MX

Enveloping
The Mold Tool
lets you envelope shapes in a wide variety of ways.
The effect is similar to a rubber sheet or balloon that you can stretch in any direction.
You can envelope all types of objects except bitmaps.
Sample enveloped text
Enveloping is similar to applying perspective. That is:
1.
Select the object or objects.
2.
Select the Mold Tool (shortcut "Shift
+ F6").
3.
Choose one of the envelope options:
The right-hand button is similar to paste perspective described earlier.
The left-hand button does not initially alter the object. The other buttons immediately alter the object.
After applying the mold, to edit it:
1.
Drag any of the corner handles.
2.
Or click on a corner handle and then drag the curve handles.
The above example shows the 4 curve handles of the corners have been dragged outwards to bend the
content of the mold.
You can also rotate, resize and skew the enveloped object using the Selector Tool
.
The mold mesh button
The Mesh button displays a series of faint dots which can help preview
the distortions that the envelope mold is giving.
Envelope molds
You can create an envelope mould from any four sided shape, which you can distort as you require, and
then use as an envelope mold by clicking the Paste Envelope button on the Mold Tool
InfoBar.
Editing mold shapes
You can edit the contents of a mold (essentially a group) using editing inside groups. Editing is not
possible using direct selection inside (molds do not allow objects inside them to become selected). To
edit a mold inside, right click on the mold and choose Open mold
from the context menu.
You can edit the shape of envelope or perspective molds with the Shape Editor Tool (or the edit
handles with Selector Tool
, if shown). According to the nature of molds, there are some restrictions:

You cannot add point handles to a perspective or envelope mold, because it has to stay a
four-sided shape

You cannot change a straight line of a perspective mold into a curve.
Page 375