I received an interesting question about the barcode feature in CorelDRAW. For those of you who aren't aware, CorelDRAW's barcode wizard is a very powerful feature that allows you to insert barcodes into your designs (think packaging design, etc.). The question was around changing the colour of a barcode in CorelDRAW - can it be done?

Well the answer is yes, well sort of. You can change the color, but by "cheating" a bit, by transforming your barcode into a regular group of curved objects. You can do this by:

-Creating the barcode (Edit menu / Insert Barcode, and then follow the wizard)
-Select the barcode object you just created
-From the Edit menu, select Cut
-From the Edit menu, select Paste Special
-Choose "Picture (Metafile)" from the available choices
-The barcode is now technically no longer a barcode, but just a group of objects, which can be ungrouped (Arrange menu / Ungroup) and then the colors changed as you wish

An important thing to remember is that changing the color of a barcode may render it unreadable by certain barcode scanning devices. I'm not fully up to speed on barcode standards, but it's something to think about. Either way, for those of you who weren't aware of the barcode capabilities, now you are!

Cheers,

John