Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion

Imposing single documents to single print stream

2009-11-11T03:04:00.000-07:00

Notice how separate documents are selected in the print engine for the print range.

click on image for a clear view:

Cut Contour lines with bleeds

2009-11-10T02:58:00.004-07:00

This will make sense to CorelDRAW users with print/cut devices.

If you seek outlined text with a bleed, have a look at these steps:

How to make an eye shape

2009-11-03T01:23:00.002-07:00

Here's an easy way to do it:

Well, 2 ways. ;-)

The first way, I go a little quickly. Here are the steps:

make 2 circles
overlap them
press the intersect icon on property bar, a new shape is made where circles overlapped
delete 2 circles

Converting to 1-bit monochrome inside CorelDraw

2009-11-02T01:51:00.000-07:00

Some industries require a coarse AM halftone dot for reproductive purposes.

Also, some designers simply like the look of the dots.

When converting to grayscale, it's important to convert with ICC off so that the solid black areas in the original art stay pure black.

Note that the conversion quality is a bit rougher than the results from GhostScript or PhotoShop for the very same conversion parameters. I'm going to need to suggest this improvement to Corel... ;-)

The Envelope Please

2009-11-01T01:43:00.002-06:00

It's possible to have a shape (or group of shapes) be enveloped by another Closed Curve.

Tip: add nodes to shapes and make all segments curve segments for easier conforming to a new shape.

I'm not using the envelope docker at all. Tip: click on the edge of the shape to have the envelope apply.

Hopefully the next version will have an apply icon on the envelope property bar for more intuitive operation.

You can also save an envelope for the future to apply to other shapes.

New Swatch Macro

2009-10-31T21:18:00.001-06:00

Color Spectrum Pro is available, for making variable CMYK swatches around a known value.

Live Fillet update

2009-10-05T20:18:00.002-06:00

NEW! You can now operate on selected nodes with this amazing new update.
It now comes with a toolbar icon, and also a bit larger spinner buttons.
Live Fillet... it's awesome!

Auto Size macro updated

2009-09-28T15:13:00.001-06:00

Shelby's Autosize now supports document scaling.

It also has these new features:

Single Undo
Form Remembers Location (saved upon pressing Apply)
No Sizing applied (If left blank or 0 entered)
Straighten Horizontal or Vertical
Added Accelerator Keys
Delete line option
Save Settings button

Showing real projects done with CorelDRAW

2009-09-17T01:09:00.002-06:00

I found this exchange in a email from 2005. Yes, trying to clean house a little. LOL

On this point your position is inarguably correct. For promotional purposes, Corel must present images that are far beyond the comprehension of the average graphic artist.

To me, that often translates to attempts at photo-realism in Draw. But not always... things like maps, product labels/packaging, embroidery, vinyl signage, yellow page ads - all of these are done in Draw too. And can each be impressive in their own right. They just need to look like - or be - real billable work. If someone can project themselves into the future creating these things (and making a living), it's a compelling reason to plop down the cash on Draw.

As you'd said - it's more practical to just take a photo of a car (or maybe build in 3D in the first place for repurposing) than to make one static angle in Draw. Much of the photo realistic stuff in Draw is for the artist's amusement/challenge, not for commercial work.

The most effective approach would be to the people who buy the art and design. Create practical examples of real-world graphics that the customer can take to his supplier and say, "I want this. Can you do this? It very important that I have this because my competitors will have it soon."

I have a massive collection of commercial work that if I spread it on a table, an art director will probably give a thumbs up to most of it. But a sales manager would get even more excited, because he's looking past the paper and ink and seeing a big stack of clients and their money. If Draw is my weapon of choice, he won't argue with that, if I feel twice as productive with it.

Designing effective sales materials doesn't always have to push the envelope of what Draw can do, it just needs to be effective at communicating and produce results for clients.

People thinking about buying Draw for "meat and potatoes" work should see stuff along those lines. There's plenty of room on servers. :-) Whatever someone wants to do, they CAN do it in Draw.

Jeff

Converting Spot colors to the CMYK color model

2009-09-13T22:09:00.002-06:00

Someone mentioned in the newsgroups that by tinting a Spot color towards a CMYK hue, the color model will change to CMYK.

IMO, it's better to change with:

color dialog
the find and replace function
a macro that will convert many colors at once

Here's why:

Straightening images in in PHOTO-PAINT X3

2009-09-13T00:13:00.000-06:00

Here's a tiny movie showing X4 straighten tool for the curious X3 users, and also how to straighten in X3.

Adventures in Prepress

2009-09-08T01:33:00.002-06:00

Once in awhile I come across a good case example. Today, there are no Corel products involved – at all – in what I want to show.

A job came in as a PDF, I printed using Adobe Reader to a PS3 device (Xerox DC-240). Notice the anomalies on the scanned press sheet relative to the "pure" look of the art in Adobe Reader. The overall hue isn't the issue as much as the discolored blocks where there are drop shadows nearby.

Someone told this budding designer to design in Pantone colors. The same had happened to me once too, for a job to be output on a CMYK device. LOL.

Anyway... during the conversion of drop shadows with spot colors these anomalies appeared on the press sheet.

So... this post shows that 100% Adobe-land has problems also, and that if you struggle with CorelDRAW and are tempted to jump the fence? You still have to mow the lawn, and there are new weeds to pull.

Click image for a larger version

Tough cases

2009-09-07T20:00:00.002-06:00

If you're a production artist, chances are you've seen some very rough artwork come your way. Here's one of my "gems" that I've had to deal with. :-)

Patching an area between 2 objects

2009-09-07T19:50:00.004-06:00

The rectangle in this image represents a 1/8" thick area that was a technical requirement. The goal was to join the shapes and have the lines smooth everywhere.

Select similar colors using the magic wand

2009-09-05T12:53:00.004-06:00

In Photoshop, there is an option for wand tool to be "contiguous" - or not. This means when you select an area with wand, it's possible to have other disconnected areas of same hue selected. (It's like using the Color Mask, but without having to open color mask dialog)

I wanted same type of thing in PHOTO-PAINT. You can do it this way:

Hotel Text

2009-08-31T02:23:00.003-06:00

this macro makes it easy to change an artistic text string into a column of text.

Brian Davies Quick Margins

2009-08-26T12:43:00.003-06:00

Here's a macro that allows you to quickly set your margins (using guidelines). It creates margins based on user input, and there's a Lock Margins checkbox too.

Note: This macro only works with CorelDRAW X4

Alexander Penkin's Charting

2009-08-13T23:27:00.004-06:00

This macro creates various types of graphs and charts. Really Cool!

The famous Select Same macro

2009-08-12T18:53:00.006-06:00

This Macro allows you to select various combinations of elements in your drawings.

Centering text inside boxes

2009-08-07T02:52:00.002-06:00

download the attachment and watch the movie inside.

Text.zip

Fading sides of bitmap graphics against a color

2009-08-04T21:46:00.004-06:00

Glenn asked:
I have a photo that the client wants to fade off on the left edge and the vignette tool does not fade to zero. Is there a way that I can fade to zero?

Here's what I do, takes less than 5 seconds:

Interesting print merge scenario

2009-08-03T17:17:00.003-06:00

In this case, a gal needed to merge onto a label template. Normally, labels tile as expected, or you can use the imposition tools in the print engine. What if the decals are precut and laid out as shown the animation?

Create as many fields in your database as labels per page. Then each label has it's own field. (11 fields per page, and per database, if each label has only one field.)

If each label has more than one field, such as Price & product ID, then you need to be organized in the Database and create numerous fields per label.

Semi-Auto hatchfills

2009-08-01T22:40:00.002-06:00

Here's a workaround in order to get crosshatching.

click on image for a clear view.

CorelDRAW Artistic Challenges

2009-07-27T13:24:00.005-06:00

I'd started a series of newsgroup posts where the goal was for others to emulate my artwork or create something similar in topic.

Any CorelDRAW.com member can start a new challenge of their own. In any case, I like the feeling of inspiring others to try things, or even be challenged myself.

Some of my examples to get things going:

Newspaper in CorelDRAW

2009-07-22T14:20:00.005-06:00

I suspect it often surprises other CorelDRAW users (and Corel themselves) to see how the product is used in the real world.

Can CorelDRAW be used to design all components for a newspaper? We all know it can. Can it be used for layout also? Some shudder to think this, since CorelDRAW wasn't intended for it. But, I've learned that CorelDRAW is used in many ways that no one expects, until you see the production results in your hands.

I hope that some simple features are added to CorelDRAW to make it even easier to do layout such as this, such as auto page numbering, headers & footers etc. Not ground-breaking by any means, just basic functions.

CorelDRAW is such a pleasant working environment, that users will put up with various inconveniences and missing functions just to stay there. It truly is a Swiss army knife of graphics. Combined with PHOTO-PAINT, and the knowledge of how to use both, you have some extremely powerful tools at your disposal.

Watch the attached video. Keep something very important in mind: I know that over a million dollars in revenue was earned by someone using CorelDRAW in this exact capacity. If you, or a skeptical Adobe fan thinks CorelDRAW is a just a toy, or after 20 years of development that's it's still not ready for prime-time? Perhaps several dump-truck loads of physically produced items piled high in your back yard would change your mind.

Signs, t-shirts, promotional items, print projects, things cut out of steel, art engraved into solid granite...and yes, even newspapers. CorelDRAW is the nucleus of it all.

draw-paper.zip