Above is a simple colored box with some colored text sitting on it. My first example will show how to add and edit a stroke applied to text.

The fastest way to add a stroke to text is via the Color List palette. First select the text block, then drag the desired color into the Stroke color box. Watch above to see how quickly this is done.

You'll also notice that the text may look jaggy instead of smooth. This is just how FreeHand displays strokes and you shouldn't be worried, it will print just fine.

Now I moved the text block off the colored shape to see the stroked text better. As you can see above, when you just select the text box the Stroke Inspector shows that there is no stroke applied. That's because it's referring to the actual box, not the text itself.

To be able to edit the stroke applied to the text, use the Text tool and select the text in the box. Like shown above, after selecting some text I can now see the stroke attributes in the Stroke Inspector.

Here is where I can edit the Width, Color, Dash and even set it to Overprint which is what I'll cover below.

Above is what I got when I changed the stroke to Black with a 2 pt. Dashed line. The possibilities are endless.

Just be careful not to make the stroke too wide, as it will make the text very narrow in appearance.

Like I mentioned before, you can use this technique to Trap text when outputting to film.

Trapping is what is used to make sure that when printed on a press and there is plate shifting, that there isn't any white lines around the text. There are two methods you can use when trapping text or even other shapes, Choking and Spreading. It depends on the text color and background color when choosing the method.

By looking at my rough example above, you can see that without any traps set, the yellow text color could potentially get shifted, resulting in a tiny gap between the colors. Even with a Text Outline this would happen, but there is one little setting that fixes it all.

To create a quick Trap, select the text with the Text tool and in the Stroke Inspector, turn on the Overprint option.

In the above example I woudn't apply a green overprinted outline because it would choke into the natural space of the type. In a case like this, I would spread the yellow into the green using a yellow overprinted stroke, especially since yellow is a part of the green's color mix.

Usually a good trap is about 1-2 pts. in thickness. This ensures that there won't be any white halos.

Looking at the sample above, when you've set the text stroke to Overprint this will spread over the Green and make sure that when printed, it will cover any potential misalignment problems.