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How to set the default font in Microsoft Word?

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 16:49:00 +0000

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While typing text on Microsoft Word, the font style that we find automatically applied on our document is called default font . In Microsoft Word we usually find Calibri (Body) as default font face and 11pt as default font size. At the same time, we don’t find any attribute e.g. Bold, Italic and Underline, or any effect e.g. Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript etc., applied on the font by default. Usually most of us feel nothing wrong with the font that Microsoft has set for us as default font and we can prepare documents of our choice with remarkable ease without making any change in it. But in case of any exception, it possible to change the default font quiet easily.

It is not very difficult to make changes in the default font

In order to change the default font, first of all you need to open the dialogue box named Font. To open that dialogue box all you need to do is to hit CTRL + D on the keyboard or to click the small arrow that can be seen on the bottom-right of the pan named Font in the Home tab of Microsoft Word.

To open the dialogue box named Font, click the small arrow that can be seen on the bottom-right corner of Font pan

In the dialogue box named Font, there can be seen two tabs referred as Font and Character Spacing.

Dialogue box that is going to be used for new default font setting

Font

In case, you switch on the first tab named Font in the dialogue box, there will be seen the following options.

Font

Out of the various options given in the box named Font, you can select any font face of your choice as default font face e.g. you can select Arial Black or Impact or Georgia as default font face instead of Calibri (Body).

Font Style

Out of the options given in this box, you can select any style for your font as default font style (e.g. Regular, Bold, Italic and Bold-Italic etc).

Size

In this box you can find various font sizes e.g. 10pt, 12pt and 20pt etc. Out of these sizes you can select any size as default font size instead of traditional 11pt.

Font Color

Here you can select any color e.g. red or green or blue as default font color instead of Automatic.

Underline Style

If you want to have your font to be underlined by default , you can select any style out of the various options given in the drop down menu named Underline Style.

Underline Color

Whenever you select any Underline Style for new default font, Microsoft Word provides another option named Underline Color to select the color in which the default font is supposed to be underlined.

Effects

Under the head of Effects there can be seen a good number of check boxes in the same dialogue box. Each check box represents a unique effect that can be applied on default font. You can put checks inside as many check boxes as you like at the same time. For instance you can put checks inside the check boxes named Strikethrough, Engraved and Shadow at the same time to apply all these effects on the default font simultaneously.

Character Spacing

Using the same dialogue box you can set the character spacing for the default font too. For that purpose you need to switch on the tab named Character Spacing first. In that tab you will find the following options:

Scaling

This option is used to increase or decrease the width of characters. Though the normal width for characters is considered to be 100%, but by setting the value of Scaling more or less than 100%, you can increase or decrease the width of characters.

Spacing

Through this option, you can expand or condense the space between characters. Inside the drop-down menu named Spacing, there can be seen three options referred as Normal, Expanded and Condensed.

By selecting the option Normal, you can keep the space between characters perfectly normal.
By selecting the option Expanded, you can expand or increase the space between the characters.
By selecting the option Condensed, you can condense or decrease the space between the characters.

Note : By entering any value inside that box named By that can be seen beside the drop down menu named Spacing, you can tell Microsoft Word that to which extent you want to expand or condense the space between the characters.

Position

This option is used to determine the position of default font. The drop-down menu named Position contains three options referred as Normal, Raised and Lower.

The option named Normal is supposed to be selected when you want to keep your default font on it’s normal position.
The option named Raised (above the text baseline) is supposed to be selected when you want to raise your default font from it’s normal position (text baseline).
The option named Lower is supposed to be selected when you want to lower your default font from its normal position (text baseline).

Note : Beside the drop-down menu called Position, there can be seen a box named By. By entering any value in that box you can tell Microsoft Word that to which extent you want of raise or lower the default font from its normal position.

Kerning for fonts

By putting check inside this check box you can order Microsoft Word to adjust automatically the character spacing for specific combinations of letters.

Having done the required setting of all these option, if you hit the button named Default given in the same dialogue box, that setting will be applied on your default font. For instance the setting you can see in the images given below.

Setting of font face, font style, font color, underline style, underline color and effects

Setting of Scale value, Spacing and Position

Default font after applying the new setting

That is all about the changing of default font in Microsoft Office Word. I am sure this post will be proved helpful for all the students of Information Technology, if you find it so, kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

Subscripts and Superscripts in Microsoft Word

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 12:57:00 +0000

Learn Urdu Conversation

Microsoft word is a software program that provides various useful ways to type and manipulate text and to prepare various sorts of documents with remarkable ease. As it is impossible to cover all the topics related to this highly useful software program in a single post, so I have decided to explain only one topic today and at the same time, I intend to save rest of the topics for my oncoming posts.

As most of us are fully aware of the fact that each subject has its own specific language that is supposed to be written or typed in a specific way. For instance, the formulas of Chemistry and Algebra are always written or typed in a specific way. Microsoft Word helps us to type these formulas in a proper way by offering two very useful commands named Subscript and Superscript.

Subscript and Superscript are two very useful commands introduced by Microsoft Word

Inside the Home tab of Microsoft Word there can be seen a few pans e.g. Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Style and Editing. Each pan contains a few options to manipulate the text typed on the document of Microsoft Word. If you look inside the pan named Font, there will be seen two small tabs side by side displaying the symbols X₂ and X².

Options referred as Subscript and Superscript in Home tab of Microsoft Word

Symbol X₂represents the option referred as Subscript while the symbol X² represents the option referred as Superscript.

Subscript

This option is used to make the text typed on the document of Microsoft Word, smaller below the text baseline. By using this option, you can type different Chemistry formulas in a proper way without any mistake and confusion. For instance, if you type the formula of water (H₂O) without applying the feature called Subscript upon the digit 2 , the formula (H2O) will not be considered as much accurate as the first one. There are a few more examples given below in the table:

Proper Way	Not so Proper Way
H₂O	H2O
NH₄CL	NH4Cl
CO₂	CO2
O₂	O2
SO₂	SO2
C₂H₄O	C2H4O

In order to apply the option Subscript upon the typed text all you need to do is to select the text and then to click upon the tab displaying the symbol X₂ prominently upon it (representing the feature Subscript) in the pan named Font. Further, in order to apply the feature Subscript upon the typed text you can use the short cut keys CTRL + = too.

Superscript

Superscript and Subscript are considered to be the opposites of each other. Unlike Subscript, Superscript is used to make the selected text smaller above the line of text. By using this option you can type different formulas of Algebra in a perfectly correct way. As a matter of fact, if you ignore the use of Superscript while typing the different Algebraic formulas, those formulas will never ever be accepted as correct formulas. For instance a2b can never ever be considered an equivalent of a²b simply because:

a2b = a * b + b While a²b = a * a * b

In order to apply the feature named Superscript upon the typed text, all you need to do is to click the tab named Superscript inside the pan named Font just once after selecting the required text, or you can hit CTRL + Shift + + too to apply this feature on the selected text.

I am sure all my readers will find this post helpful, if so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comments.

Magic Wand Tool : Selects the Pixels of Same Color

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 16:14:00 +0000

Magic Wand Tool is one of the most popular and useful selection tools of Photoshop. This tool is used to select the same colored area inside the image within an instant by a single click.

Magic Wand : An easy to use selection tool

This tool can be seen in the Tool Panel right beneath the Move Tool. In order to select that tool you can not only click on that tool in the tool panel but you can also hit W on the keyboard.

Magic Wand Tool can be selected by hitting W on the keyboard

Whenever you select Magic Wand Tool, pointer of your mouse assumes the shape of the icon that represents Magic Wand Tool in the Tool Panel and setting options for the same tool appear instantly in the option bar. These options are consist of different selection types or modes( e.g. New Selection, Add to Selection, Subtract from Selection and Intersect with Selection), Tolerance, Anti-aliased, Contagious, and Use All Layers.

Selection types, Tolerance, Anti-aliased, Contiguous and Use All Layer

Types or Modes of Selection

New Selection

Whenever this mode is on, you cannot apply Magic Wand Tool on the same image twice and whenever you make a new selection after making the first one, the first selection gets removed all by itself.

Add to Selection

When this mode is on, you can make selection on the same image two or more than two times quiet easily. With this mode selected, Photoshop doesn't remove the first selection when you make the second one.

Subtract from Selection

This mode is used only when you want to deselect only some part of the selected area but not the entire selection at the same time.

Intersect with Selection

This mode selects the combine or intersecting parts of the two selected areas.

Tolerance

This option is used to increase or decrease the range of selection made by the Magic Wand Tool. For instance if you set the value of Tolerance equal to 0 and click on white (#FFFFFF) color , Magic Wand Tool will select all the pixels of exactly the same color in the image and it will not include the pixels of any color in the selection other than the ones containing pure white (#FFFFFF) color . But if you set some higher Tolerance value e.g. 10, you will notice that the Magic Wand Tool will increase it’s selection range and it will include the pixels with colors similar to white in the selection rang along with the pure white pixels.

Anti-aliased

We always put check inside the check box named Anti-aliased when we want smooth edges of the selected area.

Contagious

We always put check inside the check box named Contagious when we want to select only those areas of the image which are joined together.

Use All Layers

We put check inside the check box named Use All Layers when we want to apply the Magic Wand Tool on all the layers of the document at the same time.

This is all about the Magic Wand Tool of Photoshop. I am certain, this post will be proved helpful to all my readers, if so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comment.

Functionality of Check Spelling in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 18:18:00 +0000

While working with Photoshop whenever we type some text on the document, Photoshop provides a tool to correct spelling mistakes. This tool is found in the Edit Menu of Photoshop and referred as Check Spelling.

Prepare a document with no spelling mistake

How to correct spelling mistakes in Photoshop using the command Check Spelling?

In order to understand the correct use of the tool referred as Check Spelling, follow the instructions given below:

Create a new Photoshop document with RGB Color Mode and White Content specified.

Photoshop document with RGB Color Mode and White Content

Then select the Text Tool or Type Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting T on the keyboard.

Select Text Tool to type some text on the document

As soon as you will do so, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of letter T encircled by a dotted rectangular shape. Further, setting options for the selected tool including Font Family, Font Style, Font Size, Color and Alignment etc will be appeared in the option bar. Though using these options, you can render different styles to typed text but as our current topic is not concerning different styles of text so you can leave all these options set to default according to the picture below.

Option bar for the Type Tool

Then put the pointer on the left side of the canvas and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, a new layer will be added in the document and a thumbnail representing that newly added layer will be appeared in the layer palette with a prominent letter T clearly visible on it, and at the same time, cursor will start to blink on the canvas.

Then type some text there and make some spelling mistakes deliberately. For instance the sentences given below.

Sara is viry happy today.

Sadaf was working viry hard.

People of Englond speak English.

Sadaf looves apples.

Mother is going to Markit.

Mary plays with dooll.

This pictare is viry viry nice.

Typed text on the document

After that, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option named Check Spelling.

Option referred as Check Spelling given inside the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select that option, a dialogue box named Check Spelling will be appeared and the first word with wrong spelling typed on the Photoshop document will be highlighted all by itself according to the picture below.

Suggestion Pan in the dialogue box named Check Spelling contains various alternates of the selected word

In the newly appeared dialogue box named Check Spelling you can find different suggestions to correct the spelling of the highlighted word. Select the word with correct spelling out of the different choices given in the Suggestion Pan and hit the button named Change given in the same dialogue box right beside the Suggestion Pan. As soon as you will hit the button named Change, the selected word will be replaced by the word with wrong spelling and the next word with wrong spelling will be highlighted all by itself according to the picture below.

Spelling of different words are being corrected

Then again select the word with correct spelling from the Suggestion Pan and hit the button named Change. In case, you don't want to make correction in the spelling of any highlighted word e.g.some non-English proper name (Sadaf in this example), the button named Ignore is supposed to be clicked instead of Change. Further in the same dialogue box there can be seen two more buttons referred as Ignore All and Change All. If you have typed a word completely anonymous for English language (Sadaf in this example) two or more than two times on the Photoshop document and you don’t want Photoshop to suggest alternatives for that word again and again, you should hit the button named Ignore All instead of Ignore to tell Photoshop that you are completely satisfied with the spelling of that word and you don’t want of make any change in the spelling of it. On the other hand, if you have typed a word many times on the same document and you have made the same spelling mistake every time (Viry in this example), you can make all the corrections within an instant by selecting the alternate for that word out of the words suggested by Photoshop in the Suggestion Pan and hitting the button named Change All instead of Change. Further in the same dialogue box you can see another button named Add . You can use this button to add any word in the dictionary for your personal use. Whenever you add any word in the dictionary, Photoshop stops highlighting it as a mistake afterward. For instance in the above example you can add the the word Sadaf in the dictionary and Photoshop will stop highlighting it as a word with spelling mistake.
That is how you can make correction in the spellings of different words typed on Photoshop document without wasting much time and prepare a document with no spelling mistake.

Spelling mistakes on the document have been corrected

I hope all my readers will find this post helpful. If so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comments.

Purge (Histories) : Makes Photoshop run Faster

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 13:25:00 +0000

As I have explained in my earlier posts that the command referred as Purge given inside the Edit Menu of Photoshop is used to delete corrupt files saved inside the computer’s memory holding the record of different commands applied on the currently opened Photoshop document. We usually ignore this command when Photoshop runs in its normal speed, but whenever during work we suddenly notice that the program has lost its usual speed and started to run sluggishly, we can handle this situation and restore the normal speed of the program within a few seconds using nothing but the command named Purge. Whenever we put the pointer of our mouse on the option named Purge given inside the Edit Menu, there is appeared it's sub menu containing a few options including Undo, Clipboard, Histories and All. In my previous posts Purge (Undo) : Makes Photoshop run Faster & Purge (Clipboard) : Makes Photoshop run Faster I have explained the purposes of the options named Undo and Clipboard given inside the menu of Purge and today I am going to explain the third option that is referred as Histories given inside the same menu.

In order to restore normal speed of Photoshop you can use the option referred as Histories given inside the menu of Purge

Significance of Histories in the menu of Purge

By selecting the option named Histories given inside menu of Purge, you can delete the record of all the variations made in the currently created or opened Photoshop document. That record can be seen in the History Palette. In order to understand how to delete the record of all the variations made on the currently opened or created Photoshop document follow the instructions given below:
First of all get inside the Window Menu and put check beside the option named Histories to have History Palette opened on the main Photoshop window.

Option referred as Histories given inside the Window Menu

As soon as you will do so, there will be appeared History Palette usually on the right of the main Photoshop window. As you have neither created nor opened any file so far, History Palette will be perfectly empty at this stage according to the picture below.

History Palette shows nothing when you have no file opened on Photoshop

Having opened the History Palette, open an image file on Photoshop either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Open or by hitting CTRL + O on the keyboard.

File Menu of Adobe Photoshop containing various options

As soon as the image will be opened on Photoshop, there will be appeared a thumbnail in the formerly empty History Palette representing the same image and right beneath that thumbnail there will be seen a small symbol showing the step of image opening according to the picture below.

Small symbol in the History Palette showing the record about the opening of the image in Photoshop

Having opened the image on Photoshop, select the Crop Tool by clicking on it in the tool panel or by hitting C on the keyboard.

Crop Tool is being selected

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of the icon that represents Crop Tool in the tool panel and the setting options for the selected tool including Width, Height and Resolution etc will be appeared in the option bar. Here at this point, you can leisurely ignore these setting options because you can achieve perfect result without even touching them. So leave all the boxes given inside the option bar completely blank according to the picture below.

You can leave all the boxes empty in the option bar for the Crop Tool

After that, put the pointer of your mouse anywhere on the image, keep the left button of it pressed and drag it in any specific direction to select the required part of the image which you want to keep intact in the form of a separate image according to the picture below.

Image ready to be cropped

Having made the selection of the required part, hit Enter to have undesired (unselected) part of the image cropped off permanently. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, undesired part of the image will be deleted permanently and another symbol indicating the step of cropping of the image will be appeared inside the History Palette right beneath the first symbol according to the picture below.

Symbol named Crop has been appeared inside the History Palette

Then, get inside the Image Menu and select the option referred as Adjustment. As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared another menu containing various sub options regarding the image adjustment. Out of those options, select non other than Brightness/Contrast by clicking on it.

Brightness/Contrast is one of the many sub options of Adjustment

As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared a small dialogue box under the head of Brightness/Contrast. In that dialogue box, put check inside the small check box referred as Preview and set the brightness and contrast for the image according to your wish or requirement (e.g. Brightness equal to 0 and Contrast equal to 35) according to the picture below.

Put check inside the check box named Preview and set Brightness and Contrast for the image

After that, click the button named OK given in the same dialogue box. As soon as you will hit the button named OK, the recently done setting in the dialogue box named Brightness/Contrast will be applied permanently on the image and in the History Palette there will be appeared another symbol indicating the variation made in the brightness and contrast of the image according to the picture below.

Newly appeared symbol inside the History Palette is indicating the most recent variation made in the image

In the History Palette you can see the record of all variations made in the image from it’s opening in Photoshop to the changes made in it by the use of dialogue box named Brightness/Contrast . In case, Photoshop starts to run sluggishly during further work, you can purge this record to restore its previous speed by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Purge. As soon as you will select the option Purge given inside the Edit Menu, there will be appeared a side menu containing four options including Undo, Clipboard, Histories and All as I have explained earlier. As here you are supposed to purge the record regarding Histories, so select the option named Histories by clicking on it.

Sub options of the command named Purge including Histories

As soon as you will select the option referred as Histories given inside the menu of Purge, there will be appeared a small dialogue box named Adobe Photoshop. In that dialogue box there will be seen nothing but a question “This cannot be undone. Continue ?” and two buttons named OK and Cancel. All you need to do here is to hit the button named OK to purge Histories.

Click OK to purge Histories

As soon as you will hit that button , the dialogue box named Adobe Photoshop will be vanished from the sight along with the record of different variations made in the document from the History Palette save from the last one (in this case the record of Brightness/Contrast) according to the picture below.

Record regarding histories has been purged

So that is how you can purge Histories to make Photoshop run faster. I hope this post will be proved helpful to all my readers. If you want to put forward any question, complain or suggestion for further improvement kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

Purge (Clipboard) : Makes Photoshop run Faster

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 07:18:00 +0000

As I have explained in my previous post that whenever we work on Photoshop and apply different commands on our document, Photoshop keeps the complete record of all those commands in the form of separate files in computer’s memory. When those files get corrupted for some reason or the other, Photoshop starts to run sluggishly. In order to restore its previous speed, all we need to do is to delete those corrupted files out of computer’s memory. In order to delete those files, we are supposed to get inside the Edit Menu of Photoshop and select the option named Purge given there. As soon as the option referred as Purge is selected, there is appeared a menu containing four different commands named Undo, Clipboard, Histories and All. Of course, all the commands given inside the menu of Purge are used to delete different sort of corrupted files. In my previous post Purge (Undo): Makes Photoshop run faster I have explained the functionality of the command named Undo given inside the menu of Purge. Today I have decided to explain the functionality of the command referred as Clipboard given inside the same menu.

Purge Clipboard and make Photoshop run faster

Significance of the command named Clipboard given inside the menu of Purge

Clipboard is basically a part of computer's memory that holds the record of the commands referred as Cut, Copy and Copy Merged. That is precisely why, these commands are also known as clipboard options. By selecting the option named Clipboard given inside the menu of Purge you can delete all the files holding the record of the commands (Cut, Copy, and Copy Merge) which cause the option referred as Paste available inside the Edit Menu. In order to understand the functionality of this option you can follow the tips given below.

Purge the record of the command named Cut

First of all open an image file on Photoshop either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Open or by hitting CTRL + O on the keyboard.

Flower basket image opened in Photoshop

After opening the image file in Photoshop, make the complete selection of it by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard. Having made the complete selection of the image, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option referred as Cut or hit CTRL + X on the keyboard.

Select the option referred as Cut given inside the Edit Menu

As soon as you will do so, the image will be vanished from the canvas and there will be left a canvas filled with Background Color inside it’s sole locked layer according the picture below.

After applying the command Cut there is left no image on the canvas

After that, if you get inside the Edit Menu again, you will find the command named Paste available there and ready to be applied anywhere because you have not purged the record regarding the clipboard commands (Cut, Copy and Copy Merged) so far.

Paste command is available inside the Edit Menu as the Clipboard has not been purged so far

In order to purge that record you are supposed to click the option named Purge given inside the Edit Menu to find it’s sub options referred as Undo, Clipboard, Histories and All. Out of those options select Clipboard by clicking on it.

Option referred as Clipboard inside the menu of Purge

As soon as you will select that option, a small dialogue box will be appeared named Photoshop with a one lined massage “This cannot be undone. Continue?” All you need to do here is to click the button named OK given in the same dialogue box.

Dialogue box referred as adobe Photoshop

As soon as you will hit the button named OK, the file holding the record regarding the Clipboard option named Cut will be deleted. Then, if you get inside the Edit Menu again, you will find the Paste command unavailable, simply because after purging the record of Cut, there will be left nothing to be pasted.

Paste Command no longer available inside the Edit Menu

Purge the record of the command named Copy

Open an image file on Photoshop, select it by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard and copy it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option referred as Copy or by hitting CTRL + C on the keyboard.

Option referred as Copy given inside the Edit Menu

After copying the image, if you get inside the Edit Menu again, you will find the option referred as Paste available there because you have the copied image saved inside the part of computer’s memory (referred as Clipboard) to be pasted anywhere. But if you purge the record regarding the command named Copy by selecting the option Clipboard given inside the menu of Purge, the command named Paste will get unavailable instantly as I have explained earlier.

Purge the record of the command named Copy Merged

In order to understand "how to purge the record of the command named Copy Merged?" add a new layer in the document by hitting the small icon that can be seen right beneath the layer palette and says Create a new layer every time having been hovered over. As soon as you will hit that icon, a new transparent and completely invisible layer will be added in the document represented by a newly appeared thumbnail in the layer palette right above the locked background layer according to the picture below.

Addition of new layer is necessary to make available the command named Copy Merged inside the Edit Menu

Then select Rectangular Marquee Tool by clicking on it in the tool panel.

Rectangular Marquee Tool is being selected

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus (+) sign and the setting option for the selected tool will be appeared in the option bar. Out of those options, select New Selection as selection type, set Feather equal to 0 and select Normal as selection Style according to the picture below.

Select New Selection as selection type and set Feather equal to 0

Then, put the plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the canvas and draw a rectangular selection by dragging your mouse in any direction while keeping its left button pressed according to the picture below.

Selected area at the left ready to be filled with any color

Having made the selection, fill either Background or Foreground Color inside the selected area (in order to fill Background Color inside the selected area hit CTRL + Backspace on the keyboard and in order to fill Foreground Color inside the selected area hit Alt + Backspace on the keyboard) according to the picture below.

Foreground Color has been filled inside the selected area

Then, you will have pixels on two separate layers (background layer and layer 1) clearly visible on the canvas. In order to copy those pixels in the form of an integrated image the command named Copy Merged is supposed to be used. Before applying that command select the entire canvas by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard. After making complete selection of the canvas, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option referred as Copy Merged given there (the option Copy Merged can also be selected by hitting Shift + CTRL + C on the keyboard).

Option referred as Copy Merged inside the Edit Menu

Having selected that option, if you cast another glance on the Edit Menu, you will find the option named Paste available there ready to be used as you have not purged the record of clipboard option (Copy Merged) out of the computer’s memory so far. As soon as you will purge that record by selecting the command named Clipboard given inside the menu of Purge, the option named Paste will get inactive inside the Edit Menu because having purged the record of the command Copy Merged you will have nothing inside the part of computer’s memory (clipboard) to paste it anywhere as I have explained earlier.

So that is how you can delete the different files holding the corrupt data regarding the clipboard commands Cut, Copy and Copy Merged. I hope all my readers will find this post helpful, if so kindly let me aware of the by subscribing your comments.

Purge (Undo) : Makes Photoshop run Faster

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 07:55:00 +0000

Whenever we work on Photoshop and use different commands, Photoshop keeps the complete record of all those commands in its memory in the form of separate files. When these files get corrupted, Photoshop starts to run sluggishly. In order to make it run faster you can use the command named Purge that is given inside the Edit Menu to delete those files.

Purge (Undo) helps to make Photoshop run faster

Whenever you put the pointer of your mouse on the option named Purge, there is appeared a menu containing four commands referred as Undo, Clipboard, Histories and All. All these commands are used to delete corrupt files which makes Photoshop to run sluggishly.

As the topic is a bit lengthy as a whole, so I have decided to explain only the significance of the very first option (Undo) that is found inside the side menu of Purge with a very simple example while the rest of the options found inside the same menu, I intend to save for my oncoming posts.

Significance of Undo in the menu of Purge

This command is used to delete the record about the most recently applied command out of the computer’s memory that makes Undo command available inside the Edit Menu. In order to understand how that option works follow the instructions given below:

Create a new document with RGB color mode and white content specified.

Blank Photoshop document ready to be used

Then, add a new layer by clicking the small icon that can be seen right beneath the layer palette and referred as Create a new Layer.

Totally invisible transparent layer is indicated by a thumbnail named Layer 1 in the layer palette

Then fill either Background or Foreground color inside the selected layer by hitting CTRL + Backspace (to fill Background color inside the selected layer) or ALT + Backspace (to fill Foreground Color inside the selected layer).

Layer 1 no longer transparent

After that, if you click the tab named Edit in the menu bar to open Edit Menu, you will find the command named Undo available there and ready to be used simply because you have not purged the record of the most recently applied command (Fill) so far .

Undo Fill Layer is available inside the Edit Menu

In order to Purge that record, you are supposed to leave the command named Undo given inside the Edit Menu untouched but to click upon the option named Purge given inside the same menu. As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared another menu containing four options referred as Undo, Clipboard, Histories and All as I have explained earlier. Out of those options, select Undo to delete all the record about the most recently applied command.

Select the option referred as Undo to delete corrupted files

As soon as you will select that command, there will be appeared a dialogue box named Adobe Photoshop. In that dialogue box you will see a question This cannot be undone. Continue?

Click OK to finish the task

All you need to do here is to click the button named OK in the same dialogue box. As soon as you will click that button the dialogue box will get out of sight and the record about the most recently applied command will be deleted out of the computer’s memory.

After that, open the Edit Menu again and you will notice that the formerly available option Undo will no longer remain available inside that menu.

Undo command is not available inside the Edit Menu

So that is how you can make Photoshop run faster by using the command named Undo given inside the menu of Purge. I am sure all my readers will find this post helpful, if so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comments.

History Brush Tool : Restores the lost color information in a desaturated image

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 07:43:00 +0000

As I have explained in my earlier posts that it is very easy to transform a colored picture into black and white using Desaturate command. When we apply Desaturate command on any image, there is left no need to change the color mode of that image (whether it be a CMYK image or RGB or Lab image) into Grayscale to transform it into black and white. All we need to do is to get inside the Image Menu and select the option referred as Adjustment. As soon as we select that option, there is appeared a side menu containing various options regarding image Adjustment. Out of those options we are supposed to select nothing but Desaturate to discard all the color information out of that image. So that is how we can transform any image into black and white. For further detail see my post Functionality of Desaturate in Photoshop.

As in Photoshop, we work on layers , so there is a possibility that we apply Desaturate command on some layers while at the same time keep rest of the layers fully colored. Sometime , in order to render unique and awesome look to different images, we add some color in some parts of a desaturated image. Apart from the addition of entirely different color from the one image contained before being desaturated, we can bring back precisely the same color image has lost after being desaturated.

Use History Brush and restore the lost color information in any part of a desaturated image

As far as the addition of entirely different color in any part of a desaturated image is concerned, we can do so either by using adjustment command named Hue/Saturation (I intend to explain in my oncoming post) or adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation (I have explained in my earlier post Desaturate command & Adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation). But whenever it comes to bring back the lost color information in any part of a desaturated image, we can either apply History Brush Tool in that part of the image or we can use the method of Layer Masks. In this post I have decided to explain the use of History Brush Tool in order to bring back the lost color information in any part of a desaturated image ,and as far as the other method (use of Layer Mask) is concerned, I intend to explain it later.

How to bring the lost color information back in a desaturated image using History Brush Tool?

First of all open your required image (preferably 8-bits RGB) in Photoshop. In case your required image is not an 8-bits RGB image (for instance it might be a 16-bits CMYK or 8-bits CMYK or 16-bits RGB or 8-bits Lab or 16-bits Lab image), you can transform it into 8-bits RGB quiet easily. In order to transform any image into 8-bits RGB all you need to do is to get inside the Image Menu and select the option named Mode. As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared another menu containing different options regarding Modes. Out of those options , you are supposed to select two options referred as 8-bits Channel and RGB by putting checks beside these options according to the picture below.

8-bits RGB image ready to be edited

Note : 8-bits RGB is the most suitable color mode for any image that is going to be edited.

Having changed the color mode of the image into 8-bits RGB, the next thing which is supposed to be done right after that is the creation of a duplicate of the locked background layer that contains our image so that we could keep the original image perfectly intact while make changes in the duplicate of it. In order to create a duplicate of that layer, hit CTRL + J on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, there will be appeared another thumbnail in the layer palette indicating newly created duplicate of the locked background layer according to the picture below.

Two identical thumbnails is the layer palette showing two identical layers

Then , in order to transform that colored duplicate of the locked background layer into black and white, just get inside the Image Menu and select the option named Adjustment. As soon as you will select the option referred as Adjustment given inside the Image Menu of Photoshop, there will be appeared another menu containing a host of other options. Out of those options, select Desaturate either by clicking on it or by hitting CTRL + Shift + U on the keyboard.

Various commands inside the side menu of Adjustment along with Desaturate

As soon as you will click on the option named Desaturate given inside the side menu of Adjustment or hit CTRL + Shift +U on the keyboard, the colored picture on the selected layer will turn into back and white according to the picture below.

Duplicate layer after being desaturated

If you want to keep the desaturated form of the image perfectly intact too in the same document along with the original form of it, hit CTRL + J on the keyboard one more time (this time to create a duplicate of layer 1 that contains our desaturated image). As soon as you will do so, there will be appeared another thumbnail in the layer palette right above the thumbnail that is representing layer 1, indicating newly created duplicated of layer 1 according to the picture below.

Duplicate of the desaturated layer in the layer palette

Then, in order to bring back precisely the same color in any part of the image that image has lost after being desaturated, we need to select History Brush Tool. So, select History Brush Tool by clicking on it in the tool panel.

History Brush Tool in the tool panel

As soon as you will select that tool, the setting options for the History Brush Tool will be appeared in the option bar and the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of the currently selected brush in the option bar. In order to select appropriate brush type you need to open brush picker menu. For that purpose, click the small arrow that can be seen beside the currently selected brush in the option bar.

Option bar for History Brush Tool

As soon as you will click that arrow, there will be appeared a Brush Picker menu containing a good number of options regarding brush types, sizes and styles. Out of the options given inside the Brush Picker menu , select a soft round brush of any size as at this stage, size of the brush doesn't matter at all and we can change it later according to our need either by hitting } (to increase the size of the brush) or { (to decrease the size of the brush). Right beside the arrow that is supposed to be clicked to open Brush Picker menu, you can see a drop down menu referred as Painting Mode. Out of the different options given inside the menu named Painting Mode, select the option Normal and set the Opacity and Flow for the strokes of the brush equals to 100% each according to the picture below.

Select a soft and round brush of any size, select Normal as Painting Mode, and set Opacity and Flow equals to 100% each

After that, in order to make your work easier, zoom the picture in by hitting CTRL + + on the keyboard. Having zoomed the picture in, put the pointer of your mouse on any part of the duplicate desaturated layer (e.g. on apples), keep the left button of your mouse pressed and start to paint upon that part of the image by dragging your mouse. Each stroke of the brush will cause the restoration of the lost color in that part of the image according to the picture below.

Very first stroke of History Brush

For your convenience you can increase or decrease the size of the brush simply by hitting } (to increase the size of the brush) or { (to decrease the size of the brush) as I have explained earlier.
So that is how you can restore the lost color information in a destaurated image and give it a unique look using History Brush Tool.

Image with a look totally different from it's original aspect

I hope all my readers will find this post help,interesting and easy to understand at the same time. If so , kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comments.

Related Posts

Functionality of Desaturate in Photoshop
Desaturate command & Adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation

Functionality of Desaturate in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 13:00:00 +0000

Desaturate is a command that sucks all the colors out of a colored picture and makes it look like a Grayscale image. In order to find this command you are supposed to get inside the Image Menu and select the option named Adjustment. In the side menu of Adjustment you can find a host of commands along with Desaturate. Though, desaturated RGB, CMYK and Lab images look like Grayscale images but the difference is that you can render awesome look to desaturated images by adding colors in different parts of these images using different tools and commands ( e.g. Brush Tool, History Brush Tool, Hue and Saturation, Fill and Pattern Stamp Tool etc). But as far as the Grayscale images are concerned, there is no way to add any color other than black, white and different shades of gray in those images.

Desaturate makes a colored picture looks like a Grayscale image

How to transform a colored picture into black and white without changing its color mode into Grayscale

In order to understand how this command works follow the instructions given below.

First of all open a colored image, preferably RGB, in Photoshop (as RGB is the most suitable color mode for image editing) according to the picture below.

RGB image before being desaturated

Then, in order to desaturate that image, just get inside the Image Menu and select the option named Adjustment. As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared another menu containing various adjustment options including Desaturate. Out of those options select Desaturate either by clicking on it in the menu or by hitting CTRL + Shift + U on the keyboard.

/Desaturate in the side menu of Adjustment

As soon as you will do so, the image will turn black and white having lost all the colors according to the picture below.

Image on the locked background layer has been desaturated

As in the image given above, you can see that it was the locked background layer that contained the image we have desaturated and after applying the command, we have lost the original image.If you want to keep the original image intact, don’t apply the command named Desaturate on the locked background layer. Just create a duplicate of the background layer by hitting CTRL + J on the keyboard and then apply the command named Desaturate on that duplicate instead of the background layer according to the picture below.

Two locked layers in the layer palette

There are many ways through which you can add different colors in the different parts of desaturated images and give awesome look to those images. Some of such ways I intend to explain in my oncoming tutorials.

I am certain, this post will be proved helpful to all my readers. If so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comments.

Desaturate command & Adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 08:12:00 +0000

As I have explained in my earlier post that through the command named Desaturate you can transform a colored picture ( RGB, CMYK or Lab) into something look like a Grayscale image. The difference between desaturated RGB, CMYK or Lab images and Grayscale images is that we can add different colors in desaturated images using different tools and commands, but in case of Grayscale images , there is no way to add any color other than black white and different shades of gray in the image . It is extremely simple to transform a colored image whether it be a CMYK , RGB or Lab image into black and white by applying the command named Desaturate upon it. All you need to do it to open the image in Photoshop and hit CTRL + Shift +U on the keyboard. As soon as these keys will be pressed, the image will lose all the color information and turn into black and white. In case you forget these short cut keys, then simply click the image tab on the menu bar of Adobe Photoshop to open Image Menu. Then select the option named Adjustment to open the Adjustment Menu containing various commands. Out of those commands select Desaturate by clicking on it and just one click will discard all the information regarding colors and transform the image into black and white.

Give awesome look to different images

Having applied Desaturate command on any image you can apply various tools on the image to give it unique and awesome look. In this post I am going to explain a very simple method through which you can add color in a desaturated image using adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation .

How to add color in a desaturated image using adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation?

First of all open a colored picture in Photoshop, preferably 8-bits RGB (as 8-bits RGB is the most suitable color mode for any image that is going to be edited). In case you don’t have any 8-bits RGB image for that experiment, you can easily convert any image into 8-bits RGB. In order to convert the color mode of any CMYK or Lab image into 8-bits RGB, all you need to do is to get inside the Image Menu and select the option named Mode. As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared a side menu showing different color modes you can apply on your image. Out of those modes select RGB and 8-bits/Channel by clicking on each and in an instant your image will be transformed into 8-bits RGB.For instance in the image given blow you can see a 16-bits CMYK image which is not at all suitable for any sort of editing.

Image not at all suitable for editing

CMYK is a color mode that is suitable for printing different images on paper and at the same time, not at all suitable for editing images while 16-bits channel doesn't allow the use of most of the tools (including Move Tool, Brush Tool, Eraser Tool, Clone and Pattern Stamp Tools, Burn Tool, Blur Tool etc) on the image as 8-bits channel allows. Further, while working with 16-bits channel, you cannot add any layer in the document as you can do while working with 8-bits channel. So before applying any command upon that image it is better to transform that image from 16- bits CMYK to 8-bits RGB by putting checks beside the options RGB and 8-bits/Channel given in the side menu of Mode according to the picture below.

Image suitable for editing

Having converted the color mode of the image into 8-bits RGB, the next thing which is supposed to be done is the creation of a duplicate of the locked background layer. In order to create a duplicate of that layer hit CTRL + J on the keyboard . As soon as you will do so, there will be appeared another thumbnail containing the same image in the layer palette right above the background layer according to the picture below.

Two thumbnails in the layer palette containing two identical layers

After that, desaturate the image on the duplicate layer either by hitting Shift + CTRL +U on the keyboard or by selecting the command named Desaturate given inside the Image Menu’s option Adjustment’s side menu according to the picture below.

Option name Desaturate given inside the Adjustment Menu

As soon as you will select that command, all the colors in the selected layer will be transformed into black, white and different shades of gray according to the picture below.

Image showing no color but black, white and different shades of grey

Having desaturated the selected layer, make selection of any part of it using any selection tool (as I have decided to add color in the lips only and keep rest of the layer black and white so I’ll make selection of lips using Polygonal Lasso Tool). So select Polygonal lasso tool by clicking on it in the tool panel according to the picture below.

Polygonal Lasso Tool in the Tool Panel

As soon as the Polygonal Lasso Tool will be selected, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of Polygonal Lasso Tool icon and the setting options of the same tool will be appeared in the option bar that can be seen usually right beneath the menu bar. Out of those options select New selection as selection type , set Feather equal to 0 px and put check inside the check box named Anti-aliased to keep the edges of the selected area smooth and appealing according to the picture below.

Set the Selection Type and Feather and put check inside the check box named Anti-aliased

Having done that setting, zoom the picture in by hitting CTRL + + on the keyboard once or twice to make selection easier. Having zoomed the picture in, put the Polygonal Lasso Tool shaped pointer of your mouse on any point at the edge of lips’ outline and click the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, selection thread will be stuck to that point according to the picture below.

Selection is being started

Then trace the outline of lips by dragging your mouse and clicking the left button of it every time you feel any need to change the direction of selection according to the picture below.

Clicks on different places while making selection

Then end the selection of lips at the same point you started it by clicking the left button of your mouse on the same point according to the picture below.

End the selection of lips on the same spot you started it

Having finished the tracing , hit Enter to complete the selection. As soon as you will hit Enter, the selection thread will be vanished and the edges of selected area will begin to glimmer according to the picture below.

Glimmering edges around lips are indicating that this part of the layer is selected

Then, in order to add some color inside the selected part of the layer through Hue/Saturation dialogue box you need to create a new Adjustment layer. To create that layer click the small icon that can be seen right beneath the layer palette and says Create new fill or adjustment layer every time having been hovered over.

Icon named Create a new fill or adjustment layer

As soon as you will click that icon, there will be appeared a menu containing various options including Hue/Saturation. In order to create a new adjustment layer, and to open Hue/Saturation dialogue box , select the option Hue/Saturation by clicking on it.

Adjustment layer menu

As soon as you will select that option, the glimmering edges of the selected part of the layer will be disappeared and there will be appeared two thumbnails in the layer palette right above layer 1, representing newly created adjustment layer and a layer mask. Further, along with these two thumbnails in the layer palette, there will be appeared a dialogue box named Hue/Saturation according to the picture below.

Newly created adjustment layer and layer mask in the layer palette along with dialogue box named Hue/Saturation

In the dialogue box named Hue/Saturation, you can see a drop-down menu named Edit, three sliders under the heads of Hue, Saturation and Lightness, three inactive Eyedropper Tools and two small check boxes named Colorize and Preview along with some buttons.

In order to add color in the formerly selected part of the image through this dialogue box , first of all, put check inside the check box named Colorize. As soon as you will do so, the formerly active drop-down menu named Edit will get inactive. After that all you need to do is to put check inside the other check box named Preview so that you could watch the preview of different settings of hue, saturation and lightness and to move the sliders from left to right or from right to left to achieve desired color with desired intensity for the formerly selected part of the image. For instance if you set the slider named Hue at the position of 0, slider named Saturation at the position of 100 and the slider named Lightness at the position of 0 the result will be the bright red color inside the formerly selected part of the image according to the picture below.

Hue, Saturation and Lightness have been set at the positions of 0, 100, 0 respectively

In case you set set the slider named Hue at the position of 310, slider named Saturation at the position of 81 and the slider named Lightness at the position of -67 the result will be the dark purple or magenta color inside the formerly selected part of the image according to the picture below.

Hue, Saturation and Lightness have been set at the positions of 310, 81,- 67 respectively

In order to apply any setting finally upon the image click the button named OK.

So that is is how you can add color in any selected part of a desaturated image using adjustment layer named Hue/Saturation. Apart from all this, there is another big advantage associated with this method. That is, by showing and hiding different layers in the document you can save a single image with different aspects. For instance, if you hide the layer named Hue/Saturation by hiding the small eye shaped icon beside it (in order to hide small eye shaped icon beside any layer, all you need to do is to click on that icon once), you will be able to save a totally black and white image in JPEG, PNG or any other format like the image below.

Image looks completely black and white when you hide the layer named Hue/Saturation

In case, you hide both layers named Hue/Saturation and Layer 1 together by clicking the small eyes shaped icons beside each of these layers, you will be able to save the image in its initial undedited form according to the picture below.

Visible Background layer containing image in its original aspect

And if you hide Layer 1 only and keep the Background layer and the layer named Hue/Saturation unhidden, you will be able to save the image in the form you can see in the picture below.

Image with layer 1 completely invisible

And if you keep all the layers visible you will be able to save a black and white image with colored lips as you have seen earlier in this post.

I am sure all my readers will find this post helpful and interesting so have fun with it, but kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

Functionality of Fill in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 13:04:00 +0000

Adobe Photoshop allows you to fill any solid color as well as any predefined pattern with desired level of opacity and required blending mode into any selected part of the selected layer through the command named Fill.

Fill command is used to fill solid colors and patterns inside the layers while Black, White and 50% gray inside the layer masks

How to use Fill command properly in Photoshop?

In order to understand the full functionality of this command, follow the steps given below:

First of all create a new Photoshop document with RGB color mode and white content specified.

Newly created blank PSD file

Then ,set blue as Foreground Color and yellow as Background Color in the Tool Box.

Selected Foreground and Background Colors in the Tool panel

Then, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option named Fill by clicking on it.

Option named Fill in the Edit Menu of Photoshop

As soon as the option named Fill will be selected, there will be appeared a dialogue box named Fill.

Dialogue box referred as Fill appears every time you select the command named Fill.

In that dialogue box there will be seen two separate pans under the heads of Contents and Blending.

Inside the pan referred as Contents there will be seen a drop-down menu named Use. The Content you will find selected here by default will be none other than Foreground Color. In order to find rest of the filling options, the tiny black arrow beside the drop-down menu named Use is supposed to be clicked. As soon as you will click that arrow there will be appeared a menu containing three sections.

Three sections in the menu named Use

The First Section (Foreground and Background Colors)

First section consists of two options which are referred as Foreground Color and Background Color. If you select Foreground Color out of these two options and click the button named OK, the color that has been selected as Foreground Color (blue in the case) in the Tool Panel, will be filled inside the selected layer according to the picture below.

Locked background layer with Foreground Color filled inside

If you select Background Color out of those two options instead of Foreground and click the button named OK, the color that has been selected as Background Color (yellow in this case) in the Tool Panel, will be filled inside the selected layer.

Locked background layer with Background Color filled inside

The Second Section (Pattern and History)

The second section of the menu named Use is also consists of two options which are referred as Pattern and History. If you select the option named Pattern out of these two options, the formerly inactive option named Custom Pattern will get activated all by itself. If you click the small arrow that can be seen right beside the pattern thumbnail, you will find a pattern picker menu containing different patterns as you can see in the picture below.

Different pattern styles

Whichever pattern you will select out of those patterns, the same pattern will be filled inside the selected layer as soon as you will hit the button named OK.

Locked background layer with pattern filled inside

If you select the other option named History given in the same section, the selected layer will be filled with the same content that had been selected during the creation of the document in the dialogue box named New. For instance during the creation of the document you had selected White as document content and here in this section you select the option named History, the selected layer will turn white again.

The Third Section (White, 50% Gray and Black)

The third section in the same menu contains three options which are referred as White, 50% Gray and Black. Though these three options can be used to fill white, gray and black colors inside the selected layer, but mainly these three options are used when you work on layer masks instead of layers. Layer mask is basically a way to control layer’s transparency. There are three types of layer masks you can use in Photoshop. These are White, Black and Gray. If you fill white color inside the selected layer mask, that will make the layer beside it completely visible with 0% transparency, if you fill black color inside the selected layer mask, that will make the layer beside it completely invisible with 100% transparency and if you fill 50% gray inside the selected layer mask that will make the layer beside it 50% transparent. In order to understand how to control transparency of any layer by filling white, black and gray colors inside the layer mask beside it, follow the instructions given below.

First of all fill any pattern inside the background layer by selecting it form the pattern picker menu named Custom Pattern that is given in the dialogue box named Fill, as I have explained earlier. Then add a new layer by hitting the small icon that can be seen right beneath the layer palette and referred as Create a new layer. As soon as you will click that icon, there will be appeared a new thumbnail, right above the background layer in the layer palette, representing a new transparent layer according to the picture below.

New layer thumbnail right above the thumbnail representing background layer in the layer palette

Then. fill any solid color (either background or foreground) in that newly added transparent layer using Fill dialogue box as I have explained earlier. As soon as the solid color will be filled inside the newly added layer, it will no longer remain transparent and hide completely the background layer according to the picture below.

As layer 1 is no longer transparent so it has hidden background layer completely

Then, add a layer mask beside that layer by clicking the small icon that can be seen right beneath the layer palette and says Add layer mask every time having been hovered over. As soon as you will click that icon, a new thumbnail will be appeared right beside the selected layer representing newly added layer mask according the picture below.

Layer 1 is totally visible with white layer mask beside and it has hidden background layer

As each layer mask carries white fill inside it by default and white fill inside any layer mask represents 0% transparency of the layer beside the same layer mask so the addition of a layer mask will cause no change in the appearance of the document.

If you fill black color inside the layer mask, by selecting the option black given inside the drop-down menu named Use, the layer beside the same layer mask will become perfectly invisible with 100% transparency and the background layer will become perfectly visible according to the picture below.

Background layer is totally visible from behind the 100% transparent layer 1

If you fill 50% grey inside the layer mask instead of black or white , the layer beside the layer mask will become 50% transparent and the background layer will begin to peer from behind according to the picture below.

Background layer is peering from behind the 50% transparent layer 1

Blending

The second pan in the dialogue box named Fill is referred as Blending. In this pan there can be seen a drop-down menu named Mode. Though the default Mode you always find selected here is none other than Normal, but you can select any blending mode of your choice out of the different options given inside that drop down menu to apply on the selected fill style. Further, in the same pan there will be seen another box referred as Opacity. In that box you can specify the required opacity for the selected fill style in percentage by typing the value manually in the box.

For instance if you specify Foreground Color as Content, Difference as Mode and Opacity equal to 60% in the dialogue box named Fill according to the picture below.

Specify Content, Mode and Opacity for the layer

The outcome of that setting can be seen in the picture below.

Background layer with blending mode named Dissolve applied along with Foreground Color

Right beneath the box named Opacity, there will be seen a check box named Preserve Transparency. Check is supposed to be put inside that check box only when we want to preserve the transparency of the empty area inside the selected layer. For instance in the following image you can see a square shaped object made on the otherwise transparent layer 1.

White background layer is peering through the transparent pixels of layer 1

In order to fill any pattern inside that square shaped object only and to keep rest of the layer completely transparent, all you need to do is to put check inside the check box referred as Preserve Transparency along with selecting any required pattern out of the different options given inside the pattern picker named Custom Pattern according to the picture below.

In order to keep intact the transparent part of the layer put check inside the check box named Preserve Transparency

Having done that setting, click the button named OK to apply it on the selected layer and you will see the outcome similar to the picture below.

Still partly transparent layer 1

If you want to fill the required pattern inside the entire layer, check is not supposed to be put inside the check box named Preserve Transparency according to the picture below.

Preserve Transparency check box is no longer selected

As the check box named Preserved Transparency has not been selected, so, as soon as you will hit the button named OK, the selected pattern will be filled inside the entire layer according to the picture below.

Transparency has not been preserved of the formerly transparent pixels

So that is all about the dialogue box named Fill. I hope this post will be proved helpful to all my readers.Kindly don't forget to share your opinion regarding this post by subscribing your comments

Copy vs Copy Merged in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 11:27:00 +0000

Though the command named Copy is one of the most commonly used commands in Photoshop, while the command named Copy Merged is one of most rarely used commands in Photoshop, but all the same, both commands have their own significance which is not supposed to be over looked by any Photoshop user. In this post I will explain the significance of both commands separately and further, I will explain how these commands are different from each other.

Very commonly and very rarely used commands

Copy and Copy Merged are two separate commands which can be seen in the Edit Menu of Photoshop.

Edit Menu of Photoshop contains various commands

As far as the command named Copy is concerned, it is found in almost all software programs with the same functionality. This command is used to save the copy of selected content in the part of computer’s memory that is referred as Clipboard, and afterward, you can have that saved copy of the selected content anywhere using the command named Paste.

Unlike Copy, Copy Merged is neither found nor used while working with any software program other than Photoshop. As all Photoshop users know perfectly well that in Photoshop we work on layers so difference between Copy and Copy Merged in Photoshop is that Copy command is used to copy all the pixels given on the currently selected layer inside the selected area , while through the command named Copy Merged, you can copy all visible pixels inside the selected area in the form of a complete image regardless the number of layers fell inside that area.

For instance in the image given below you can see a canvas containing a picture that is composed of two different layers, layer 1 and Background.

Image with both layers visible

If I hide the Background layer by making invisible the small eye shaped icon beside the thumbnail that is representing the Background layer in the layer palette, you will notice that on layer 1 we have nothing but an image of a car.

Note: Small eye shaped icon beside each layer thumbnail in the layer palette can be made invisible just by clicking on it and by making invisible that icon, you can hide the layer beside it on the canvas.

Invisible eye shaped icon beside any thumbnail in the layer palette represents the the invisibility of that layer on the canvas

On the other hand, if I hide the layer 1 by making invisible the small eye shaped icon beside the thumbnail that is representing layer 1 in the layer palette, you will notice that on the Background layer we have everything but not the car.

Layer 1 has been hidden in the image

Through the command named Copy, you can copy either the image of car that we have on layer 1 or you can copy the picture (or any part of that picture) that we have on the Background layer. But you cannot copy the car and the background at the same time as an integrated image. Meaning, if you select layer 1 by clicking the thumbnail representing that layer in the layer palette and then you make selection of the entire canvas by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard and having made the selection, if you apply the command named Copy on the selected area either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option name Copy or by hitting CTRL + C on the keyboard, only the pixels on the currently selected layer (layer 1) will be copied. If you paste those copied pixels anywhere by hitting CTRL + V on the keyboard, you will find nothing in the pasted content but the image of car.

But in case, if you make selection of the entire canvas by hitting CTRL + A or if you make the selection of any part of the canvas using any selection tool e.g. Rectangular Marquee Tool, Elliptical Marquee Tool etc and after making selection, if you apply the command named Copy Merged on the selected area either by getting inside the Edit Menu and clicking on the option named Copy Merged or by hitting CTRL + Shift + C on the keyboard, everything visible inside the selected area (including car and background) will be copied. If you paste that copied content anywhere, you will find that the pasted content will be in the form of an integrated image containing the components of both layers.

Note: In the case of Copy Merged it literally doesn't matter that which thumbnail is selected in the layer palette while in the case of Copy, it matters much.

Functionality of Invert in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 03:21:00 +0000

Invert is a command that is not very commonly used in Photoshop. In order to understand the functionality of Invert in Photoshop it is necessary to understand the three different sectors in which any image is considered to be divided. These sectors are referred as Shadows, Highlights and Midtones. Whenever we cast a glance over a picture we notice some parts of it noticeably darker than the rest. All such part are fell into the category of Shadows. Some parts of the same image shows very light shades of different colors which seems almost equivalent to white, all such parts are referred as Highlights. While all the parts of the image containing different shades between the lightest and the darkest shades are referred as Midtones. For instance in the image given below you can see my favorite actress Resham in her fancy white outfit.

Clear representation of Highlights, Shadows and Midtones

In this image Shadows , Highlights and Midtones all are quite obvious and easily noticeable. You can consider her hair as Shadows, her dress as Highlights and her skin and background as Midtones in the image.

Invert is used only when you want to convert the darkest parts of the image into the brightest parts (transform Shadows into Highlights) or if you want to convert the brightest parts of image into the darkest parts (transform Highlights into the Shadows) and at the same time reset the Midtones accordingly. Further, while working with RGB color mode, you notice that the Invert command transform different shades of green into different shades of magenta, different shades of red into different shades of cyan and different shades of blue into different shades of yellow, and so it does with the other color modes.

How to apply Invert command?

In order to understand how this command works follow the steps given below:
First of all open a picture in Photoshop preferably with the extension JPEG, either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Open or by hitting CTRL + O on the keyboard.

Image before being inverted

Having opened the image in Photoshop, select the image tab in the menu bar by clicking on it. As soon as you will click the tab named Image, there will be appeared a menu containing various options. Out of those options select none other than Adjustment. As soon as you will select the option named Adjustment , there will be appeared it’s side menu containing different sub-option. Out of those sub options, select Invert either by clicking on it in the menu or by hitting CTRL + I on the keyboard.

Command referred as Invert given inside the sub menu of Adjustment

As soon as you will select the option named Invert, the Shadows (darkest parts in the image) will be transformed into Highlights (brightest parts) and the Highlights will be transformed into Shadows. Further, Midtones too, will changed themselves accordingly, meaning darker parts of the image will turn less darker while the brighter parts of the image will turn less brighter and the image will assume the aspect of a photographic negative according to the picture below.

Under the impacts of Invert image assumes the features of photographic negatives

As I have explained earlier that the Invert command transforms the different shades of red into different shades of cyan, you can observe the transformation of the red component which was obvious in the skin of the actress, into cyan in the image given above.

In order to observe the impacts of Invert on different colors you can apply that command on any image containing a number of colors for instance the image given below.

Image containing Red, Green, Blue and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

As soon as you will apply the command named Invert on the image given above, the same image will be transformed into the image given below.

Impacts of the command named Invert on the different colors

As in this image there were no noticeable highlights and shadows before inversion and all the color shades had the same intensity so there is nothing look like a photographic negative in this image after inversion.

As you can transform a colorful image into something look like a photographic negative by applying Invert command on it, you can convert a photographic negative into a colorful image by inverting its features too. For instance the following image can be transformed into a perfect colorful photograph if you apply Invert command on it.

Image ready to be transformed into a perfect colorful photograph

After applying Invert command

I am certain, this tutorial will be proved helpful to all my readers. In order to put forward any question, complain or suggestion for further improvement, kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

Functionality of Fade in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 02:49:00 +0000

Fade is a command that is very commonly used in Photoshop. Using Fade you can not only reset the opacity level for the most recently applied tool, filter or adjustment, but through the same command you can apply any blending mode of your choice or requirement upon the impact of the most recently applied tool,filter or adjustment. Further, this command can only be applied right after the use of any tool, filter or adjustment on Photoshop document. For instance, using any selection tool, if you make selection of any part of a layer and fill any color (background or foreground) inside it and right after that, you choose to apply the command named Fade upon the recently filled color, you can happily do so. But if choose to deselect the recently colored part of the layer first, you will not find the command named Fade available in the Edit Menu.

Fade command can be applied right after the use of Tools, Filters and Adjustments

In this post I have decided to explain the functionality of Fade command given inside the Edit Menu by applying it one by one on the examples of tools,filters and adjustments and first of all I’ll apply it on the example of tools.

How to Fade the impacts of Tools?

In order to understand how to apply the command named Fade upon tools, follow the instructions given below.

First of all, create a new document with 500px width, 500px height, RGB Color Mode and white Content specified.

Newly created Photoshop document with RGB Color Mode and White Content

After that click the thumbnail representing Foreground Color in the Tool Box to open Color Picker window and select red or any other bright color as foreground color according to the picture below.

Color Picker window

Having selected the required color in the Color Picker, click OK to have it as Foreground Color in the Tool Box according to the picture below.

Red color ready to be used as Foreground Color

Then, select the Brush Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting B on the keyboard.
As soon as you will select the Brush Tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a circle and setting options regarding the selected tool will be appeared inside Option Bar. Out of those options, first of all click the small arrow that can be seen between the Tool Preset Picker and Mode to open the menu named Brush Preset Picker.

Pointer of your mouse assumes the shape of a circle whenever you select Brush Tool

Having opened that menu, select the hard and round brush of any size (for instance you can select hard and round 5px) and then, in order to enhance its size, set its Master Diameter equal to 400px, select Normal out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Mode and set both the Opacity and Flow for the Brush Tool equals to 100% according to the picture below.

Different brush styles given in the menu named Brush Preset Picker

After that, put the large circular shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, there will be appeared a large bright colored circle on the document according to the picture below.

Red circle made on Photoshop document by using the Brush Tool

Right after applying the Brush Tool, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option named Fade Brush Tool given there either by clicking on it in the menu or by hitting CTRL + SHIFT + F on the keyboard.

Option referred as Fade Brush Tool given in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select the option named Fade Brush Tool or hit CTRL + SHIFT + F, there will be appeared a small dialogue box named Fade. In that dialogue box there will be seen a slide referred as Opacity, a drop-down menu referred as Mode and a small check box referred as Preview. Using the slide referred as Opacity, you can set the opacity for the recently applied Brush Tool up to any desired level and out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Mode you can choose any mode ( e.g. Difference, Linear Light, Dissolve etc) according to your requirement. Further, by putting check inside the check box named Preview you can see the preview of the expected result of the current setting before applying it finally on the document according to the picture below.

Opacity level equal to 50% and Dissolve as selected mode for the red circle

In order to apply that setting finally on the document, click the button named OK or hit the Enter key.

If you want to apply the command named Fade on any other Photoshop Tool, you can follow same method explained above.

How to Fade the impacts of Adjustments?

In order to understand how to apply the command named Fade upon adjustments, follow the instructions given below.

First of all open a picture preferably JPEG either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Open or by hitting CTRL + O on the keyboard.

JPEG image before being edited

Having opened the picture in Photoshop, get inside the Image Menu and select the option named Adjustment. As soon as you will select that option, it’s side menu will be appeared containing a host of adjustment options. Out of those options select Invert either by clicking on it in the menu or by hitting CTRL + I on the keyboard.

option referred as Invert given inside the side menu of Adjustment

As soon as you will select the option named Invert the image will assume the aspect of photographic negative according to the picture below.

Image under the impacts of the adjustment named Invert

After that, in order to apply the command named Fade upon that image, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option named Fade Invert.

Option referred as Fade Invert given in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select that option, the small dialogue box named Fade will be appeared again. Then, once again put check inside the check box named Preview and set the Opacity level and Mode for the recently applied Adjustment named Invert according to your choice. For instance select Difference out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Mode and set the Opacity equal to 50% according to the picture below.

Impacts of Fade upon the Inverted image

In order to apply that setting upon the picture click the button named OK given in the same dialogue box or hit Enter on the keyboard.

Following the method explained above you can apply the command named Fade upon all sort of adjustments.

How to Fade the impacts of Filters?

In order to understand how to apply the command named Fade upon filters follow the instructions given below.

First of all open an image preferably JPEG either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Open or by hitting CTRL + O on the keyboard.

Image before editing

After that, using Color Picker window select white as Background Color and black as Foreground Color according to the picture below.

Black and white as selected Foreground and Background Colors

After that get inside the Filter Menu and select the option named Sketch. As soon as you will select the option named Sketch, it’s side menu will appeared containing a number of other options. Out of those options select Photocopy by clicking on it.

Filter referred as Photocopy given in the side menu of Sketch

As soon as you will select that option, there will be appeared a dialogue box referred as Photocopy. In that dialogue box along with the preview of expected outcome of the filter , there will be seen two slides referred as Detail and Darkness. Set the Detail and Darkness for the selected filter according to your choice (for instance, set Detail equal to 15 and set Darkness equal to 10) either with the help of slides or by typing the values inside the relevant boxes according to the picture below.

Filter named Photocopy is being applied on the image

Having done the required setting, apply it on the image by clicking the button named OK given in the same dialogue box. As soon as you will hit the button named OK the image will assume the aspect of a Photocopy according to the picture below.

Formerly colored picture has assumed the features of a Photocopy

Right after applying the filter upon the image, get inside the Edit Menu and select the option named Fade Photocopy.

Option referred as Fade Photocopy given in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select the option named Fade Photocopy, there will be appeared the dialogue box named Fade one more time. In that dialogue box set the Opacity and Blending Mode for the filter according to your choice or requirement (for instance select the Blending Mode named Vivid Light to apply on the picture and set the Opacity equal to 50%) according to the picture below.

Impacts of Fade command upon the impacts or the filter named Photocopy

In order to apply that setting upon the image, click the button named OK or hit the Enter Key on the keyboard.

So, that is how you can fade the impacts of different tools, filters and adjustments applied on different images and by doing so, you can give entirely different looks to different images.

I hope this post will be proved helpful to all my readers, if so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your valued comments.

Functionality of Step Backward in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 02:21:00 +0000

Undo is a command that is most commonly used while working with any software program. Whenever you do any mistake accidentally during work or somehow you don’t feel satisfied with your work, you can simply apply the command named Undo to delete the wrong or undesired work from your document. For instance, you are working on Microsoft Word and you have performed the following tasks:

You have pasted a paragraph on the page.
Secondly, you have inserted an image.
Thirdly, you have added a caption for that image.

Having performed all the tasks described above, if you apply the command named Undo for the very first time, the caption will be disappeared from the document. If you apply the command named Undo second time, the inserted image will be vanished from the document. Finally, if you apply the same command third time, the pasted paragraph will be vanished from the page. That is how you can correct all the mistakes and prepare a perfectly accurate document. Though, using the command named Undo you can correct all the mistakes with remarkable ease while working with most of the software programs, but unfortunately, while working on Photoshop, this command may not be proved as much simpler and easier as it seems in the case of Microsoft Word or any other software.

Whenever you apply the command named Undo on Photoshop document, Photoshop delete the impact of the most recently applied command, whether it be some other command or the command named Undo itself. For instance, while working with Photoshop you have performed the following tasks:

You have added a new layer.
Secondly, you have filled background color inside it.
Thirdly, you have reduced the opacity level for that layer up to 70%.

Having performed all the tasks described above if you select the command named Undo for the very first time ,the opacity level of the selected layer will turn back from 70% to 100% as the reduction in the opacity level was the most recent work done on the document in that case. But problem is that, if you will apply the command named Undo second time consecutively on the same document, the opacity level of the layer will get reduced again from 100% to 70%. The reason is that, whenever you apply the command named Undo, this command itself becomes the most recent command applied on the document and it delete the impact of itself when you apply it second time consecutively.

Two commands of Photoshop

In order to resolve that issue, Photoshop introduced another command that is referred a Step Backward. This command helps you to delete the undesired impacts of two or more than two consecutively applied commands on the document.

How does Step Backward work in Adobe Photoshop?

In order to understand the functionality of the command named Step Backward follow the instructions given below:

First of all create a new Photoshop document with RGB Color Mode and White Content specified.

Blank PSD file with RGB color mode and White Content

In order to fill Background Color inside the newly created document, hit CTRL + Backspace on the Keyboard. As soon as you will do so, the color that has been selected as Background Color in Tool Box will be filled inside the locked background layer of the document according to the picture below
.

Background Color has been filled inside the locked background layer

Then add a new layer by hitting the tiny icon that can be seen right beneath the Layer Palette and referred as Create a new Layer. As soon as you will hit that icon, a new layer will be added in the document along with the locked background layer and a new thumbnail representing that new layer will be appeared in the Layer Palette right above the locked background layer. As the new layer will be completely transparent and the background layer will totally be visible from behind it, the addition of new layer will not cause any change in the overall look of the document. As can be seen in the picture below.

Two thumbnails in the Layer Palette indicating the presence of two separate layers in the document

After the addition of a new layer, hit Alt+ Backspace on the keyboard to fill Foreground Color inside it. As soon as you will hit Alt + Backspace, the color that has been selected as Foreground Color in the tool box will be filled inside that layer and it will hide totally the formerly visible background layer according to the picture below.

Foreground color has been filled inside layer 1

Then reduce the Opacity of the layer 1 from 100% to 70% using the slide named Opacity that can be seen inside the Layer Palette right beside the drop-down menu referred as Blending Modes. As soon as you will reduce the Opacity of layer 1, the color of background layer will start to reveal itself to some extant from behind the layer 1 according to the picture below.

Layer 1 with reduced Opacity level

Then get inside the Edit Menu and select the option named Step Backward for the very first time either by clicking on it in the menu or by hitting CTRL + ALT +Z on the keyboard.

Option referred as Step Backward given in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select that option, you will notice that the opacity of layer 1 will turn back from 70% to 100% all by itself and it will hide the background layer completely according to the picture below.

Opacity level has been turned back from 70% to 100% for the layer 1

Then, select the command named Step Backward again. As soon as you will do so, impacts of the second last command applied on the document named Foreground Color will be deleted and the layer 1 will get completely transparent again. Further, the Background layer will become perfectly visible again according to the picture below
.

Impact of the command named Foreground Color has been deleted

After that, select the command named Step Backward one more time, and this time the impact of the third last command (Creation of a new layer) will be removed and the layer 1 will be vanished from the Layer Palette according to the picture below.

Layer 1 no longer available

Then select the command named Step Backward again either by clicking on it in the Edit Menu or by hitting CTRL + ALT + Z on the keyboard. As soon as you will perform that action, impact of the fourth last command (Background Color) will be removed and the Background layer will turn pure white again according to the picture below.

Background layer turned pure white again

Having removed the impacts of all the commands applied on the document, if you have a look on the Edit Menu you will notice that the command named Step Backward no longer available there as there is left nothing to be undone anymore.

Option referred as Step Backward can not be used when nothing left to be undone on the document

So that’s the way through which you can rectify all the mistakes and everything undesired done on the Photoshop document during the work.

I am certain this post will be proved helpful to all the readers especially the beginner ones in the field of Information Technology in general and in the field of Computer Graphic in particular. If you want to put forward any question regarding the topic or suggestion for further improvement kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of BMW

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 03:57:00 +0000

This is my seventh post about logo designing and in this post I am going to explain the drawing method of the logo of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG in CorelDraw X6. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is basically a German organization that manufactures automobiles, motorcycles and engines. This organization was founded in 1916 and most commonly known as BMW. In the following image you can see the logo of BMW drawn by me using CorelDraw X6.

Logo of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)

While drawing this logo, I have used some very useful and wonderful tools of Coreldraw X6 including the Ellipse Tool, Convert Outline to Object, Fountain Fill, Power Clip and Fit Text to Path etc. Following are given the steps through which you can draw the same logo within a very short period of time.

How to draw the logo of BMW using CorelDraw X6?

Having created a new document, first of all select the Ellipse Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F7 on the keyboard.

Ellipse Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) with a tiny shape of an ellipse at the bottom right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a shape of an ellipse by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed.

Having drawn the shape of an ellipse, select it with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as your will select the shape, it’s properties including it’s width, it’s height and it’s Outline width will be appeared in the Property Bar. In order to convert the selected shape of an ellipse into a perfect circle, set it’s width equal to it’s height ( Width= 8.0, Height= 8.0) in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected shape will assume the same width and height and will be transformed into a perfect circle. Then fill black color inside that circle by selecting the thumbnail representing black color in the Color Palette with left mouse click and select the outline width for the selected shape equal to 10 pt out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Outline width according to the picture below.

Black circle with 10 pt wide outline

After that, make a duplicate of that circle by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit CTRL + D on the keyboard, another circle of the same size ,color and outline width will be appeared on the document. Then select that duplicate black circle with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equals to 4.5 in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected duplicate circle will assume the same width and height. Then change it's color from dark black to light grey by selecting the thumbnail representing light grey color in the Color Palette and change the Outline width for the same circle from 10 pt to 8 pt by selecting 8 pt out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Outline width according to the picture below.

Duplicate circle with altered size, color and Outline width

Then, make another duplicate (this time of the selected grey circle) by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit CTRL + D, a duplicate of the selected grey circle will be appeared on the document.Then select that newly appeared duplicate circle with the help of Pick Tool and reduce it's width and height from 4.5 to 4.3 by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. After that fill dark grey color in the selected circle’s outline by selecting the thumbnail representing dark grey color in the Color Palette with right mouse click according to the picture below.

Duplicate grey circle with altered size and outline color

After that select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the key board. Having selected all the objects, the next thing which is supposed to be done right after that is to set them on the same spot. For that purpose, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Align and Distribute. As soon as you will select that option it’s side menu will be appeared containing a few more options( including Align Left, Align Right, Align Top, Align Bottom, Align Centers Horizontally, Align Centers Vertically, Center to Page, Center to page Horizontally, Center to Page Vertically etc.) .

Side menu of the option named Align and Distribute

Out of these options , select Align Centers Horizontally or hit E on the keyboard to align the centers of all the selected objects on the document horizontally according to the picture below.

Three selected shape on the document with horizontally aligned centers

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu again and again select the option named Align and Distribute by clicking on it. Then, out of the options given in the side menu of Align and Distribute, select Align Centers Vertically by clicking on it or by hitting C on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, centers of all the selected objects will be aligned vertically too and you will have all the objects on the document placed on the same spot, according to the picture below.

Circular shapes on the document placed on the same spot

After that, select the biggest circle (black circle) on the document by clicking on it with the help of Pick Tool and convert it’s 10 pt wide outline into a separate object by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option named Convert Outline to Object or by hitting CTRL + Shift + Q on the keyboard.

Option named Convert Outline to Object given in the the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will select that option, the outline of the black circle will be converted into a separate object. After that click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the Fill Tool in the Tool Box by clicking on it. As soon as you will click that arrow a menu will be appeared containing a few options regarding fill (including Uniform Fill, Fountain Fill, Pattern Fill, Texture Fill, PostScript Fill, No Fill and Color). Out of the options given in the menu of the Fill Tool, select Fountain Fill either by clicking on it or by hitting F11 on the keyboard.

Opened menu of Fill Tool

As soon as you will do so, a window or dialogue box named Fountain Fill will be appeared. At the top of that window, under the head of Options there will be seen a drop-down menu named Type. Out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Type, select Linear by clicking on it. Then set the Angle for the Linear typed Fountain Fill equal to -120⁰ and set the Edge Pad equal to 8.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes. Further in the same window, there will be seen two radio buttons named Two Color and Custom under the head of Color Blend. By default you will find the radio button named Two Color selected in that window with all it’s setting options visible but here we need to select the other option named Custom.
As soon as you will select the radio button named Custom, the setting options of Two Color will be disappeared and the setting options of Custom will be appeared in the window. These options are consist of a Color Palette, a box named Position (by default inactive), a small rectangle named Current (that shows the color inside the currently selected area), a large rectangle ( used to set the position of different colors in the single object) with two tiny squares at the top left and top right corners of it, and right beneath that rectangle, there will be seen a drop-down menu name Preset.
Further, you will notice that the tiny square at the top left corner of the large rectangle will be black by default that means that the left part of the selected object remain ready to be filled with any color by default through that window. So fill dark grey color in that part by selecting the thumbnail representing dark grey color in the color Palette given in the same window with left mouse click. As soon as you will select that thumbnail, dark grey color will be filled inside the selected part of the rectangular shape according to the picture below.

Selected Type, Angle and Edge pad in the window named Fountain Fill

Then, select the tiny square that can be seen at the top right corner of the rectangular shape by clicking on. As soon as that tiny square will be selected, it will turn black and indicate that the right part of the shape is ready to be filled with any color. Then fill dark grey color in that part of the shape too, by selecting the thumbnail representing dark grey color in the color palette with left mouse click. As soon as the grey color will be filled inside that part of the shape, the shape will turn totally dark grey according to the picture below.

Grey color has been filled inside the entire shape

After that, put the pointer of your mouse anywhere inside the dark grey rectangular shape and hit the left button of your mouse twice. As soon as you will do so, a slide will be appeared right above the grey rectangular shape with a tiny black arrow pointing toward the selected area and the formerly inactive box named Position will become active showing the current position of the recently appeared black arrow in the slide.
Then, set the position of the black arrow equal to 50 by typing the value in the box named Position. As soon as you will type the value 50 in the box named Position, the black arrow will move at the center of the slide pointing toward the central area of the rectangular shape. Then fill light grey color inside the central part of the rectangular shape by selecting the thumbnail representing light grey color in the color Palette with left mouse click. As soon as you will select that thumbnail, light grey color will be filled inside the central part of the rectangular shape according to the picture below.

Central part of the shape with light grey color filled inside

After that click OK to apply that setting on the outline of the black circle according to the picture below.

Black circle with light and dark grey outline

After that, select the black part of the biggest circle on the document by clicking on it and once again open the window named Fountain Fill either by clicking on the option named Fountain Fill given in the menu of Fill Tool or by hitting F11 on the keyboard as I have explained earlier. Having opened the window named Fountain Fill, first of all, select Radial as the type of Fountain Fill out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Type. As soon as you will select the option named Radial, the formerly inactive boxes named Horizontal and Vertical under the head of Center Offset will get active and, at the same time, the formerly active box named Angle will get inactive. Then, set the Edge pad for the radial typed Fountain Fill equal to 20, set Center offset (Horizontal) equal to 90 and set Center offset (Vertical) equal to -95 by typing the values in the relevant boxes according to the picture below .

Radial as selected fill Type in the window named Fountain Fill

After that, in order to apply that setting on the selected black circle, either click the button named OK given in the same window or hit the Enter Key on the keyboard. As soon as you will click the button named OK or hit the Enter Key, the required setting will be applied on the black circle according to the picture below.

Black circle with glistening surface

After that, select the small light grey circle with the help of Pick Tool and change it’s color from light grey to pure white by selecting the thumbnail representing white color in the Palette.

Selected smaller circle with white fill inside

After that, select the Rectangle Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a tiny rectangular shape at the bottom right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a rectangular or square shaped object there by dragging your mouse in any direction while keeping it’s left button pressed.
Then select that newly drawn shape with the help of Pick Tool and in order to convert it into a perfect square, set it’s width equal to it’s height in the Property Bar by typing the values ( width=3.0, Height= 3.0) in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key.As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected shape will assume the same width and height and will be converted into a perfect square. After that, select the outline width for the selected square equal to 8.0 pt out of the different width options given in the drop-down menu named Outline width and fill dark grey color in that 8 pt wide outline of the selected square by selecting the thumbnail representing dark grey color in the color Palette with right mouse click according to the picture below.

Perfect square with 8.0 pt wide grey outline

After that hit F11 on the keyboard to open the window named Fountain Fill again as I have explained earlier. Then in that window select Linear out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Type, set the Angle equal to 139.9^o and set the Edge pad equal to 24 by typing the values in the relevant boxes. Then out of the different color options given in the two apparently hidden Color Palettes named From and To, select dark cyan color and light cyan color respectively according to the picture below.

Type, Angle, Edge pad and hidden color palettes named From and To in the window named Fountain Fill

After that click OK to apply this setting on the selected square with 8.0 pt wide outline. Then, make a duplicate of that cyan square either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, another cyan colored square will be appeared on the document. Then with the help of Pick Tool set both the squares in a way that the bottom- right corner of the first square could touch the top-left corner of the duplicate square according to the picture below.

Two squares on the right place

After that, select the duplicate square with the help of Pick Tool and convert it’s outline into a separate object by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option named Convert Outline to Object or by hitting CTRL + Shift + Q on the keyboard. Then select the cyan part of the same square by clicking on it reduce it’s width and height from 3.0 to 2.8 by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key the selected part will assume the same size and white page will begin to peer from the empty area generated by the reduced size of the selected square according to the picture below.

Selected square with reduced size and outline converted into a separate object

After that, hit F11 on the keyboard to open the window named Fountain Fill one more time. Having opened that window, the only thing which is supposed to be done is the selection of colors out of the different color options given in the two hidden Color Palettes named From and To. So select dark blue color out of the options given in the hidden Color Palette named From and select dark cyan color out of the options given in the hidden Color Palette named To according to the picture below.

Select dark blue as From and dark cyan as To

After that in order to apply that setting upon the selected shape click the button named OK . As soon as you will click the button named OK, the required setting will be applied on the selected shape according the picture below.

Two squares on the document with different colors filled inside

After that, select both the squares and the outline of the second square with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on each object one by one while keeping the Shift Key on the keyboard pressed. Having selected these three objects, group them together either by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option named Group or by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard. Then, get inside the Effects Menu and select the option named Power Clip given there. As soon as you will select that option it’s side menu will be appeared containing a few more options. Out of the options given in the side menu of Power Clip select Place Inside Frame.

Option named Power Clip with it's side menu

As soon as you will select that option, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a remarkably thick black arrow.

Mouse pointer has been converted into a remarkably thick black arrow

Then put that thick black arrow shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere inside the small white circle and hit the left button of your mouse once. As you will do so, the selected group of two squares and the outline of the second square will be placed inside the small white circle according to the picture below.

Selected group of two squares and the outline of the second square has been placed inside the white circle

If you notice anything wrong about the position of the group inside the circle, you can edit it easily. For that purpose, get inside the Effects Menu again and again select the option named Power Clip. Then out of the options given in the side menu of Power Clip select Edit Power Clip.

Option named Edit Power Clip given in the side menu of Power Clip

As soon as you will select that option, the position of the group inside the white circle will get ready to be edited while rest of the objects on the document will get dimmed. Then with the help of Pick Tool place the group at the right position according to the picture below.

Place the group on the right position with the help of Pick Tool

Having placed the group on the right position, in order to finish the editing , get inside the Effects Menu again and again select the option Power Clip. After that, out of the options given in the side menu of Power Clip select Finish Editing this Level.

Option referred as Finish Editing this Level given in the side menu of Power Clip

As soon as you will do so, editing will be finished and the group will be appeared inside the white circle at the appropriate position according to the picture below.

Edited position of the group inside the white circle

After that select the Text Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a tiny but prominent letter A at the bottom right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and type B M W there (hit the Space Bar once after typing each letter). Then select that recently typed text with the help of Pick Tool . As soon as the text will be selected , it’s properties will be appeared on the Property Bar.

Then, select Arial Black as Typeface for the selected text out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Font List, specify the font size for the selected text equal to 120 pt either by selecting 120 pt out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Font Size or by typing the value inside the box. Then fill light grey color inside the selected text by selecting the thumbnail representing light grey color in the Color Palette with left mouse click and fill black color in the selected text outline by selecting the thumbnail representing black color in the Color Palette with right mouse click according to the picture below.

Recently typed text and it's properties

Having set the properties of the text, get inside the Text Menu and select the option named Fit Text to Path given there.

Option referred as Fit Text To Path given in the Text Menu

As soon as you will select that option, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a (not so thick) horizontal black arrow with a prominent letter A and a tiny twisted line at the bottom right of it. Then put that pointer of your mouse inside the black circle and set the position of the selected text according to picture below.

Selected text is being placed at the accurate path

Have set the position of the selected text inside the black circle hit the left button of your mouse once to put the text permanently at the same position according to the picture below.

Logo image almost ready to be saved

Then select all the objects on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard and group them together by hitting CTRL + G. Then the logo of BMW will ready to be saved, so save it in CDR format either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Save or by hitting CTRL + S. In order to save the same logo in any other format (e.g. PNG, JPEG, AI, GIF etc.) select Export out of the options given in the File Menu or hit CTRL + E on the keyboard as I have explained in the my post Illustration of Pakistani flag in CorelDraw X6.

I hope you will enjoy this post, so have fun with it but kindly don’t forget to subscribe your comment.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of Adity Birla Group of Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 06:39:00 +0000

This is my sixth post about logo designing and in this post I am going to explain the drawing method of the logo Aditya Birla Group of Companies. That is an Indian multinational organization founded by Seth Shev Narayan Birla in 1857. This organization has large business in different sectors e.g. Metals, Cement, Fertilizers, Chemicals, Carbon Black, branded apparel, Telecom, Financial and I.T services etc. In the following image you can see the logo of Aditya Birla Group of Companies made in CorelDraw X6.

Aditya Birla Group of Companies

Though the logo in the above image seems a complicated one and of course it is, but you can draw it withing 10 minutes or so, without any difficulty if you follow the instructions given below.

How to draw the logo of Aditya Birla Group of Companies using CorelDraw X6?

In order to draw the logo of Aditya Birla Group of Companies, first of all create a new document by following the method I have explained in my post named CorelDraw Tutorial: Logo of Douglas County Bank. After that select the Rectangle Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select the Rectangle Tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a tiny rectangular shape at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a rectangular or square shaped object there by dragging your mouse in any direction while keeping it’s left button pressed. Having drawn a rectangular or square shaped object on the document, select it with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equal to 8.0 in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard. As soon as your will hit the Enter Key, the selected rectangular or square shaped object will assume the same width and height and will be transformed into a perfect square.

Perfect square with equal width and height

Then , select the Ellipse Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F7 on the keyboard.

Ellipse Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) with a tiny ellipse at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw an ellipse there by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. Having drawn an ellipse on the document, convert it into a perfect circle by setting it’s width equal to it’s height. In order to do so, select the shape with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as the shape will be selected, all it’s properties including it’s width and height will be appeared on the Property Bar. Then set the width and the height of the selected shape equals to 8.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key the selected circle will assume the size defined in the Property Bar.

Perfect circle on the document

Then make a duplicate of that recently drawn circle either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard.

Option named Duplicate given in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select the option named Duplicate given in the Edit Menu or hit CTRL + D, another circle of the same size will be appeared on the document. Then select that newly appeared duplicate circle with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equals to 4.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected duplicate circle will assume the same width and height according to the picture below.

Two circles with different diameter

After that, click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the Freehand Tool in the Tool Box to open a menu containing a few more tools. Out of those tools select 2-Point Line Tool by clicking on it.

2-Point Line Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select the tool named 2-Point Line, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign once again with a tiny two point diagonal line at the bottom-right of it. Then put the pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a horizontal line by dragging your mouse horizontally either from left to right or from right to left while keeping it’s left button and the CTRL Key on the keyboard pressed at the same time. Then select that recently drawn horizontal line with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width equal to 10 by typing the value in the relevant box given in the property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key that recently drawn selected horizontal line will assume the same width according to the picture below.

Horizontal line drawn by the use of 2-Point Line Tool

After that, make a duplicate of that horizontal line either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Duplicate, or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, another horizontal line with equal width will be appeared on the document. Then select that newly appeared duplicate line with the help of Pick Tool and set the Angle of rotation for it equal to 90^o by typing the value in the relevant box given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected horizontal line will be rotated on 90^o angle and will be transformed into a vertical line with width and height equals to 0.0 and 10.0 respectively according to the picture below.

Selected duplicate line with altered angle

After that select all the objects on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard . Then get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Align and Distribute given there. As soon as you will select that option , it’s side menu will be appeared containing a few more options. Out of those options select Align Centers Horizontally by clicking on it or by hitting E on the keyboard.

Align Centers Horizontally in the side menu of Align and Distribute

As soon as you will select the option named Align Centers Horizontally or hit E on the keyboard, the centers of all the selected objects on the document will get horizontally aligned according to the picture below.

Selected objects on the document after the selection of the option named Align Centers Horizontally

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu again and again select the option named Align and Distribute given there. As soon as the option named Align and Distribute will be selected, it’s side menu will be appeared revealing some other options. Out of those options select Align Centers Vertically by clicking on it or by hitting C on the keyboard.

Align Centers Vertically in the side menu of Align and Distribute

As soon as you will do so, centers of all the selected objects on the document will be aligned vertically too according to the picture below.

Selected objects on the document after the selection of the option named Align Centers Vertically and horizontally

After that select the Smart Fill Tool by clicking on it in the Tool Box.

Smart Fill Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign again and the tool properties including Fill Options, Fill Color, Outline options, Outline Width and Outline Color will be appeared on the Property Bar. Then,out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Fill Options select Specify, select any color of your choice out of the many color options given in the palette named Fill Color, select Specify out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Outline Options, select 0.5 out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Outline width and select any color of your choice out of the different coloring options given in the palette named Outline color ( as Fill Color and Outline Color do not create any good or bad effect on tool’s performance so you can leisurely ignore these two menus).

Properties of Smart Fill in the Property Bar

After that put the plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse on the top-left partition (made by the outlines of the top-left sides of the square and the bigger circle) and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, there will be created a separate object on that partition, of the same size and shape, and at the same time, the color you would have selected as Fill Color in the Property Bar will be filled inside that newly created object placed on the top-left partition according to the picture below.

Newly created grey colored object placed on the top left partition

After that, put the pointer of your mouse on the top-right partition (made by the outlines of the top right sides of the square and the bigger circle) and hit the left button of your mouse again to create a separate object of the same size and shape there too.Then create the separate objects on the partitions (made by the outlines of the upper-half of the bigger circle, upper -half of the smaller circle, horizontal line and vertical line) by putting the mouse pointer on each partition one by one and hitting the left button of it once every time according to the picture below.

Four grey colored objects placed on the four partitions

After that, with the help of Pick Tool select the object placed on top-left partition and fill red color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the Color Palette with left mouse click according to the picture below.

Red color has been filled inside the selected object

After that by following the same method:

Fill light brown color inside the object placed on the top-right partition made by the outlines of the right sides of the square and the bigger circle.
Fill light brown color inside the object placed on the partition made by the horizontal and vertical lines and the outlines of the right sides of the upper halves of the bigger and the smaller circles.
Fill red color inside the object placed on the partition made by the horizontal line, vertical line and the left sides of the upper halves of the bigger and the smaller circles according to the picture below.

Right way of coloring different objects

After that select the horizontal line by clicking on it and then get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Transformations. As soon as you will select that option, it’s side menu will be appeared containing five more options including Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size and Skew. Out of those options select Rotate either by clicking on it or by hitting Alt + F8 on the keyboard.

Option named Transformations along with it's side menu

As soon as the option named Rotate given in the side menu of Transformations will be selected, a large window named Transformations will be appeared on the right side of CorelDraw window. At the top of that window there will be seen five tabs representing five options of Transformations ( including Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size and Skew). As the window named Transformations would have been opened by the selection of the option named Rotate, so you will find the tab representing Rotate selected by default in that window. Right beneath those tabs there will be seen a box named Angle or Rotation. In that box specify the Angle of Rotation for the selected line equal to 16.3^o by typing the value in the box and hitting the Enter Key. There is no need to make any change in the values given in the boxes named X and Y under the head of Center, so ignore these two boxes and leave the check box named Relative Center unchecked. Right beneath the check box named Relative Center, there will be seen another box named Copies . Specify the number of copies equal to 10 by typing the value in the box and hitting the Enter Key. Having done that setting, hit the button named Apply that can be seen at the bottom-right of all the options given in the window named Transformations. As soon as you will hit that button, 10 copies of the selected line will be appeared on the document each placed at the angle of 16.3^o from it’s predecessor according to the picture below.

Window named Transformations with tab named Rotate selected in it

After that select the Smart Fill Tool again by clicking on it in the Tool Box and set all the tool options given in the Property Bar precisely the same way I have explained earlier ( select Specify as Fill Option, select any color of your choice as Fill Color, select Specify as Outline Option, set Outline width equal to 0.5 and select any color of your choice as Outline Color ). Then put the plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse on all the small partitions made by the outline of the smaller circle and the copies of line in the upper half of the smaller circle one by one and hit the left button of your mouse to convert each small colorless partition into a colored object according to the picture below.

Newly created objects in the upper half of the smaller circle

Then, with the help of Pick Tool select the object placed on the left bottom-most partition inside the upper half of the smaller circle and fill red color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the Color Palette with left mouse click according to the picture below.

Object placed on the left bottom most partition of the upper half of the smaller circle with red color filled inside

Then, by following the same method, fill red color inside all the objects placed on all the alternate partitions in the upper half of the smaller circle and fill light brown color inside the objects placed on the rest of the partitions according the picture below.

Small objects placed on the partitions in the upper half of the smaller circle with red and brown colors filled inside

After that select all the lines on the document one by one with the help of Pick Tool and delete them either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Delete or by hitting Delete key on the keyboard.

Image after the deletion of all the lines

Then select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard and group them together either by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option named Group of hit by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard. After that click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the Freehand Tool to open a menu containing different other tools. Out of those, select the Pen Tool by clicking on it.

Pen Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a pen.Then, with the help of Pen Tool, draw a thorn or spike shaped object at the top of the smaller circle. For that purpose put the pen shaped pointer of your mouse at the top-left corner of the light brown object placed on the middle partition of the upper half of the smaller circle and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, a thread issued from the pen shaped pointer will be stuck to that point.Then drag your mouse upward diagonally toward the right side and hit the left button of it on the mid point of the top of the bigger circle. Then drag your mouse downward toward the right side diagonally and hit the left button of it on the top-right corner of the red object placed on the middle partition of the smaller circle. Then drag your mouse horizontally toward the left side and hit the left button of it at the top-left corner of the light brown object placed on the middle partition of the smaller circle according the picture below.

Spike shaped object drawn with the help of Pen Tool

After that , select the Pick Tool by clicking on it in the Tool Box. Then put the pointer of your mouse on the recently drawn thorn of spike shaped object and hit the left button of your mouse twice. As soon as you will do so, the spike shaped object will be surrounded by a few black double sided arrows and it’s default rotation point will be highlighted by a small circle.

Spike shaped object with rotation point set on it's default position

Then put the pointer of your mouse on that rotation point (pointer will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign as soon as it will touch the rotation point) and drag it downward from it’s default position to the middle of the upper half of the smaller circle, and drop it there according to the picture below.

Rotation point of the spike shaped object on altered position

After that hit Alt + F8 on the keyboard to open the window named Transformations again with tab named Rotate selected on it. Then set the Angle of Rotation for the spike shaped object equal to 32.6^oby typing the value in the relevant box, ignore again the boxes named X and Y under the head of Center, leave the check box named Relative Center unchecked and specify the number or copies equal to 2 by typing the value in the box named Copies and hitting the Enter Key. Having done that setting, hit the button named Apply at the bottom right of all the options given in the window named Transformations. As soon as you will do so, two copies of the spike shaped object will be emerged at the left side of it each at the angle of 32.6^ofrom it’s predecessor.

Two copies of the spike shaped object, each placed at the angle of 32.6^ofrom it's predecessor

After that put the pointer again on the first spike shaped object (made by the use of Pen Tool) and hit the left button of your mouse twice . As soon as you will do so, the spike shaped object will again be surrounded by a few black double sided arrows with rotation point highlighted by a small circle. Then set the Angle of Rotation for that shape equal to -32.6^o by typing the value in the relevant box given in the already opened window named Transformations. Then in the same window, set the number of copies equal to 2 by typing the value in the box named Copies and hit the button named Apply as I have explained earlier. As soon as you will hit the button named Apply, two more copies of the spike shaped object will be emerged on the document, this time, at the right side of the selected shape each set at the angle of -32.6^o from it's predecessor according to the picture below.

Four copies of the spike shaped object

After that select the Smart Fill Tool again by clicking on it in the Tool Box and set all it's options in the Property Bar according to the same way I have explained earlier. Then put the pointer of your mouse on the light brown part of the spike shaped object in the middle and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, there will be created a separate object of the same shape. Then put the pointer on the red part of the same object and hit the left button of your mouse again to create a separate object here too according to the picture below.

Two objects created on the middle spike ready to be filled with different colors

After that, select the left part of the spike shaped object in the middle and two spikes placed at the left side of it with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on each one by one while keeping the Shift Key on the keyboard pressed. Then fill red color inside all the selected objects by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the color Palette.

left sided spikes with red fill inside

Then, select the right part of the spike shaped object in the middle and the two spikes at the right side of it with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on each one by one while keeping the Shift Key pressed on the keyboard. Then fill light brown color inside all the selected shapes by selecting the thumbnail representing light brown color in the Color Palette with left mouse click according to the picture below.

Spike shaped objects place at the right side of the middle spike filled with light brown color

After that select all the object on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard. Then select the Rectangle Tool again either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F6 on the keyboard. Then with the help of this tool, draw a large rectangular shape anywhere on the document and, in order to make it clearly visible, fill any color inside it by selecting any thumbnail given in the Color Palette with left mouse click. After that put that rectangular shape on the lower halves of all the shapes ( lower halves of square, bigger circle and the smaller circle) on the document , so that it could hide those parts of the shapes according to the picture below.

Lower halves of the three shapes hidden behind the rectangle

After that hit CTRL + A again to select all the shapes on the document simultaneously . As soon as you will select all the shapes, shaping options including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those options select Trim to have the hidden lower halves of all the shapes nicely trimmed off.

Shaping options named Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify,Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary

As soon as the option named Trim will be selected, the hidden parts of all the shapes behind the reclangle will be deleted or trimmed off. After that select the large rectangular shape beneath the almost finished logo of Aditya Birla Group of Companies with the help of Pick Tool and delete it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Delete or by hitting the Delete Key on the keyboard. After that, select the logo with the help of Pick Tool and remove the color of it’s outline by selecting the thumbnail representing None (No color) in the color Palette with right mouse click. As soon as you will select that thumbnail black outline of the logo will be vanished from the sight.

Logo with no visible outline

After that, select the Text Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as the Text Tool will be selected, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus sign ( + ) with a prominent letter A at the bottom right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse right beneath the logo and type the phrase “ADITYA BIRLA GROUP” there and select that recently typed text with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as the text will be selected, it’s properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Then select Arial as Typeface for the selected text out of the many options given in the drop-down menu named Font-List, set the Font Size for the selected text equal to 50 pt by typing the value in the box named Font Size and hitting the Enter Key and set the attribute named Bold for the text by selecting the box representing that attribute in the Property Bar. Having done that setting, fill red color inside the selected text by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the color Palette with left mouse click according to the Picture below.

Typed text and it's properties in the Property Bar

Then the logo of Aditya Birla Group will ready to be saved so save it in CDR format either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Save or by hitting CTRL +S on the keyboard. In order to save the same logo in any format other than CDR, select the option named Export given in the File Menu or hit CTRL + E on the keyboard instead of selecting the option named Save or hitting CTRL + S. Having saved the document use it anywhere you like by putting different suitable backgrounds behind it.
I hope you will find this post simple, easy and helpful, so have fun with it but kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of Adidas

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:01:00 +0000

This is my fifth post about logo designing and in this post I have decided to explain the drawing method of the the logo of a very well-known and well-reputed organization named Adidas in CorelDraw X6 . Adidas is a German multinational company that designs and manufactures sport goods e.g. sport shoes, clothing and other accessories. Though the logo of Adidas is a beautiful one, but at the same time, it is very simple and easy to draw.

Logo of Adidas

You can see the logo of Adidas in the above image made within two minutes by the use some very important CorelDraw tools including Ellipse Tool, Rectangle Tool, Text Tool and a very important shaping option named Intersect.

How to draw Logo of Adidas using CorelDraw X6?

In order to draw logo of Adidas, first of all create a new document by following the method I have explained in my post named CorelDraw Tutorial: Logo of Douglas County Bank. Having created a new document, first of all select the Ellipse Tool by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F7 on the keyboard.

Ellipse Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a tiny shape of an ellipse at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw an ellipse by dragging your mouse in any direction while keeping it’s left button pressed.
Then, in order to transform that newly drawn ellipse into a perfect circle, set it’s width and height equal to each other. For that purpose select that ellipse with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties including it’s width and height in the Property Bar. Then set the width and height of the selected shape equals to 6.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard. As soon as your will hit the Enter Key, the selected shape will assume the same width and height and will be transformed into a perfect circle.

Perfect circle on the document

After that, select that circle with the help of Pick Tool and make a duplicate of it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Duplicate given in the menu or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard.
As soon as you will select the option Duplicate or hit CTRL +D, a duplicate circle will be appeared on the document.

Recently appeared duplicate circle along with the first shape

Then, with the help of Pick Tool put the duplicate shape on the first shape in a way that it’s left part could overlap the right part of the first shape according to the picture below.

Right place for two circles

After that select both the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit CTRL + A both the shapes will be selected and the shaping options including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those shaping options , the option which is supposed to selected here is none other than Intersect.

Intersection of two shapes

As soon as you will select that option, a leaf shaped object will be created from the area where two circles overlap each other. Then select both the circles one by one and delete them either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Delete or by hitting Delete Key on the keyboard.
After that, select that leaf shaped object with the help of Pick Tool and fill green color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing green color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. Then, in order to fill the same green shade in the selected shape’s outline, select the same thumbnail by hitting the right button of your mouse.

Leaf shaped object with green color filled inside

After that, make a duplicate of that leaf shaped green object either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, a duplicate leaf shaped object will be appeared on the document. Then select that duplicate with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on it. As soon as you will select that object, it’s properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those properties, the property that is supposed to be altered here is it’s Angle of rotation. So set the Angle of rotation for the duplicate leaf shaped object equal to 320^o by typing the value in the relevant box and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected duplicate shape will assume the same angle.

Duplicate shape with 320 degree angle

After that, with the help of Pick Tool put that rotated duplicate shape beside the first shape according to the picture below.

Two leaf shaped object placed together on the document

After that, select the first shape again with the help of Pick Tool and make another duplicate of it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, another duplicate of that green leaf shaped object will be appeared on the document. Then select that new made duplicate with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties on the Property Bar. Then set the Angle of rotation for the selected shape equal to 40^o by typing the value in the relevant box given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected object will be rotated on the same angle.

Second duplicate shape with 40 degree angle

After that , with the help of Pick Tool put that shape at the left side of the first shape according to the picture below.

Second duplicate shape placed at the left of the first shape

Then select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together either by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard or by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option named Group. After that select that group with the help of Pick Tool and set it ‘s width and height equals to 6.5 and 4.5 respectively by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, the selected group will assume the same width and height.

Width and height for the selected group

Then, select the Rectangle Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a tiny rectangular shape at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer or your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a rectangular shape there by dragging your mouse and keeping it’s left button pressed. Then select that newly drawn rectangle and set it’s width and height in the Property Bar equals to 7.0 and 0.255 respectively by typing the values in the relevant boxes an hitting the Enter Key. Then put that shape on the group of three green leaf shaped objects according to the picture below.

Large thin rectangle placed on the group

Then, draw another rectangle by using Rectangle Tool and set it’s width and height equals to 7.0 and 0.244 respectively by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. Then with the help of Pick Tool put that recently made rectangular shape on the previously made group of three leaf shaped objects right beneath the first rectangular shape leaving a little distance between the two shapes according to the picture below.

Second rectangular shape placed right beneath the first shape on the group

After that, draw the third rectangular shape using Rectangle Tool and set it’s width and height equals to 7.0 and 0.233 respectively by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard. Then, put that shape too on the group of three leaf shaped objects right beneath the second rectangular shape leaving some distance between both the shapes according to the picture below.

Three rectangles placed on the group

After that, select all the objects on the document including the group of three leaf shaped objects and three remarkably thin rectangular shapes placed on that group by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit CTRL + A, all the shapes on the document will get selected and the shaping options will again be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those shaping options, select Trim by clicking on it.

Trim and other shaping options in the Property Bar

As soon as you will select that option, the part of the group on which three rectangular shapes are placed will be nicely trimmed off or deleted leaving empty rectangular spaces behind. Having trimmed the part of the group, select all the rectangular shapes one by one with the help of Pick Tool and delete them either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Delete or by hitting the Delete Key on the keyboard. After that select the Text Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus sign with a prominent letter A at the bottom-right of it. Then put the pointer of your mouse right beneath the almost finished logo and type the word “adidas” there. Then select that recently typed word with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties in the Property Bar. As soon as the word will be selected, it’s properties including Typeface and Font Size etc. will be appeared on the Property Bar. Select Century Gothic as typeface for the selected text out of the different options given in the drop-down menu named Font List and set the font size for the selected text equal to 120 pt by typing the value in the relevant box and hitting the Enter Key. Further, select Bold as attribute for the selected text by clicking on the box representing that attribute in the Property Bar.

Properties of the selected text in the Property Bar

After that, select Rectangle Tool again either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F6 on the keyboard and draw a large rectangular or square shaped object on the document covering the logo and the text thoroughly. Then fill black color inside the recently made rectangular or square shaped object by selecting the thumbnail representing black color in the Color palette with left mouse click. As soon as the color will be filled inside that shape, the logo and the text will totally be hidden behind the shape according to the picture below.

Logo and the text both have been hidden behind the square

In order to send the selected rectangular shape behind the logo and the text, hit Shift + pg dn on the keyboard or get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Order given in that menu. As soon as you will select that option , it's side menu will be appeared containing a few more options. Out of those options, the option which is supposed to be selected here is called To Back of Layer.

To Back of Layer in the side menu of Order

As soon as you will select the option named To Back of Layer or hit Shift + pg dn , the black rectangular shape will be shifted behind the logo and the text. At the same time, green colored logo will become clearly visible but the black colored text will remain out of sight. In order to make the text visible, select it first by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Select All. As soon as you will select that option, it’s side menu will be appeared containing some other options including Objects, Text, Guidelines and Nodes. Out of those options, select Text by clicking on it.

Options referred as Objects, Text, Guidelines and Nodes in the menu of Select All

As soon as you will select the option named Text, the invisible text on the document will be selected abruptly. Then fill white color in the selected text by selecting the thumbnail representing white color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. As soon as you will select that thumbnail by hitting the left button of your mouse, white color will be filled inside the selected text and it will become prominently visible against the black background.

Clearly visible text against the background

Then the logo of Adidas will ready to be saved, so save it in CDR format by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option named Save given there or by hitting CTRL + S on the keyboard. If you want to save the same logo in any format other than CDR, then get inside the File Menu and select the option named Export given in the menu or hit CTRL + E on the keyboard.Having saved the logo you can use it anywhere you like with or with alterations.
I hope you will find today’s post simple, easy and helpful, so have fun with it by kindly don’t forget to subscribe your comment.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of Google Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 03:54:00 +0000

This is my fourth post about logo designing and in this post I am going to to explain the drawing method of one of the most commonly used browsers in the world named Google Chrome using CorelDraw X6. In the following image you can see the logo of Google Chrome made in CorelDraw X6 by the use of it's some very useful tools including Ellipse Tool, Two Point Line Tool, Transparency Tool, option named Rotate given in the side menu of Transformations, shaping options called Trim and Simplify etc.

Logo of Google Chrome made in CorelDraw X6

The method I am going to explain may be a bit lengthy but I am sure no body is going to get bored while reading this post because it's always a fun to play with CorelDraw tools with amazing outcome.

How to draw logo of Google Chrome using CorelDraw X6?

In order to draw logo of Google Chrome, first of all create a new document by following the method I have explained in my previous post CorelDraw Tutorial; Logo of Douglas County Bank. Then select Ellipse Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F7 on the keyboard.

Ellipse Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a tiny shape of an ellipse at the bottom right of it. Then put that plus (+ ) sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw an ellipse there by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. After that, select that recently drawn shape with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as that shape will be selected, it’s properties including it’s width and height will be appeared on the Property Bar. In order to transform a roughly drawn ellipse into a perfect circle, set it’s width and height equal to each other ( both equal to 8.0 in this case) in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, selected shape will assume the same width and height and it will be transformed into a perfect circle. Having done so, fill any color in that circle temporarily just to make it clearly visible by selecting any thumbnail in the Color Palette with left mouse click.

perfect circle with equal width and height

After that make a copy to that circle either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Copy or by hitting CTRL + C on the keyboard.

Option referred as Copy in the Edit Menu

Having made a copy of the selected shape, paste it at the same spot on the first shape either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Paste or by hitting CTRL + V on the keyboard.

Option referred as Paste in the Edit Menu

Then select that recently pasted shape with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equals to 3.5 in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the recently pasted selected shape on the first shape will assume the same width and height. Having changed the width and height of the selected shape, fill bright cyan color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing that color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. As soon as you will do so, cyan color will be filled inside the selected shape.

Recently pasted circle with changed width, height and color

After that, select both the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard. As soon as you will select both the shapes on the document, shaping options (including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary) will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those shaping options, the option which is supposed to be selected here is none other than Trim. So select Trim to have the hidden part of the bigger circle ( hidden behind the smaller circle) nicely trimmed off.

Shaping options in the Property Bar

Having trimmed the hidden part of the bigger circle, once again select the smaller cyan colored circle with the help of Pick Tool and change it’s width and height from 3.5 to 3.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key having typed the values in the relevant boxes, the selected circle will assume the same width and height and will get smaller and the white page will start to peer from behind .

Circle width reduced width and height\

After that, click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of Freehand Tool to open a menu containing different other options. Out of the options given in that menu select Two Point Line Tool by clicking on it.

2-Point Line Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus (+) sign with a small diagonal line at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a long straight horizontal line by dragging your mouse toward the left or the right side and keeping it’s left button and CTRL Key pressed at the same time. After that put that horizontal straight line on the bigger shape in a way that it’s left end point could almost (but not really) touch the top of the smaller cyan colored circle according to the picture below.

Right place for the line

After that, put the pointer of your mouse on the line and hit the left button of it twice. As soon as you will do so, the line will be surrounded by a few black double sided arrows and a small circle will be appeared on the middle of the line indicating the rotation point of the line.

Horizontal line surrounded by black double sided arrows with rotation point on the middle

Put the pointer of your mouse on that circle shaped rotation point of the line (pointer will assume the shape of a plus sign as soon as it will touch the rotation point), keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag and drop the rotation point of the line on the center of the smaller circle according to the picture below.

Right place for the rotation point of the line

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Transformations. As soon as you will select that option, it's side menu will be appeared containing different transformation options including Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size and Skew. Out of those options , select Rotate by clicking on it or by hitting Alt + F8 on the keyboard.

Option referred as Rotate in the side menu of Transformations

As soon as you will do so, a window named Transformations will be appeared on the right side of the CorelDraw window. At the top of that window there will be seen five tabs representing the five transformation options named Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size and Skew. The tab you will find selected by default in that window will be none other than Rotate. Right beneath those tabs, there will be seen a box named Angle of Rotation. In that box, specify the angle of rotation equal to 120 by typing the value in the box and hitting the Enter Key. As the boxes named X and Y under the head of Center tell us the position of the rotation point for the selected object on the document so there is no need to make any change here. Finally in the box named Copies specify the number of copies equal to 2 and hit the button named Apply that can be seen at the bottom-right of the window named Transformations.

Window named Transformations with Tab referred as Rotate selected

As soon as you will hit the button named Apply there will be appeared two more lines on the bigger shape, each making 120^o angle from its predecessor.

Three lines placed on the right place

After that, with the help of Pick Tool select the bigger shape on the document and the three lines on it by clicking on each one by one holding down the Shift Key. As soon as you will do so , shaping options will again be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those options select Simplify to divide the bigger shape into three equal parts.

Shaping option referred as Simplify on the Property Bar

As soon as you will select the option Simplify the bigger shape on the document will be cut into three equal parts. Then select the three lines one by one with the help of Pick Tool and delete them either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Delete or by hitting the Delete Key on the keyboard. Having deleted the three lines, select the bigger shape with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on it and then get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Break Curve Apart or hit CTRL + K on the keyboard.

Option referred as Break Curve Apart in the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will select the option Break Curve Apart or hit CTRL + K, three parts of the bigger shape will be broken apart ready to be filled with three different colors. Having broken the three parts of the shape apart, select the top most part with the help of Pick Tool and fill red color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. Then select the same thumbnail again with right mouse click to fill red color in the selected shape’s outline.

Red color has been filled in the selected shape

After that , select the left part of the shape with the help of Pick Tool and fill green color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing green color in the Color Palette with left mouse click and then select the same thumbnail with right mouse click to fill the same shade in the selected shape’s outline.

Green color has been filled in the selected shape

Finally, select the left part of the shape with the help of Pick Tool and fill yellow color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing yellow color in the Color Palette by hitting the left button of your mouse and then, select the same thumbnail by hitting the right button of your mouse to fill yellow color in the selected shape’s outline.

Yellow color has been filled inside the selected shape

After that select the red part of the logo with the help of Pick Tool and then click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the Blend Tool in the Tool Box to open a menu containing different other tools including Blend Tool, Contour Tool, Distort Tool, Drop shadow Tool, Envelop Tool, Extrude Tool and Transparency Tool. Out of the tools given in that menu, the tool which is supposed to be selected here is Transparency Tool.

Transparency and other tools in the menu

As soon as you will select the Transparency Tool, a tiny shape of something look like a goblet will be appeared at the bottom-right of the arrow shaped black pointer of your mouse and the tool properties will be appeared on the Property Bar including three drop-down menus called Transparency Type, Transparency Operation and Transparency Target, a slide named Transparency midpoint and two boxes named Angle and edge pad.

Transparency Tool and it's properties

Out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Transparency Type, select the option Linear. As soon as you will select that option, the red part will turn noticeably white and all the previously inactive properties on the Property Bar will be activated. Select Normal out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Transparency operation, set the Transparency midpoint equal to 30 by typing the value in the relevant box and hitting the Enter Key and select Fill out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Transparency Target.

Setting of Transparency for the red part of the logo

Then do the same transparency setting for the green and yellow parts of the logo after selecting them one by one. After that. select the cyan circle by clicking on it and select the option Linear once more as Transparency Type, select Normal as Transparency operation, set the Transparency midpoint equal to 70, set the Angle for the edge of transparency equal to 75^o, set the Opacity Effects equal to 6% and select the option referred as Fill out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Transparency Target.

Setting of Transparency for the smaller shape in the logo

Then, select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G. Having made a group of all the shapes, the empty space around the cyan circle is needed to be filled so that the logo could be used with colorful backgrounds. For that purpose, select the Ellipse Tool again by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F7 on the keyboard.Then draw an ellipse anywhere on the document by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. After that , select that newly drawn ellipse shape with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equal to 5.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected shape will assume the same width and height. After that, with the help of Pick Tool, put that shape on the center of the logo and fill white color inside it and in it’s outline by selecting the thumbnail representing white color in the Color Palette with left and right mouse clicks respectively.

White circle on the center of the logo

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Order given in the menu. As soon as you will select that option, it’s side menu will be appeared containing different other options. Out of those options select To Back of Layer or hit Shift + pg dn on the keyboard.

To Back of Layer in the side menu of Order

As soon as you will do so, white selected circle will be shifted behind the logo. Then select the Text Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a prominent letter A at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse right beneath the logo and type the word ” Google” there.Then select that word with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties on the Property Bar. Then select Arial as typeface out of the options given in the drop-down menu named Font List and select 200 pt as font size for the selected text out of the options given in the menu named Font Size.

Properties of selected text in the Property Bar

Then get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option named Break Artistic Text Apart or hit CTRL + K on the keyboard.

Option referred as Break Artistic Text Apart in the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will do so, all the letters in the selected word will be broken apart and ready to be filled with different colors. Then, select the word G with the help of Pick Tool and fill cyan color in it by selecting the thumbnail representing cyan color in the Color Palette.

Separately selected letter with cyan color filled inside

Then select all the letters in the word one by one with the help of Pick Tool and fill different color in each according to the picture below.

Differently colored letters of broken apart text

After that select all the objects including shapes and text on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard. Then the logo of Google Chrome will ready to be saved, so save it in CDR format by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option Save or by hitting CTRL + S on the keyboard. But if you want to save the same image in any format other than CDR , select the option Export given in the File Menu or hit CTRL + E on the keyboard instead of selecting the option Save or hitting CTRL + S.
I hope you will find this post interesting, easy and helpful. If so kindly let me know by subscribing your valued comments.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of Douglas County Bank

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 09:55:00 +0000

This is my third post about logo designing and the logo I have selected to draw today is of Douglas County Bank (a bank that is offering banking and trust services to Northeastern Kansas USA). In the following image you can see a logo of Douglas County Bank that I have just made using CorelDraw X6. Though the logo in this image may seem very simple and apparently made up of a few equal sized triangular shapes placed together, but when it comes to draw it by hand or by the use of CorelDraw, it might not be proved as much simple as it looks.

Douglas County Bank

When I made my first attempt to draw this logo using triangles, I couldn't succeed and it took almost three hours to discover a proper method through which one can draw it without wasting much time or without getting bored. Here in this post I have decided to share the same method I have just discovered about the designing of Douglas County Bank's logo by the use of Polygon Tool, Rectangle Tool,Outline Pen Tool, Text Tool, Mirror Vertically, Mirror Horizontally and a very useful shaping option named Trim given in CorelDraw X6.

How to draw a perfect logo of Douglas County Bank using CorelDraw X6?

In order to draw logo of Douglas County Bank, first of all create a new document, either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option New or by hitting CTRL + N on the keyboard.

Option referred as New in the File Menu

As soon as you will do so, a dialogue box named Create a New Document will be appeared. In that dialogue box, type the Name of the document, select it’s Preset Destination (Custom), set its Size (Letter), Primary color mode (CMYK), Rendering resolution (300) and click OK. As soon as you will click OK, there will be appeared a new document ready to be worked on.

Name, Preset destination, Size, Color mode and Resolution for the document

Having created a new document, first of all, select Polygon Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting Y on the keyboard.

Polygon Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus (+) sign with a tiny five-cornered shape at the bottom-right of it, and the properties of the selected tool including Points or sides and Outline width will be appeared on the Property Bar.Set the value equal to 6 in the box referred as Points or sides and select 0.5 out of the values given in the drop-down menu named Outline width for the polygon. Then, put the pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a six cornered shape by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. Then with the help of Pick Tool select that shape and set its width equal to 6.1 and its height equal to 6.7 in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key on the keyboard, the selected six sided shape will assume the same width and height.

Width, Height, Sides and Outline width for the polygon

After that, make a duplicate of that recently made shape either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard.

Option named Duplicate in the menu named Edit

As soon as you will do so, another six-cornered shape with equal width and height will be appeared on the document. Then, with the help of Pick Tool, select that duplicate shape and set it’s width equal to 4.1 and its height equal to 4.7 in the Property Bar by typing the values in the relevant boxes and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will do so, duplicate shape will assume the same width and height.

Two six sided shapes with different size

Then select both the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard and align their centers horizontally, by hitting E on the keyboard and vertically, by hitting C on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit these two keys, both the shapes on the document will be set on the same spot.

Two shapes neatly placed on the same spot

Then once again select both the shapes by hitting CTRL +A or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option named Objects that is supposed to be found in the Edit Menu’s option Select All’s side menu. As soon as you will select both the shapes, shaping options (including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary) will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those shaping options, the option that is supposed to be selected here is none other than Trim. So select the option Trim so that the part of the first shape that is hidden behind the duplicate shape could be trimmed off. As soon as you will select that option, the hidden part of the first shape will be trimmed off nicely.

Shaping options for the two selected shapes

Then, select the duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool and delete it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Delete or by hitting the Delete Key on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, duplicate shape will be deleted and there will be left nothing but a ring shaped part of the first shape with empty central area.

Ring shaped part of the first shape with empty central area

After that select that ring shaped remaining part of the first shape with the help of Pick Tool and fill dark maroon color inside it. As in the default CMYK Color Palette, that shade is not supposed to be found so in order to fill that color inside the selected shape, get inside the Window Menu and select the option Dockers. As soon as you will select that option, it’s large side menu will be appeared containing more than twenty five options. Out of those options select none other than Color.

Window Menu containing various options

As soon as you will select that option, a window named Color Docker will be appeared on the right side of CorelDraw window beside the Color Palette. In that window there will be seen a drop-down menu called Color model and a Color Picker like the one we have seen and used in Photoshop. Out of the options given in that drop-down menu called Color model, select CMYK. As soon as you will select that option, four boxes representing Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K) will be appeared in the same window. Type 26 in the box representing Cyan (C), 100 in the box representing Magenta (M), 63 in the box representing Yellow (Y) and 18 in the box representing Black (K). Having set the components of all four colors, hit the button named Fill that can be seen beneath the Color Picker. A soon as you will hit that button required shade will be filled inside the selected shape.

Color Docker window

After that, select Rectangle Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the menu

As soon as, you will select that too,l pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a small rectangular shape at the bottom right of it. Then, put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and draw a large rectangular shape there by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. Then fill any color in that rectangular shape to make it clearly visible by selecting any thumbnail representing any bright color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. After that, with the help of Pick Tool put that newly made rectangle on the lower part of the maroon shape so that it could hide the whole shape save from the upper triangular part of the shape according to the picture below.

Right way to place rectangle on the six cornered shape

After that, select both the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A. As soon as you will do so, shaping options will again be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those options select Trim again to have the hidden part of the maroon shape nicely trimmed off. As soon as you will select that option, hidden part of the maroon shape will be trimmed off or deleted.

Trimming of the lower part of the shape.

Then, with the help of Pick Tool put that bright colored rectangle on the right side of the maroon shape so that it could hide the unnecessary part of the triangular shape. Then select both the shapes on the document again by hitting CTRL + A to have the shaping options again on the Property Bar according to the picture below.

Unnecessary right part of the shape is about to be trimmed

Out of those shaping options, select the option Trim again to trim the unnecessary right part of the shape. As soon as you will select the option Trim, unnecessary part of the shape hidden behind the rectangle will be deleted or vanished . Then with the help of Pick Tool put that bright colored rectangle on the unnecessary left part of the shape so that it could hide it, and again select both the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL +A to have the shaping options including Trim once more on the Property Bar according to the picture below.

Unnecessary left part of the shape is about to be trimmed

Then, select the option Trim once more to have the unnecessary left part of the shape nicely trimmed off. Having done so, select that large bright colored rectangle with the help of Pick Tool and delete it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Delete or by hitting the key named Delete on the keyboard. Having deleted the rectangle you will have nothing on the document but an L shaped part of the maroon shape.

Remaining part of the sex cornered shape on the document

Then, select that shape with the help of Pick Tool and make a duplicate of it either by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate given in the menu. As soon as you will select the option Duplicate or hit CTRL + D, a duplicate maroon colored shape will be appeared on the document. Select that maroon colored duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool and set the Angle of rotation for it equal to 300^oby typing the value in the relevant box given in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected shape will be rotated on the same angle.

Duplicate shape rotated on the angle of 300 degree

After that, with the help of Pick Tool put that duplicate shape with 300^o Angle of rotation beside the first shape according to the picture below.

Right place for both the shapes

Then, select that duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool and make a duplicate of it too, either by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate. As soon as you will do so, a duplicate of the second shape will be appeared on the document. Select that duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties activated in the Property Bar. Then, in order to have that recently emerged third shape on the document flipped from top to bottom, select Mirror Vertically by clicking on it in the Property Bar.

Third shape ready to be mirrored vertically

As soon as you will do so, the third shape will turn upside down. Then, with the help of Pick Tool put that upturned duplicate of the second shape beside the two shapes according to the picture below.

Three shapes on the right places

Then, select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard and group them together either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Group or by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard.

Option referred as Group in the Arrange Menu

After making a group of all the shapes, select that group with the help of Pick Tool and make a duplicate of it either by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard or by selecting the option called Duplicate given in the Edit Menu. As soon as you will do so, a duplicate group of three shapes will be appeared on the document.

Two groups on the document

Then, select that duplicate group with the help of Pick Tool and flip it from top to bottom by selecting Mirror Vertically on the Property Bar.

Duplicate group after being mirrored vertically

Then, flip the same group from left to right by selecting Mirror Horizontally on the Property Bar.

Duplicate group after being mirrored vertically and horizontally

After that, with the help of Pick Tool place that horizontally and vertically mirrored group right beneath the first group according to the picture below.

Two groups on the right place

After that select both the groups on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G. After that, click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom right of the tool named Outline Pen in the Tool Box to open a menu containing different outline styles. Out of those styles, select 10 pt for the selected group and then in order to fill white color in the outlines of the shapes in the selected group , select the thumbnail representing white color in the Color Palette with right mouse click.

Outline width and Color for all the shapes in the selected group

After that, select Text Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will do so, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with letter A at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse right beside the recently made logo and type the phrase “Douglas County Bank” there (press Enter after each word in the phrase). Then select that recently typed text with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties in the Property Bar. Out of those properties, select Arial as typeface for the selected text out of the options given in the drop-down menu called Font List and select 72 pt out of the options given in the drop-down menu called Font Size.

Recently typed text on the document and it's properties in the Property Bar

After that, select the Text Tool again either by hitting F8 on the keyboard or by clicking on it in the Tool Box and type the phrase “Member FDIC” right beneath the first phrase. Then select that recently typed phrase with the help of Pick Tool and again select the option Arial out of the various options given in the drop-down menu called Font List and set Font Size for the selected text equal to 40 pt by typing the value in the relevant box and hitting the Enter Key. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, selected text will assume the same size.

Two phrases on the document having different Font Sizes by same typeface

Then, select all the objects including the logo and the text on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G.
Then get inside the File Menu and select the option Save or hit CTRL + S to save the image in CDR format or in order to save the same image in any format other than CDR, select the option Export given in the File Menu or hit CTRL + E on the keyboard. Having saved the logo in your required format you can use it anywhere you like by putting different backgrounds behind it according to your choice.

I hope you will find this post helpful and interesting. If so, kindly let me aware of that, by sharing your opinions and thoughts about the post in the form of your valued comments.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of Blackberry World

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:54:00 +0000

This is my second post about logo designing and in this post I am going to explain some remarkably simple tips by following which one can draw an awesome logo of a worldly famous organization named Blackberry World within a few minutes. For instance in the following image you can see a logo that is made in CorelDraw X6 using Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool, Fill Tool, Text Tool and a very important shaping option named Trim.

Logo of Blackberry World made in CorelDraw X6

If you read the following step by step procedure with a good amount of concentration, you will be able to draw a perfect logo of Blackberry World within five minutes of so without getting involved in any big or small difficulty.

How to draw an awesome logo of Blackberry World using CorelDraw X6?

Having created a new document, first of all select the Ellipse Tool either by clicking on it in the Tool Box or by hitting F7 on the keyboard.

Ellipse Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus sign ( + ) with a small shape of an ellipse at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document and drag your mouse in any direction to draw a shape of an ellipse there. Then in order to convert that ellipse into a perfect circle, select it with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equals to 7.0 in the Property Bar and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, selected object will assume the same width and height and will be transformed into a perfect circle. After that, select that circle with the help of Pick Tool and fill light grey color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing light grey color in the Color Palette with left mouse click and then, select the same thumbnail again (this time with right mouse click) to fill the same color in the selected shape’s outline too.

Width, height and color for the selected shape

After that, make a duplicate of that shape either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, another grey circle of the same width and height will be appeared on the document.

Duplicate shape appeared on the document

Select that duplicate circle with the help of Pick Tool and then click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom right of the Fill Tool to open a menu containing Fill Tool's options. Out of those options, the option which is supposed to be selected here is none other than Fountain Fill (option referred as Fountain Fill can also be selected by hitting F11 on the keyboard ).

Menu containing Fill Tool's options

As soon as you will select that option, a dialogue box called Fountain Fill will be appeared. In that dialogue box there will be seen a drop-down menu called Type containing different types of gradient including, Linear, Radial, Conical and Square. Out of those types select none other than Linear , set the Angle of it equal to 0^oand Edge Pad equal to 0%. Further, in the same dialogue box there will be seen two radio buttons named Two Color and Custom under the head of Color Blend . By default, you will find the radio button named Two Color selected in that dialogue box with all it’s setting options visible beneath the two radio buttons when you will open it by selecting Fountain Fill out of the options given in the Fill Tool Menu.

Type, Angle, Edge pad and Color blend in the dialogue box called Fountain Fill

As here the radio button named Custom is supposed to be selected, so select it by clicking on it. As soon as you will select that button, the setting options of Two Color will be replaced by the setting options of Custom including a Color Palette, a rectangular shape with two tiny squares at the top-right and top-left corners of it ,an inactive box named Position and a drop-down menu called Preset.

You will notice that the tiny square at the top-left corner of rectangular shape will be black (or selected) by default indicating the selected left part of the shape. It means that any color can be filled in that part of the shape with a single left mouse click on any color given in the Color Palette. As black color is supposed to be filled in that part of the shape, select the thumbnail representing black color in the color palette with left mouse click. As soon as you will do so, black color will be filled inside the left part of the shape.

Radio button named Custom under the head of Color blend

Then, select the square at the top-right corner of the shape by clicking on it to have the right part of the shape selected, then fill black color in that part of the shape too by selecting the thumbnail representing black color in the Color Palette with left mouse click again. As soon as you will do so black color will be filled inside the right part of the shape too, and the shape will become totally dark black.

Black color has been filled inside the right part of the shape

After that put the pointer of your mouse anywhere on that dark black rectangle and hit the left button of your mouse twice. As soon as you will do so, a slide will be appeared right above the totally black rectangular shape with a small black arrow pointing toward the selected part of the shape and the formerly inactive option called Position (showing the position of black arrow ) will be activated. Set the position of black arrow equal to 50 in the box called Position and select the thumbnail representing white color in the Color Palette with left mouse click to fill white color in the middle of the shape.

Whit fill in the middle of the shape

After that, click OK to apply this setting on the selected circle on the document. As soon as you will click OK, the setting in the dialogue box called Fountain Fill will be applied on the selected circle.

Two circles on the document

After that, select both the circles on the document by hitting CTRL + A and then, in order to put both the circles on the same place, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Align and Distribute. As soon as you will select that option , it’s side menu will be appeared containing a few more options including Align Centers Vertically and Align Centers Horizontally . Select Align Centers Vertically or hit C on the keyboard to align the centers of both the circles vertically on the document and then select Align Centers Horizontally or hit E on the keyboard to align the centers of both the circles horizontally on the document.

Side menu of the option Align and Distribute in the Arrange Menu

Having done so, you will have both the circles on the document nicely placed on the same spot and the grey circle totally hidden behind the black one.

Circle that has hidden the other circle on the document

After that, select Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus sign ( + ) with a small rectangular shape at the bottom-right of it. Then, draw a large rectangle anywhere on the document by dragging your mouse and keeping it’s left button pressed and with the help of Pick Tool put that newly made rectangle on the half upper part of the circle. Then, holding down the Shift Key on the keyboard, click the left button of your mouse on the rectangle and on the black and white shaded circle one by one to have both of these selected at the same time (don’t hit CTRL +A because we don’t want to select the hidden light grey circle). As soon as the rectangle and the black circle will be selected, shaping options including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those shaping options, select Trim to have the half upper part of the black circle nicely trimmed off.

Shaping options in the Property Bar

As soon as , you will select that option the half upper part of the black circle will be disappeared and the formerly hidden half upper part of the grey circle will become clearly visible. Then select the rectangle with the help of Pick Tool and delete it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Delete or by hitting the key named delete on the keyboard. After that, select both the shapes (a full circle and a half circle) on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together either by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Group, or by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard.

Then, select the Ellipse Tool again out of the Tool Box and draw an ellipse shape again on the document by dragging your mouse and keeping the left button of it pressed as I have explained earlier. Having drawn the ellipse shape, select it with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width and height equals 6.0 on the Property Bar and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key the selected shape will assume the same width and height.

Newly made circle

Then once again select the option named Fountain Fill given in the menu of Fill Tool or hit F11 on the keyboard to open a dialogue box named Fountain Fill as I have explained earlier. Having opened that dialogue box, select Radial out of the options given in the drop-down menu called Type, set the value equal to 35 in the box called Edge pad, set the value equal to -45 in the box called Horizontal and set the value equal to 35 in the box called Vertical. After that click OK to apply that setting on the newly drawn selected circle with 6.0 width and height.

Type, Center offset and Edge pad in the dialogue box called Fountain Fill

Then select all the shapes on the document including previously made group of two shapes and the newly drawn circle by hitting CTRL +A and then hit C and E respectively on the keyboard to place the central points of all the shapes on the document at the same spot.

New mad circle placed on the previously made group

After that, select all the shapes on the page again by hitting CTRL +A. As soon as you will hit CTRL + A, shaping options will again be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those, select the option called Trim again to have the hidden part of the group behind the black circle nicely trimmed off.

Parts of two or more than two grouped shapes can also be trimmed

Having trimmed the hidden part of the group, select that group with the help of Pick Tool and ungroup both the objects in that group by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option called Ungroup.

Option called Ungroup in the Arrange Menu

Having ungrouped both the shapes, select Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box and draw a small rectangle anywhere on the document and to make it clearly visible, fill any bright color in it by selecting any thumbnail in the color palette with left mouse click . Then set the Angle of Rotation for that rectangle equal to 40^o by typing the value in the box and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard as I have explained in the previous post CorelDraw Tutorial: Logo of Microsoft Windows XP . Then with the help of Pick Tool put that rectangle on the top right corner of the bottom most shape on the document so that it could hide some part of the shape. Then , make a duplicate of it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard. Then select that duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool and set the Angle of Rotation for that duplicate shape equal to 320^o in the Property Bar by typing the value in the relevant box and hitting the Enter Key. Having set the Angle of Rotation for the duplicate shape, put it on the top left corner of the bottom most shape on the document so that it could hide some part of it.

Rectangles on the right place

Then, select both the newly made bright colored rectangles and the bottom most shape with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on each shape one by one and keeping the Shift Key on the keyboard pressed. As soon as you will have all the three shapes on the document selected, shaping options will again be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those options select the option called Trim again to have the hidden part of the bottom most shape (behind the two bright colored rectangles) nicely trimmed off.

Corners of bottom most shape ready to be trimmed

As soon as you will select the option Trim, parts of the bottom most shape hidden behind the two rectangles will be trimmed off. Then select and delete both the rectangles one by one by selecting the option Delete given in the Edit Menu or by hitting delete on the key board.

Corners of the bottom most shape after the deletion of rectangls

Then select the black circle with the help of Pick Tool and set the width of it’s outline equal to 10.0 pt in the Property Bar.

Option referred as Outline width in the Property Bar

After that, select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and grouped them together by hitting CTRL + G. Then , select Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box and draw a rectangular shape anywhere on the document by dragging your mouse and keeping it’s left button pressed. Then select that rectangle with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width equal to 1.4, it’s height equal to and 1.2 and the Radius of the top-right and bottom-right corners of the same shape equal to 40.0 by typing the values in the relevant boxes in the Property Bar and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard.

Width, height and Corner Radius for the selected shape

After that, make six duplicates of that shape by hitting CTRL + D six times on the keyboard. Then place those duplicates beside each other with the help of Pick Tool according to the picture below.

Right place for each shape

After that, select all these shapes by clicking on each one by one and holding down the Shift key on the keyboard and group them together either by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard or by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Group. Having made a group of all the shapes put the pointer of your mouse on that group and hit the left button of it twice. As soon as you will do so, that group will be encircled by a few small black double sided arrows. Then put the pointer of your mouse right beneath the arrow that can be seen at the bottom of the group.

Double sided black arrows around the group

As soon as you will put the pointer right beneath that arrow, the pointer itself will be turned into a double sided arrow. Then drag your mouse horizontally toward the left side keeping the left button of it pressed to render that group a slightly diagonal look.

Grouped shapes after the horizontal mouse drag toward the left side.

Then, fill light grey color inside the selected by selecting the thumbnail representing light grey color in the Color Palette with left mouse click.

Grey fill in all the shapes of the selected group

After that , select both the groups on the document by hitting CTRL + A and then align the centers of both the groups vertically and horizontally by hitting C and E respectively on the keyboard .

Two groups with horizontally and vertically aligned centers

After that, select the Text Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus sign( + ) with letter A at the bottom-right of it. Then put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse at the right side of the logo and type the phrase ‘Blackberry World’ there. Then select that phrase with the help of Pick Tool to have it’s properties in the Property Bar to be altered .Having selected the recently typed text, out of the options given in the drop-down menu called Font-List select Arial as Typeface for the selected text and out of the options given in the drop down-menu called Font-Size , select 150 pt. Then with the help of Pick Tool, put that selected text at the right side of the logo.

Font Size and Font List in the Property Bar

Then select all the objects including the logo and the text by hitting CTRL + A and grouped them together by hitting CTRL + G. Then, the logo of Blackberry World will be ready to be saved, so save it in CDR format either by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option Save or by hitting CTRL +S . If you want to save the same image in any format other than CDR, so again get inside the File Menu and select the option Export or hit CTRL + E on the keyboard. Having saved the logo in your required format, you can use it anywhere you like by putting any suitable background behind it.

I hope you will find this post helpful so have fun with logo designing in CorelDrarw X6, but in case of any question, suggestion or complain, kindly don’t forget to subscribe your comment.

CorelDraw Tutorial : Logo of Microsoft Windows XP

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 09:29:00 +0000

Logos are the graphic symbols which are used by different organizations to introduce themselves and to promote their business so these can be seen everywhere from small visiting cards to huge hoardings on the road sides. CorelDraw is software that is considered an ideal one for logo designing simply because it is based on vector or line art graphics and images made by the use of this software can easily be re-sized without getting blurred or distorted and can be used on different objects regardless the size of those objects.

This is my first post about logo designing and in this post I have decided to explain a very simple method through which one can draw a nice looking logo of Microsoft Windows XP. For instance logo in the following image is made totally on CorelDraw X6.

Microsoft Windows XP

Main tools which I have used while drawing this logo are Rectangle Tool, Shape Tool, Fill Tool and Text Tool given in the Tool Box and different options given in different menus including the option Duplicate in the Edit Menu, Group, Ungroup, Convert to Curves and Break Artistic Text Apart in the Arrange Menu.

How to draw Windows XP logo using CorelDraw X6?

Having created a new document, first of all select Rectangle Tool out of the tool and draw a rectangular shape anywhere on the document. Then select that shape with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on it. As soon as you will select that shape, its properties including its width and height will be appeared on the Property Bar. ( As there will be needed a square shape instead of a rectangle, so the width and height of the selected shape should be equals to each other. )Set the width and the height of the selected shape equals to 4.0 by typing the value in the box and hitting the Enter Key on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected shape will assume the same width and height and will become a perfect square.

Perfect square on the document

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option referred as Convert to Curve, or hit CTRL + Q.

Convert to Curves in the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will select the option called Convert to Curve of hit CTRL + Q, outline of the selected shape will become flexible enough to be transformed into a curve. But there will be seen no difference at all in the shape before applying the Shape Tool on it. So, select the Shape Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F10 on the keyboard.

Shape Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool or hit F10, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of something look like a thorn with a small dotted rectangle at the bottom-right of it and the color of the selected shape will turn a bit lighter. Then put the thorn shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere at the top boundary of the shape and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will hit the button, a small asterisk like shape will be appeared on the same place and the tool properties (including Convert to Curve, Smooth node, Symmetrical node and Reverse direction) will be activated on the property Bar. Out of those options or properties select Convert to Curve by clicking on it.

Asterisk shaped symbol on the top boundary of the shape along with activated tool option in the Property Bar

As soon as you will select that option, asterisk shaped tiny symbol will be disappeared from the outline of the shape and there will be appeared two blue colored arrows on the top boundary of the shape facing each other. Then put the pointer of your mouse beneath the top boundary line and drag your mouse upward but a bit diagonally toward the right side to turn the top boundary line of the shape into a curve.

Top boundary of the shape converted into a curve

After that , put the thorn shaped pointer of your mouse on the bottom boundary of the shape and hit the left button of your mouse once, as soon as you will do so, an asterisk shaped small symbol will be appeared here too and the tool options will be appeared again on the Property Bar. Out of those options , select Convert to Curves again as I have explained earlier. As soon as you will select that option, once again two blue colored arrows will be appeared on the line facing each other and tiny asterisk will be vanished at the same time. Then put the pointer of your mouse beneath to bottom boundary line of the shape and drag your mouse again upward and a bit diagonally toward the right side to turn it into a proper curve.

Bottom boundary of the shape converted into a curve

Having done so, select the shape with the help of Pick Tool and make a duplicate of it by hitting CTRL + D or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option called Duplicate given in the menu.

Option Duplicate in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select the option called Duplicate or hit CTRL + D , a duplicate shape will be appeared on the document near the first shape. With the help of Pick Tool put that duplicate right beside the first shape leaving a little distance between the both shapes. Then , select the duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as the shape will be selected, it’s properties will be appeared in the Property Bar along with the options referred as Mirror Vertically and Mirror Horizontally.

Selected duplicate shape and it's properties in the Property Bar

Then, select Mirror Vertically to flip the duplicate shape from top to bottom and with the help of Pick Tool put it again right beside the first shape as I have explained earlier.

Vertically flipped duplicate shape right beside the first shape

After that, select both the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Objects that is given inside the Edit Menu’s option Select All’s side menu.

Option Objects given in Select All's side menu

Having selected both the shapes, group them together either by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Group or by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard . After that make a duplicate of that group either by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate as I have explained earlier in my post How to draw Indian flag using CorelDraw X6. Then put that duplicate group of two shapes right beneath the first group leaving a litter distance between both the groups.

Two identical groups on the document

Then, select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and ungroup them either by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Ungroup given there or by hitting CTRL + U.

Option Ungroup given in the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will selected the option Ungroup or hit CTRL +U on the keyboard all the grouped shapes on the document will be ungrouped and will ready to be manipulated separately. After that, select the top-left shape with the help of Pick Tool and then click the small black arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the Fill Tool in the Tool Box to open a menu containing different tool options including ( Uniform Fill, Fountain Fill, Pattern Fill, Texture Fill, PostScript Fill, No Fill and Color) out of those options select none other than Fountain Fill by clicking on it or by hitting F11 on the keyboard.

Menu containing different options of Fill Tool

As soon as you will select the option Fountain Fill or hit F11 on the keyboard, a window or dialogue box will be appeared named Fountain Fill. In that dialogue box, there will be seen a drop-down-menu called Type containing different gradient styles including Linear, Radial, Conical and Square. Out of those styles, the style which is supposed to be selected here is none other than Linear. Having selected the style Linear set it’s Angle equal to 0^o and it’s Edge pad equal to 0%. Further in the same dialogue box there will be seen two radio buttons named Two Color and Custom under the head of Color Blend. Though, in that dialogue box, the radio button called Two Color always remain selected and its setting options always remain visible by default but here we need to select the other option called Custom.

Type, Angle, Edge pad and Color blend in the dialogue box called Fountain Fill

As soon as you will select the radio button called Custom, setting options of Two Color will be replaced by the setting options of Custom including a Color Palette, an inactive box called Position a rectangular shape (with two tiny squares at top left and top right corners of it) showing gradient color and a drop-down menu called Preset in the same dialogue box.. Further, you will notice that the tiny square at the top left corner of the rectangular shape will be black and the other tiny square at the top right corner of the shape will be white. That simply means that the left part of the shape will be selected and the right part of the shape will not be selected.

Setting options of Custom

As here Windows XP logo is supposed to be drawn, so fill red color in the selected part (left part) of the shape by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the Color Palette given in the dialogue box. As soon as you will select that thumbnail, red color will be filled in the left part of the shape.

Red color has been filled in the left part of the shape

Then, select the tiny square at the top- right corner of the shape by clicking on it and select the thumbnail representing red color in the Color Palette given in the dialogue box again to fill red color in the right part of the shape too. As soon as you will select that thumbnail, the red color will be filled inside the right part of the shape too and the shape will be looked totally red then.

Red color has been filled in the whole shape

After that, put the pointer of your mouse any where inside the red rectangular shape and hit the left button of your mouse twice. As soon as you will do so, a slide will be appeared right above the rectangle containing a black arrow pointing toward the selected part of the shape and the formerly inactive box called Position will then be activated showing the position of newly appeared black arrow. Set the position of the black arrow equal to 25 and select the thumbnail representing white color in the Color Palette given in the dialogue box. As soon as you will do so, white color will be fill inside the selected area and the shape will no longer remain perfectly red.

Set the position of white color in the red shape.

After that, click OK to apply this setting on the selected object on the document. As soon as you will click OK , that setting will be applied on the selected object.

Red and white colored top right shape

Then, by following the same method explained above, fill green and white color inside the top-right shape , fill blue and white color inside the bottom-left shape and fill yellow and white color inside the bottom-right shape but set the position of black arrow equal to 75 instead of 25 in the case of top right and bottom right shapes .

Four shapes on the document with different colors filled in

Then, select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G or by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Group. Then select that group again either with the help of Pick Tool or by hitting CTRL + A on the keyboard. As soon as you will select that group, its properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those properties, set the width and height of the group equal to 5.0 and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key on the keyboard, the selected group will assume the same width and height.

Width and height of the selected group in the Property Bar

Then, set the Angle of rotation for the group equal to 350^o,and in order to remove the color of the outlines of all the shapes in the group, select the thumbnail representing "No color" in the Color Palette by hitting the right button of your mouse.

Angle of rotation and color of outline

Then, select Text Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F8 on the keyboard.

Text Tool in the Tool Box

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) with letter A at the bottom-right of it. Then put that pointer anywhere on the document and type the phrase ‘Microsoft Windows XP’ there.

Typed text on the document

Then select that newly typed phrase with the help of Pick Tool and break the three words in the phrase apart by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option referred as Break Artistic Text Apart or by hitting CTRL + K.

Option referred as Break Artistic Text Apart in the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will select that option or hit CTRL + K, all three words in the phrase will be broken apart. Then select the word ‘Microsoft’ with the help of Pick Tool and set the Font Size for this word equal to 36 pt.

Font Size equal to 36 pt for the word 'Microsoft'.

Then select the word ‘Windows’ with the help of Pick Tool and set the Font Size for that word equal to 120 pt.

Font Size equal to 120 pt for the word 'Windows'.

Then finally select the word ‘XP’ with the help of Pick Tool and change it’s color from default black to custom orange by selecting the thumbnail representing orange color in the color palette with left mouse click. Then in order to make this word prominent, select the option Bold given in the Property Bar and set the Font size for this word equal to 48 pt.

Color, Attribute and Font Size for the word 'XP'

After that with the help of Pick Tool put these three differently formatted words on the required places.

Then, select all objects along with the text on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together by hitting CTRL + G. Then get inside the File Menu and select the option Save or hit CTRL + S to save the image in CDR format or select the option Export or hit CTRL + E to save the image in any format other than CDR as I have explained in my post Illustration of Pakistani flag in CorelDraw X6. Then use the image anywhere you like by putting suitable backgrounds behind the logo using Photoshop.

I hope you will find this post helpful and interesting, so have fun with it but kindly don’t forget to subscribe your comments.

How to draw flag of Nepal using CorelDraw X6?

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 03:19:00 +0000

Nepal is one of the seven countries of South Asia. Though it has never been considered as an economically developed country, but there are associated a few amazing facts with this country that are enough to make it unique and famous in all over the world. For instance, this country is famous for Mount Everest that is the highest point on Earth. Further, in this country there can be seen some very rare species of animals including Bengal Tigers, rhinoceros with one horn and 871 species of birds. Nepal is also famous for being the birth place of Gautama Buddha (founder of Buddhism) and having a unique shaped national flag with two different sized triangular shapes (pennons) joined together and adorned with the shapes of suns and a crescent.

Nepali Flag unique and beautiful at the same time

Here in this post, I have decided to explain a very simple method through which one can draw that beautiful but unique shaped flag flawlessly within a few minutes using CorelDraw X6. The main tools we are going to use here are Rectangle Tool, Knife Tool, Polygon Tool, Ellipse Tool ,shaping options called Weld and Trim and positioning options referred as Mirror Vertically and Mirror Horizontally.

Method of illustration of Nepali Flag

Rectangle Tool

First of all create a new document by following the method I have explained in my earlier post Illustration of Pakistani flag in CorelDraw X6. Then select Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the menu

As soon as your will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a small rectangular shape at the bottom-right of it. Put that plus (+) sign shaped pointer anywhere on the document and draw a rectangle there by dragging your mouse in any direction and holding down it’s left button. As soon as that rectangle will be emerged on the document, it’ properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Set the width of that selected rectangle equal to 5.0 and the height of it equal to 5.5 and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter Key, the selected rectangular shape will assume the same width and height.

Newly made rectangle with width and height 5.0 and 5.5 respectively

After that, fill red color inside the shape by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the Color Palette with left mouse click.

Rectangle with red color filled inside

Outline Pen (Set the width of shape's Outline)

After that , click on the tiny black arrow that can be seen at the bottom right of the tool referred as Outline Pen in the Tool Box. As soon as you will click that arrow a menu will be appeared containing different styles of outline. Out of those styles select 10 pt because 10 pt is the most suitable outline width for the shape of that size. As soon as you will select that style, an outline of the same width will be appeared around the shape and the Property Bar will start to show the same outline width as the property of selected shape.

Rectangle with 10 pt wide outline

Change the color of selected shape's Outline

The next thing which is supposed to be done right after that is to change the color of the shape’s outline from default black to custom blue. In order to do that , select the thumbnail representing blue color in the Color Palette with right mouse click. As soon as that thumbnail will be selected, the color of the selected shape’s outline will be changed from black to blue.

Selected shape with blue outline

Knife Tool

After that, select Knife Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it.

Knife Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a knife. Then, put that knife shaped pointer at the top-right corner of the shape. As soon as, that knife shaped pointer will touch the corner of the shape it will get erect with it’s tip on the corner of the shape. Then click the left button of your mouse once and after releasing the button, drag your mouse downward diagonally to the bottom-right corner of the shape.

Diagonal mouse drag from top-right to bottom-left

Having reached there, click the left button of your mouse again to cut the rectangular shape diagonally into two equal parts. As soon as you will click the button, a blue diagonal line will be appeared on the shape from it’s top right corner to it’s bottom-left corner and that will indicate the successful division of the shape into two equal parts.

Two parts of divided shape

Mirror Vertically

After that, select the Pick Tool out of the Tool Box and select the left part of the shape by clicking on it. As soon as that part will be selected it’s properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those properties, click on the option named Mirror vertically. As soon as you will select that option, selected left part of the shape will be flipped from top to bottom. After that, select the same shape again and set it’s width and height in the Property Bar equals to 5.0 and 4.0 respectively and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter key on the keyboard, the selected triangular part of the shape will assume the same width and height.

Left part of the shape with altered size and direction

Mirror Horizontally

After that, select the right part of the shape with the help of Pick Tool and out of it’s properties given in the Property Bar, select the option called Mirror horizontally. As soon as your will select that option the selected right part of the shape will be flipped from left to right.

Right part of the shape with altered direction

After that, with the help of Pick Tool, drag that horizontally flipped part of the shape down to the middle of the vertically flipped part of the shape and place it there.

Two rectangles ready to be welded together

Weld

Having done so, select both shapes on the page by hitting CTRL + A or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option referred as Objects given in the Edit Menu’s option Select All’s side menu. As soon as you will select both the shape, shaping options( including Weld, Trim, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary) will be appeared on the property bar.The option that is supposed to be selected here out of those options is none other than Weld.

Shaping options on the Property Bar.

As soon as you will select the option Weld, both the selected shapes will be welded together and become one shape.

After being welded two shapes become one

Then ,select that shape with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width equals to 5.5 in the Property Bar leaving the height of it unchanged and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit Enter, the selected shape will assume the same width while it’s height will remain unchanged.

Shape with increased width

Star Tool

After that, select Star Tool out of the tool box by clicking on it.

Star Tool in the menu with five other tools

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a small five pointed star at the bottom-right of it. Then, put the pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document, keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag it in any direction to draw a 5 sided shape of a star there. After that, select that shape of a star with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on it. As soon as the star will be selected it’s properties will be appeared on the property bar. Out of those properties set the width and height of that star equals to 2.2 , Points or Sides of the star equal to 14 , Sharpness of these points equal to 35 and Outline width of that star equal to 1.5 by typing the required values in the boxes and hitting the Enter key every time to apply those properties on the shape of star.

Properties of star in the the Property Bar

Having done so, with the help of Pick Tool put that 14 sided star on the center of the lower part of the shape.

Fourteen sided star placed on the lower part of the shape

Duplicate

After that, make a copy of that star either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D.

Option referred as Duplicate in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will select the option Duplicate or hit CTRL + D, another identical 14 sided star will be appeared on the page. With the help of Pick Tool set that duplicate star on the center of the upper part of the shape. Then select the star on the upper part of the shape with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on it. As soon as you will select that star, it’s properties will be appeared on the property bar. Out of those properties, set the width and height of the star equals to 1.2, set the Points of Sides for the star equal to 20, set the Sharpness equal to 25 and Outline width for the same star equal to 1.5 by typing the required values inside the boxes and hitting the Enter key every time on the keyboard.

Twenty-sided star on the upper part of the shape

Ellipse Tool

After that, select Ellipse Tool out of the Tool box by clicking on it.

Ellipse Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a small shape of an ellipse at the bottom right of it. Then, put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the document, keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag it in any direction to draw an ellipse . Having drawn an ellipse shape, select it with the help of Pick Tool and set it’s width equal to 2.2 and height equal to 2.0 in the Property and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit Enter, the selected shape of an ellipse will assume the same width and height.

Ellipse shape with width and height equals to 2.2 and 2.0 respectively

Trim

After that, make a duplicate of that shape either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D on the keyboard as I have explained earlier. As soon as, you will select the option called Duplicate given in the Edit Menu or hit CTRL + D, a duplicate of the selected ellipse will be appeared on the document . Place that duplicate shape on the first shape leaving the lower part of the first shape uncovered by it's duplicate.

After that, select both the ellipses by clicking on each one by one with the help of Pick Tool holding down the Shift key on the keyboard. As soon as you will select both the ellipses, shaping options will be appeared again on the Property Bar. Out of those options, select Trim to have the covered part of the first shape nicely trimmed off.

Ellipse shape ready to be trimmed

As soon as you will select the option Trim, the covered part of the first shape will be trimmed off leaving a nice looking delicate crescent behind .

Crescent shaped part of the fist shape

After that, select the duplicate shape with the help of Pick Tool and delete it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Delete or by hitting the key named delete on the keyboard.

Option Delete given in the Edit Menu

Having deleted the duplicate shape, put that crescent with the help of Pick Tool on the upper part of the flag in a way that it’s upper part could overlap the lower part of the 20 sided shape of the star (or sun).

Upper part of the crescent overlapping the lower part of the twenty-sided star

Then, select all the colorless shapes (including 14 sided star on the lower part of the flag and the shapes of 20 sided star and crescent on the upper part of the flag) on the document by clicking on each one by one with the help of Pick Tool holding down the Shift key . Having done so, fill white color in all the selected shapes by selecting the thumbnail representing white color in the Color Palette with left mouse click and then select the same thumbnail again with right mouse click to fill white color in the outlines of all the selected shapes.

White color has been filled inside all the selected shapes and their outlines.

Save or Export

After that select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and then hit CTRL + G to group them together. After that, get inside the File Menu and select the option Save or hit CTRL + S to save the image in CDR format or select the option Export or hit CTRL + E to save the image in any format other than CDR.

Options referred as Save and Export given in the File Menu

Having saved that image you can manipulate it in many different ways using Photoshop. For instance you can render different effects on it or you can put different backgrounds behind the image according to your requirement.

I hope this post will be proved helpful to all the readers and having read this post you will be able to utilize different tools of CorelDraw X6 properly. If so, kindly let me aware of that. If you want to express your feeling in any form (suggestion or complain) kindly don’t forget to subscribe your comments.

How to draw Indian flag using CorelDraw X6?

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:20:00 +0000

If you cast an unintentional glance over Indian flag, you may think about it as one of the simplest flags in the world, with three different colored but equal sized rectangular stripes sewn together and a circular shaped symbol called Ashok Chakra printed on the center of the middle one.

Indian Flag

Well, that was my personal opinion about that flag before attempting to draw it in CorelDraw. When I made my first attempt to draw that flag, I realized that I was wrong. Of course, I drew the flag within 30 seconds but when it came to draw Ashok Chakra on it, it took more than 24 hours to contemplate over it's complicate design. But, at last, I managed to discover a quick but easy method to draw that beautiful but a bit complicated symbol on Indian flag within a few minutes. When I explained that method in my CorelDraw class, my students picked all the points without any difficulty and I received great amount of appreciation form my senior colleagues.

In this post I have decided to explain the same method to illustrate of Indian flag with Ashok Chakra on it by the use of some very important CorelDraw tools including Polygon tool, Rectangle tool, Ellipse Tool and a very important transformation option called Rotate given in the Arrange Menu.

As there is nothing complicated or difficult in the design of Indian flag apart from Ashok Chakra, I will try to explain it first.

How to draw Ashok Chakras using CorelDraw X6?

First of all create a new document by following the method I have explained in my earlier post Illustration of Pakistani flag in CorelDraw X6 .Then in order to draw Ashok Chakra on it, first of all select the Polygon Tool out of the Tool Box.

Polygon Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus (+) sign with a small five cornered shape (pentagon) at the bottom-right of it and the properties of the tool will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those properties, set the Points or sides of the Polygon equal to 4.0 and set the Outline width of the polygon equal to 0.5 pt and hit Enter.

Properties of Polygon Tool

After that, put the pointer of your mouse anywhere on the page, keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag it in any direction to draw a four sided shape ( that shape will neither be a rectangle nor a square but a diamond) on the page.Then, fill black color inside the shape by selecting the thumbnail representing black color in the Color Palette with left mouse click.

Diamond shaped object on the page

After that, make a duplicate of that recently made diamond shaped object by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL +D. As soon as you will do so, another black diamond shaped object will appeared on the page. Then with the help of Pick Tool put that duplicate object right beside the first shape.

Two identical objects side by side

Then select both the shapes on the page either by hitting CTRL + A or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Objects that is given in the Edit Menu’s option Select All’s side menu.

Objects in the Select All's side menu

Having selected both the objects, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Group given in it or hit CTRL + G to make a group of both the selected objects.

Option referred as Group in the Edit Menu

After making a group of both the objects, select that group with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as that group will be selected, it’s properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Properties of this group which are supposed to be set here are it’s width and height. Set the width and height of the group equals to 8.0 and 0.2 respectively and hit the Enter Key. As soon as, you will hit the Enter key, the selected group will assume the same width and height.

Selected group with width and height equals to 8.0 and 0.2 respectively

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu again and select the option called Transformations. As soon as, that option will be selected, it’s side menu will be appeared containing five more options including Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size, and Skew. Out of those options the option that is supposed to be selected here is none other than Rotate (Alt + F8).

Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size, and Skew in the side menu of Transformations

As soon as you will select that option by clicking on it, a vertical shaped widow called Transformations will be appeared on the right side of the CorelDraw window. On the top of the window called Transformations, there will be seen five tabs representing the same five options ( Position, Rotate, Scale and mirror, Size and Skew) given in the side menu of the option called Transformations.

Five tabs in the Transformation window.

As that window would have been opened by the selection of the option called Rotate, the tab representing the option Rotate will be selected here. In that window, set the Angle of rotation equal to 15.0, number of Copies equal to 12.0 and hit the button named Apply that can be seen on the bottom-right of that window. As soon as you will hit that button, 12 copies of the selected shape will be appeared on the page with 15^oAngle of rotation.

Copies of the selected shape

After that, select all the shapes on the page by hitting CTRL + A and then either hit CTRL + G or get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Group again to make a group of all the selected shapes. After that, select the Ellipse Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it.

Ellipse Tool in the menu

Having done so, draw a circular shape on the page by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. Then set the width and height of that recently made circle equals to 8.0 in the Property Bar and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter key, the newly made circle will assume the same width and height (diameter).

Newly made circle on the document

After that, select once again all the objects on the document including you newly made circle by hitting CTRL + A and in order to place all the selected objects on the right place, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Align and Distribute. As soon as you will select that option another menu will be appeared containing a good number of options. Out of those options select Align Centers Vertically or hit C on the keyboard.

Align Centers Vertically in the menu of the option named Align and Distribute

As soon as you will select that option all the shapes (including group ) on the page will be aligned vertically or the vertical center of both the shapes will become the same one.

shapes on the page with same vertical center

After that, get inside the Arrange Menu again, and again select the option called Align and Distribute. Then out of the side menu of Align and Distribute, select the option Align Centers Horizontally or hit E on the keyboard.

Align Centers Horizontally in the menu of the option called Align and Distribute

As soon as you will do so, all the shape on the document will be aligned horizontally or horizontal center of both the shapes will become the same one.

shapes with same central point

After that, select the Ellipse tool again out of the Tool Box and draw a small circle anywhere on the document, set it’s width and height equals to 0.4 and fill black color inside it by following the method I have explained earlier.

Width, Height and Color of the selected shape

Then, with the help of Pick Tool put that circle between the two petals of the flower shaped object inside the bigger circle on the page.

Small black circle on it's right place

After that, put the pointer of your mouse on that small black circle and hit the left button of your mouse twice. As soon as you will do so, the small black circle will be encircled by a few black double sided arrows and the central point of that circle will be highlighted by the presence of a small white outlined transparent circle inside our tiny black circle.

Small circle with highlighted central point

Then, put that central point with the help of Pick Tool on the center of the flower shaped object by dragging your mouse and keeping it’s left button pressed.

Central point of the smaller circle placed on the center of flower shaped object

Then, once again, get inside the Arrange Menu, select the option Transformations and out of the side menu of the option called Transformations, select Rotate as I have explained earlier. Then in the window that will be opened when you will select the option Rotate given in the side menu of the option Transformations, set the Angle or Rotation again equal of 15^o, number of Copies equal to 24 and hit the button named Apply on the bottom-right of the Transformations window. As soon as you will do so, 24 copies of the selected small black circle will be emerged on the page inside the bigger circle each between the two petals of the flower shaped object.

Copies of black circle between the petals of the flower shaped object

Then, select the bigger circle by clicking on it with the help of Pick Tool. As soon as you will select the bigger circle, it’s properties will be appeared on the Property Bar. Only thing which is supposed to done here is the setting of the Outline width of the selected circle, so set the width of the outline equal to 12.0. As soon as you will select 12.0 out of the drop-down menu, outline of the selected circle will assume the same width.

Drop-down menu referred as Outline width

After that, select the Ellipse Tool again and draw another circle anywhere on the document, fill black color inside that newly made circle by selecting the thumbnail representing black color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. Then after selecting that circle with the help of Pick Tool set it’s width and height (diameter) equals to 1.5 and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit Enter, the selected circle will assume the same width and height.

Circle with width and height equals to 1.5

After that, select all the objects on the document by hitting CTRL + A and in order to set that new made black circle with 1.5 diameter on the dead center of all the objects,hit the keys C and E one by one on the keyboard or get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Align and Distribute again, and out of the side menu of the option Align and Distribute , select Align Centers vertically (C) and Align Centers Horizontally (E) one by one as I have explained earlier. As soon as you will do so, the black circle will be placed on the dead center of all the objects on the page.

Circle placed on the center of all the object

Then, make a group of all the objects on the document by hitting CTRL + G or by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Group as I have explained earlier. After that select that group again either by hitting CTRL + A or simply by clicking on it with the help of Pick Tool and set its width and height in the Property Bar equal to 2.0 and hit the Enter key on the keyboard. As soon as you will hit the Enter key , your image of Ashok Chakra will assume the same width and height and will get ready to be used on the image of Indian flag.

Image of Ashok Chakra with diameter 2.0

Rectangular stripes on Indian Flag

In order to draw three rectangular stripes, select the Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F6 on the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a small rectangular shape at the bottom-right of it. Then, put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse any where on the document and draw a rectangular shape by dragging your mouse in any direction and keeping it’s left button pressed. Then set the width and height of that selected rectangular shape equals to 9.0 and 2.0 respectively and hit Enter to apply the same width and height on the selected rectangle.

Rectangle on the page

Having applied the required width and height on the rectangle, make the two duplicates of it either by hitting CTRL + D twice or by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate twice as I have explained earlier. Having made the duplicates of the rectangular shape, set each shape right over the other with the help of Pick Tool .

Three rectangular shapes placed over each other

After that, select the top most shape with the help of Pick Tool and fill orange color in it by selecting the thumbnail representing orange color in the Color Palette with left mouse click. In order to fill the same orange color in the shape’s outlines too, select the same thumbnail with right mouse click.Then, select the shape that is placed in the middle to fill white color inside it by selecting the thumbnail representing white color in the color palette with left mouse click and in order to fill white color in the selected shape’s outline too, select the same thumbnail with right mouse click. And finally, select the bottom-most shape and fill green color in it by selecting the thumbnail representing green color in the Color Palette with left mouse click and in order to fill the same green color in the shape’s outlines, select the same thumbnail again with right mouse click.

Three different colored stripes on Indian flag

After that, select these three different colored stripes by holding down Shift key and clicking the left button of your mouse on each stripe separately (don’t hit CTRL + A here because we don’t want to select Ashok Chakra here along with the stripes). Having all these stripes selected, hit CTRL + G or get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Group to make a group of these three selected stripes.Then, with the help of Pick Tool, place the previously made shape of Ashok Chakra on the center of the white shape. As the shape of Ashok Chakra would have been made before the rest of the flag, it will get hidden behind the stripes of the flag.

Selected but invisible image of Ashok Chakra behind the stripes of the flag

In order to bring that shape forward, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Order. As soon as you will select that option, it’s side menu will be appeared containing a few more options. Out of those options, select the option named To Front Of Layer or hit SHIFT + pg dn on the keyboard. As soon as you will do so, image of Ashok Chakra will come forward on the white stripe.

Image of Indian flag read to be saved and exported

Then again select all the shapes on the document by hitting CTRL + A and group them together either by getting inside the Arrange Menu and selecting the option Group or by hitting CTRL + G on the keyboard. After that , save or export that image by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option Save (to save the image in CDR format) or Export (to save image in any format other than CDR) as I have explained in my earlier posts.

So that was our method of perfect illustration of Indian flag with complicated symbol referred as Ashok Chakra on it. I am certain., you will fine this post helpful, if so, kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.

How to draw British flag using CorelDraw X6?

noreply@blogger.com (Sameena Rafiq) — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:24:00 +0000

In my previous post, I explained a very simple method through which one can draw an image of the flag of Islamic Republic of Pakistan within five minutes using CorelDraw X6. The main purpose of that post was to give a brief introduction of a few very important tools of CorelDraw X6 including, Pick Tool, Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool and one of the most important shaping options referred as Trim.

In this post I have decided to explain the uses of some other very important tools which are very commonly used in designing of different logos, visiting cards, invitation cards, Eid and Christmas cards, letter heads, calendars and cash memo slips, through a simple drawing of the flag of United Kingdom. For instance in the following image you can see a neatly drawn flag of United Kingdom that has been drawn thoroughly by the use of different tools of CorelDraw X6 including Rectangle Tool, Eraser tool, Outline Pen Tool and shaping options Trim and Create boundary. Further, there are a few other options given in different menus have also been used in this apparently simple drawing.

United Kingdom

Draw a nice looking flag of U.K within five minutes

In order to draw a flawless image of the British flag, first of all create a new document by following the method I have explained in my previous post Illustration of Pakistani flag in CorelDraw X6. Then, select Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F6 in the keyboard.

Rectangle Tool in the Tool Box

After that, draw a rectangle on the page by dragging your mouse and keeping it’s left button pressed.

Having drawn a rectangle on the page, select Pick Tool out of the Tool Box, put the pointer of your mouse on the newly made rectangle and hit the left button of it to select that rectangle. As soon as you will have the rectangle selected, it will get encircled by a few small black square shaped dots and it’s properties including its width and height will be appeared on the Property Bar.Set the width and height of the rectangle equals to 7.0 and 4.0 respectively and hit the Enter key. As soon as you will hit the Enter key, the selected rectangle will assume the same width and height.

Recently made rectangle and it's properties

Then, fill red color in that rectangular shape by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the color palette by hitting left button of your mouse.

Selected thumbnail representing red color

After filling red color inside the shape, you will need to copy that shape and paste it right over it. In order to make a copy of that shape and place it right over the primary shape, just get inside the Edit Menu and select the option Copy of hit CTRL + C.

Option called Copy in the Edit Menu

Then without doing any other thing or taking any other step get inside the Edit Menu again and select the option Paste or hit CTRL + V.

Option called Paste in the Edit Menu

As soon as you will do so, you will have another red rectangular shape with same width and height placed on the primary shape. As the second shape will be placed neatly on the first shape, there will be seen nothing on the page but a single red rectangular shape.

Two shape on the same spot

In order to make sure whether you have two shapes or only on the page just select the currently visible shape with the help of Pick Tool and after selecting , put the pointer of your mouse any where inside the shape (pointer inside the selected shape will look like a four sided black arrow), keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag your mouse in any direction to change to position of the selected shape and you will notice the primary shape appearing from behind it’s own copy.

Primary shape with it's copy

As we want the second shape placed right over the first shape, so after making sure of the presence of the second shape on the page, just hit CTRL + Z to undo it’s re-positioning. As soon as you will hit CTRL + Z, the re-positioning of the second shape will be undone and you will again have two shapes neatly placed on each other.

Then change the color of the second shape from red to blue by selecting the thumbnail representing blue color in the color palette with left mouse click.

Thumbnail representing blue color i n the Color Palette

After that, click the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the third option given in the Tool Box to open a menu containing Crop Tool, Knife Tool, Eraser Tool and Virtual Segment Delete Tool. Out of that menu select Eraser Tool by clicking on it.

Eraser Tool in the menu

As soon as you will select that tool, its properties including Eraser Thickness, Reduce Nodes and Eraser Shape will be appeared in the Property Bar and the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of either a circle or a square (depending on the Eraser shape selected in the property bar). Set the thickness of the eraser equal to 0.2 and hit Enter. As soon as you will hit the Enter key, eraser (circle or square shaped pointer of your mouse) will assume the same size. As the shape of eraser (whether it be a circle or square) and Reduce Nodes are not going to make any difference here, so you can leave these two options untouched.

Properties of Eraser Tool

Having set the thickness of the eraser, put the pointer of your mouse at the top-right corner of the rectangle and hit the left button of it once. After that, release the button and drag your mouse diagonally to the bottom-left corner of the same rectangle.

Mouse drag from top-right to-bottom-left

After reaching that point, once again hit the left button of your mouse to erase the part of the blue rectangle diagonally. As soon as you will hit the left button of your mouse, you will notice a red diagonal line on the blue rectangle that will be actually the unhidden part of the otherwise hidden red rectangle behind the blue rectangle.

Red diagonal line on the blue shape

After that, put the pointer of your mouse at the top-left corner of the blue rectangle and hit the left button of your mouse again. Then release the button and drag your mouse diagonally to the bottom-right corner of the same rectangle.

Mouse drag from top-left to bottom-right

After reaching there, hit the left button of your mouse again and you will notice another red line on the blue shape.

Nicely erased blue shape

After that, hit CTRL + A to select both rectangles simultaneously. As soon as you will hit CTRL + A both shapes on the page will be selected with small square shaped black dots around and shaping options (including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary )will be appeared on the Property Bar. Out of those shaping options select none other than Create boundary.

Shaping options in the Property Bar

As soon as you will select that option, a transparent and almost invisible boundary will be created around the selected shapes. If you want to make sure the presence of any boundary around the shapes, just select Pick Tool and put the pointer of your mouse on the shapes and click once. As soon as you will do so, if there will be any invisible transparent boundary around the shapes, it will be selected. Then put the pointer of your mouse on the shape and drag it in any direction. If there will be any transparent boundary around the shapes, it will reveal itself then.

Recently generated transparent boundary

After making sure of the presence of boundary around the shapes, hit CTRL + Z to undo it’s re-positioning. Then, fill red color inside that boundary by selecting the thumbnail representing red color in the color palette with left mouse click as I have explained earlier. As soon as the red color will be filled inside the boundary, it will be transformed into another red rectangle and both previously made shapes will get hidden behind it.

Boundary with red color filled inside it.

Then hit CTRL + C to make a copy of that red rectangular shape and then hit CTRL + V to paste it as the fourth shape right over the third shape as we have done earlier. Then change the color of that newly pasted shape from red to blue (or any other color) by selecting the thumbnail representing the blue color in the color palette with left mouse click.

Fourth shape has hidden all the previously made shapes

Then once again select the Eraser Tool out of the Tool Box and set the thickness of the eraser this time equal to 0.4.

Eraser Tool with thickness 0.4

After that, put the circle shaped pointer of your mouse on the middle of the top boundary of the blue rectangle and hit the left button of your mouse once and then drag your mouse down to the middle of the bottom boundary of the same rectangle.

Left mouse click is required at the bottom end

Having reached there, hit the left button of your mouse again. As soon as you will do so, some part of the red rectangular shape will start to peer through the erased part of the blue shape in the form of a thick red vertical line.

Red shape peering vertically through the erased part of the topmost shape

After that, put the circle shaped pointer of your mouse on the middle of the left boundary of the blue shape and hit the left button of it once. Then drag your mouse horizontally this time, from left to right and click once on the middle of the right boundary of the blue shape. As soon as you will do so, a red horizontal straight line will be appeared on the blue shape and that line too, will be a part of the red rectangle hidden behind the blue shape.

Cross made by two straight lines

After that, select the two top most shapes with the help of Pick Tool by clicking on both one by one keeping the Shift key pressed. As soon as you will have both the top shapes selected, shaping options will be appeared again in the Property Bar. Out of those options, select Trim to have the hidden part of the red shape nicely trimmed off.

Shaping option referred as Trim in the Property Bar

Having trimmed the hidden part of the red rectangle off, select the blue rectangle with the help of Pick Tool and delete it either by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Delete or by hitting Delete key on the keyboard. As soon as you will select the option Delete given in the Edit Menu or hit the key named Delete given in the keyboard , blue rectangle will be deleted, leaving a nicely formed red cross behind.

Still unfinished flag of United Kingdom after the deletion of fourth rectangular shape

Then select that cross with the help of Pick Tool leaving rest of the shapes (blue and red shapes) on the page unselected and hit the small arrow that can be seen at the bottom-right of the tool referred as Pen Outline in the Tool Box with left mouse click. As soon as you will perfume that action, a menu will be appeared containing different styles of outlines. Out of those style select 8 pt for the selected shape of the cross. As soon as you will select that outline style a 8 pt thick black outline will be appeared around the cross.

Outline styles given in the menu

After that leaving the the topmost shape (cross) unselected, select the rest of the shapes by clicking on each, one by one keeping the Shift button pressed in the keyboard. Then once again click the small arrow at the bottom-right of the Pen Outline Tool in the Tool Box and out of styles given in it’s menu select 10 pt for both the selected rectangular shapes. As soon as you will select that style, 10 pt thick outlines will be appeared around both of the shapes.

Outline styles given in the menu

Then hit CTRL + A to select all the shapes drawn on the page at the same time and out of the Color Palette, select the thumbnail representing white color by hitting the right button of your mouse to fill white color in the outlines of all the shapes. As soon as you will do so, all the black outlines will turn white and you will have a nice looking British flag on the page.

Flag of United Kingdom with white outlines

Then, in order to make re-positioning of the flag possible, make a group of all the shapes in the flag. For that purpose select all the shapes once again by hitting CTRL + A and then get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Group or hit CTRL +G.

Group in the Arrange Menu

As soon as you will select the option Group or hit CTRL + G , all the shapes in the flag will be grouped together. Then save or export that image in your required format by getting inside the file menu and selecting the option Save (to save the image in CDR format) or Export (to save image in JPEG, PNG or any format other than CDR). After saving or exporting the image you can give it different styles and backgrounds according to your choice.

I hope you will find this post interesting and useful at the same time. If so, kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your valuable comments,