Controlling corners in dashed lines

If you use dashed lines and outlines in your CorelDRAW projects, take advantage of the new dash options introduced in CorelDRAW 2018. You can find the new dash options in the Object Properties docker (Window menu > Dockers > Object Properties).

NOTE: if you are using CorelDRAW 2019 or higher, you can find the dash options on the Outline tab in the Properties docker (Window menu > Dockers > Properties).

Our example shows the same dashed outline and line with three different options applied: Default dashes, Align dashes, and Fixed dashes.

1 – Default dashes     2 – Align dashes     3 – Fixed dashes

  • The Default dashes option (1) applies the dashes along the line and outline without any adjustments in the corners and endpoints.
  • The Align dashes option (2) aligns dashes with the end and corner points so that there is no empty space in the corners and at the start and end of a line or outline.
  • The Fixed dashes options (3) creates dashes of fixed length in the end and corner points. These dashes are half the length of the first dash in the dashed line pattern.
  • When the dashes are small, there is very little visual difference between the Align dashes and the Fixed dashes option. Our example uses a dashed line containing longer dashes so the results appear noticeably different.

These controls can also be accessed from the Outline Pen dialog box. Just double-click the Outline Pen icon in the lower-right corner of the application window, on the Status bar.