How to apply a stroke to text in Flash CS3?

[gregerly]

Hello,

I'm just starting to play around with Flash, and I'm wondering how I can apply a stroke color to fonts in flash cs3? I've tried breaking the text apart, then breaking apart again (so each character is now a shape, but it will not let me apply a stroke to the text.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg

[xNephilimx]

Hi, gregerly.
You can't add strokes to text (I mean, if you want it to remain as text), but you can simulating using the a glow filter. If you want an outer stroke use the oter glow, if you want an inner, well.. I think you get the idea.
Then, the configuration must is something you must start to play around till you get the effect, the idea is to have a high value of strength, and the blur will be the actual radius of the stroke.

I didn't try this in Flash CS3, but I think it will be the same as in Flash 8.

Hope it serves.
Kind regards,
The_Nephilim

Hello,

I'm just starting to play around with Flash, and I'm wondering how I can apply a stroke color to fonts in flash cs3? I've tried breaking the text apart, then breaking apart again (so each character is now a shape, but it will not let me apply a stroke to the text.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg

[gregerly]

Thanks for your reply. I actually found a suitable method after playing around with it for a while. I just broke apart the text once, then again, so It was just shapes. Then, using the Ink Bottle tool, was able to set the stroke and fill colors, and click on each shape, and the stroke was applied as I wanted it.

I appreciate your response though, and will keep it in mind as I play with Flash more.

thanks,

Greg

[xNephilimx]

You're welcome.
I thought you needed to maintain the text editable as text.

Best regards,
The_Nephilim

Thanks for your reply. I actually found a suitable method after playing around with it for a while. I just broke apart the text once, then again, so It was just shapes. Then, using the Ink Bottle tool, was able to set the stroke and fill colors, and click on each shape, and the stroke was applied as I wanted it.

I appreciate your response though, and will keep it in mind as I play with Flash more.

thanks,

Greg

[gregerly]

You're welcome.
I thought you needed to maintain the text editable as text.

Best regards,
The_Nephilim

Yeah, I should have been more clear. I'm kinda suprised that there isn't a stroke attribute for text though. Seems like kinda a no brainer as far as "design" is concerned. Oh well, thanks again for your replys.

Greg

[xNephilimx]

Yeah, me too, I was kind of happy when they added the effects, so I could simulate the stroke.

Well, best regards!
The_Nephilim

Yeah, I should have been more clear. I'm kinda suprised that there isn't a stroke attribute for text though. Seems like kinda a no brainer as far as "design" is concerned. Oh well, thanks again for your replys.

Greg

[Flashisnothandy]

As usual, Flash makes something that should be simple extremely complicated.
And the fun starts when you try to get a Stroke AND a Drop Shadow at the same time. You have to use Glow as the Drop Shadow and Drop Shadow as the Stroke to get the right effect. But even then the Glow doesn't allow for an adjustment of the distance, so it will look bad of course. Handy!

[dannykparker]

Glow and Drop shadow can be used together

As usual, Flash makes something that should be simple extremely complicated.
And the fun starts when you try to get a Stroke AND a Drop Shadow at the same time. You have to use Glow as the Drop Shadow and Drop Shadow as the Stroke to get the right effect. But even then the Glow doesn't allow for an adjustment of the distance, so it will look bad of course. Handy!

In CS5 (and possibly earlier) you can re-arrange multiple filters by dragging them in the filters list. This allows you to stack filters so a drop shadow will take the fake stroke Glow filter into account.