, Spell Check, Find and Replace: These are simple features that do what you would expect. The underline feature adds a dotted line under your text. It can be moved and shortened to help manage relative alignment of various elements in your design. Spell Check and Search and Replace are word processing tools built right into your workspace to help you get it right before it goes to a plotter, printer, or picky customer.
Text to Barcode and Text to Braille: These are specialized tools for commercial graphics. The Text to barcode* function ‘translates’ your text into a barcode. The Text to Braille function initiates a similar conversion (Fig 3). This is a valuable tool for creating profitable ADA signage.
Smart Bar Text Tools
We could - and probably should - write a blog article just about the Smart Bar Text Tools. Here, we’ll provide a quick overview of the main features hiding in this essential, interactive tool. The Smart Bar is similar to Design Central in older versions of LXI. It is ever-present in the LXI26 workspace and displays specific tools and features based on what you select with a mouse click. To open the Smart Bart Text Tools, click to select a text element, then double-click inside the selected object. The Smart Bar loads text tools, arranged from basic to advanced as you move left to right across the menu. These include…
Interactive Font search: Click here to view a drop-down menu of all your available fonts. An adjacent pop-up window shows a running preview of what your graphic will look like in the selected font as you scroll through the list (Fig 4).
Text Direction: Should you decide to orient your text on a vertical axis, you can change the direction in the Text direction dialog box. Options here are Left to Right, Top to Bottom, and Right to Left. Your Graphic Design Teacher might disapprove. We won’t tell.
Line Layout: The line layout tool allows you to position Frame text at the top, bottom, or center of the text frame.
Justify Tools: Every design job with text has to be justified - or aligned - left, right, or center. The Justify tool applies the changes in one click.
Character Color: The other most-frequently applied edit in vinyl graphics is the color fill. A large icon here connects to your selected palette and applies the change to your selected text object on the fly. And it’s called character color because you can apply the color change to the entire block of text, or to a single color. You can apply a different color to each character in your design (Fig 5). We’re not saying you should. But you could.
Font height, Line Spacing, Word Spacing & Auto Kerning: The four tools next to the color picker are all about the size of your characters and how they relate to each other.
Auto Kerning Tool Box: The On-screen kerning allows for manual adjustments for each line, phrase, or character. The Auto kerning dialog is a more efficient way to apply changes across your design, with five styles to choose from: Normal, Wide, Narrow, Touching, and Overlap. There are also options for managing speed vs accuracy, and for optimzing output for rotary engraving.
Character Picker, Bullet List: Next in the Smart Bar menu comes the Character Picker and Bullet List tools. The Character picker is a library of special characters you can insert into your text. These include things like copyright and trademark symbols, that can then be formatted as superscripts. The bullet selection of course, supports adding bullet lists to Frame text.
Kerning, Capitalization, Spell Check & SuperScript: The next quartet of tools in the SmartBar includes redundant controls for the on-screen kerning and spell check tools from the Basic Text Toolbox, plus an upper and lower case tool, and a superscript dialog box that helps you put that Trademark symbol right where it should be (Fig 6).
Frame, Menu, Line, Character: There is also a sub-menu inside the Smart Bar that allows you to focus changes on specific areas of your design. The options here are Frame, Line, Character, and Menu (Fig 7). Simply put, these determine the scope, or focus, of the changes applied as you use the other Smart Bar Text tools. Selecting Frame applies the changes universally throughout your selected Frame text. Choosing Line limits the changes to a selected line of text. And, as you might guess, in Character mode, the changes will be applied only to selected characters. Menu applies changes universally if you have used the Menu function in the Basic Text tool bar to create text on a grid pattern, with rows and columns. Frame and Menu are comprehensive edit tools, and Line and Character are specific.
Braille, Redo, Undo, OK, and Cancel: The Smart Bar Text tool library closes with one more redundant control, and some over-arching controls that determine whether Smart Bar changes are kept, reversed, canceled, or applied. The Braille fonts window includes more options for braille conversion, including font size, dot size, and language.
The final tool set here applies to changes made. They can be undone or redone here. If you don’t see anything you like, click Cancel to revert to the default text settings. Conversely, click OK to apply any pending changes.
Transforming Text: Shadows, Outlines, Distortions & More
As if that wasn’t enough to enable you to create compelling graphic designs, there’s a third repository of text editing tools in LXI26. You may be wondering where the drop-shadows and outlines are. They’re housed in the Transform Menu, along with other fun widgets like contour-cutting, transparent fill effects, and rhinestone conversion.
There’s too much info here to cover in this already-lengthy blog article. We’ll discuss these in more depth in a future article. For now, let’s take a quick peek and see what’s lurking in the Transform toolbox.
Outlines: Outlines are a classic graphic design effect used to create headlines and contrast within a design. To add an outline, just click to select the text. Then click Transform, and select Outlines from the drop-down Transform Menu. The Smart Bar converts to an Outlines menu with over a dozen design widgets.
Shadows: The Transform menu also has a Shadow option that converts the Smart Bar into a custom menu presenting controls for the style, color, angle, sharpness, and opacity of your drop-shadow effects. Changes can be made by typing in specific values, or by clicking and dragging the selection nodes to generate an interactive preview.
Text to Path | Text to Arc: Create your text. Add a polyarc or shape to your design. Select both, then click Transform / Fit Text to Path or Fit Text to Arc (Fig 8). The Smart Bar offers several handy options for either feature. Use the Apply button to preview the changes, then click Accept or Close to exit the Smart Bar.
Transformations: Finally, the Transform/Transformation sub-menu includes a suite of 20 different distortion tools that can be used to warp text to create flag, wave, and perspective effects to make graphics even more engaging (Fig 9).
LXI 26 is all-new with a new GUI and cool new features. It’s loaded with smart, interactive design tools developed over decades to empower people to create impactful signs, banners, decals, transfers, and more. If you’re more accustomed to older versions of LXI, mastering the new processes will take a little time. But once you’ve learned how to use the text tools in LXI26, you may wonder how you ever got along without them.
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*Text to barcode feature not included in LXI Expert.
