Amir's Talk

FREE Cartoon Drawing Lessons

2011-02-03T07:19:00.000-08:00

Complete Course of Cartoon Drawing megaupload » Free Downloads RapidShare Megaupload Mediafire Torrents HotFile Uploading Easy-Share FileFactory Vip-File Shared

2011-02-03T04:43:00.000-08:00

Complete Course of Cartoon Drawing megaupload » Free Downloads RapidShare Megaupload Mediafire Torrents HotFile Uploading Easy-Share FileFactory Vip-File Shared

How to Draw

2011-02-03T02:40:00.000-08:00

How to Draw

Purchase the ebook by clicking the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of the page.

After completing the purchase you will be directed to a web page which will give you a link to the download site.

"A Practical Book of Instruction in the Art of Illustration. Presenting Numerous Reproductions of Original Drawings by America's most Famous Illustrators, Cartoonists and Comic Artists." Published in 1904.

107 pages of text and illustrations including the introductory pages. Most Illustrations are full page.

Leon Barritt, in his volume on "How to Draw; A Practical Book of Instruction in the Art of Illustration," (Harpers,) sets forth, in a simple and practical manner, the basic principles of illustration in pen and ink and pencil. He begins with a description of the reproduction of drawings, followed by a discussion of the materials ...
Read The January 14, 1905, New York Times, SATURDAY REVIEW BOOKS, review of How to Draw By Leon Barritt

Contents

List of Artist Contributors
Note to the Contributors
Introduction
Pen-and-Ink Drawing
Material
Primary Instruction
First Lesson
Line Work Studies
Rules for Drawing the Head
Rules for Drawing the Eye, Ear,and Mouth
Rules for Drawing the Hands
Rules for Drawing the Feet
The Human Figure
Measuring by the Eye
Drawing from Life
Measurements of the Human Figure
Show Studies
Drawing from Life - Children
Drawing from Life - Drapery
Studies in Expression
Animal Drawing

Perspective
Landscape Drawing
Spatter Work
Water Studies
Comics
Cartoons
Wash Lamp-Black Drawing
Distemper Drawing
Drawing on Silver Prints
Lettering
How to make an Ellipse
Tint Papers
Scale for Reducing Drawings
Sharpening Pencils
News and Story Illustrations
Foliage Study
Examples of the Work of America's Most Famous Illustrators:
News
Fiction
Cartoons
Comics

How to Draw
by Leon Barritt
$3.95

Drawing - drawing guide books Hotfile Rapidshare Fileserve Megaupload Downloads - UniqueWarez.com

2011-02-03T02:33:00.000-08:00

Drawing - drawing guide books Hotfile Rapidshare Fileserve Megaupload Downloads - UniqueWarez.com

The Aging Process - Worth1000 Tutorials

2011-02-02T03:25:00.001-08:00

Grumplebits said 5 years ago

I've been asked several times by different members to post a tutorial on how I age-progress a person. So, here it is!

Men and women age a little bit differently but since I've only aged female celebrities thus far, I'll just focus on women for this tutorial. Ill be using the image of Katie Holmes that I did for a past W1K contest, as an example.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

When deciding to age-progress a celebritys face, I try to select a picture that is touched-up as little as possible.

I find that candid shots, or any shots that have not been taken in a studio, work best because the resulting harsh lighting reveals more of the skins details i.e. slight bags under the eyes and faint wrinkles. The appearance of such details makes it all that much easier to visualize how your subject will age. Visualizing what the end result will look like brings you one step closer to aging her face realistically.

In Katies case, we can see very faint horizontal lines on her forehead, fairly obvious lines under her eyes and lines bracketing her mouth.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Reference material is key in my method of aging. Keeping Katies face in mind, I scoured the Web, looking for faces of old women who either resemble Katie and/or share the same facial expression. Here, Katie is smiling with her face positioned at a 3/4 angle so I tried to gather as many pictures of old women who are smiling in the same manner or close to that. I then opened up the picture of Katie in Photoshop and pasted the found images around her face on a separate layer, spread out to provide easy visual access.

Another kind of reference I like to use but is usually hard to find, is pictures of the subjects parents. I managed to find a couple of reference pictures of Katies mother online and they really helped me to decide whether or not to give Katie a double chin. Since her mom has quite a bit of mass under her chin, I decided I would apply that to Katie too.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Now the fun begins! The first thing I like to do is to thin out the subjects eyebrows and eyelashes. The older people get, the thinner their hair gets - either because hair falls out and/or because it dries out as it greys.

So to achieve this, I like to use the Clone Stamp tool at 100% with a relatively small brush size depending on the size and resolution of the image. I sampled the surrounding skin to thin and reduce the number of hairs.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Next, I like to add the basic sags to the skin. I do this in the Liquify mode. I tried to create sagging effects to the cheeks, jowls and the cliff just above the eyes by using the Push tool. For the eyes, I tried to be subtle; otherwise she may end up looking somewhat ghoulish.

From what Ive learned about the aging process, I know that while bones cease to grow, and in fact shrink, cartilage does continue to grow. As a result, the end of a nose may appear larger as a person grows older. So while I was still in the Liquify mode, I used the Push tool to extend the length of the nose slightly. Then I used the Bloat tool to also enlarge it slightly, being careful not lose the essential quality or character of the nose. Go too far and it may not look like Katie anymore.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Based on her mothers pictures, I then added a fairly massive double chin. I initially used the Airbrush tool with some fairly broad strokes, sampling the colors that were already in the area of her neck. I then worked in the details with a finer brush size. Also, keep in mind that I was also using the other reference photos of older women to guide me.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

For me, the most important parts to get right are the eyes. They can make or break the project. Done wrong and the picture may no longer be identifiable as one of Katie Holmes anymore. I sought out the fine lines around the eyes and I tried to imagine how they would progress into wrinkles. I then extended them in length and width accordingly. Referencing the pictures of old women helped a lot with this step.

I used a combination of the Stamp tool and Brush tool. I wish I could explain my technique at this point in a more clinical manner but mostly I relied on my artistic instincts. I emphasized the wrinkles around the eyes by widening and deepening the lines slightly and increasing the contrast by darkening the recesses and lightening the edges. Also, I extended wrinkles to the cheekbone areas. I then applied the same technique to the wrinkles around the mouth and to the forehead.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

In this step, I work on the lips. As people grow older, the outline of the lips tends to recede. Using the Stamp tool, I sampled the skin surrounding the lips and thinned them out.

While I was at it, I also added a few vertical wrinkles above the lips to give her a bit of a "prune" effect. We just want a hint of that, so dont carve out deep lines; deep lines would only be necessary if she was puckering her lips.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Here, on a separate layer, I faintly outlined or sketched, with a relatively thin brush size, areas that I may or may not add more lines and wrinkles to. Its easy to get carried away with the addition of wrinkles. So, I stopped, took a step back and assessed where to take to image. For me, it's essential and a great test to see what best works.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Based on the previous step, I added wrinkles where I thought they were needed most.

Overall, I found that the wrinkles and lines seemed a little flat in comparison to the rest of Katies features. They needed more definition so that they could pop out more. So, I highlighted the raised edges of the individual lines with the Brush tool and with a lighter skin tone.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Facial hair becomes an issue with most women as they age. For some strange reason they lose it in the brow area and grow it back around the mouth area. I didnt want Katie to be the exception so with a very fine brush size and the Brush tool, I added hairs to her upper lip.

I tried to make it as subtle as possible. Hairs too thick or dark would draw the viewers attention straight to her mustache and I didnt want that. I also added more wrinkles to the area below the corners of her mouth.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

I decided that the neck was too smooth for a woman of 75 years of age. So I added finer wrinkles to that area. Also, I added more mass and weight to her jowls with the airbrush by increasing the value of the tones in those areas thus creating more contrast between surface planes.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

A key component to effective aging of a face is the addition of age spots.

So at this point, I sampled one of the darker skin tones on her face, and on a separate layer that was set to Multiply and 30% opacity, I brushed them in and tried to create irregular shapes (there IS no perfect age spot). You can add as many as you like; the amount varies from person to person. I decided to be conservative with Katie.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

I took a little break from it and came back to it later to possibly get a better perspective on it. When I looked at it, at this point, I decided that certain areas needed refining and added detail. This is the beauty of working with a high-resolution file; I can zoom in real close and deal with a wrinkle up-close and personal.

Unless their teeth were subjected to regular whitening, most peoples teeth yellow with age. Gums also recede, showing less gum and more bone. And so with that in mind, I sampled a yellowish-brown color and on a new layer that was set to Multiply and 30% opacity and painted that color to the teeth with the Brush tool. Her gums didnt show to begin with, so receding the gums here wasnt necessary.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

The finishing touch here is greying the hair. I began by creating a mask defining the area of the hair. I used the brush for this and tried my best to define as many loose strands of hair that I could.

With this mask as a selection, I then created a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and reduced the saturation to 63.

I then created a new adjustment layer based on the same mask and adjusted the Brightness/Contrast to brightness +9 and contrast 36. As a result, I found that the darker areas were too pale and caused a loss of depth and so to adjust that, I then selected the mask and scratched out the darker areas with a 5px brush size at 50% opacity so that they could show through from the original image.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

The next step was to raise the hairline and thin out the hair. Hair loss is common with both sexes.

I sampled the area at the top of the forehead and extended the skin area above the original hairline.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

A lot of details of the hair were lost in the previous step so with a thin brush size at 80 percent opacity I drew in fine grey hairs, sparsely laid out.

Patiently, slowly, stroke by stroke I added more and more hairs until I was happy with the amount of grey I had added.

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Grumplebits said 5 years ago

Finally, I took a step back, refined a few wrinkles here and there ET VOILA!

I hope this tutorial was insightful. It may not be the most technically detailed tutorial but it gives you a good idea of the process I go through to get the job done. Hopefully, it will help you create your own trophy-winning images for future Fountain of Age contests!

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The Aging Process - Worth1000 Tutorials

2011-02-02T03:25:00.000-08:00

The Aging Process - Worth1000 Tutorials

Hands for Drawing - Posemaniacs.com

2011-02-01T04:19:00.001-08:00

Hands for Drawing - Posemaniacs.com

2011-02-01T04:19:00.000-08:00

Hands for Drawing - Posemaniacs.com

Free Vector Female Hand Silhouette Holding » Free Vector Art & Graphic

2011-02-01T00:46:00.000-08:00

Free Vector Female Hand Silhouette Holding » Free Vector Art & Graphic

How to Draw Hands: 35 Tutorials, How-To’s, Step-by-Steps, Videos, Studies, Poses and Photo References | Drawn in Black

2011-02-01T00:37:00.000-08:00

How to Draw Hands: 35 Tutorials, How-To’s, Step-by-Steps, Videos, Studies, Poses and Photo References

21 Comments | October 19, 2009

I’ve found drawing hands one of the most challenging aspects of drawing the human figure. You can get away with quite a bit when rendering the human figure, but get the hand wrong and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Once you start learning about the hand in greater depth, you’ll find it is truly amazing just how complex the hand is even though we see it everyday. Perhaps the following tutorials can help you and I draw better hands. Enjoy.

Tutorials, How-To’s and Step-by-Step’s

It’s often useful to have a step-by-step guide, tutorial, or “recipe” on how to accomplish a certain task. I’ve found that following steps is good to grasp basic concepts before going on to experiment and expand one’s understanding. Tutorials on drawing hands are no different, and the tutorials and how-to’s listed below should be a good starting point.

J. Peffer created some nice step-by-steps for about a handful of hand poses.

Nice little tutorial by Ron Lemen.

Tom Richmond’s site is a must-go for any aspiring cartoonist and caricaturist and has a wealth of information.

Joumana Medlev has a superb introduction on the anatomy of hands on DeviantArt; also check out her work on cedarseed.com.

Quick hands and feet tutorial on Scribd by unknown author.

This tutorial is a bit different in that it’s more focused on how to draw using a graphic tablet as opposed to a hand per se. Nonetheless, it’s never bad to learn two things at once, so check out Whyball’s “How to Draw a Classic Hand using a Graphics Tablet” over on GoMediaZine.

Short and sweet hand drawing tut by uchuucacahuate on deviantart.

(Very) short but good tutorial by nk-chan on deviantart.com.

Excellent hand tutorial by alexds1 on deviantart.com – I really wish I could executive cartoon hands like that!

Good step-by-step tutorial by vashs-angel on deviantart.com: simple illustrations and descriptive text.
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Videos

Often it’s helpful to see someone else do something, not just in pictures, but in real-time. Here are some videos that show hands being drawn:

For you all you manga heads out there, you wanna go check out Mark Crilley’s channel on YouTube on how to draw manga. Among those the video above on how to draw a hand holding a sword and how to just draw a hand.

Nice demonstration on how to draw a hand by cattusOK on YouTube.

Here we have another tutorial on how to draw female hands, also executed in Photoshop, via WonderHowTo.
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Anatomy

As one of the more complex instruments of the body, a sound understanding of underlying anatomy of hands can help considerably when trying to render realistic and convincing hands in your drawings. Below are resources that should help you begin to understand how hands truly work.

The Wikimedia Commons continues to be a great place to find reference material, such as the hand anatomy plate from Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body pictured above.

Drawing and Anatomy by Victor Perard has pretty in depth coverage of human anatomy even though the drawings aren’t the best I’ve seen. Nonetheless, very useful for the artist seeking to deepen their understanding of anatomy.

A more comprehensive discussion on drawing hands and feet which (I believe) originated on WetCanvas by JayD and then ended up on document form on Scribd.

Great mini-tutorial on hands by T. Arthur Smith on DeviantArt, looking to go beyond a tutorial on simply the idealized form of the hand.

I’ve mentioned him before in the post on skulls, and I’ll mention him again here: check out Michael Hensley for some great anatomical drawings with a distinctive style.
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Books

Perhaps the ultimate “tutorial” on drawing hands, “Drawing Dynamic Hands” by Burne Hogarth is a must-have reference book in your library. You can buy it here on Amazon.

Mr. Hogarth has more hand material in that most amazing work, Dynamic Anatomy. You can buy it here on Amazon.

Thankfully there’s a copy of “Drawing Head and Hands” over at Scribd, by that other master of drawing, Andrew Loomis. The section on drawing hands isn’t as comprehensive as that on heads, but a great resource nonetheless, especially when trying to draw non-male hands (female, baby, etc.).

George Bridgman is the author of yet another treasure of a book on drawing. Above you can see a plate from his the chapter on hands in the book Constructive Anatomy, available at the Internet Archive (or here via Scribd).
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Poses

Here’s a list of resources that display hands from many different angles. It’s truly remarkable just how many poses the hand can be seen in.

Useful collection of hand poses by Chrissy Fellmeth.

More hand poses by what-i-do-is-secret on deviantart.com.

A nice little collection of female hand poses by artrush73′s hub page.

Mickey Mouse Hand Model Sheet by Les Clark

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has some true gems when it comes to old drawings, such as this hand model sheet of Mickey Mouse by Les Clark from 1932. Lot of other great stuff too, check it out. Found via this post on Animopus.

Another hand model sheet can be found on the Ultimate Iron Giant website, this one in particular being of Hogarth’s hand. There’re literally a ton of other drawings on sketches related to the Iron Giant, you’ll find the hands in about the middle of the page.

Nice little reference on drawing animal hands/paws provided by Kelly on drawfurry.com.

Great study of the hand in its many incarnations – love the minimal style here. By jimmymcwicked on deviantart.com.
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Photo References

Although you’ve got a pair for easy reference, it can help to look at a photo of a real hand, especially for awkward angles. Here are a few sites that should give you ample hand pose pictures for hours of hand-drawing fun.

Nice collection of hand poses taken by Thomas A of Ander’s hands, via elfwood.com.

This site is certainly something out of the ordinary: Hands for Drawing by Pose Maniacsallows you select various hand poses and then turn them in 3D (select one of the numbers in the right-hand menu). Great when you can’t find a proper reference at just the right angle.

Nice collection of both male and female hands in various interesting poses.

Female left hands by WindsweptSummer on deviantart.com.

Hand holding pencil by dragyourstock on deviantart.com.

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Site Planning | Before You Code : sitepoint

2011-01-23T00:31:00.000-08:00

Before You Code » Site Planning

So you want to build a website, and you're eager to write some code. Not so fast! You'll need to do some site planning first. What is the purpose of your site? Who are you designing your website for? How will you measure the success of your site? We're here to help you answer these questions and more.

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Web Site Basics: Stuff Beginners Need To Know
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Beginner web designers, especially those who come from a print background, often neglect to consider certain aspects of the Web that are unique to the medium. Matt spells out the stuff that every designer should know before they build their first site.

10 Years On: SitePoint's Co-founder Spills the Beans
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10 years ago, an enthusiastic Aussie entrepreneur and a young Canadian webmaster got together to launch the site that would become sitepoint.com. In this revealing interview, SitePoint's Co-founder Mark Harbottle reflects on the highlights since those early days, and hypothesizes on what the future holds.

The Future of the Web: What to Expect in 2008
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Web Directions South gave Kev a chance to meet with Chris Wilson. Here, he grills Chris on Microsoft's reputation among designers and developers, finds out what's in store for IE 8, and explores why backwards compatibility matters.

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An old content site. Multiple systems. Table-based design. No content management facilities. And a 35-day project timeframe. Faced with these challenges, David and his team redevelop the Vogue Australia web site from the ground up in just over one month. Here, he reveals how they did it, explaining the finer details of the decisions that were made, and why.

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Launching a blog? Countless blog software providers compete for your patronage: how will you decide which to use? Vinnie assesses the performance of the most popular self-hosted options -- Movable Type, WordPress, and Textpattern -- as they go head to head in the battle to become *your* chosen blog software.

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Creating GEL Text

2010-02-17T03:59:00.001-08:00

By Gary W. Priester
The Mac® OS X GEL look is still hot even though it was introduced quite some time ago. Creating GEL buttons has already been covered here and covered very well so I thought it would be fun to see if we could create the GEL look in text. Before we get started, however, we need to set a few common parameters. I will be using CorelDRAW® 11 and so some features may be different or may have migrated to different menus, as they often do between versions of CorelDRAW.
As I am creating this tutorial to be seen on the Web, I am going to use Corel's RGB palette, which many of you will remember was the default palette before version 7. The colors are brighter and will produce a better looking effect.

(Figure 1) In the Tools drop down menu, select Color Management… From the Style drop down list, select Optimized for the Web. This sets the color space to RGB.

(Figure 2) From the Layout menu, select Page Setup… In the Page Setup dialog, change the Resolution to 96 dpi (Windows®) or 72 dpi (Macintosh®). These two settings are screen resolution and are the proper 1:1 resolution for viewing on the Web. Even if you plan to output your image for commercial printing, use these two settings to avoid confusion. You can change the resolution before you output your files.

For this tutorial we shall create a GEL symbol for the at character (@). As CorelDRAWing this symbol is a lot harder than it looks, we'll use an Avant Garde @ symbol for a guide.

(Figure 3) Using the Text Tool, click on the page and key in @ in Avant Garde (the CorelDRAW default font). On the Property Bar, change the size to 130 and press Enter to apply the change.

(Figure 4) Press and hold the Freehand Tool to open the Curve Flyout menu. Select the Pen Tool (the fourth from the right). Click and add a series of connected lines as shown here in red. The idea is to place each anchor point in-between the outlines of the @ and to place the control points on logical points from which to create curved line segments. When you have clicked the last control point, double click to let CorelDRAW know you are finished.

(Figure 5) Select the Shape Tool. Click on the outline to select it. Marquee select all the control points by dragging a rectangle around all the points with the Shape Tool. On the Property Bar (the context-sensitive menu at the top of the screen) press the Convert Line to Curve icon. Drag a line segment and pull it like a rubber band until it more or less conforms to the shape of the @ symbol.

(Figure 6) Continue until all the line segments are now gently curves and more or less follow the shape of the @.

(Figure 7) We can fine tune the control points by adjusting the Bezier control handles. Select the outline with the Shape Tool. Click on a control point. Note that two lines with small boxes on the ends appear coming out of each side of the point. These are Bezier control handles with which we can adjust the segments of the outline. You can drag these in or out to make the curve segment longer or shorter and you can rotate them to adjust the angle of the curve segment. Experiment until you get the curve as smooth as possible. The smoothest curves will have both Bezier handles in a straight line. The angle of the handles will also be more or less parallel to the curve.

TIP: Moving the handles can be tricky and inexact if you are not real comfortable using the mouse. Zoom in close. Select a point and then use the arrow keys on your key pad to move the handles. You may also need to set the nudge amount on the Property Bar to 1px. (CorelDRAW's default idea of a nudge is sometimes closer to a shove)!

(Figure 8) You might need an extra control point at the top of the "a" shape. Double click with the Shape Tool to add the point. Continue to fine tune the shape until you have gotten it as close to the shape of the @ symbol as possible. Name and save your CorelDRAWing and take a short eye break.

(Figure 9) Delete the Avant Garde @ symbol. Select the outline. Click and hold on the Outline Tool to open the Outline Flyout. Select the Outline Pen options (the first icon). Change the line width to 16 points. Click the two middle Corner and Line Caps radio buttons to round the ends and the corners. Press OK.

With the outline still selected, select Convert Outline to Object from the Arrange menu.

(Figure 10). From the View menu, select Wireframe or Simple Wireframe. You will notice the original outline has been left behind. As we don't need it anymore, delete it. Return to the View menu and select Enhanced to return to the anti-aliased display mode.

(Figure 11) Select the Interactive Fill Tool icon. From the drop down list of Fill Types on the Property Bar, select Conical. The Interactive Conical Fill controls will appear on the screen. You can drag the ends of the fill path to rotate the fill. You can also double click on the circular portion of the fill path to add more colors. For what we are going to do, just leave everything as is. Click the white box at the end of the fill path, then click the red color on the screen palette. Repeat this for the other end so you now have a red to red conical fill. To the left of the Fill Type drop down list is the Edit Fill icon. Click it to open the Fountain Fill dialog. Select the counter clockwise fill option (indicated with the red ellipse) and press OK to apply the change.

(Figure 12) Make two copies of the rainbow filled shape and set them to one side. We'll need them later on. Change the fill of the original @ to black by selecting the shape then pressing the black color on the screen palette. You can also drag and drop colors from the screen palette onto the object.

Press and hold the Interactive Tool icon to open the Interactive Tools Flyout menu. Select the Contour Tool (the nested squares). If the shape is not selected, select it with the Contour Tool. On the Property Bar press the To Center icon. Change the Contour Offset amount to 1pix.

NOTE: Your shape may have an unfortunate wedge going though it. Mine did. If yours does not then skip this part. Select the shape and from the Arrange menu, select Break Curve Apart. Now marquee select the entire shape. The status bar at the bottom of the screen will tell you how many shapes are selected. You should only have 2. If it shows more, cut the counter (the inside of the "a" shape) to the clipboard (Edit > Cut). Marquee select most of but not all of the shape. If you see a small portion selected, delete it. Paste the shape from the clipboard back onto the shape, select both and from the Arrange menu, select Combine. Your contour should now be successful.

(Figure 13) Select the contour with the Pick Tool (the arrow). Open the Bitmaps menu and select Convert to Bitmap. Use the settings shown above. Press OK to create the bitmap.

(Figure 14) Center the bitmap over the rainbow-filled @ shape. Open the Interactive Tools Flyout menu and select the Transparency Tool (the wineglass icon). From the Property Bar, select Uniform (the default) and from the Transparency Operation drop down list, select Subtract. Change the slider setting to 30%.

(Figure 15) Select both the rainbow-filled shape and the transparent bitmap. Convert these two items to bitmap (Bitmaps menu) using the settings shown).

(Figure 16) Locate one of the duplicate @ shapes which I asked you to set aside. Change the fill to white and apply a black outline. Apply a 1-step, To Inside contour with a 4pix offset amount.

From the Arrange menu, select Break Contour Group Apart. Open the Arrange menu again and select Ungroup. Delete the wider shape (shown in dashed blue line).

(Figure 17) With the shape selected, press the + key to make an in-place duplicate. Move the duplicate 12 pixels to the right and 12 pixels down.

TIP: With nothing selected, change the Nudge amount on the Property bar to 1px. Now use the arrow keys on your computer keypad to move the duplicate shape the precise amount. (You could also set the nudge amount to 12px. Just remember to set it back to a lower amount when you are done).

(Figure 18) Select both shapes and then press the Trim icon on the Property Bar. The cutter shape remains and while nothing seems to have changed, if you drag the underneath shape away, you'll see the top shape has been trimmed out of the bottom shape as shown in blue.

(Figure 19) Duplicate the whole shape by pressing the + key. Move the duplicate shape up and to the left 12 pixels in each direction.

(Figure 20) Select the trimmed out shape and cut it to the clipboard (Edit > Cut). Select the two shapes. On the Property Bar, press Back Minus Front. This is a new path command that does the same function as Trim except it removes the top, or trimmer shape. Paste the shape we just cut to the clipboard back onto the page (Edit > Paste). Save your work and take a short eye break.

(Figure 21) Position the two cutout shapes as shown. Select the top shape and then select the Interactive Fill Tool. From the drop down menu on the Property Bar, select Conical. Make the starting and ending colors Baby Blue. Click the Edit Fill icon which is just to the left of the drop down list of Fill Types, to open the Fountain Fill dialog. Click the Clockwise Fill icon and press OK to close the dialog.

TIP: If you let the cursor rest for a moment over the color squares on the screen palette (or any of the buttons and icons), the color name, or tool or button name, will appear in a balloon under the cursor.

Select the bottom shape and repeat this step except use Spring Green for the start and end colors. The idea here is to create two rainbow gradients, one lighter and one slightly darker which we will use for highlights and reflections.

(Figure 22) Position the top highlight shape over the bitmap as shown. With the highlight shape selected, select Break Curve Apart from the Arrange menu. You will now have a series of separate shapes.

(Figure 23) Using the Freehand or the Pen Tool, CorelDRAW a single diagonal line through the bitmap image as shown. Select the top left most shape. Select the Interactive Transparency Tool and from the drop down list of Transparency Types, pick Circular. Select Add from the Transparency Operations drop down list. Drag the dashed arrow portion of the fill until the center of the circle is over the area where the diagonal line passes though the top of the @ shape. Click on the outside color, which is now white and change this to black by clicking the black square on the screen palette. Click on the inside color square and change the black to white. We have just made the center opaque and the outside transparent which is the opposite of the default setting.

NOTE: Black represents 100% transparency and white represents 0% or no transparency. You can also click the start or ending square and move the slider on the Property Bar to adjust the amount of transparency. Shades of gray represent various amounts of transparency.

(Figure 24) Select the next shape (directly over the "a"). From the Effects menu, select Copy Effect… Lens From… A large black arrow cursor will appear. Click the first highlight shape to which you applied transparency. Adjust the transparency so the lightest portion is centered on the red diagonal line and the diameter is similar in size to the first circular transparency.

(Figure 25) Repeat this last step and copy the lens effect to the other shapes. When you are finished, select all the highlight elements and group them.

(Figure 26) Position the bottom shape, which we will call the reflection, as shown. Break the Curve Apart. Apply a Circular, Multiply transparency reversing the starting and ending transparency percentages and centering the darkest portion of the circular transparency on the red diagonal line.

(Figure 27) Copy the lens effect to the other shapes and adjust the center and diameter of the transparency. Group all the reflection elements. Save your work and take a short eye break. We're almost done.

(Figure 28) Locate the other duplicate you made of the vector @ shape. CorelDRAW a rectangle around the @ to the size shown. Set the fill and outline to none.

Select both the rectangle and the rainbow-filled @. Convert these to Bitmap but do not select the Transparent Background option.

(Figure 29) With the bitmap selected, select Bitmaps > Blur > Gaussian. Apply a 7 pixel Gaussian Blur.

(Figure 30) Position the blurred bitmap over the other elements. Apply a Uniform, Subtract 50% Transparency. Move the blurred bitmap until the shape appears to the right and down from the shapes beneath it.

If the @ were indeed filled with rainbow-colored GEL and we placed the @ on a white sheet of paper and let light shine though it, we would get the same diffused color effect as we have achieved by placing the transparent blurred bitmap on top.

And that's all there is too it. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop me a line at Gary W. Priester

Blossoming Ideas for Cool Distortion Effects

2010-02-17T03:33:00.000-08:00

By Steve Bain
CorelDRAW 11's distortion effects are superb for applying controlled changes to an objects' shape-all the while allowing the object to remain in the vector world. There are several different types of distortion effects you can apply in CorelDRAW 11 - ranging from subtle to downright vicious - thanks to the complex mathematical algorithms on which each type of distortion is based.
Understanding Distortion Effects
Before we get too far along, let's gain an understanding of how these effects work with a little background information. As with other effects in CorelDRAW 11, distortions are applied using the Interactive Distortion Tool. You'll find it in the Toolbox grouped with other interactive tools. The effects you apply using this tool are dynamic, so they can be applied without losing the original object properties and may be edited at any time, saved as custom distortion presets, copied between objects, or cleared altogether.
A few other facts will help you in your distortion adventures. First, you may apply multiple distortion effects to a single object, meaning each distortion builds on the last. Once a distortion exists on your page, you may clear it in incremental steps, or copy it between objects. The condition of the object path - including the number of nodes it's comprised of - determines the basic shape of the resulting distortion. Also, there are three basic modes of distortion you can choose from using Property Bar options, each of which features overlapping variables.
The sheer number of variables and the wild results they create can make distortion effects tricky to use. In fact, you can easily while away more than a few hours creating practical drawing applications. To experience the power of this undervalued effect, let's explore a few relatively simple projects you can try to create some of the objects in this project.
Distortions Naturally
The Interactive Distortion Tool is great for quickly emulating natural or organic-style path effects which would otherwise be next to impossible to create manually, making it perfect for the objects shown next.
Let's start by creating the flower objects to represent, and follow up with variations of the same idea.

Begin by drawing a circular ellipse roughly three inches in diameter using the Ellipse Tool. Holding your Ctrl key as you draw will constrain its shape. With the circle complete and still selected, press the Convert to Curves button in the Property Bar to delete the ellipse properties. Drag a copy of this object aside by right-clicking as you drag it using the Pick Tool. The copy will serve as a template for a later step.
Apply color to your original circle using a customized Radial Fountain Fill. You could use the Interactive Fill Tool, but to do it quickly and precisely, press F11 to open the Fountain Fill dialog. Choose Radial as the type, and click Custom under Color Blend. Using the Custom Fountain options, set the position 0 color marker to white and the position 100 marker to 100 percent magenta. Add a new position marker at 65 and color it 100 percent magenta also (as shown next). Remove any outline properties.
Choose the Interactive Distortion Tool. Using Property Bar options choose Zipper as the distortion mode. Enter 17 as the Amplitude, 4 as the Frequency, click the Smooth button and press Enter to apply the effect. This will add a slight wave to the circle path (shown next).
For the concentric flower petals, create copies of the object in a centered arrangement. To create the first copy quickly, choose the Pick Tool, hold Shift while dragging any corner object handle slightly toward the center of the object, and click your right mouse button to make the copy. Repeat this action to create enough copies to nearly fill the area (roughly 13 in our example). Then randomly rotate each of the object copies slightly to offset them (as shown next with black outlines). To quickly rotate any object using the Pick Tool, you can click any selected object a second time to enter rotation/skew mode and drag any of the corner rotation handles.
Next, we'll apply a series of distortions in sequence to the template circle created earlier. Using the Interactive Distortion Tool, choose Zipper mode, click the Random button and enter an Amplitude value of 30 and a Frequency value of 5 and press Enter. Then, choose Push and Pull mode, enter 20 as the Amplitude value and press Enter to complete the distortion. Your template circle now has the distortion you need (shown next).
Switch to the Pick Tool momentarily and marquee-select all the objects in your flower petal arrangement. Choose the Interactive Distortion Tool again, click the Copy Distortion Properties button and click your circle copy after the targeting cursor appears. The distortion is copied to your petal objects (as shown next) and your arrangement is now a flowering shape.

Impressive Variations
By varying the distortion values in your arrangement of objects, you can quickly create a wide variety of flower styles. Follow this next example using the same objects to create a dramatically intricate effect and experience the real power of this effect.

Using the Interactive Distortion Tool, choose your template circle and clear the current distortion effects by clicking the Clear Distortion button two times. Apply a Push and Pull mode distortion with an Amplitude of 5. Then apply a Zipper distortion with the Random and Smooth buttons clicked, set the Amplitude to 100, and the Frequency to 20. Your template circle now features a slightly wavier path (as shown next).
Use the Pick Tool to marquee-select all flower petal objects. Press F11 to open the Fountain Fill dialog and change the custom fountain fill options as follows: Position 0=Red, position 40=Yellow, position 100=Yellow and click OK to close the dialog (shown next).
With the objects still selected, choose the Interactive Distortion Tool. Click the Clear Distortion button once to return the flower petals to their earlier wavy path shape. Use the Copy Distortion Properties button and target your template circle. This time a warning dialog (shown next) will appear to let you know the effect you are applying is complex-click OK to proceed.
Remove any outline properties applied to your objects and the effect is complete. In the example shown next, the distortion is applied and resembles a flower with intricately spiked petals and a complex path structure.

Combining Distortions with Blends
You can create yet another variation on the flower illustration by combining a distortion effect with a blend effect. The steps may be shorter, but the effect is no less impressive. The procedure involves first distorting an ellipse and blending with a scaled copy. Here's how it's done:

Start by drawing a circle roughly 3 inches in diameter using the Ellipse Tool (hold Ctrl to constrain its shape). Using the Pick Tool, convert the circle to curves (Ctrl+Q). Choose the Shape Tool and hold Shift+Ctrl while clicking any of the four path nodes to select all the nodes. Then, press the "+" key on your numeric key pad two times to automatically add 12 more evenly spaced nodes to the path (as shown next).
Choose the Interactive Distortion Tool and choose Push and Pull mode and apply an Amplitude to -50 (a negative value). Fill the object with 100 percent Yellow. Using the Pick Tool, create a centered copy roughly 10 percent of the original by dragging any corner handle inwards while holding the Shift key and clicking your right mouse button. Fill the copy with Red (as shown next).
Switch to the Interactive Blend Tool and drag between the two objects to create a default blend effect. Using Property Bar options, set the Blend Steps to 20, click the Apply button, and the effect is complete as shown next.

Creating Mixed Greens
What would a flower garden be without some greenery? The intricate detail on leaves is another ideal candidate for CorelDRAW's distortion effect. To simulate the serrated edges found on leaf shapes, follow these quick steps:

Using the Ellipse Tool, create a tall, thin ellipse roughly 3 inches tall and half an inch wide and convert it to curves (Ctrl+Q). Using the Shape Tool, change the top two curves to straight lines by clicking each line and clicking the Convert Curve to Line button in the Property Bar. The result will be a teardrop-shaped object (as shown next).
With the object still selected, fill the object with a dark green color. Then, choose the Interactive Fill Tool and drag upwards from bottom to top to apply a default Linear fountain fill. Click to select the top fill marker and apply a light green color. Remove any outline colors applied to the shape.
Choose the Interactive Distortion Tool and choose Zipper mode. Apply an Amplitude of 50 and a Frequency of 30 to create the initial distortion. To control the direction of the serrated edges, drag the diamond-shaped interactive marker to the top of the object. Notice the serrated points are now angled upwards (shown next).

These steps will create one variation on the leaf shape. But, you can quickly create more by varying the Amplitude and Frequency values as well as adjusting the width or height of the object (as shown next). As a finishing touch, stems are easily created using a series of blended paths. To do this, create a path and apply a thick line width (such as 8 points) colored dark green. Press the "+" key on your numeric key pad to create a copy and change this path's outline to a thin width (such as hairline) colored light green. Using the Pick Tool, select both paths and open the Blend docker (choose Window, Dockers, Blend). Enter 5 as the Number of Steps and click Apply to create the blend effect (as shown next).
Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and author of nearly a dozen books including CorelDRAW The Official Guide.

Snap to It with CorelDRAW® 12

2010-02-17T03:22:00.001-08:00

By Steve Bain
If you've ever fumbled around trying to align your cursor to something, you can bid this frustrating task farewell. CorelDRAW® 12 object snapping has been re-designed with nine new modes to give you maximum snapping control that works together with the program's new Dynamic Guides.

Now you can instantly snap to text baselines, object nodes, edges, midpoints, centers and ellipse quadrants; or snap to ellipse tangents, perpendicular angles or angles specified as Dynamic Guide paths. For example, you can snap the baseline of a text object to a rectangle, like this:

You can also quickly draw a line between precise points on two separate objects, like this:

For the record, the effect of snapping is like holding a magnet near metal. As the magnet draws closer, it's drawn toward the metal and the attraction becomes stronger until the magnet eventually "snaps" to it.

When using CorelDRAW 12, two things can serve as magnets: the point at which you grab an object or your current drawing tool cursor. The "metal" that these points are drawn toward can be a guideline, a grid line, a new Dynamic Guide path or a specific point on another object.

Object snapping saves considerable time when moving or transforming shapes, or when creating lines or curves. It enables you to control how and where the snapping action occurs and eliminates the aggravation of fumbling with alignments, or guessing at angles and distances. If you've already used grids or guidelines to snap to, you'll appreciate the productivity boost this gives you.

Welcome to Snapping
CorelDRAW 12 delivers a mix of reliable existing and brand new snap features. If you're new to CorelDRAW, it may help you to know a bit about some of the existing snap actions you can activate and how to use them.

Snap to Grid – To have your drawing shapes and tool cursors snap and align to your document grid, choose View/Snap to Grid; press Ctrl+Y to toggle the feature on and off; or click the Snap to Grid button on the Property Bar (shown next). When objects snap to a grid, they snap to the grid lines as well as the grid line intersection points.

Snap to Guidelines – To activate guideline snapping, choose View/Snap to Guidelines or click the Snap to Guidelines button on the Property Bar (shown next). Guidelines are created by dragging from your vertical or horizontal rulers (they can also be slanted), or by using Presets with automated scripts in the Guidelines Presets page of the Options dialog box.

Snap to Objects – To have your objects or cursors snap to and align with other objects, choose View/Snap to Objects; press Alt+Z; or click the Snap to Objects button on the Property Bar (shown next). You can set snap points using new snap modes option in the Snap to Objects page of the Options dialog box.

Dynamic Guides – This new feature uses the selected snap modes that we'll explore next. Press the Dynamic Guides button in the Property Bar (shown next) or choose View/Dynamic Guides (Alt+Shift+D) to toggle Dynamic Guides on or off.

Maximum Object Snapping Power
Here's where object snapping really takes a new turn. The new snap modes enable you to snap to more points on your objects, and offer live feedback by showing onscreen symbols and screen tips.

While object snapping is turned on, your objects and cursors use snap modes to determine where to snap. You can customize these using options in the Snap to Objects pane of the Options dialog box (shown next), accessed by choosing View/Snap to Objects Setup.

For object snapping to happen, two steps are involved: your cursor must be dragging or drawing something, and it must be at or near snap points on another object. (This also includes an object being dragged from its original position to a new position.) When your cursor connects with snapping points on the other object, the snapping action occurs. As you get accustomed to using this feature, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.

Custom-select options in the Snap to Objects dialog box to set your snap behavior exactly how you need it. Here's how each of the options control snapping:

Snap to Objects On – Click this to turn Snap to Objects on or off.

Snapping Threshold – This menu enables you to set the snapping sensitivity, based on pixel proximity to snap points. Choose Medium (the default), Low or High, where Low reduces the snapping distance and High increases it, like this:

Show Snap Location Marks – This toggles the display of the icon markers identifying each snap point type on various objects. This is great to use for identifying specific snap points in a crowded clusters of objects, like this:

Screen Tip – While the Show Snap Locations Marks option is selected, use Screen Tip to control whether or not the text label that identifies the current snap point is displayed.

Customize Where Objects Snap
The mode list (shown next) in the Snap to Objects dialog box includes nine specialized object snap modes. They can be toggled on or off individually when you want to quickly snap to certain object points but ignore others. The icon list beside each of the modes acts as a symbol legend to show how each snap point is indicated on your screen when using the Show Snap Location Marks option. You can also use buttons in this dialog box to quickly activate or deactivate all the options in the list at once.

Each of the modes causes object or cursor snapping in the following ways:

Nodes – Use this mode to snap an object or your cursor where nodes exist (shown as square markers) on any object type or any open or closed path.

Intersection – Use this mode to activate snapping where the outline paths of two objects intersect (shown as a diamond marker) or where the guide paths of two object snap points cross, like this:

Midpoint – Use this mode to snap to the point at the exact center between any two nodes (shown using a triangular marker) on an object or path.

Quadrant – This mode activates snapping to the precise left, right, top or bottom edge point of an ellipse object (shown as a stylized circle symbol), or the visible quadrants on an ellipse set to the Pie or Arc state.

Edge – Choose this mode to snap to anywhere on the outline path of an object (shown as a stylized square symbol).

Center – This mode activates snapping to the dead center origin of closed-path objects (indicated as a target dot symbol) based on their width and height.

Text Baseline – The baseline of text is the imaginary line on which each character appears to rest. If you create text and image layouts, this invaluable mode will activate snapping to anywhere on text baselines (shown as a stylized solid diamond symbol). Both Artistic and Paragraph text objects are valid objects even if the text is formatted in multiple lines, as shown here:

On a slightly higher object snapping level for geometry lovers, the next two modes add tangent and perpendicular actions to the mix. Both help when drawing with line tools to define node positions. Here's how they work:

Tangent – A tangent is a straight line that only touches to align with the edge of a curve. You can use this mode to snap your drawing tool cursor to a point on a tangent (shown as a circle-and-line symbol) from a curve or ellipse, like this:

Perpendicular – A perpendicular line creates a right angle (90 degrees) from another line or curve plane. Choose this mode to snap your drawing tool cursor to a point perpendicular from a point on an existing line or curve (shown as a typical right-angle symbol), or to a point on the guide path aligning with open or closed lines and curves, ellipse objects, or ellipses set to Pie or Arc, as shown here:

The ideal way to familiarize yourself with what each mode does is to activate an object (Alt+Z), and practice by selecting only one active mode at a time. When you do, be sure to turn off all other snapping (Ctrl+Y) as well as Dynamic Guides (Alt+Shift+D). That way, you'll get a clear view of the real snapping power you have at your fingertips with this new feature.

Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and author of nearly a dozen books including CorelDRAW: The Official Guide.

A Clever New CorelDRAW® 12 Drawing Tool

2010-02-17T03:21:00.001-08:00

By Steve Bain
Has anyone ever known you well enough to finish your sentences? Well, that's how the powerful new drawing tool in CorelDRAW® 12 works. The new Smart Drawing tool gives freehand sketching the benefit of a kind of artificial intelligence. You can sketch a shape freehand-style on screen and end up with a precise vector object as a curve, native object or Perfect Shape. You'll find the new Smart Drawing tool (shown next) located in the toolbox between the curve tools and the rectangle tools—or you can press the S hotkey for speedy selection.

You can use the Smart Drawing tool with a stylus and drawing tablet, but good mouse skills work just as well. When sketching curves, this tool is capable of automatically recognizing a number of geometric characteristics. For example, two lines sketched side by side can be recognized as parallel straight lines. Sketching rough shapes that have right angle corners can produce precise 90-degree angles, like this:

When drawing native geometric shapes, sketched boxes and squares translate into true rectangles, complete with rounded corner properties that you can apply. Sketched ovals and circles are recognized as true ellipses that you can fashion into arcs or pie shapes, if you desire. You can also sketch other complex geometric shapes such as arrows, equilateral and isosceles triangles, diamonds, trapezoids, parallelograms and so on, which translate into Perfect Shapes™, like these:

While the Smart Drawing tool is selected, you can take as long as you need to complete your sketched shapes. But after you're done, CorelDRAW 12 takes a short time to translate your sketches. To do this, two key options control how accurately shapes are recognized and smoothed. You'll find these options in the Property Bar (shown next). Setting these interconnected options enables you to control how closely your sketched shapes are translated.

Here's how the Smart Drawing tool options provide control over recognition and smoothing:

Shape Recognition
This option sets how precisely your sketched shape is matched to a recognizable shape and can be set to one of five levels ranging from Lowest (sketched shapes are not easily recognized) to Highest (sketched shapes are easily recognized), with Medium as the default and None turning the feature off completely.

Smart Smoothing
After your sketched shape is complete, a level of node smoothing is applied in order to make object recognition precise. This option enables you to set that smoothing action, much the same as applying smoothing to a typical path. Choose from one of five options ranging from Lowest (less smoothing applied) to Highest (more smoothing applied), with Medium as the default and None turning the feature off.

These two options work together, enabling CorelDRAW 12 to do its recognition magic. Technically speaking, here's what the Smart Drawing tool is capable of recognizing using default recognition and smoothing options:

Ovals and Circles – translate as native ellipse objects
Boxes and Squares – translate as native rectangle objects
Lines – translate as curve objects (either straight or curved depending on how they are sketched)
Triangles – translate as curved objects or as perfect triangle shapes (either isosceles or equilateral)
Diamond – a sketched shape resembling a skewed square will translate into a perfect diamond shape
Parallelogram – a roughly sketched four-sided shape whose opposite sides are parallel and equal will translate into a perfect parallelogram shape
Trapezoid – a roughly sketched four-sided shape that has two parallel sides and two non-parallel sides will translate into a perfect trapezoid shape
Arrows – two roughly sketched open paths that resemble an arrow pointing will translate into a Perfect Shape arrow, like this:

To experience the drawing power of the new Smart Drawing tool, try these quick steps:

Choose the Smart Drawing tool (or press the S hotkey) and use a click-drag action to sketch a square or rectangle. Aim to keep the sides of the shape vertical and horizontal as you draw. After releasing your mouse button, CorelDRAW 12 automatically translates your sketch into a rectangle shape, like this:
Choose the Pick tool and check your Status Bar display. The shape you sketched is specified as a Rectangle, and the Property Bar features options associated with shapes created using the Rectangle tool, including the rounded corner options.
Choose the Smart Drawing tool again and sketch an oval or circle. Aim to keep the shape oriented either vertically or horizontally. When releasing the mouse button, CorelDRAW 12 translates your sketched shape into an ellipse, like this:
Choose the Pick tool and check your Status Bar. The shape you sketched is specified as an Ellipse and the Property Bar features options associated with shapes created using the Ellipse tool, including Ellipse, Arc and Pie states.

Perfect Shapes and Glyph Nodes
Since certain shapes you sketch can be recognized as Perfect Shapes (such as triangles, trapezoids and parallelograms), it may help to know a little about these specialized objects.

Sketched shapes that are recognized as Perfect Shapes are the same as the ones you would typically draw using the Perfect Shape tool. But these Perfect Shapes each feature unique "glyph" nodes that can be manipulated to change their proportions while preserving certain aspects of their shape. For example, the shape representing a triangle features a single glyph node that enables you to set one of the angles but keep the overall symmetry of the shape.

You can edit glyph nodes similar to the way you alter the control points on a polygon. As they're moved, glyph nodes have the effect of resizing, changing proportion or dynamically moving a certain aspect of the shape.

For some hands-on experience creating a Perfect Shape with the Smart Drawing tool, try these steps:

Using the Smart Drawing tool(s), sketch the shape of an isosceles triangle (a three-sided shape with two equal angles). On releasing the mouse button, CorelDRAW 12 translates your sketch into a Perfect Shape, complete with a glyph node, like this:
Choose the Pick tool and check your Status Bar. The shape is identified as a Perfect Shape. Use the Shape tool next to click and drag the glyph node (the red marker) to alter your shape's proportions. The triangle changes shape with the two angles constrained to equal measures, as shown here:

You can edit glyph nodes interactively using the Shape tool (F10), but you can also edit them using the Object Properties docker for a selected Perfect Shape. To quickly access these options, press Alt+Enter to open the Object Properties docker and click the Perfect Shape tab, shown here:

Smarter Drawing Tool Functions
There are two other aspects of the Smart Drawing tool that you may find useful. The first involves controlling the delay time interval between the moment you finishing sketching a shape and the moment CorelDRAW 12 determines a recognizable shape. By reducing this delay time, you can sketch several separate lines or shapes in succession and CorelDRAW 12 will recognize them as a single compound path. For example, if you finish sketching a complete shape, then begin sketching a second shape within the time delay interval, the two shapes will be recognized as a single object.

Access the option that controls time delay by double-clicking the Smart Drawing tool button in the toolbox to open the Options dialog box. The Drawing Assistance Delay slider (shown next) can be set between 0 and 2 seconds. The higher you set the delay time, the more time you'll have to keep drawing. If you're accustomed to quick sketching, a lower delay time will make your sketching sessions more productive.

While using the Smart Drawing tool, you can also correct your sketched shapes on the fly to improve the accuracy of your drawing. As you sketch your shape, temporarily hold Shift as the modifier key to interactively erase your drawing path in reverse. As you hold the Shift key, the Smart Drawing tool cursor will invert interactively to erase your sketched lines (shown next). Releasing the Shift key enables you to resume your sketching operation.

The new Smart Drawing tool is one of those truly innovative tools that pop up every so often. If you work in a creative field such as design or illustration, or a planning industry such as industrial design, engineering or architecture, the Smart Drawing tool enables you to harness the power of this new software intelligence. You may just find yourself reaching for it the next time you start a new CorelDRAW drawing project.

Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and author of nearly a dozen books including CorelDRAW: The Official Guide.

Using Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 to Enhance Your Digital Photography

2010-02-17T03:20:00.000-08:00

by Tony Celeste
In this article, you'll learn how to use Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 with your digital camera. I'll go over the entire process: downloading your photos from your camera to Corel PHOTO-PAINT, accomplishing brightness and contrast adjustments, performing point and click color correction, touching up with blurring and sharpening, and cleaning up problem areas with the Clone Tool.
Downloading from Your Digital Camera
There are several different methods for downloading photos from your camera's memory to your computer. For example, some computers have interfaces that allow you to remove the memory chip from the camera and plug it directly into the computer. Also, some high-end cameras write directly to mini CDs, which can then be placed in your CD drive and read like any other disk. There are also various methods for downloading from your digital camera using your computer's USB port. All of these methods vary among different digital camera manufacturers and different operating systems.
None of the methods is necessarily easier or better than any other, it's just a matter of personal preference. In this article, I'll demonstrate how to download your photos using your digital camera's USB "twain driver", since this method can be used on all operating systems that support Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12, and since the process differs very little among the various camera manufacturers.
To begin, open Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12, click File | Acquire Image | Select Source, and select your digital camera from the list of USB imaging devices attached to your computer (as with printers and scanners, your camera will need a driver to allow it connect to your computer; so if your camera isn't listed, make sure that you installed the driver).
Your digital camera is now set up as the default USB graphics device connected to Corel PHOTO-PAINT (of course, this can be changed at any time). Next, click File | Acquire Image | Acquire. An interface will open inside Corel PHOTO-PAINT enabling you to select the photo or photos that you would like to download (the interface for your digital camera may look slightly different from the one below).

You can download a single image by double-clicking it. To select multiple images, hold down the CTRL key while clicking. To select a series of consecutive images, click on the first image, hold down the SHIFT key, and then click on the last image. Click File | Acquire to download your images to Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Note that these are general instructions, there will be slight variations among different manufacturers. For example, your interface may use File | Open instead of File | Acquire, or may replace menu commands with a Download button or an OK button.
Just about every digital photo you take will require some type of editing before it's ready to be printed or published to the Web. Most editing will involve minor corrections such as brightness and contrast, color enhancement, and blurring or sharpening. I'll use the photo below to explain these concepts. This photo was taken at Fort Lauderdale Beach, in April, 2004, at about 6 pm. The shadows caused by taking a picture on the east side of the beach, when the sun was setting in the west, created a brightness issue; so I'll start out with that.

Brightness and Contrast
Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 provides several tools in the Image | Adjust submenu that can be used to adjust brightness and contrast. I've found that the most convenient tool to work with is the Tone Color tool (located near the bottom of the Adjust submenu).

All Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 Adjust and Effect filters enable "before" and "after" previews, as shown above. If you're not seeing any preview windows, click the first small button in the upper left corner of the filter's window (under the words "Color Tone") to enable before and after previews. If you're only seeing one large preview window (this is an "after" preview) click the second of the two buttons in the upper left. You can zoom in to the preview windows by placing your cursor over the "before" window and clicking your left mouse button, and you can zoom out by placing your cursor over the "before" window and clicking your right mouse button.
The Color Tone window can be used to adjust brightness, saturation, and contrast, all from within the same interface. The Color Tone filter also provides thumbnails that show how each adjustment will affect your image, which helps you decide which adjustment to apply. You can apply an adjustment more than once, and provide any combination of adjustments that you desire. The Step control, located near the middle right of the window, controls how much each adjustment changes your image. I set the Step control to 25 in the above screen shot, so that you could get an idea of how the available adjustments work, by looking at the thumbnails. However, you'll probably find the default Step setting of 10 to be much more practical.
With the Step setting set to 10, I clicked the Lighter thumbnail twice to brighten this image. Since brightness changes also cause contrast changes, after you adjust brightness, it's always a good idea to examine your image's contrast to see if it needs adjusting. In this case, the added brightness caused a somewhat "washed out" appearance, so I increased contrast by clicking once on the contrast thumbnail. At this point, the sand still had a washed out, off-white color to it, so I clicked the Saturate thumbnail once to restore the sand to its normal light brown color.
Color Correction
As with the brightness and contrast adjustments, Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 provides many tools for working with color. In this example, I'll use the Color Hue filter. To access the Color Hue filter, click Image | Adjust | Color Hue.

The Color Hue filter uses thumbnails that are similar to those found in the Color Tone filter. As with the Color Tone filter, I increased the Step value so that you could get a better idea of how each thumbnail works. In practice, you'll likely find that the default value of 10, or even a value of 5, is more appropriate.
The Color Hue filter works on the concept that red and cyan are "opposites" on the color wheel (see below), as are green and magenta, and yellow and blue. This is reflected in the filter's thumbnails: if you click More red, and then click More cyan, you'll end up with the exact same image that you started out with, since the two changes cancel each other out. Think of it as being at a set point on the color wheel, and moving 20 pixels away from red and toward cyan. If you then move 20 pixels in the opposite direction, away from cyan and toward red, you'll end up at exactly the same point as where you started.

The Color Wheel is used to represent the complete spectrum of colors. Note that certain colors, such as red and cyan, are opposite each other in the color wheel. You can drag and drop this color wheel into Corel PHOTO-PAINT, and using the Eyedropper Tool, obtain the color values for any of the True colors, or any of the colors anywhere on the wheel.

You'll likely find the best color correction for your image by experimenting with various thumbnail adjustments. Note that you can also disable adjustment to your image's highlights, midtones, and/or shadows, and you can disable luminance (overall image brightness) by un-checking the appropriate boxes. For this particular image, I felt that the sand had a very mild reddish hue to it, and that the sky had a little too much blue. I adjusted the image's color by setting the Step slider to 5 and clicking More cyan one time.
Blurring and Sharpening
Most images that are brought into your computer from a scanner or a digital camera will need either a blur or a sharpen adjustment (I've noticed that digital camera images are likely to need sharpening more often than they need blurring). With this image, I felt that the edges of the sand and waves were a little dull, so I decided to apply a slight sharpen effect. Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 makes available 10 blur filters, which are accessed by clicking Effects | Blur; and 5 sharpen filters, which are accessed by clicking Effects | Sharpen. There are also Tune Blur and Tune Sharpen filters available that are similar to the Color Tone and Color Hue filters, they display thumbnails that preview image correction. The Tune Blur filter is located in the Blur submenu (Effects | Blur), and the Tune Sharpen filter is accessed by clicking Image | Correction | Tune Sharpen.
When it comes to blurring and sharpening, you'll usually know in advance what type of effect you want to apply, so you may find it more convenient to use a specific filter instead of Tune Blur or Tune Sharpen. For sharpening, I most often use the Unsharp Mask filter for close up images (such as a model's face) and the Sharpen filter for more widely focused images (such as the sample image here).

The Threshold slider works in the reverse of what you might expect: instead of increasing sharpening as you increase the level, it lowers sharpening as you increase the level. For most images, you'll find a Threshold of 1 - 10 to be best, I usually start at 5 and then adjust the Edge level. Increasing the Edge level increases the sharpening effect. For most images, a value between 1 and 25 will be appropriate. Very high Edge level settings will remove almost all detail from your image, so they're not suitable for most photos, but they can be used to create a sketch pad special effect, in which your image looks like it was sketched using colored pencils.
A Quick Look at Environmental Cleanup
There's just one last bit of fine tuning that this image needs: There are three pieces of debris (a rag, a plastic bag, and a styrofoam cup) on the sand (see right). Fortunately, each of these can be removed with a single brush stroke of the Clone Tool. The Clone Tool copies an area of the image, and essentially creates a paint brush using the area's shape and colors. You can then use this brush to to paint over problem areas in the image.

To access the Clone Tool, press the letter C (Corel PHOTO-PAINT must be in front of all other open programs on your screen for keyboard shortcuts such as this to work). In the Property Bar (located near the top of the screen), click the Shape drop-down box and select 40 (see below). Set the size to 25, the transparency to 0, make sure the antialiasing button is pressed, and set the feathering to 100 (as shown below).

To set the area to clone, right-click to the right of a piece of debris (see right). Next, center the round cursor directly over the nearby piece of debris, and then left-click directly over the debris. Repeat this procedure for the remaining pieces of debris. The Clone Tool will replace the debris with sand colors that blend in perfectly with the surrounding image.

Why not use the new Touchup tool to remove the debris? Or maybe, mention the Touchup tool as an alternative way of completing the task?
Editing Complete
Here's a look at this image when it was first downloaded from the digital camera, and after all of the above enhancements. Click on the thumbnails for a look at the full-size images.

I hope you've found this article helpful and informative. It's been a long time since I've written for Designer.com and Corel.com, I've definitely enjoyed doing so again. - Tony Celeste
Anthony L. Celeste is a Technical Writer, Multimedia Designer, and Windows Programmer living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You may contact him at aceleste@comcast.net.

Creating Web Pages In Corel R.A.V.E.™ 3.0

2010-02-17T03:18:00.001-08:00

by Tony Celeste

One of the most common challenges in Web design is creating content that maintains a consistent look and feel regardless of the display settings used by visitors to your site. It's not an issue in traditional print media—an 8 x 11 print is an 8 x 11 print, regardless of who is looking at it. However, on the Web, things aren't quite that simple. You have no idea what resolution visitors to your site will be using. If you design for 800 x 600, those using 640 x 480 displays will have to scroll from left to right to read each line of your Web page, and those using 1024 x 768 displays will have a large area of whitespace where there should be content (see below).

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A Web page created at 800 x 600 resolution will look too large when viewed at 640 x 480 resolution (left), normal when viewed at 800 x 600 resolution (center), and too small when viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution (right)

Web designers have traditionally dealt with this in two ways: (1) by choosing a popular resolution, such as 800 x 600, and hoping it displays well on as many visitors' displays as possible, or (2) by making separate Web pages for all commonly used resolutions, and using JavaScript® programming to direct each user to a page designed specifically for their resolution. Obviously, neither solution is ideal. In this article, I'll explain a third option: creating entire Web pages inside Corel R.A.V.E..

When you create a Web page in Corel R.A.V.E., the page automatically resizes itself to fit your viewer's display settings, regardless of whether those settings are the same as, smaller than, or larger than your settings. Also, because you're creating vector graphics instead of bitmap graphics, the page will retain its original quality, even when displayed on much smaller or much larger displays. This is possible because of the powerful, vector based Flash file format used by R.A.V.E.. Flash Web pages are becoming more and more common, they're seen in several mainstream sites, including NFL Films and Pepsi, and seem most popular among those in the graphics design and motion picture businesses.

This tutorial will teach you how to create entire Web pages from within the comfortable Corel R.A.V.E. interface. And, at the same time, you'll learn the basics involved in using Corel R.A.V.E..

A Quick Flash / R.A.V.E. FAQ

If you've never used Flash or Corel R.A.V.E., you may be unfamiliar with some of the essential concepts, so here's a quick mini FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

Getting Started

The Corel R.A.V.E. interface and tools are very similar to those of CorelDRAW®. To get started:

1. Click the New File icon (which is located on far left side of the Standard Toolbar, just beneath the main Menu Bar).

2. Set the Width and Height for your Web page (these controls are on the far left side of the Properties Bar).

Note: The width and height of your Flash page will be adjusted by your viewer's browser to fit their display. The purpose of these numbers is to simply give you an approximate idea of what your viewers will be seeing. I usually use a width of 760 pixels and height of 420 pixels, since this will fit well in an 800 x 600 browser display. It's a good "middle of the road" setting that will provide a general sense of what visitors with both smaller and larger displays will see.

3. To make it easier to work with your Web page's background, increase the Zoom to about 150% to 175% (the Zoom control is located near the center of the standard toolbar).

4. Set the Background Color for your Web page.

Note: The default Background Color is white. To change the background color, click Tools > Options. In the Options dialog box, double-click Document > Movie Setup > Background. To choose a color, click the Color Selector next to the Solid option. Although you can use a bitmap background, doing so will increase the size of your Web page, and may also make the page difficult to read.

Creating a Text Graphic

Many Web pages start out with a text graphic at the top, which is what you'll create in this example. Corel R.A.V.E. provides both Artistic and Paragraph Text. Artistic Text is designed for creating graphics, Paragraph Text is better suited for blocks of text. To create a text graphic:

1. Click the Text Tool (located near the middle of the vertical Toolbox Bar on the far left of the interface).

2. Select font type and size in the Properties Bar.

Note: It's best to use fonts that are likely to be installed on most computers. If your font is not available on a viewer's computer, it will be substituted with a similar font. Fonts available on most computers include Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Times New Roman, Courier New, and Brush Script.

3. Click an area near the upper left of your blank page in R.A.V.E..

A flashing cursor appears where your text will be placed. Type in any text and, if needed, adjust the font and font size. At this point, you don't have to be concerned with exact placement of the text because you can move it at any time. You can also change the text color from its default setting (Black) by using the Fill tab of the Object Properties Docker (below).

To create a more eye-catching text graphic, you may want to use a Fountain Fill (also called a gradient fill) instead of a solid color. This is where Corel's interface truly excels over the Macromedia Flash™ interface. In Macromedia Flash, the process involves creating the text, converting it to a mask, creating a new layer, placing a gradient rectangle on the new layer, and then using the text mask to essentially copy a gradient color pattern from the rectangle.

Fortunately, Corel R.A.V.E. makes the process much easier. In the Fill tab of the Object Properties Docker (below), click the Fountain Fill button. A two color gradient is immediately available, and you can change the colors to any that you desire. If you'd like to create a more advanced gradient (with more than 2 colors), just click on the Advanced button (near the bottom of the docker).

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When designing Web pages, it's wise to avoid excessively large file sizes. The choice of Fill types you use can help reduce file size. Solid Fills and Fountain Fills will create significantly smaller file sizes than most Pattern Fills and Texture Fills. This is because you can save Solid and Fountain Fills as vector data inside Flash files, but Pattern and Texture fills are usually saved as bitmap data inside Flash files. So, whenever possible, I recommend using Solid or Fountain Fills for your Flash graphics.

Adding a Navigation Bar

To facilitate navigation, horizontal bars are frequently used near the top of Web pages. To add a navigation bar, click on the Rectangle Tool (located near the middle of the Corel R.A.V.E. Toolbox), and draw a rectangle under the text graphic.

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Adding a Fountain Fill can give the navigation bar an attractive look and feel. In this example, I'm going to use a 3-color Linear Fountain Fill.

1. Choose Windows > Dockers > Properties and, on the Object Properties Docker, click the Fountain Fill button, then the Linear Fountain button, and then the Advanced button. The advanced Fountain Fill dialog box opens:

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2. Click "Custom" (in the "Color Blend" section of the dialog box).

3. Note the small boxes located immediately above the Color Band. You can use these to set the main colors for your Fountain Fill. From the Color Presets, select a medium to dark color. In this example, I choose the shade of gray named "60% Black" (hover your cursor over any of the preset colors to see its name).

4. Click the Position Indicator just above the upper right corner of the Color Band. Select the same color as you chose previously. At this point, the color band will show a solid color bar.

5. Double-click somewhere near the middle of the Color Band . A new Color Indicator will appear immediately above the Color Band with an arrow shaped indicator. Look in the position box just above the Color Indicators, and if necessary, use the up and down arrows to set the position to "50". Select a light color. In this example, I used the shade of light gray named "10% Black".

6. Use the Angle box to the left of the Preview Window (click and drag in the Preview Window) to set the gradient to a 90 degree angle.

7. Click OK. The advanced gradient that you just created will fill the rectangle.

8. You can now add text hyperlinks to the navigation bar. To add text, click the Text Tool and then click on the navigation bar.

9. Once the text is added, you'll use the Internet Toolbar to link the text to a URL. Right click any toolbar and click "Internet" to open the Internet Toolbar:

10. To activate the Internet toolbar, click the first button on the left. Click the arrow on the first drop down box and select "DOWN". In the second drop down box, select "URL". In the third Drop Down box, type in the URL that you wantto link to the text. This process will tell Flash to open the URL you selected when your visitor's mouse is clicked (when their left mouse button is in the down position).

11. Click the button on the far right side of the Internet Toolbar, select "Bounding Box" and uncheck crosshatch.

Repeat the above procedure for any additional hyperlinks that you'd like to add to the menu bar.

Additional Navigation

Although it's not essential, some sites (such as www.corel.com/support) use a navigation bar at the top of the page, and add additional navigation on the left side of the page. Now that you have the skills to use the Rectangle Tool, Text Tool, Fountain Fills, and Internet Toolbar, it's a snap to add navigation bullets and text to the left side of your page.

1. Select the Ellipse Tool and draw an ellipse on your Web page (the ellipse tool works in the same way as the Rectangle Tool, and it lets you create a perfect circle by holding down the Control key as you click and drag).

2. Change the Fountain Fill type from Linear to Radial and fill the ellipse with a two color Fountain Fill.

3. To position the lightest part of the fill near the upper left of the window, click and drag in the Fountain Fill preview window. This will create a bullet that appears to have a slightly raised or "beveled" effect.

4. Add text beside each bullet.

5. Use the Internet Tab of the Object Properties Docker to assign URLs to the bullets and text.

Normally, in a bitmap program such as Adobe® Photoshop® or Corel PHOTO-PAINT®, you'd use a 3D Filter or Lighting Filter to create a beveled effect. Knowing how to do this in Corel R.A.V.E.lets you create a vector bevel effect, which will almost always be significantly smaller than the equivalent bitmap effect.

Adding Paragraph Text

This is perhaps the most important and, also, the easiest part. Using the Text Tool, draw a rectangle around the area where you'd like your text to appear. On the Text Properties Bar, click the Edit Text icon (the last icon on the right). Type your text in the edit box, make any formatting changes you desire, and your Web page will be complete.

Saving and Exporting

Make sure that you choose File > Save As, and save your file in the Corel R.A.V.E. .CLK file format. This will enable you to make changes to the file in the future.

To export your Web page to the Flash format, click File > Publish To The Web. Choose a file name, and click Export. Accept the default options, and click the Issues tab to review any issues. When you're finished, click OK. The Flash file will be saved to your hard drive, along with a small HTML file that loads the Flash file into Web browsers.

The HTML File

To ensure your Flash Web page fits perfectly in any browser that it's displayed in, you'll need to make some very minor changes to the HTML file. Open the HTML file in any text editor (such as Windows Notepad). Change the background color from "#FFFFFF" (the HTML code for white) to "Black" (you can just type in the word "Black", the HTML code is not needed). Also, search for the words "Width" and "Height" (both words will appear twice) and change all four of these values to "100%". Click save, and you are done.

If you'd like, you can review my sample Corel R.A.V.E. .CLK file (which will open in R.A.V.E.), sample HTML code (which will open in your text editor and display the text edits described above), and sample Flash Web page.

Your Web page, which consists of the HTML file and the Flash file, is now ready for uploading to your Web site. To see how well Flash adjusts for changing display dimensions, try maximizing and changing the size of your browser window. You'll notice that no matter the dimensions you choose, the Flash file will fit perfectly.

Anthony L. Celeste is a Technical Writer, Multimedia Designer, and Windows Programmer living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You may contact him at aceleste@comcast.net.

Tile Printing From CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite 12

2010-02-17T03:17:00.001-08:00

By Steve Bain

If the documents that you create with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 don't match the material size to which you're printing, you can print the document in sections, or tiles. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 provides a tile printing operation that lets you print any sized document to any sized print material. Using this technique, you can print a postage stamp design onto playing-field size material (or vice versa).

As a typical scenario, we have a drawing—the map shown below—that needs to be dramatically enlarged and printed onto letter-sized sheets. In this case, the map has been prepared on a page size of 9 inches by 8 inches, but final print reproduction size needs to fit a space 63 inches by 57 inches.

Step 1: Set the Print Material Size
Accessed by choosing File > Print Preview, tile-printing is controlled using the Print Preview command. Since we're scaling up the document (enlarging a small document), we'll need to first select our printer and specify the print material size (in this case, Letter). To do this, choose Settings > General, and click the General tab of the Print Options dialog. To access print driver options, choose a printer and click the Properties button (shown below). Then choose your paper size, and click OK.

Step 2: Determine the Final Printed Size
With the material size selected, click the Layout tab, locate the specific page (if you're using CorelDRAW), and click the Print Tiled Pages option (as shown below). Type a corresponding print size in one of the Size boxes, and press Enter. To avoid distorting your output, ensure the Maintain Aspect Ratio option is enabled. Notice that the # of Tiles boxes now show the number of sheets your output will need—for our example, enter a 63-inch width by 57 inch depth, which will require 56 tiles in total (7 horizontally x 8 vertically).

Step 3: Use Tile Overlap and Tile Marks
If your printer can't print to the edges of the sheet, there's something else you'll need to do. Most composite printers leave a 5 percent blank strip at the edge of each printed page. To compensate for this, specifying a Tile Overlap amount (shown below) lets you add a uniform image portion to each tile section. If you're unsure of the amount to use, print a full-page test sheet set with a background color.

If the blank margins around the edges are uneven, enter the largest value in the Tile Overlap box. To add trim marks to which to align the printed sheets when assembling the final product after printing, enable the Tiling Marks option. When the document prints, the tile marks will indicate both the edges of the tiles, and the overlap margins. After setting any other required options for printing, close the Print Options dialog box to return to the Print Preview window.

Step 4: Preview the Tiles and Options
In the Print Preview window, you'll see your tile seams indicated as dotted lines, black tile marks matching your printing material size and orientation, as well as the overlap portion you've specified. At this point, confirm your settings and you're ready to print the tiles. Choosing File > Print starts the printing process immediately. If you'd like to print a specific tile without reprinting the entire collection, right-click any of the tile sections in the Print Preview window, and choose Print This Sheet Now from the pop-up menu (shown below). Only the tile you right-clicked will be printed at the current Print Options settings.

Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and author of nearly a dozen books including CorelDRAW The Official Guide.

Demystifying the CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite 12 PostScript Options

2010-02-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

By Steve Bain

As anyone new to printing from a graphics application can tell you, print errors can sometimes be a scary and costly experience. Confusion is often amplified if you're faced with choosing PostScript printing options that you have limited experience with. If you don't know what PostScript printing options are, you certainly won't know which to use and which to avoid. Since the terminology seems foreign to many, I'll try to demystify the PostScript language so that it's more easily understood.

When you print from CorelDRAW® 12, you're actually using the print engine to send commands to your printer. Print options use information gleaned from your print driver to enable you to control how various object types are reproduced on the printed page.

It is useful to know that the PostScript tab (shown below) appears only when you have selected a PostScript printer. When the CorelDRAW 12 print engine prepares a document for printing, these options enable you to control how the PostScript page description language is prepared for your printer.

Is Your Printer Compatible?
The question of printer compatibility is based on whether or not your selected printer is of the PostScript variety. Designed to make printing more efficient, PostScript printers use specific page description language to reproduce certain aspects of text and objects. Essentially, non-PostScript printer drivers convert the entire contents of your document into a bitmapped image based on your drawing size and the material size onto which you're printing. If you're unsure of your printer's compatibility, check either with your manufacturer or the documentation included with your printer. Generally, deskjet, bubblejet, and inkjet printers are non-PostScript while imagesetters are exclusively PostScript.

Ordinarily, selecting a printer and its device driver—and perhaps even the PostScript Printer Driver (PPD) file—will automatically set the Compatibility option (shown below). Compatibility will depend on how recent your printer's PostScript technology is. Along with everything else in the computer industry, PostScript technology has evolved over the years. Older printers may be limited to Level 1, whereas newer printers may be compatible with Level 2, or PostScript 3.

If you're sending your print job through a high-end PostScript "postprocessor" that requires Document Structuring Conventions (DSC), choose the Conform to DSC option. Postprocessors can perform complex prepress functions, such as color trapping, page shuffling, and complex signature structures.

Total Power Over Printing Bitmap Images
If your PostScript printer is compatible with Level 2 or PostScript 3 standards, and either of these is selected from the Compatibility drop-down menu, the Use JPEG Compression option (shown below) becomes available. By using compression, you can decrease the size—and consequently the time—it takes to send bitmapped images to your printer, especially if they are rather large.

With compression enabled, the Quality Factor slider becomes available (as shown below). Since JPEG is a "lossy" compression standard, you can use this to adjust the output quality of the printed bitmapped images. To speed up printing, you can control the print file size by altering quality, which affects compression.

Connecting to Externally-Linked Files
The two linking options (shown below) provide control over how your PostScript printer will handle externally-linked files in your CorelDRAW 12 document. The two varieties—Open Prepress Interface (OPI) and Desktop Color Separation (DCS)—refer to unique printing strategies often used by high-end printers.

Maintaining OPI Links
While this option is enabled (the default state), the print engine will automatically maintain external links to bitmap images imported using OPI. If you're using OPI, you can store high-resolution bitmapped images in your printer's internal memory and use low-resolution placeholders in your document. During printing, the high-resolution images replace the lower-resolution placeholders.

Resolve DCS Links
In a printing strategy similar to OPI, DCS technology enables you to import into your CorelDRAW 12 document low-resolution placeholder images that contain embedded links to digitally-separated images for use in process, or multi-ink, printing. While Resolve DCS Links is enabled (the default state), the high-resolution images automatically replace the placeholder images. If you deactivate Resolve DCS Links, a prompt will appear just before printing occurs, enabling you to resolve the links manually.

Choosing a Screen Frequency
When it comes to printing separations, controlling Screen Frequency is a function unique to PostScript, essentially controlling the spacing of the screen dots which compose tints and halftones. The screen frequency value (shown below) determines the number of lines per inch (LPI) for the entire print operation and is typically used when separating color plates to an imagesetter or a platesetter.

The Default setting leaves the frequency function in the hands of the raster image processor (RIP) to which you're printing. Changing to a specific setting enables you to override the RIP settings. It's is useful to know that, when separations are selected, it automatically changes the default frequency settings from the Separations tab (shown below).

You can also customize screen frequency directly from the Separations tab, or in the Advanced Separations dialog (shown below), which you can access by clicking the Advanced button from the Separations tab.

Power Over Font Handling
CorelDRAW 12's print engine provides two options (shown below) for controlling specific font handling during printing. By default, both options are selected. To speed printing, the Download Type 1 Fonts option tells the print engine to send Adobe Type 1 fonts to your printer's internal memory before printing. Since Adobe Type 1 fonts are often preferred over TrueType fonts, the Convert True Type To Type 1 option tells your PostScript printer to replace any True Type fonts with available Adobe Type 1 equivalents. If no equivalents exist, the TrueType font is used.

Managing PDF Options
If your document is being output as a PDF (Portable Document Format), and you're printing a composite, the PDF Marks options (shown below) become available. From the On Start drop-down list, you can specify how your PDF initially displays. You can choose from Page Only, Full Screen, or Thumbnail views. You can also choose whether to Include Hyperlinks or to Include bookmarks in the resulting PDF file.

Controlling Curve Printing
For highly-complex drawings, the print engine's power over vector paths provides very specific control with three options for setting curve printing.

Maximum Points Per Curve Limit
If necessary, you can choose this option to limit the maximum number of points on a printed path. By default, when sending path descriptions to your printer, CorelDRAW 12 automatically uses a Maximum Points Per Curve setting of 10,000 nodes per curve. If the limit is exceeded, path descriptions are simply clipped, usually without altering their appearance. The default limit is usually more than enough for printing typical object paths, but you can set this value anywhere between 20 and 20,000 nodes per curve. Be warned though—increasing the limit may overwhelm your printer's memory.

Curve Flatness
The often misunderstood term "flatness" refers to the number of straight vector paths used to describe a curved path. The more straight vectors in a curve, the less complex the path will be to print—and vice versa. Increasing the flatness setting causes less smooth printing of curves, but also speeds the printing process. The Set Flatness To option enables you to set the flatness limit to a value between 0.20 and 100.0.

Bump Up Flatness Automatically
For objects that exceed the flatness setting by two, the Auto Flatness option automatically increases the flatness setting until the object prints.

Control Over Fountain Fill Printing
If you've used fountain fills in your CorelDRAW 12 document and you need more control over how they print, there are two available options that will help.

To avoid undesirable "banding", the Auto Increase Fountain Steps option tells the print engine to examine your document for opportunities to increase the number of fountain steps toward improving their appearance.

Banding becomes visible when the number of steps in a fountain fill is too low to simulate a smooth color transition (shown below). Increasing the number of steps that describe a fountain fill increases the printing time but achieves better printed results. Up-to-date PostScript printers can often handle higher step values than the default 256 for all fountain fills in your drawing. If this is the case, you can leave this option selected (the default state).

The Optimize Fountain Fills option works in reverse of the Auto Increase Fountain Steps by allowing the print engine to decrease the number of fountain steps for objects in your document to the maximum number of steps your printer is capable of reproducing, the Optimize Fountain Fills.

As with any print operation, be sure to scrutinize your document closely before finalizing your options. Give careful consideration to how you'd like the document to print and the capabilities of your selected PostScript printer. Once you've selected the perfect setup, you can avoid the tedium of choosing options repeatedly for a specific printing operation by saving the entire setup as a unique Print Style (accessed from the General tab of the Print dialog box). Using a Print Style, you can include your PostScript printer selection and all of the PostScript-specific options you've selected for instant reuse.

Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and author of nearly a dozen books including CorelDRAW The Official Guide.

New Dynamic Guides Will Change the Way You Draw

2010-02-17T03:10:00.001-08:00

By Steve Bain
Once in a while, a new drawing feature comes along that's so innovative, it has the potential to completely change the way you draw. New Dynamic Guides in CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite 12 will do just that. In fact, after using them for a while, you'll wonder how you ever did without them. Let's explore just how great these fancy new guides really are.
A Boon for Drawing and Positioning Lines and Objects
Unlike typical guidelines that physically occupy a point on your document page, Dynamic Guides appear only momentarily right where you need them. As you're drawing a line or dragging an object, they come to life to show information about your cursor's position relative to points on surrounding objects.
As your cursor comes within a certain distance of an object snap point, a Dynamic Guide path magically appears right where you need it. The guide path itself is "sticky", meaning your cursor easily aligns to it. When drawing or positioning objects, the screen tips you see provide angle and distance measurements from your cursor or grab point to nearby snap points, like this:

If you've never used Dynamic Guides before, try these steps and you'll see just how powerful this feature is:

To view only the feedback provided by Dynamic Guides, turn off the CorelDRAW 12 Snap to Objects feature. To do this, choose View/Snap to Objects Setup to open the Options dialog box for the Snap to Objects pane. Click to turn off both the Snap to Objects On and Show Snap Location Marks options, and click OK to close the dialog box.
Next, let's make sure Dynamic Guides are active. If they aren't already showing, activate your Dynamic Guide display by pressing Alt+Shift+D. Choose View/Dynamic Guides Setup to open the Options dialog box for the Dynamic Guides pane. Make sure the Angle and Distance Screen Tip options are selected and click OK.
Now that you're all set up, start your exploration with a single object. For example, draw a simple rectangle with the Rectangle tool (F6).
Choose the Pick tool, then grab the lower-left corner node of the rectangle and drag it in a circular motion around its original position. Notice as you do this that guide paths, and angle and distance values appear around the rectangle.
Continue dragging, but this time, drag your grab point close to a nearby snap point and slowly drag it along the guide path that appears. Notice how your cursor "sticks" to it, and the difference in angle and distance from your grab point to the current snap point is updated as you drag. What you see on your screen will look something like this:
Create a second object (such as an ellipse) and add it to the mix. Drag your rectangle from the same corner beside the right side of the ellipse and notice another guide path appear at angles between your grab point and the ellipse snap points, like this:

Even if you're just creating lines or curves, you'll see Dynamic Guides feedback that displays the angle and distance from the last node position relative to the snap points of other objects. If you've ever fumbled trying to draw three nodes in perfect alignment at a non-typical angle, you'll certainly appreciate how useful this can be.

To see how easily you can add a perfect angled extension to a straight line, try these steps:

Use the same setup as in earlier steps. Start by creating a straight line at a non-typical angle (an angle that is anything but the standard 15-degree constrain interval). To create the line, choose the Freehand tool (F5).
Click any two points on your page to define the beginning and end points of the line. After clicking the second point, your straight line becomes a completed object, but remains selected.
Still using the Freehand tool, hold your cursor over the second point you clicked. Notice that the cursor features an end node symbol. Click your cursor on the node once to begin drawing another line segment. Move your cursor slowly away to extend the line and notice a Dynamic Guide appears at the exact angle of the existing line, like this:
Move your cursor along the guide and click a point anywhere on it. Another node position is defined and your line segment is now a straight path composed of three nodes.

Customizing Dynamic Guides
There are plenty of ways you can control what you're seeing on screen. You can toggle Dynamic Guides on and off a number of ways: by using the Alt+Shift+D shortcut, by choosing View/ Dynamic Guides from the command menus, or by clicking the Dynamic Guides button in the Property Bar (shown next) while the Pick or Shape tools (and no objects) are selected.

Dynamic Guides have a unique set of options that enable you to control their behavior. You can customize how the guides appear by choosing behavior options such as angle and distance tips, and tick snapping, and select which guide angles appear. To access these options (shown next), choose View/Dynamic Guides Setup to open the Options dialog box for the Dynamic Guides pane shown here:

Here's how each option will affect the way Dynamic Guides are displayed:

Dynamic Guides – Select this check box to toggle Dynamic Guides on or off.
Angle Screen Tip – When drawing with line tools, use Angle Screen Tip to show an angle value from the tip of your grab point relative to other object snap points, when positioning objects or placing nodes.
Distance Screen Tip – When drawing with line tools, choose Distance Screen Tip to show the distance between your cursor position on a guide and the current snap point, when positioning objects or placing nodes. The unit measure you'll see is based on your currently selected drawing units. (You can set this in the Pick tool Property Bar while no objects are selected.)
Snap to Ticks – Use Snap to Ticks to toggle tick snapping along the guide paths in customizable increments. This enables you to move your cursor along the guide and snap to tick points according to the current Tick Spacing value.
Guides – Use this area to select which angles you want your Dynamic Guides to indicate on screen. Check boxes enable you to toggle the angles on or off in the list. As you select each one, its apparent angle is displayed in the Guides Preview window on the right of the dialog box. To add your own custom angles, just enter a value in the degree box above the list and click the Add button, as shown next. Custom guide angles are automatically added to the guides list, so you have the option of toggling them on or off. You can also interactively select and manage the guides via list selection or just by clicking the apparent angles shown in the Preview window.
Extend Along Segment – When drawing using any line tool, use this option to easily add straight portions to an existing angled line segment. A Dynamic Guide will automatically show you where to place your new node so it's in perfect alignment with the existing straight line.

The Dynamic Duo
It may also help you to know that Dynamic Guides work together with the new Snap Modes feature in CorelDRAW 12. The guides appear whenever your grab point or line tool cursor comes within a certain threshold of an active snap point on your original object, or on a different object, like this:

You can set up to nine object snap points to include in the process by choosing View/Snap to Objects Setup to open the Options dialog box for the Snap to Object pane, shown next.

If you're already using CorelDRAW 12 but haven't yet explored what Dynamic Guides can do, the steps we've covered here should get you on your way. Although this only scratches the surface, you've just turned a corner to a novel new way of drawing.

Steven Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and author of nearly a dozen books including CorelDRAW: The Official Guide.

How to create a newsletter with CorelDRAW 12

2010-02-17T03:09:00.000-08:00

A major challenge of newsletter design is achieving a balance between text and imagery. Too much text can discourage a reader from pursuing content. By offering visually appealing graphic content to offset small groups of text, designers can increase readability.
Newsletter design incorporates a wide spectrum of graphic design techniques, and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 gives you the tools to enhance your talent and complete your vision.
What you will learn
This tutorial shows you effective newsletter design techniques using CorelDRAW 12 and is geared towards people who already have a basic knowledge of CorelDRAW. The tutorial is broken down into five fundamental steps:
Step 1: Setting the page layout
Step 2: Creating graphic objects
Step 3: Adding and importing text
Step 4: Importing and editing images
Step 5: Output and publishing
Step 1 - Setting the page layout
Before you start any graphic design process, you need to consider the overall appearance of your final work. The first decision to make is page size. In CorelDRAW 12, you can choose from many preset page sizes, ranging from legal-size paper and envelopes to posters and Web pages. If a preset page size does not meet your needs, you can create a custom page size by specifying the dimensions and orientation of the page.

Page setup
For this tutorial, we'll use A4 size paper.

Start a new document, and choose A4 from the Paper Type/Size list box on the property bar.
Ensure that the Portrait button on the property bar is enabled.
From the property bar, choose millimeters from the Units list box.
Click Layout menu > Insert Page.
In the Insert Page dialogue box, choose 1 from the Insert pages list box.
Enable the After option, and click OK to add Page 2.
Click the Page 1 tab at the bottom of the document window to return to the first page.

Showing the printing area
The printable area is determined by the current printer on your system. This is a valuable setting in that it can ensure that you place objects in an area on the page that your printer can print. It is also useful for turning on the guides for the page border and bleed area.

Click Layout menu > Page Setup.
In the Options dialogue box, choose Page from the Options list.
Enable the Show printable area check box.
Enable the Show page border check box.
Enable the Show bleed area check box.
From the Options list, choose Size, type 10.0< millimeters in the Bleed box, and click OK.

Setting guidelines
To assist with positioning objects accurately and precisely, it is advisable to use guidelines - lines that you can place anywhere in the drawing window. There are three types of guidelines: horizontal, vertical, and slanted. You can add a guideline wherever you need one; however, you can also choose to add preset guidelines.
For our purposes, we'll use guidelines that display at one-inch margins, and at newsletter column borders. After you add a guideline, you can select it, move it, rotate it, lock it in place, or delete it. You can also have objects snap to the guidelines so that when an object is moved near a guideline, it will either be centered on the guideline or lined up on either side of the guideline.
We will also add vertical guidelines to create six columns to guide the placement of text and text boxes on the page.

In the drawing window, right-click the Ruler, and choose Guidelines Setup from the pop-up menu.
Enable the Show Guidelines check box.
Enable the Snap to Guidelines check box.
In the Options list, click Presets.
Enable the check boxes for One Centimeter Margins, Bleed Area, Page Borders, and Printable Area.
In the Options list, click Vertical.
In the Vertical box, type 39.125, and click Add.
Repeat this process to add vertical guidelines at 72.062, 104.314, 138.624, and 169.493.
Click OK.

Step 2 - Creating graphic objects
Creating a newsletter logo
First, we'll add a newsletter logo. The Object Properties docker in CorelDRAW makes it easy to adjust object settings.

From the Window menu, choose Dockers > Properties (shortcut: Alt + Enter) to display the Object Properties docker.
From the toolbox, select the Rectangle tool (shortcut: F6), and create a 110-mm x 100-mm (width x height) rectangle. You can use the Status Bar to view Object Details such as width, height, and position on the page.
From the property bar, choose Hairline from the Outline Width list box.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab and then the Uniform Fill button, and choose White from the Colors palette.
With the Rectangle tool selected, create a second rectangle that is 110 mm x 45 mm (width x height).
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab, the Fountain Fill button, and then the Advanced button.
In the Fountain Fill dialogue box, choose Radial from the Type list box.
In the Center Offset area, type 2 in the Horizontal box and 39 in the Vertical box.
In the Color Blend area, enable the Two color option.
Click the From list box, choose Other, enter CMYK values of C:70, M:0, Y:10, and K:0, and click OK.
Click the To list box, choose White, and click OK.

Positioning the rectangles
Next, we'll eliminate the outline on the smaller rectangle and position it within the first rectangle.

Using the Pick tool, select the smaller rectangle, click the Outline tab on the Object Properties docker, and choose None from the Width pop-up menu.
Select the upper-left corner of the blue rectangle, and snap it to the upper-left corner of the first rectangle.

Creating another rectangle
We'll use another rectangle to create a middle banner for our newsletter logo.

From the toolbox, select the Rectangle tool, and create a 110-mm x 5-mm (width x height) rectangle.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab and then the Uniform Fill button.
Click the Advanced button, enter CMYK values of C:64, M:94, Y:85, and K:24, and click OK.
From the property bar, choose None from the Outline Width list box.
Position the rectangle below the second rectangle to create a middle banner.

Creating logo graphics
Next, we'll create several small curved objects to give the appearance of hilly plains to the newsletter logo.

From the toolbox, click the Curve flyout, and select the 3 Point Curve tool.
Click and drag a straight line of approximately 30 mm in length (the guidelines are about 30mm apart, so they make an easy reference point for the line length). Release the mouse button.
Move the mouse upwards to create a curve (approximately 15 mm), and click the mouse to set the curve.
From the property bar, type 1.058 mm in the Outline Width list box.
From the Curve flyout, select the Polyline tool.
Click and release the mouse button on the left-hand node of the open curve, and then double-click the right-hand node to set the line.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab, the Uniform Fill button, and then the Advanced button.
Enter CMYK values of C:33, M:11, Y:90, and K:0, and click OK.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Outline tab, and choose White from the Color list box.

Duplicating and adjusting objects
To create additional curved objects, we'll simply duplicate the original and use the sizing handles to adjust sizes. We'll need eight curved objects to create the appearance of hilly plains.

Using the Pick tool, select the original curved object, and press Ctrl + D.
A new curved object appears on top of the original.
Move the new curved object, and use the sizing arrows to adjust its size.
You can quickly move the objects to the top or bottom of the layer order by pressing Shift + PgUp or Shift + PgDn.
When you have created eight curved objects, marquee select all the shapes, and press Ctrl + G to group them.
Select the group of hills, and position it along the brown center banner.
Select the brown center banner and move it to the top layer.

Tip: You can also use the Object Manager docker to change the layer order.

Adding text to the logo
Now, we'll add text to complete the newsletter logo.

From the toolbox, select the Text tool, and click in the white space below the brown rectangle.
From the property bar, choose NevisonCasDEE, or any other font you would like to use, from the Font list.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab and then the Uniform Fill button.
Click the Advanced button, and enter CMYK values of C:64, M:94, Y:85, and K:24.
From the property bar, type 60.5 in the Font Size list box.
Type Rolling Hills.
Marquee select the entire logo, and press Ctrl + G.
Use the sizing arrows or type values in the Object size boxes on the property bar to resize the logo to 56.753 mm x 50.586 mm (width x height).
Position the logo in the upper-left corner of the page at approximately x:35 mm, y:267 mm.

Creating the newsletter flag
The banner across the top of the newsletter, also known as the flag, is designed to enhance the display of the title. The nevisonCasDee font provides a strong horizontal cursive face with a hand-scripted look, which lets us add contrast by using a strong colour against our background.

From the toolbox, click the Rectangle flyout, choose the Rectangle tool, and drag in the drawing window until the rectangle is approximately 216 mm x 58 mm.
Position the rectangle at approximately x:105 mm, y:271 mm, so that it bleeds off the page.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab and then the Uniform Fill button.
Click the Advanced button, and enter CMYK values of C:64, M:94, Y:85, and K:24.
The earthy theme provides contrast to the logo.
Select the flag, and choose Arrange menu > Order > To Back (or Shift + PgDn).

Adding clipart
To save time, we'll use clipart from the 10,000 clipart images that ship with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12.

Insert the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite CD2 into your CD drive.
In Windows Explorer, choose Clipart > Food > Fruited, and double-click to open the G0907375.cdr file.
Marquee select the image, and choose Ungroup from the Arrange menu.
On the Standard toolbar, choose 400% from the Zoom Levels list box.
Select and delete the Black outline, and all other objects until you are left with just the grapes, the vine, and the leaf.
Marquee select the grapes, the vine, and the leaf, and press Ctrl + G.

Copying the grapevine into the newsletter
Now, we'll copy the grapevine into the newsletter and create the effect of a vine growing up the page by rotating, duplicating, and flipping the image.

Press Ctrl + C, and switch back to the newsletter file.
Press Ctrl + V.
To duplicate the image, press Ctrl + D.
From the property bar, click the Horizontal Mirror button (top Mirror button), and position the new image so the vines appear attached.
Repeat the process until you have a string of six.
When you are satisfied with the appearance of the images, marquee select them and press Ctrl + G.
Position the string of vines at approximately x:5 mm, y:127 mm so they fit vertically down the first column of the page and bleed off the edge.

Adding a finishing touch
To complete our layout we'll add a solid, colour-filled rectangle at the base of the page to complement the flag at the top of the page.

From the Rectangle flyout, choose the Rectangle tool.
Click and drag in the drawing window until the rectangle is 216.0 mm x 22.138 mm, and position it at approximately x:105mm, y:5.7 mm.
From the Object Properties docker, click the Fill tab, the Uniform Fill button, the Advanced button and enter CMYK values of C:70, M:0, Y:10, and K:0.

Step 3 - Adding and importing Text
Next, we'll add text. CorelDRAW 12 provides two options for text: artistic text and paragraph text. Artistic text is used primarily for short lines of text to which you can apply a wide range of effects, such as drop shadows. Paragraph text is used for larger bodies of text that have greater formatting requirements.
Adding artistic text for the newsletter title

From the toolbox, select the Text tool.
Click to place the cursor at the right edge of the 3rd column, at approximately x:60 mm, so the text will stretch across the last four columns.
From the property bar, choose nevisonCasDee from the Font list box.
From the property bar, choose 72 from the Font Size list box.
On the Fill tab of the Object Properties docker, click the Uniform Fill button, click Advanced, and enter CMYK values of C:70, M:0, Y:10, K:0.
Type Vineyard News.
Click to place the cursor below the N of News.
From the property bar, choose Gill Sans MT or a font of your choice from the Font list box.
From the property bar, choose 24 from the Font Size list box.
Repeat step 5 to set the font colour.
Type May 2004.

Adding headings
By using contrast to emphasize headings, the reader can easily scan through the newsletter. Try using more space above headings and subheadings, and less space below to follow the rule of proximity: the headings should be closer to the paragraph to which it belongs and farther away from the paragraph above it.

With the Text tool, click to place the cursor at the edge of the first column, approximately 225 mm down the page.
From the property bar, choose the nevisonCasDee font from the Font List.
Choose 36 from the Font Size list box.
Type Wine Festival '04.
Directly underneath, at approximately 215 mm down the page, type May 13th - 15th.
Using the Text tool, select the text by dragging across it to highlight it, and apply the nevisionCasDee font, size 24.
Directly underneath, at approximately 185 mm down the page, type Wine of the Month.
Select the text, and apply the nevisionCasDee font, size 36.
Directly underneath, at approximately 85 mm down the page, type Vineyard Report, and apply the same properties.

Tip: To copy all your font properties, you can use the Eyedropper tool in the toolbox to sample the properties, according the settings you choose on the property bar, and apply the properties to other text objects using the Paintbucket tool in the toolbox.

Importing paragraph text
To add paragraph text, you must first create a text frame. By default, paragraph text frames remain the same size regardless of how much text they contain. Any text that continues past the lower-right border of the text frame is hidden until you either enlarge the text frame or link it to another text frame.
You can fit text to a frame, which automatically adjusts the point size of the text so that it fits perfectly in the frame. You can also have paragraph text frames automatically expand and shrink as you type, so the text fits in the frame.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 supports more than 100 text import and export filters. To save time, we'll import text from the NewsletterPara*.WPD supporting files (.zip, 14 KB).
Importing the first paragraph

From the toolbox, choose the Text tool.
Starting from the left side, click and drag to form a rectangular text frame across the second to fifth columns below the artistic text heading May 13th - 15th.
From the File menu, choose Import, select SMB Newsletter Content Para1.wpd, and click Import.
In the Importing / Pasting Text dialogue box, enable Discard Fonts and Formatting, and click OK.
If necessary, resize the length of the text frame.

Importing the second paragraph

Choose the Text tool.
Starting from the left side, click and drag to form a second rectangular text frame across the second to fifth columns below the artistic text heading "Wine of the Month".
From the File menu, choose Import, select SMB Newsletter Content Para2.wpd, and click Import.
In the Importing / Pasting Text dialogue box, enable Discard Fonts and Formatting, and click OK.
If necessary, resize the length of the text frame.

Importing the third paragraph

Choose the Text tool.
Starting from the left, click and drag to create a third paragraph across the second column, about 60 mm long.
From the File menu, choose Import, select SMB Newsletter Content Para3.wpd, and click Import.
In the Importing / Pasting Text dialogue box, enable Discard Fonts and Formatting, and click OK.
If necessary, resize the length of the text frame.

Importing the fourth paragraph

Choose the Text tool.
Starting from the left side, click and drag to create a fourth paragraph across the third and fourth columns, parallel to the third paragraph, and about 60 mm long.
From the File menu, choose Import, select SMB Newsletter Content Para4.wpd, and click Import.
In the Importing / Pasting Text dialogue box, enable Discard Fonts and Formatting, and click OK.
If necessary, resize the length of the text frame.

Importing the fifth paragraph

Choose the Text tool.
Starting from the left side, click and drag to create a fifth paragraph across the second to fifth columns and below the artistic text heading "Vineyard Report".
From the File menu, choose Import, select SMB Newsletter Content Para5.wpd, and click Import.
In the Importing / Pasting Text dialogue box, enable Discard Fonts and Formatting, and click OK.
If necessary, resize the length of the text frame.

Creating, applying, and editing text styles
For text-intensive projects, such as newsletters, magazines, and newspapers, CorelDRAW offers various paragraph text formatting options. You can create columns of equal or varying widths and gutters. You can also apply drop caps to paragraphs to enlarge the initial letter. In addition, you can use bulleted lists to format information. You can make text wrap around bullets, or you can offset a bullet from text to create a hanging indent.
Styles can save considerable time if you are applying the same formatting to several objects. Just like styles within word processing applications, a text style encompasses a group of settings, such as font type and size. Text styles can also include fill and outline attributes. For example, you can create a style that applies a 72 point AvantGarde font with a texture fill.

From the Tools menu, choose Graphic and Text Styles (shortcut: Ctrl + F5).
In the Graphic and Text Styles docker, click the Options flyout button (arrow button near the upper-right corner of the docker), and choose New > Paragraph Text Style from the pop-up menu.
In the Graphic and Text Styles docker, right-click New Paragraph Text, and choose Rename from the pop-up menu.
Type Wine, and press Enter.
Click the Options flyout button, and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
In the Options dialogue box, beside the listed Text Fonts, click Edit.
In the Format Text dialogue box, choose Arial from the Font list box, and choose 9 pt from the Size list box.
Ensure that Normal is set in the Style list box, and Latin in the Script list box.
Click the Paragraph tab, and choose Left from the Alignment list box.
Click the Effects tab, choose Drop Cap from the Effect Type list box, choose 3 from the Dropped Lines list box, enable Dropped in the Indents area, and click OK.
In the Options dialogue box, click OK.

Tip: Applying drop caps to paragraphs enlarges the initial letter and insets it into the body of text. You can customize a drop cap by changing its settings in the Format Text dialogue box. For example, you can change the distance between the drop cap and the body of text, or specify the number of lines of text you want to appear beside the drop cap. You can also remove an individual drop cap at any point, without deleting the letter.

Applying the Wine style

From the toolbox, choose the Text tool, and select the text in the first paragraph.
In the Graphic and Text Styles docker, double-click the Wine style to apply it to the paragraph.
Repeat this process to apply the Wine style to the second and fifth paragraphs.

Creating a second style
For our second style, we are going to use bulleted lists to format information. It is possible either to make text wrap around bullets or to offset a bullet from text to create a hanging indent. CorelDRAW lets you customize bullets by changing their size, position, and distance from text. After you add a bullet, you can remove it without deleting the text.

In the Graphic and Text Styles docker, click the Options flyout button, and choose New > Paragraph Text Style from the drop-down list.
Right-click New Paragraph Text, and choose Rename from the drop-down list.
Type Wine2, and hit Enter.
Click the Options flyout button, and choose Properties from the drop-down list.
In the Options dialogue box, beside the listed Text Fonts, click Edit.
In the Format Text dialogue box, choose Arial from the Font list box, and choose 9 pt from the Size list box.
Ensure that Normal is set in the Style list box, and Latin in the Script list box.
Click the Paragraph tab, and choose Left from the Alignment list box.
Click the Effects tab, choose Bullet from the Effect Type list box, choose a font such as CommonBullets or Wingdings from the Font list box, choose 11 from the Size list box, and enable the Bulleted button.
If you're using CommonBullets, type 76 in the Symbol # box. If you're using Wingdings, choose a bullet symbol from the Symbol list box.
In the Position box, type 0.353.
Click OK to close each of the dialogue boxes.

Applying the Wine2 style

From the toolbox, choose the Text tool, and select the text in the third paragraph.
In the Graphic and Text Styles docker, double-click the Wine2 style to apply it to the paragraph.
Repeat this process to apply the Wine2 style to the fourth paragraph.

Creating a flag for Page 2
Now we'll start working on Page 2 of the newsletter. Click the Page 2 tab at the bottom of the document window to view Page 2.

Copy the grape illustration from Page 1 and rotate it to fit across the top of Page 2 at x:90.448 mm, y:289.211 mm.
Use Ctrl + D to duplicate the illustration, ungroup this second iteration (Ctrl + U), and delete the last three sections, so that you are just left with three sections.
Regroup these sections, and rotate them 90 degrees. Move to coordinates x:8.163 mm, y:233.379 mm so that they align with the left edge of the page.

Creating new headlines

Using the Text tool, click the edge of the 1st column at about 245mm down the page and type "Cellar notes".
For the second headline, place the cursor at the edge of the first column at about 125 mm down the page, and type 2004 Events.
Select the headlines, one at a time, and choose the nevisonCasDee font, size 36.
Change the colour of these and all other headline text on Page 1 and Page 2 to C:80, M:71, Y:0, and K:0.

Using the overflow feature with paragraph text

Choose the Text tool from the toolbox and drag to form a rectangle text frame across the second to fifth columns below the artistic text Cellar Notes.
Import SMB Newsletter Content Para6.wpd file. Enable the Discard Fonts and Formatting option, as we will create and use styles within CorelDRAW.
Create another text frame below the first frame.
Using the Pick tool, select the first frame.
Click the Text flow tab at the lower-center edge of the text frame.
When the pointer changes to a Link to pointer, click the frame into which you want the text to flow. In this case , click the text frame directly under the first text frame. Don't worry about overlapping the second heading, the text frames can be resized after the new text styles are applied.
Apply the Wine style to both text frames.
Wait until you have completed the next procedure, "Adding columns to text", before you resize the text frames or edit the text.

Adding columns to text
Columns are ideal for laying out text-intensive projects such as newsletters, magazines, and newspapers. It is possible to create columns of equal or varying widths and gutters.

Select a paragraph text frame.
Click Text menu > Format text.
Click the Columns tab.
Type 2 in the Number of columns box, enable the Equal column width check box, and click OK.
Resize both text frames so the amount of text is balanced between the two and remove additional drop caps.

Step 4 – Editing and importing images
Now we'll use Corel PHOTO-PAINT to edit a photo that we want to use in the newsletter. Corel PHOTO-PAINT has a wide range of image-editing tools. We'll use the Clone tool and the Cutout feature to remove unwanted areas of the photo before we import the image into our CorelDRAW newsletter document. We'll complete the newsletter by adding some additional text and a band of colour at the base of the page.
Opening and saving an image in Corel PHOTO-PAINT

Insert the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite CD3 into your CD drive and browse to Photos > Food_Dri and select 853077.jp2.
Open the file in Corel PHOTO-PAINT.
Click File menu > Save As, and from the Save as type list box, choose CPT-Corel PHOTO-PAINT Image.
Click Save.

Cloning to remove details
The wineglass image has a reflection of a flag along the glass. To remove the flag, we'll use the Clone tool. The Clone tool lets you copy pixels from one image area to another in order to cover damaged or unwanted elements in an image. For example, you can fix a tear or remove a person from an image by applying cloned pixels over the area you want to remove. When you clone, two brushes display in the image window: a source point brush and a clone brush that applies the copied pixels from the source point. A cross-hair displays in the source point brush to distinguish it from the clone brush. The source point brush moves relative to the clone brush as you drag across the image.

Open the Touch-up flyout, and click the Clone tool.
On the property bar, open the Clone picker, and click Custom Clone.
Change the brush size to 19.
Click the image to set a source point for the clone. (Choose the reflected area of the glass just next to the flag.)
If you want to reset the source point, right-click the area you want to clone.
Drag the Clone brush in the image window downwards to apply the pixels from the source point and repeat until the flag has been cloned out.

Cutting out the background
Within Corel PHOTO-PAINT, it is possible to use a variety of different methods to extract image areas by removing the surrounding background. For the purpose of our newsletter image, we'll use Corel PHOTO-PAINT's Cutout feature to remove the shape of the glass, the wine, and the bottle from the black background. The Cutout feature lets you isolate even the most detailed image areas while preserving edge detail, such as hair or blurred edges. The cut-out image area becomes an object that you can place against any background.
To cut out an image area, you begin by drawing a highlight over its edges. Then, you apply a fill to define the inside of the area. You can preview the cut-out image with the background removed, and you can switch between the cut-out and original views of the image to evaluate the results. If necessary, you can erase and redo sections of the highlighted area.

Click Image menu > Cutout.
In the Cutout dialogue box, click the Highlighter tool.
In the preview window draw a line along the edges of the glass, wine, and bottle that you want to cut out. The line should slightly overlap the surrounding background.
To help you view the edges you need to highlight, you can press F2 to zoom in and F3 to zoom out.
Click the Inside fill tool, and click inside the image area.
Click Preview.
>If you want to switch between the original and cut-out view of an image, choose a view from the View list box.
Click OK when you are happy with the result (this may take a couple of attempts to perfect).
Save the image (remember to save it as a Corel PHOTO-PAINT file).

Importing a photo into CorelDRAW
The next step is to import some additional graphics along the top of this newsletter. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 supports more than 100 different file formats for its import/export filters, which facilitates a seamless graphics creation workflow by supporting file formats such as Adobe Illustrator, SAG, PDF, PNG, and Photoshop.

Click File menu > Import and choose your cut-out image from the previous step. As we can see the sizing information beside the cursor, we know that it is best to marquee size the image first.
Move the cursor to about x:145 mm, y:-25 mm, and drag to x:0 mm, y:115 mm.

Wrapping text around an object
To quickly create the effect of text wrapping around the shape of the glass, we need to create a freehand shape that traces the contour of the glass.

From the Curve flyout, click the Freehand tool (F5).
Click where you want to start the curve (the upper-right corner of the glass), and drag to draw the line around the glass. You must enclose the glass with a closed shape in order to apply text wrapping.
Import SMB Newsletter Content Para7.wpd, following the same instructions as before, and place this paragraph over the picture and our outline.
Choose Wine2 as the style in order to add the bullet points.
Select the freehand outline we created, and right-click to show the properties (if the Object Properties docker is already open, then select the freehand object and click on the properties docker).
Select the General tab, change the paragraph wrap to Contour Flows Right, and change the text wrap to about 2.54 mm.
Click Apply.
You may need to move the text frame around a little manually and play with the positioning of the text. When you are satisfied with the appearance, change the outline style to None from the property bar so that this object remains hidden.

Adding a border to a text frame
The final text frame includes contact information. Adding a coloured border to the text frame helps the reader find the contact information quickly.

From the toolbox, select the Rectangle tool (F6), create a rectangle measuring 36.258 mm x 55.008 mm with an outline of 8 pt, and change the outline colour to C:70, M:0, Y:10, and K:0. And no fill.
Move the rectangle to coordinates x:153.945 mm, y:70.226 mm.
Select the Text tool and marquee drag to create a text frame within the newly created rectangle.
Add the text opposite and apply the Wine style.

Sampling a colour for the final page
To complete our initial layout, we will add a solid rectangle of colour at the base of the page that will complement our flag at the top of the page. To stick with the same sky theme as our logo, we'll choose the fill colour of C:70, M:0, Y:10, and K:0.

Open the Rectangle flyout, and click the Rectangle tool.
Drag in the drawing window until the rectangle is the size you want (216.0 mm x 22.138 mm) and position it to the coordinates x:105.00 mm, y:5.681 mm, so that the bleed is off the page.
In the toolbox, open the Eyedropper flyout, and click the Eyedropper tool.
Choose Sample colour from the list box on the property bar.
Click the border around the Contact Information text frame.
The CMYK values display in the bottom right corner of the status bar, beside the Fill Colour icon.
Open the Eyedropper flyout, and click the Paintbucket tool.
Click inside the rectangle we created at the bottom of the page to apply the fill.

Step 5 - Output and publishing
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 provides numerous options for outputting your graphics projects.
Export for Office
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 offers the new feature of Export For Office, allowing you to quickly optimize the export of a graphic for use within productivity tools such as Microsoft® Office or WordPerfect Office.
Publish to PDF
Now that you have completed the newsletter, it's time to prepare it for output. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 supports professional colour management and contains wizards to help develop content for a Service Bureau. In addition, CorelDRAW supports publishing to PDF so that you can generate PDF files without requiring additional third-party software. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 includes many prepress options and a preflight engine to warn of any potential problems.

From the File menu, choose Publish to PDF.
In the Save As PDF dialogue box, click Settings to view the preflight information and change the default settings.
If there are no issues, the Preflight tab displays the words No Issues. If there are issues, the Preflight tab displays the number of issues beside a yellow warning triangle. Click the tab to view the issues and determine if they apply to your output.

Print, prepress, and preflight
Before you output your final content, it is important that you identify any potential issues. Preflight checks the status of your file before you output it. A summary of issues and potential problems, with suggestions for solving the problems, is provided. You can specify the issues that you want Preflight to check. You can also customize and save Preflight settings.
The Open Prepress Interface (OPI) in CorelDRAW lets you use low-resolution images as placeholders for the high-resolution images that appear in your final work. When a service bureau receives your file, the OPI server substitutes the low-resolution images for the high-resolution images.
You can preserve document settings to maintain the look of a PDF file. You can also preserve document overprints, halftone screen information, and spot colours. In addition, you can place printers' marks to provide information to the service bureau about how the work should be printed. The available printers' marks are as follows:

Crop marks - represent the size of the paper and appear at the corners of the page
Registration marks - line up the film, analog proofs, or print plates on a colour press, and print on each sheet of a colour separation
Densitometer scale - consists of a series of gray boxes, ranging from light to dark, for testing the density of halftone images

Service bureaus and colour management
Colour management is the process of matching colours between devices, such as scanners, digital cameras, printers, and monitors. Accurate, reliable colour management is the cornerstone of any creative design process. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 makes colour management more intuitive by combining all the essential colour management options in one dialogue box.
CorelDRAW features colour management controls designed to help you achieve the best possible colour matches. You can also remove the guesswork by taking advantage of three predefined colour management styles (for the Web, for desktop printing, and for professional output), or you can enjoy the flexibility of creating and saving your own profiles.
From here...
This tutorial provides instructions for using CorelDRAW 12 to develop a newsletter. We hope that you continue to explore the many exciting creative possibilities of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12.
For more information about the topics and tools presented in this tutorial, please refer to the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 User Guide.
© 2004 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

Stepping into Color Management with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12

2010-02-17T03:07:00.000-08:00

by Steve Bain
Trying to achieve consistent color across multiple devices connected to your computer can still generate its share of head-scratching, hair-pulling, and, yes, even the odd expletive. The truth is, a completely flawless method of desktop color management doesn't yet exist, although some systems come close. If you're a CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 user tackling color management for the first time, or just curious about how it's supposed to work, you've come to the right place.
Why Should You Use Color Management?
To illustrate why color management is important to anyone working in color, let's look at a typical scenario that you may have encountered. You scan an image or take a digital picture, open it on your computer, and then print it from your desktop printer. At each step in the process, you notice slight differences in color. This means that the colors in your final printed output may not exactly match the original you scanned. Now that we've nailed the problem, how do you solve it?
The reason for the color difference is that each color-capable device connected to your computer has its own special way of recording, displaying, or reproducing the same color values. The colors your eyes see may not match those that your scanner or digital camera can capture, nor will they perfectly match what your monitor or desktop printer can reproduce.
Will you ever be able to match the original scanned image exactly? Unfortunately, the answer is a qualified "no." What you can do, though, is to try to achieve a reasonably close display facsimile. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 lets you do just that.
Color management enables you to match colors between devices that use color profiles - descriptions that conform to standards set out by the International Color Consortium (ICC). The profiles are compared according to the internal RGB color space shared by CorelDRAW 12 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12, and the corrections that are fed back to your monitor are based on each device's capabilities. When you print an image, your monitor's profile is compared with the printer profile, and your monitor's colors are corrected to reflect what the printer will actually print. If the colors aren't right, your monitor will tell you.
These days, color profiles are often readily available. Newer color devices automatically copy profiles to your system during installation. Others are supplied on disc by the device manufacturer. Often, you can install color profiles automatically through your operating system, using Plug and Play technology, or you can obtain them online. If you need a specific ICC profile, the best place to look is the support area of the manufacturer's Web site. Here are a few popular sources:

Of all the color devices connected to your system, your monitor is by far the most important, so you need to be confident that what you're seeing is accurate. You'll get the best results by using a model capable of rendering precise, consistent, and accurate color. You'll also want to ensure that the ICC profile assigned to your monitor is accurately indicating the colors you assign. Without ensuring this accuracy, there's no guarantee that other devices will reproduce the colors you want. Also, the age of a monitor can significantly affect the color it shows. Monitor quality can degrade over time - especially if the monitor is of the cathode ray tube (CRT) variety. If your monitor has seen better days, the need for effective color management provides the perfect excuse for upgrading to a fresh model.
A Step-by-Step Approach for the Wary
The Color Management feature of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 is much easier to use than in past versions, but it's still a full-featured tool. The main dialog serves two functions: it graphically illustrates the current color management setup, and it provides control over all options in a central location. You can access these options (shown below) from within either CorelDRAW 12 or Corel Photo-PAINT 12 by choosing Tools > Color Management.
Each of the graphic icons represents the color devices you can control. Click the profile type selectors below each graphic icon (shown below) to assign your device profiles. Click the arrows between the icons to control how display color is corrected. To access advanced options, click directly on the icons themselves.
Although the options might seem a little overwhelming when you first work with them, creating your own color management setup is relatively straightforward if you approach it one step at a time. The following provides a quick walk-through.
Step 1: Assign Your Device Profiles
Choosing a profile to a color device is a simple step, provided that your hardware appears in the selector list. If you don't see it listed, you can load a profile from disc or connect to Corel's server, which provides a list of profiles to download (as shown below). If the profile for a connected device isn't available, leave the selection set to its generic profile (the default) until you can obtain one. Just remember that choosing the correct monitor profile is the most critical step in the process.
Step 2: Turn Color Management On or Off
Turn color management on or off by clicking the arrows between the graphic icons for your color devices and your internal RGB color space. In the illustration below, each device is set to the active state. Turning the active state of a device off essentially disables its profile so that no color correction is applied. The arrow pointing to the Internal RGB profile from the Import/Export icon controls whether correction is applied to imported documents that have embedded ICC profiles. The arrow pointing in the opposite direction controls whether your current ICC profile is included with exported images - which is often the best route.
Step 3: Choose the Color Correction Method for Your Monitor
With your profiles assigned, you can choose which printer's capabilities your monitor will emulate by clicking the arrows that point from the printer icons to the monitor icon (shown below). Ideally, you'll choose the device that you will use to print the final result. Clicking either of the arrows automatically activates that printer's color profile. Only one printer's capabilities can be simulated at a time, so activating one printer's color profile turns off the other printer's color profile.
If the document you're proofing on your monitor is destined for final output to a separations printer, you can also set your selected composite printer to simulate the final color results. To activate this feature, click the arrow that sweeps along the bottom of the dialog and points from the separations printer icon on the right side to the composite printer icon on the left side.
Step 4: Save Your Settings
After you've gone through the effort of assigning profiles and setting preferences, it's worthwhile to save your setup using the color management Styles options. To save the entire arrangement, click the "+" button, and name your new style in the Save Color Management Style dialog (shown below).
By saving your setup, you can retrieve it from the styles list later and use it with other drawings. You can also use preset styles included with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12, which are optimized for certain operations, or you can quickly reset all profiles to defaults. Once a style is saved, it is embedded with your drawing. If you move a document between computers and open it in either CorelDRAW or Corel PHOTO-PAINT, you can extract the embedded styles by selecting the Extract Embedded ICC Profile option in the Open dialog (shown below).
Before the document is opened, the Save As ICC Profile File dialog opens, which lets you extract and store the file. By default, all profiles are stored in your .../Application Data/Corel/Graphics 12/User Color folder.
Tackling More Advanced Options Besides being able to set profiles and choose correction preferences, you can also use the Color Management dialog to choose more advanced settings for certain devices and operations. These settings are perhaps the most complex and critical of all the options you need to choose. To access them from the Color Management dialog, click directly on a specific graphic icon (Import/Export, Printer, Monitor, or Internal RGB). In the dialog that opens, you can set the following advanced options.
Advanced Import/Export Settings. Clicking directly on the Import/Export icon opens the dialog shown below. Here, you can specify whether you want to use the embedded ICC profiles contained in imported images, or whether your current profile is embedded into images you're exporting from your document. In either case, you can override the profiles converted or embedded by choosing to use your current Internal RGB profile or the profile for a specific device.
Advanced Printer Settings. Clicking the icon for either the composite printer or the separations printer opens the dialog shown below. You'll see a list of the currently installed printer drivers with options for overriding the profiles assigned in the color management setup.
Advanced Display Settings. Clicking the monitor icon opens the dialog shown below, which lets you control complex color correction properties of your monitor. While a printer simulation is selected, you can view colors that fall outside your printer's gamut, which is the range of colors your printer can reproduce.
Enabling the Highlight Display Colors Out of Printer Gamut option causes an alarm color to appear in the areas when a certain color specified in your document can be accurately reproduced by the selected printer (based on its color profile). The illustration below shows the effect of an out-of-gamut display, with green used as the alarm color.
You can click the Warning Color button to choose the alarm color, and you can use the Transparency slider to control how opaque the alarm color appears on-screen. For example, if your printer simulation is set to a CMYK separations printer, the gamut alarm will highlight any RGB colors.
Advanced Internal RGB Settings. Clicking the Internal RGB icon opens a settings dialog that lets you choose from a collection of rendering intent types (shown below). This dialog also lets you change color engines from the default Kodak Digital Science color-management module if an alternate is available. The rendering intent method you choose controls how your internal color space converts and displays out-of-gamut colors on your monitor.
Although the science behind color management may seem a little intimidating at first, the following explanations may help you decipher what is produced by each of the five types of rendering intents:

Absolute Colorimetric. This method is useful if the gamut of the color proofing printer you're using is larger than the gamut of the final output printer you're attempting to simulate. It essentially preserves all in-gamut color, including the white point, which affects image highlights and contrast. This method maps out-of-gamut colors to the next closest hue by altering their saturation and lightness when displayed.
Relative Colorimetric. If your drawing consists mostly of color vector objects, you might prefer this method. It's similar to the Absolute Colorimetric method, but it also alters the white point of the image, which can potentially change highlights and contrast. If you're proofing to an inkjet printer, this method is your best bet for displaying an accurate screen image.
Perceptual. You might prefer this method for documents with vivid color, such as scanned photographs or digital camera captures. The Perceptual method compresses a larger gamut of colors to fit a smaller one by desaturating all colors.
Saturation. This less complex method maps colors between devices directly, regardless of the differences in lightness, saturation, or hue. It's suitable if only solid colors are involved and if color accuracy and consistency are not required.
Automatic. This method is the default and perhaps the best choice for general use. With Automatic selected, vector object colors are mapped with the Saturation method, and bitmap colors are mapped with the Perceptual method.

Keep in mind that different rendering intents give preference to how certain colors for different object types are corrected and displayed. The method you choose will depend on whether your CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 document consists of vector objects or bitmap objects, or both, and on the color range of your devices.
Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and the author of nearly a dozen books, including CorelDRAW 12: The Official Guide

Is It Time for a Pen Tablet?

2010-02-17T03:05:00.001-08:00

by Steve Bain
If you're one of the millions of professional illustrators, designers, or layout artists who use CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, you're already familiar with how versatile the tools are in CorelDRAW® and Corel PHOTO-PAINT®. But if you're still trying to produce artistic strokes with a standard mouse, you've probably had your share of frustrating drawing sessions, and the sore wrist to go with it. After all, your typical mouse has all the drawing grace of a brick. Let's take a look at a not-so-new - but much smarter - alternative that will enable you to extend your drawing abilities and produce a better result.
Pen Tablets Offer Elegant Drawing Action
If you're looking for a better way to draw, you owe it to yourself to test-drive a pen and pen tablet. The pen-shaped pointing devices are infinitely easier to handle than a mouse and have much better ergonomics. If you've ever had the opportunity to experiment with one, you already know what a huge difference it makes. It enables you to easily mimic the physical hand-drawing actions of a pencil, pen, or brush. Creative operations such as sketching, cartooning, airbrushing, painting, erasing, or even just applying interactive line effects are much more productive, and the results are more rewarding.
Like most computer-related products, pen tablet technology has become more sophisticated and less costly. Typically, models are cordless and battery-free, and the pen, or "stylus," often includes clickable function buttons and other nifty drawing novelties. Most pens feature specialized tips, enabling you to activate the options of pressure-sensitive tools like those found in CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT.
Higher-end pen tablets even feature customizable function buttons and are supported by software options to control a gamut of custom tablet setups and pen behaviors. Certain models of pen tablets are also compatible with advanced accessories, such as ergonomically enhanced grip pens or special-function pens (see below).

For dedicated professionals, fancier, more expensive tablet lines even use touch-sensitive monitors that enable you to track stylus movement by pointing directly on-screen (see below).

The pen tablet's usefulness isn't restricted to just illustration or design sleight-of-hand actions, though. Tasks requiring precision drawing, such as mapping or diagramming, are also more efficient. By placing an original hard copy directly on the tablet surface, you can quickly and accurately "trace" its points directly onto your CorelDRAW page and create vector shapes. The example below shows a map-tracing project in progress. In this instance, the Freehand Tool is used to trace the land contours into a CorelDRAW drawing from a scanned hard copy.

Harness the Pen Tablet Power of CorelDRAW® 12
The unique features of a pen tablet can improve your use of typical line-drawing tools in CorelDRAW, including the Artistic Media, Smart Drawing, Freehand, Polyline, Eraser, and Pen tools. If you already own a pen tablet, you can enjoy the extended options it makes available to you. But you can also reap the benefits of stylus-enabled tools, like the Smudge Brush and Roughen Brush, when you use a pen tablet to apply line effects in CorelDRAW.
Specifically, while the Smudge Brush is selected, you can use Property Bar options (see below) to activate the Pressure, Tilt, and Bearing settings on your stylus (if your stylus supports these options).

Stylus options provide control over your smudging operations in various ways. While the Stylus Pressure option is activated, the Smudge Brush uses your stylus pressure to apply varying degrees of Dryout to your strokes. Dryout is a setting that enables diminishing or expanding nib width based on stylus pressure.
When you apply smudging with the Stylus Tilt setting activated, the angle of your stylus relative to the tablet surface sets the elliptical shape of the Smudge Brush nib. Using the Stylus Bearing option, you can control the angle of the elliptical nib shape by rotating the stylus in relation to the tablet surface. In the example below, the Smudge Brush was used to apply distortions to an outline path to emulate the appearance of tall grass.

The Roughen Brush has similar options for controlling line roughening. This tool enables you to create specialized line effects by applying jagged edges or spiked lines to the outline path of an object.
Options on the Roughen Brush Property Bar (see below) enable you to control the Frequency, Tilt, and Bearing of your roughening effects. While the Stylus Pressure option is selected, your stylus pressure increases or decreases the frequency of the applied spike effect. With Stylus Tilt selected, the angle of your stylus controls the angle of the individual spikes. Choosing Stylus Setting from the Spike Direction drop-down list enables your stylus movements to set the direction of the roughened spikes.

Roughening applied to an outline path (see below) creates an alternate effect on our tall grass illustration.

Shop for a Pen Tablet
If you're in the market for a pen tablet, you'll find that the clear leader is Wacom Technology Corporation (www.wacom.com), based in Vancouver, Washington. The company has been developing reliable pen tablets since the 1980s and claims a customer base of more than two million users. Wacom offers a variety of product lines ranging from entry-level models to top-of-the-line professional standards. All use either USB or serial port connections (some use both) and come with the latest supporting drivers and software.
The popular professional line of Wacom® Intuos® 2 products (see below) is of particular interest to graphic illustrators and designers who use CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Intuos 2 products support the tilt, pressure, and bearing needed to produce the best results from the line-drawing tools and interactively applied line effects, such as smudging and roughening, in CorelDRAW 12.

Wacom's Intuos 2 line of pen tablets supports pen tip and eraser pressure, as well as tilt and bearing settings, and includes five different models, ranging from a small 4 x 5-inch tablet size to a large 12 x 18-inch size and priced at roughly US$200 to US$750 including a lifetime warranty. A two-dimensional or four-dimensional (2D or 4D) mouse is also included with specific models. Another bonus is the fact that Intuos 2 products are compatible with several optional accessories, the most intriguing of which is a digital airbrush pen equipped with a flow regulator fingerwheel (roughly US$100).
All Intuos 2 models feature supporting software (both Windows and Macintosh versions are available), enabling you to control and adjust pen behavior, customize the Grip Pen stylus function buttons such as pen tip and eraser pressure, and set your own click-force values (see below). The easy-to-use software also enables you to set pen-to-tablet mapping and speed, change tablet orientation from tall to wide, and program your own custom tablet menu strip functions. You can also set advanced tablet configurations for specific tools and applications.

Which Pen Tablet Should You Be Using?
If you decide to make the investment, you should give careful consideration to the model you choose. If your drawing projects consist mainly of nonartistic tasks, investing in a pen tablet might be a wasted effort. But - and this is a big but - keep in mind that a pen tablet can be used to replace your mouse or pointing device for any application on your system (including the operating system), making it a versatile tool that you can use for virtually any computing operation.
Generally speaking, larger tablets offer a higher degree of drawing precision and accuracy than smaller models. The more tablet space available for you to sketch onto, the more detail your pen strokes will produce. For hard-copy tracing operations, look for a model that is large enough to accommodate your hard-copy sizes and that has a translucent tablet film. If your primary work is using the tools in Corel PHOTO-PAINT to manipulate pixels, you might consider investing in a pen tablet compatible with an airbrush accessory, or a pen model that includes a built-in pressure eraser. Weighing these options against what your budget allows should help you decide which model to choose.
In case you missed it, Corel offers discount prices to its customers on several of Wacom's pen tablets, including the Intuos 2 6 x 8-inch and 9 x 12-inch models. Both are well suited for use with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.
Check out Corel's great deals on Wacom's Pen Tablets!
Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and the author of nearly a dozen books, including CorelDRAW: The Official Guide.

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