Making Beveled Icons in CorelXara

Part I: Creating Bevels with Bitmap Fills

1. Open the Fills Gallery in Xara. Using the rectangle tool, with the Ctrl key held down to constrain the rectangle to a square, create a square shape. Drag the bitmap fill onto the square.

2. From the menu bar, select Edit/Duplicate shape. Create another rectangle, and place it so that it matches the image below. Select both the duplicate and the rectangle, and apply Arrange/Combine Shapes/Slice shapes. This will result in the second image below:

3. From the menu bar again, select Utilities/Bitmap Effects. Drag the Brightness slider to the left. Select insert. Drag the "L" shaped piece , (which will become the bevel) created in Step 3 above over the bitmap, and use CTRL+F to bring the bevel piece to the front. Like Corel, it does make a difference which piece is in front when you are combining or intersecting. Select Arrange/Combine Shapes/Intersect shapes to fill the bevel piece with the darkened bitmap.

4. Duplicate the bevel shape, rotate it 180 degrees. Select Utilities/Bitmap Effects, and drag the Brightness slider to the right. Select Insert, use Ctrl+F to bring the rotated bevel piece to the front. Select the bevel and the lightened bitmap fill, and apply Arrange/Combine Shapes/Intersect.

This isn't the only way to create a beveled edge. Follow along to Step Two to create a template for beveled edged icons.

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