Trying to make an underbase...the border isn't correct

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

using corel x5..ive attached a pdf and jpeg of some text from the design..font is CAC Moose

.light blue text going on a black shirt..when trying to make the underbase i am simply putting a border around the text...normal routine stuff....but when i put a border around this font i get the result you see below..gaps in the border..for this example I over exaggerated the border so you can see the issue...and if you view the pdf you can expand it to see it real good of course.

anyway, how do i keep this from happening? How do i fix it?

I know i can copy/paste the font on top of original and just make it a point of to smaller but id rather use the border method and/or learn how to fix it in case i run into this again in the future.

[Mr Tees!!]

Some rough style font exhibit this behavior, because they are loaded with nodes. First, try changing the text to curves, sometimes that helps.

If not, go into the outline properties box. Try messing with the miter angles, change it to 0.0 and see if that helps. It may make it worse, but you can easily undo.

Also try various combos of the options for end caps and angles. (I'm not at a desktop right now, but its in the bottom-left corner of the box). Choosing rounded ends will usually give the best results for this problem.

[Homer]

don't use outlines, use contours. outlines tend to do weird things.

[Frog]

In this case, a contour produces its own "spike" issues, though it's still way better than an outline.
But, if you really want a nice result, a simple conversion to bitmap, trace and smoothing does wonders.
Of course, it's a compromise as the more one smooths it, the further away from the original shape it gets.

[Inkworks]

If you want to use outlines, changing the pen nib shape from the default square to round, and also round corners often helps a lot!