Gérard on Graphics

The team at Corel is hard at work getting ready to release the second service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 in the coming few months. While I cannot give you all the details right now, I wanted to share some of the things that are expected to make it into SP2:

• First, we will be expanding the RAW support capabilities with SP2. We expect to add support for following camera models: Panasonics LX3 and FZ28, Nikon D90, P6000 and D700, Canon EOS 50D and EOS 1000D, Canon PowerShot SD300, Sony A900, Kodak C603, and Olympus E-520.
• Using the Scroll wheel or Alt+arrows with text and/or curve objects on the page should no longer causes screen refresh issues.
• We will be including the previously released hot-fix, which means that CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 should launch properly when Autodesk Inventor, Mechanical 2009, or MS SQL Server 2008 are installed on the system. 
• Visual feedback is expected to be available when adjusting line, character, or word spacing with the Shape tool in Wireframe mode. 
• Highlighted text should no longer deselect when attempting to change the font.
• Drop shadows are also being worked on. Those applied to text objects should no longer cause display issues when placed over a PowerClip object and those applied to a text object with the outline set to "Behind Fill" should now applies the drop shadow to the fill. 
• Importing a single-layer CDR file into another single-layer CDR file will no longer imports the file onto a new layer.
• Print Merge is expected to properly merge text attributes of a data placeholder.
  
• Barcodes should only appear on the black separation layer, instead of separating to all four colors.
  

This is just a partial list of all the things we are working on for Service Pack 2, and I have to use the words "should" or "is expected to" as I will only have confirmation that these are really done once we release SP2. I will keep you posted with more information when available. When released, you will get notified automatically by CorelDRAW / Corel PHOTO-PAINT through the auto-update mechanism in the welcome screen.

Foster just announced the CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camps for Spring 2009. These three training days will cover CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT in depth, and I am certain they will be an invaluable resource for anyone using CorelDRAW Graphics Suite as well as Wilcom DecoStudio / EmbroideryStudio. The boot camps will be held in Cave Creek, Arizona (USA)... so for the canadians out there, you can even get a break from Winter as a bonus in addition to the learning, covering tips and techniques to users designing for engraving, screen printing, garment printing, Internet, multimedia, signs, embroidery and print.

The new Spring dates in 2009 are February 19-21, March 5-7, April 16-18 and May 7-9 and every student will receive a copy of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Premium Bonus Content Edition multimedia ebook in addition to all the material for the training. You will find a lot more information under http://www.unleash.com/training/coreldrawbootcamp.asp.

As you all know, CorelDRAW is the leading graphics application in many industries such as sign-making, engraving as well as direct to garment printing. Well, according to a recent blog post from Kirill Mazin, looks like someone at the Adobe MAX conference is in agreement. As you can see from the photo on Kirill's blog, he said the t-shirts that the winners of a contest recieved where created and printed using CorelDRAW X3... thanks to the compatibility of EPS and AI file formats by CorelDRAW I guess .

The "Signs of the Times" magazine is currently running the 2009 International Sign Contest and is accepting submissions. As we know that many of you use CorelDRAW in the sign-industry, this is your chance to show-case how you use the product and the opportunity to be recognized by your peers for the fantastic work you do and to be featured in the April 2009 issue of the magazine.

There are 13 different categories to participate in

• Soft Signs/Banners/Inflatables
  
• Exhibit/Tradeshow Graphics
  
• Commercial Sign Systems
  
• Electric Sign Systems
  
• Commercial Monument Signs
  
• Electric Monument Signs
  
• Murals/Supergraphics
  
• Commercial Pole/Pylon Signs
  
• Electric Pole/Pylon Signs
  
• Commercial Building Signs
  
• Electric Building Signs
  
• Electronic Message Centers
  
• Unique Signs
  

Technical manuals are nothing new, but the tools have come a long way from the illustrations created for Project Gemini, the B-17 Flying Fortress or the the SR-71 Blackbird. The October 2008 issue of Wired magazine has a great gallery of historical technical manuals titled "A Photo Essay of Classic Instruction Manuals", and Wired.com adds two more galleries: "Classic Flight Manuals: B-58A, F-14A, Apollo and Gemini" and "Classic Computer Manuals and Plans from Apple and IBM".

Considering that these had to be done by hand as Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4 wasn't available back then, I can only say that these are really impressive... here are some of the images:

1966 NASA PROJECT GEMINI FAMILIARIZATION MANUAL

CA. 1942 B-17F FLYING FORTRESS PILOT FAMILIARIZATION MANUAL

1988 SR-71 BLACKBIRD ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL SYSTEMS

Tomorrow, I will be taking part in a panel discussion in Ottawa about Online communities based on what we've done with CorelDRAW.com so far. In preparation for this, I had a discussion with Simon Chen from Ramius Communications and who is one of the organizers of the Social Media Breakfasts in Ottawa. At that point, we also recorded a 12 minute video to cover online communities, CorelDRAW.com and a little more. Here is the video:

A few weeks back, we started getting reports of an issue in which CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 applications would not start after Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical 2009, or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 was installed. Hot-fix 1, which will also be available shortly from Corel.com, resolves this issue. In the mean-time, here is the link to download it.

Gérard

As you know, Corel DESIGNER is a product specifically built for technical illustration, based on a common engine with CorelDRAW. One of the many features that sets Corel DESIGNER apart from CorelDRAW and other "creative illustration" packages is the Enhanced Line Styles that enable users to better document their graphics. While the user interface does not offer an option to customize the enhanced line styles, Claude who is part of the development team just posted a detailled article about this in the CorelDRAW Insider blog. If you use DESIGNER and/or need to customize your line styles, this is well worth a read:

http://coreldraw.com/blogs/insider/pages/how-to-create-custom-outline-enhanced-pattern-style.aspx

As a follow-up to my previous post regarding the CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book, the great book that Foster has recently released, I wanted to let you all know that the Premium edition is now available to purchase directly from Corel in North America. Here are the direct links to the USA eStore and the Canadian eStore. And you can always find out more about this book directly on the CorelDRAW Unleashed web site.

Gérard

A week ago, we passed another milestone for CorelDRAW.com: the 15,000 members mark flew by so quickly. It took almost a year to reach the first 10,000 members and we are on track to double that number in almost half the time.

But more importantly than that, it's the wealth of information and sharing that you all bring to the table that make it such a great place to go. The forums have been terrific for each of us to ask and answer questions, and I am truly amazed by the stunning work posted in the galleries. And the Corel employees who have been taking part in the forum discussions and the monthly real-time chat sessions have really enjoyed talking to you.

Looking back, we knew that the CorelDRAW family of products had passionate and active users around the world and we wanted you to have a tool to open-up the communication amongst yourselves and with Corel employees. User feedback is a critical part of our product development, but in the past, we only got feedback from some of you through on-site visits, phone interviews and surveys. We wanted to do more. So, to make this community a reality with a reasonable investment, we decided to get CorelDRAW.com running with an off-the-shelf solution, using Telligent's Community Server engine in the background. And it's been running since then. For the nostalgic ones, here is how the site looked like at launch:

Yes, I know, we've come a long way. Since then, we used the feedback you provided in the forums to drive the development of X4 and to prioritize the things to fix in Service Pack 1, we made a beta version of Corel DESIGNER X4 available to the members of the community, and we've been showcasing some of the amazing artwork you've posted in the gallery directly within the welcome screen of CorelDRAW, Corel DESIGNER and Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Looking forward, we have been experimenting with a Wiki for the members of the community to capture information that is coming up on a regular basis. The current implementation isn't working as well as we want and have therefore decided to postpone it slightly. Good news is that Telligent announced that a Wiki is on the roadmap for their next version of the engine, which means we will be able to roll that out with the next major update of the community (just don't ask when right now).

In light of all this, I have to say thanks. We couldn't have built this great site without you.

We're pretty proud of what we've all done here and have decided to submit CorelDRAW.com to the Groundswell Awards which honor projects that make exceptional use of social technologies. Feel free to check it out and to rate / add your comments to the submissions. The nominees include a whole list of cool sites and communities.

Earlier this morning, Wilcom and Corel announced the new versions of both EmbroideryStudio e1.5 and DecoStudio e1.5. Both of these products are combining the power of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 with the great embroidery functionality of the Wilcom Embroidery products. We at Corel are really excited about the announcement that represents the second phase of the strategic partnership between both companies.

And for those who want to find out more about these two new products, Wilcom and Corel are hosting an online launch event all day today (it started a few hours ago). To join, simply go to http://www.wilcomdiscovery.com. In addition to demos and tips&tricks sessions, I will be taking part in a panel discussion at 2PM Eastern to answer your questions about Corel, CorelDRAW and the strategic partnership with Wilcom.

Gérard

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.

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. 
  

One of the regular question I get is about books related to CorelDRAW. In addition to the amazing CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed eBook that is already available from the CorelDRAW Unleashed web site, I am very happy to announce that McGraw-Hill has just released the CorelDRAW X4 Official Guide, an 892 pages book written by Gary Bouton. Here is a little extract from the cover copy:

Create fine art and commercial graphics with one powerful tool! CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide shows you how to get a visual message across with impact and style; edit photos; build captivating layouts; and compose scenes in a clean, attention-getting style. Learn how to illustrate like the pros, justify and flow text around shapes, and truly understand digital color. You'll also discover how to create 3D objects, apply special effects, and integrate different media to build outstanding graphics. Packed with expert tips and techniques for creating professional-level art, this is your one-stop CorelDRAW X4 resource.

More information about this book is available on the McGraw-Hill web site, including the full table of content.

You can get this book from your favourite book store (ISBN number 9780071545709) as well as from the Corel eStore in the USA and in Canada (for now). And if you are outside of North America, we are working with McGraw-Hill to have this book available around the world and even have it translated in certain languages. I hope to have more details about this to share in the future.

In recent years, more laptops than desktop computers have been sold around the world as people prefer the benefits of mobility and form-factor. But when it comes to graphics design, these smaller devices have always been limiting and required to carry around a lot of different accessories next to the main computer when you wanted to be mobile: a Wacom tablet, a Huey Stick color calibration device and more.

Well, looks like Lenovo is offering a new laptop aimed specifically at the graphics designers: the ThinkPad W700. In addition to a huge 17-inch display and an Intel Quad Core Extreme CPU, it includes an nVidia Quadro FX 370 graphics chipset with 1GB of video RAM, up to 8 GB of memory and more disk space than you can think of. But these specs would make it a high-end gaming laptop. What makes this one a very interesting solution for graphics designers is that it includes both a Wacom tablet (to the right of the trackpad) as well as an on-board color calibration system. Yes, it gets a little pricy (about $3,000 for the starting price), reason why I don't think I will be able to test one in the near future

Engadget has more information and a gallery with photos of the W700 online.