Align and distribute objects

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Corel DESIGNER lets you precisely align and distribute objects in a drawing. You can instantly view the effect of changes as you modify the options in the Align and Distribute docker. By default, objects are aligned and distributed based on their paths. You can also align and distribute objects from the edge of their outlines.

You can align objects to each other or to parts of the drawing page such as the center, edges, and grid. When you align objects to objects, you can line them up by their centers or by their edges. You can also align objects with a reference point by specifying its exact x and y coordinates.

Corel DESIGNER lets you align multiple objects to the center of the drawing page horizontally or vertically.

Example of aligning objects to each one’s center

You can distribute objects so that their center points or selected edges (for example, top or right) appear at equal intervals. You can also distribute objects so that there is equal space between them. You can distribute objects over the extent of the bounding box surrounding them or over the entire drawing page. In addition, you can distribute objects by specifying the distance between them.

Often in technical illustration, you may need to align the minor axis of an ellipse to a line, with the major axis meeting the line at a 90° angle. For information about how to do this, see To align an ellipse to a line.

To prevent blurry edges in objects designed for web use, you can align the objects with the pixel grid. This feature realigns the nodes or edges of the object to position them correctly on the pixel grid.

Align objects with the pixel grid to prevent blurry edges.

To align objects

 

To	Do the following
Align an object with a specific object	Click the Active objects button . If you select the objects one at a time, the last object selected is the reference point for aligning the other objects. If you marquee select the objects, the object that is positioned in the upper-left corner of the selection is used as a reference point.
Align an object with the page edge	Click the Page edge button .
Align an object with the page center	Click the Page center button . To align the center of the object with the page center, make sure that the Align center horizontally button and Align center vertically button in the Align area are enabled.
Align an object with the closest grid line	Click the Grid button .
Align an object with a specified point	Click the Specified point button , and type values in the Specify coordinates boxes. You can also specify a point interactively by clicking the Specify point button and clicking in the document window.

 

You can also
Set an alignment option for text objects	In the Text area, choose one of the following options: • First line baseline — aligns text by the baseline of the first line • Last line baseline — aligns text by the baseline of the last line • Bounding box — aligns text by its bounding box

You can also align objects with another object quickly, without using the Align and Distribute docker, by clicking Object Align and Distribute and clicking any of the first six alignment commands. The letter next to a command name indicates the keyboard shortcut that you can use to align objects. For example, the letter L next to the Align left command shows that you can press L to align objects with the leftmost point of the object that is used as a reference point.

You can use snapping to precisely specify the alignment point. For more information, see Work with precision.

To distribute objects

To distribute objects by a specified distance

To align an object with the pixel grid

The Align with Pixel Grid feature works with basic curves and shapes. It is unavailable for complex objects and effects such as symbols, text, symmetry groups, vector effects, and PowerClip objects.