CorelDRAW.com

Weekend Widget: Picasa 3 Beta

Graphics Unleashed — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:00:00 GMT

There are a number of applications out there for managing your digital photos. Some of the applications have a pretty hefty price and yet one of the best applications is absolutely free. Google recently released a beta of Picasa3 . Obviously the price is right. As much as I work with digital photos, I've never settled on a "management" application. I'm not sure if this is because none of them do what I want or maybe I just have no desire to organize my photos. If you've seen...(read more)

Change the stacking order of elements quickly

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:51:54 GMT

This macro allows you to intuitively change the stacking order of elements. Shift-select them in the order you need, and run the macro. You can force the last item selected to be the bottom of the stacking order, or the top. The other shapes will correspond. This ability is important for certain industrial processes. You can now determine where on the final output material the device will start cutting, by ordering the objects in a specific way....(read more)

Preview color separations quickly

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:42:42 GMT

Channels allows you to quickly preview color separations, right inside the CorelDRAW workspace....(read more)

Font Friday: Wanted Fonts

Graphics Unleashed — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:00:00 GMT

The font I wanted to present this week doesn't have a page all its own. But that just means you get a link with several fonts to download . That's not such a bad deal. Wanted Fonts has hundreds, if not thousands, of fonts available for download. I wanted a kind of handwriting font today and I liked the look of Scribblicious. It looks as if someone has taken several strokes to make up each letter. It is listed as freeware, but read any usage restrictions carefully....(read more)

Adding Music to Your Photography Presentation

Fleeting Glimpse Images : Visions in words ~ Sagas in light: Blog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:38:32 GMT

As I turn my attention toward the upcoming PowerPoint Live in San Diego in September, I am thinking about fine tuning those presentations which I will be giving as an instructor in Photography and Image Editing . When speaking in public, many presenters like to have some music playing in the background during the time in which the audience is filing in and taking their seats. Often, when I am presenting and showing a series of photographic images. Occasionally, I set the mood with music. Regional...(read more)

Cool YouTube Video from Mo...

Gerard Metrailler — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:55:00 GMT

You might have seen the great gallery Mo has on CorelDRAW.com. He also posted a cool video on YouTube showing how this illustration was created.

coreldraw: Check-out this cool YouTube Video from VectorJedi: http://tinyurl.com/552ol5

Twitter / coreldraw — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:54:41 GMT

coreldraw: Check-out this cool YouTube Video from VectorJedi: http://tinyurl.com/552ol5...(read more)

Another CorelDRAW X4 book: "CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps" from Dreamtech

Gerard Metrailler — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:12:00 GMT

There are more and more books available for CorelDRAW X4. The latest one comes from Dreamtech in India and is called "CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps" (SBN: 978-81-7722-859-5; Price: INR: 179.-). This book is currently only available in India from what I understand.

According to Dreamtech:

CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps offers you a quick and easy way to learn and master CorelDRAW X4. Simple language and step-by-step approach with lots of illustrations make this book an ultimate reference book. Some of the topics covered in the book are:

Basics of CorelDRAW X4;
Working with shapes, lines and colors;
Working with different tools to convert, format and edit objects and text
Understanding Layer Management in CorelDRAW;
Handling bitmaps; adding special effects to bitmaps and managing color displays.

Thursday Tip: Fillable Outlines

Graphics Unleashed — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:00:01 GMT

In CorelDRAW, an outline is only allowed to have a solid color. If you want something fancy like a fountain fill, you can't apply it to an outline. But this is CorelDRAW and there is a way to do almost anything. Select the object with the outline you wish to fill and select Arrange | Convert Outline to Object or simply press Ctrl + Shift + Q and the outline will now be a fillable object. In fact, you could even add an outline to that object which gives you the effect of multiple outlines. This...(read more)

Make a Key in CorelDRAW - Updated tutorial

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:32:49 GMT

If you have shaky CorelDRAW skills or want to see how I'd build a vector key, watch the video below. In 5 minutes, I cover many fundamental CorelDRAW functions....(read more)

Hump Day Hardware: CD/DVD Printers and Duplicators

Graphics Unleashed — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:00:00 GMT

I remember buying my first drive to burn CDs about 13 years ago. It cost over $2000 and would take a full 70+ minutes to burn a full disc. Things have changed drastically and now that disc can be burned in under 5 minutes by a drive costing less than $50. Some day we'll talk about disc burners, but that isn't our topic today. Most people have a burner in their computer. When it comes to labeling the discs you burn, what do you use? I bet most of you still use a Sharpie . That might work great...(read more)

Google Chrome Presents Another Option for Browsing

Graphics Unleashed — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:27:34 GMT

Those of you who are regular readers know that I highly recommend that you use something other than Microsoft Internet Explorer for the majority of your Web browsing. My personal suggestion is Mozilla Firefox for its speed, features and security. In the last few days there have been some other developers in the world of browsers. Microsoft has released Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8 . If you are developing content for the Web, you might want to give the new version of Internet Explorer a test drive...(read more)

CorelDRAW X4 - Layer handling macro

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:23:00 GMT

Layer handling has changed dramatically in CorelDRAW X4. Some people love it, others hate it. What's the change? X4 has independent layers per page. For Example: you can have 3 layers on page 1, and 20 layers on page 2. However, some users prefer consistent layer quantities and layer names from page to page, across the entire document. This macro from Brian Davies allows comprehensive control over the flexible layer infrastructure introduced in CorelDRAW X4. In my opinion, it's the best of...(read more)

Tutorial Tuesday: Fire and Ice

Graphics Unleashed — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:00:01 GMT

For today's tutorial I'm going to go down under to the Visionary Voyager site. David Mutch has created some great tutorials for Corel PHOTO-PAINT. For me, the Fire and Ice tutorials create the most stunning effects. While the tutorials are a few years old, they work in Corel PHOTO-PAINT 9 and up. I'm sure there are a few commands that have slight differences, but you should be able to easily adjust for the newer versions. With a few variations on the steps provided, you should be able...(read more)

Quick document navigation

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:31:10 GMT

Lars, a prominent CorelDRAW user wrote: "I'd like to see a command for going to the first and last pages in a multi-page document. We have the Page up and Page down key commands that flips the pages, but we also need a keyboard shortcut to go to the first and last pages of a document. " This macro allows you to quickly go to the first or last page of a multi-page CorelDRAW document. I assigned the Home key to go to page 1, and the End key to go to the last page in the document....(read more)

Macro Monday: Oberon Fit Objects to Path

Graphics Unleashed — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:00:01 GMT

Sometimes requests for a particular feature come in bunches. One that I've seen a lot recently is to have the ability to put objects on a path just like you can put text on a path in CorelDRAW. There is a way using Blend on a Path if the objects are more or less the same. Unfortunately that won't do the trick if you have a number of different shapes you want on a path. That's where today's macro comes into play. Oberon's Fit Objects to Path gives you the ability to place selected...(read more)

131st Lesson! Corel DRAW – Blend Effect - Part 5

Atul — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:53:00 GMT

Dear Members,

Let us try rotate command using blend. You will get an interesting effect.

Open Corel DRAW.
Draw square using rectangle tool. Fill it with red color.
Draw another square using rectangle tool. Fill it with green color.
Select both the shapes.
Go to menu.
Effects > Blend
Change the rotate angle to 90.
Keep the rest of the settings as they are.
Press “Apply”
You will get the blend effect.
You will observe that the red square is gradually rotating during the intermediate steps at 90 degree angle till it reaches to Green Square.

With regards
Atul Thakur
Editor
http://www.insidegraphics.com
Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points – Zen

Sunday Stock: Digital Design Ware

Graphics Unleashed — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 08:00:00 GMT

We have added a wide variety of clip art, textures, templates and more to the Graphics Unleashed Web site this week. This artwork is geared towards those in the sign and vehicle wrap industries, but it can certainly be useful to other artists as well. Probably the coolest feature is taking a two-dimensional template for a vehicle wrap and turning it into a 3D rendering of the finished wrap with only a few clicks. Typically 3D software is baffling to me. But this is a task so simple that anyone can...(read more)

Behind the Shot: Flashing Butterflies

Fleeting Glimpse Images : Visions in words ~ Sagas in light: Blog — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:32:08 GMT

The waning days of the butterfly exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo prompted me to go out and do a little end-of-season butterfly photography. There was a tough day waiting for me as I was faced with the dreaded mile-high-blue sky. In addition, the exhibit overflowed with last-minute patrons hurrying to see the ragged shreds of the exhibit before it closes on September 1. Those of you who follow my writings know that I have been hanging out at the Strobist's Blog a lot lately and I owe much of my recent...(read more)

Weekend Widget: True BoxShot

Graphics Unleashed — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:00:01 GMT

There is no doubt you've seen cool three-dimensional product shots on Web sites or in printed catalogs. You've probably wondered how they were created. Today's pick is True BoxShot and it makes the process incredibly easy. The box shot shown at right is a product of the software. In reality there is no box as it is downloadable software. So that you can go through the process yourself, download a trial version of the standalone product , the Photoshop plug-in or the bundle of the two...(read more)

Coloring areas with flexibility

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:45:01 GMT

I recently had an interesting challenge at one of the print shops I freelance at. The client provided an PDF file of some lots for sale. They wanted to use it in their sales materials to indicated the status of specific lots. Since the lots themselves were about a half millions dollars each, it was important that communication was clear. Yep – that's the price for the dirt only – welcome to Calgary. :-P I exported the PDF out of Acrobat as a high-resolution monochrome bitmap. At 600 DPI, this...(read more)

I met Bob & Dan from Flagstaff in Stockholm

Stefan Lindblad - Art and Illustration — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:41:00 GMT

How odd is this. Fun, but whats the odds for this. For those who dont know, Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, in Europe (Land of the historical vikings) and Flagstaff a nice but smaller town in Arizona, USA. Beutiful landscape, worth a visit. It takes approximatly 20-24 hours with longdistance and changes with domestic airlines, and car from Flagstaff to Phoenix, to go door to door from Falgstaff to Stockholm, Sweden. Thats a long trip. I just came back after a lunch earlier at a pub. Two americans...(read more)

Font Friday: Verzierte Schwabacher

Graphics Unleashed — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:00:00 GMT

Today's font is a recreation of a scanned blackletter font named Verzierte Schwabacher. That's German for Schwabacher Handtooled. It was originally drawn by Carl Kloberg in 1891. You can download it for free . No readme file was included regarding its usage. To start the download, click on either of the samples shown on the page. Each of them will give you a different re-creation of the original font. You can also download a PDF file with a scan of the original art....(read more)

Get Free Sports and Mascots Clip Art

Graphics Unleashed — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:39:10 GMT

Digital Art Solutions is running an amazing back to school special on their Sports and Mascots Clip Art. If you buy Sports and Mascots 2 , you also get the Sports and Mascots 1 collection for free! The offer will only last for a short time so don't hesitate or you might miss out. There are two ways to take advantage of the deal. You can call (800) 959-7627 to place your order. Make sure to use promotional code B2S when calling so that you get the special deal! You can also sign up for the deal...(read more)

Delete a point on Photo-PAINT X4's Tone Curve line

Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:55:00 GMT

Before, I'd drag it right off the line (like in PP X3). In X4, this "old delete method" is gone , but new one appears. New Way: Select a point with the mouse and delete it with your keyboard's Delete key....(read more)