CorelDRAW 2021: Power Tools, Features, and Productivity Tips

Roger Wambolt, a Senior Product Trainer at Corel, delivers a session exploring the capabilities of CorelDRAW 2021. The presentation covers various components of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, such as CorelDRAW.app and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021. It goes over the interface and features, including the Welcome Book, workspaces, the new document dialog box, and the Pages docker. Moreover, the training discusses importing and exporting, working with templates, object selection and alignment, shaping, the crop and knife tools, interactive tools, transparencies and lenses, and the power of PowerClip. The presentation also explains many types of creative effects available and how to customize the CorelDRAW experience.

CorelDRAW 2021 Study Guide

Quiz

Instructions: Answer the following questions in 2-3 sentences each.

1. What are the primary applications included in the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021, and what is the main function of each?
2. Describe the interactive property bar in CorelDRAW. Why is it also referred to as the context-sensitive property bar?
3. Explain the purpose of dockers in CorelDRAW. How can you access and manage them within the software?
4. Outline the different workspaces available in the Welcome Book. Which workspace would be most beneficial for users migrating from Adobe Illustrator, and why?
5. When creating a new document, what considerations should you take into account regarding the rendering resolution? How does it impact performance and file size?
6. Describe the autofit feature in CorelDRAW 2021. How can it be used to adjust page size to fit the content on the page?
7. Explain the multi-asset export feature in CorelDRAW 2021. How does it streamline the process of exporting multiple objects in various formats?
8. Describe the differences between “copy” and “duplicate” in CorelDRAW. Why is “duplicate” generally recommended?
9. Explain how the “Alt” key and “Control” key can be used to make selections.
10. Describe the process of creating a cut line around a raster image.

Quiz Answer Key

1. The CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 includes CorelDRAW (vector illustration and page layout), CorelDRAW.app (online graphic design via the web), Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 (raster manipulation), Corel PowerTRACE (bitmap-to-vector conversion), Corel CAPTURE 2021 (screen capture), and Corel Font Manager (font exploration and management). Each application serves a distinct function within the broader graphic design workflow.
2. The interactive property bar, or context-sensitive property bar, is located below the standard toolbar and dynamically changes based on the tool selected in the toolbox. It provides additional functionality and options specific to the active tool, offering a streamlined workflow.
3. Dockers are panels within CorelDRAW that provide additional tools and functionality, such as object management, effects, and more. They can be accessed via the “Windows” menu under “Dockers” or by clicking the dockers icon, allowing users to turn them on or off as needed.
4. The Welcome Book includes workspaces like Light, Default, Touch, Illustration, Page Layout, and Adobe Illustrator. The Adobe Illustrator workspace is designed for users migrating from Illustrator, as it places tools in familiar locations, easing the transition to CorelDRAW.
5. When creating a new document, the rendering resolution determines the quality at which lenses and transparencies are rendered. For large-format prints, a lower resolution (e.g., 96 dpi) can speed up rip time and decrease file size without significant loss of quality.
6. The autofit feature adjusts the page size to fit the content on the page by creating a margin around the selected objects. It streamlines the process of resizing the page to match the artwork, ensuring a perfect fit.
7. The multi-asset export feature allows users to export multiple objects in different formats and resolutions simultaneously. This is found by opening up the Export Docker via the Windows menu. This is a faster way to generate assets for web and print from a single document.
8. “Copy” creates a temporary file in the Windows clipboard, potentially bogging down the system with temp files. “Duplicate” (Ctrl+D) creates a copy directly within the document, avoiding temp files and improving performance, so it is the recommended method.
9. Holding down the “Alt” key while clicking allows you to select objects layered beneath other objects, “digging down” one level at a time. Holding down “Control” will allow you to make selections within a group of objects.
10. A cut line can be created around a raster image in CorelDRAW using PowerTRACE. Convert the image to vector using outline trace, reduce the colors to a minimum, set the option to not delete the original, and then use the boundary tool on the resulting vector object to create the cut line.

Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of workspace customization in CorelDRAW. How can users tailor the interface to enhance their productivity and workflow efficiency?
2. Explore the capabilities of Corel Font Manager and its integration with CorelDRAW. How does it simplify font management and selection for graphic design projects?
3. Compare and contrast the various interactive tools available in CorelDRAW, such as blend, contour, envelope, extrude, and drop shadow. How can these tools be used to create unique and visually appealing effects?
4. Analyze the role of PowerClip in CorelDRAW for creating layouts and designs. How does PowerClip facilitate the placement of objects inside containers, and what are its practical applications in graphic design?
5. Evaluate the significance of PowerTRACE in converting raster images to vector graphics. How does PowerTRACE benefit designers working with logos, illustrations, and other bitmap-based assets?

Glossary of Key Terms

• Vector Illustration: Graphic design using mathematical equations to create images that can be scaled without loss of quality.
• Raster Manipulation: Editing and modifying images composed of pixels (bitmaps).
• Bitmap: An image composed of pixels, with resolution limitations when scaling.
• PowerTRACE: CorelDRAW’s tool for converting bitmap images into vector graphics.
• Docker: A panel in CorelDRAW that provides access to various tools, settings, and features.
• Workspace: A customized arrangement of tools, menus, and palettes in CorelDRAW tailored to specific tasks.
• Rendering Resolution: The resolution at which lenses and transparencies are rendered in a document.
• Autofit: A CorelDRAW feature that automatically adjusts the page size to fit the content on the page.
• File I/O: File input/output, referring to the processes of importing and exporting files.
• Multi-Asset Export: A CorelDRAW feature for exporting multiple objects in various formats and resolutions simultaneously.
• Object Docker: A docker that displays and manages the objects within a document.
• Marquee Select: Selecting objects by dragging a rectangle around them with the pick tool.
• Grouping: Combining multiple objects into a single unit for easier manipulation.
• Shaping: Modifying the shapes of objects using tools like weld, combine, and simplify.
• Virtual Segment Delete Tool: A tool for quickly deleting segments of lines or curves.
• Interactive Tools: Tools that create dynamic effects, such as blends, contours, and drop shadows.
• Blend: A tool that creates a smooth transition between two objects.
• Contour: A tool that creates a series of outlines around an object.
• Envelope Tool: A tool that distorts objects by manipulating their outlines.
• Extrude: A tool that creates a 3D effect by extending an object into depth.
• Drop Shadow: A tool that adds a shadow effect to an object.
• Transparency: Making an object partially or fully see-through.
• Perspective: Creating the illusion of depth and distance in an image.
• Artistic Text: Text that is treated as an object, allowing for more creative manipulation.
• Paragraph Text: Text contained within a frame, suitable for larger bodies of text.
• Variable Font: A font with adjustable parameters, such as weight, width, and slant.
• PowerClip: Placing an object or group of objects inside a container.
• Graph Paper Tool: A tool for creating grids and tables.
• Power Trace: The process of converting a raster image to a vector image within CorelDRAW.
• Scripts and Macros: Automated sequences of commands that can be executed to perform repetitive tasks.
• Pointillizer: A tool to create pseudo halftone effects.
• Workspace Customization: Tailoring the CorelDRAW interface to suit individual preferences and workflow.

CorelDRAW 2021 Training: Features, Techniques, and Productivity

Okay, here’s a detailed briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided transcript of a CorelDRAW 2021 training session.

Briefing Document: CorelDRAW 2021 Training Session Review

Source: Transcript of CorelDRAW 2021 Breakaway Session presented by Roger Wambolt, Senior Product Trainer at Corel.

Overview:

This document summarizes a training session focused on CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021, highlighting new features, interface elements, and time-saving techniques. The session covers a range of topics from basic interface navigation to advanced features such as PowerTRACE, multi-asset export, object manipulation, shaping tools, effects, and workspace customization. The presenter, Roger Wambolt, emphasizes productivity and ease of use for both new and experienced CorelDRAW users.

Key Themes and Ideas:

1. CorelDRAW Suite Components:

• The training begins by outlining the core components of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021.
• CorelDRAW (Vector illustration and page layout)
• CorelDRAW.app (Online graphic design)
• Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 (Raster manipulation)
• Corel PowerTRACE (Bitmap to vector conversion) – Part of CorelDRAW
• Corel CAPTURE 2021 (Screen capture utility – Windows only)
• Corel Font Manager (Font exploration and management)
• “in CorelDRAW Graphic Suite 2021 it includes CorelDRAW which is vector illustration and page layout; CorelDRAW.app is an online graphic design interface via the web; Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 is for raster manipulation or editing bitmaps; we have Corel PowerTRACE, which is part of CorelDRAW itself and it, allows you to convert bitmaps to vector objects; Corel CAPTURE 2021 is a screen capture utility, and I should point out that it’s only available for Windows; and, then finally we have the Corel Font Manager with uh giving you the ability to do font exploration and it’s a management tool allows you to create collections and that sort of thing.”

1. Interface Navigation and Customization:

• The session provides a detailed overview of the CorelDRAW interface, covering the menu bar, standard toolbar, interactive (context-sensitive) property bar, toolbox, page navigation, status bar, color palette, and dockers.
• Emphasis is placed on the context-sensitive nature of the property bar, which adapts to the selected tool.
• Dockers provide additional functionality and can be accessed through the Windows menu or a dedicated icon.
• “Now let’s take a look at the interface from the top we have a standard drop down menu across the top where you find most of the commands below that is a standard toolbar or button bar and it includes some of the more common features such as new document open print import export and that sort of thing below that is the interactive property bar also called the context sensitive property bar as it changes depending on the tool that you select within the toolbox and it gives you more functionality to these tools”

1. Welcome Book and Workspaces:

• The Welcome Book offers quick access to new documents, recent files, templates, learning resources, and the Corel Store.
• Multiple workspaces are available, including Light, Default, Touch, Illustration, Page Layout, and Adobe Illustrator (designed for Illustrator users transitioning to CorelDRAW).
• “Now let’s take a look at the Welcome Book now the welcome book is located this tab right here if this by chance isn’t opened up you can go to your help menu down to welcome screen and in here we have the get started now get started allows you to start with a new document you can continue editing when you’ve previously edited or recently edited”

1. New Document Features:

• The “New Document” dialog box includes options for naming the document, selecting presets, specifying the number of pages, choosing single-page or multi-page view (a new feature in 2021), and setting the primary color mode and dimensions.
• Rendering resolution affects the quality of lenses and transparencies. The trainer advises lowering this for large format prints to reduce rip time and file size.

1. Autofit Feature:

• The Autofit feature automatically adjusts the page size to fit the content, allowing for margin adjustments.
• Objects on master layers are not affected by Autofit.
• “now one of the other features that we’ve added in 2021 is the autofit I love this feature I’m going to deselect the everything on the page you’ll notice my interactive property bar shows my page information here this icon is referred to as autofit so what i’m going to do is I’ll click on the autofit icon and here I can set up a margin”

1. Pages Docker:

• The Pages docker facilitates editing multi-page documents with single-page and multi-page views.
• Users can rearrange pages by dragging them within the docker.
• Objects can be moved between pages by dragging them in the docker.
• “now let’s take a look at the Pages docker the Pages docker gives you the ability to easily edit multi-page documents from the windows menu I’m going to go down to dockers and I’ll select pages now within the Pages docker I have the ability to do a single page view I can do a multi-page view”

1. File I/O (Import/Export):

• The training covers importing images, with options for external linking, high-resolution output (for OPI servers), resampling, and cropping.
• CorelDRAW 2021 introduces multi-asset export, allowing users to export multiple objects in various formats (JPEG, GIF, PNG, PDF) with customizable settings.
• “so i’m going to import an image i’ll click on my import icon alternatively i could have done a control I or file import and i’m going to bring in this image here one thing I want to point out here is bottom right hand corner on the import icon i have a drop down here i have the ability to import this i can import it as externally linked i can import as high res for output provided i’m using an opi server in this case i am not and that’s why it’s grayed out i also have the ability to resample and load or crop and load”
• “one other new feature that we’ve added to CorelDRAW 2021 is the Multi-asset export to access the Multi-asset export from the Windows menu I’m going to go down to dockers and I’ll select export”

1. Templates:

• Creating new documents from templates is simplified with the “New from Template” option in the File menu.
• Templates provide a head start on designs.
• “so new from template or templates as I mentioned very easy to create new documents based on a template it’s simply a matter of going to the file menu and selecting new from template and what this is going to do is it’s going to open up a template dialog box in here we can see that I have my templates I can also select all templates and with all templates selected we’ll be able to see the templates that are provided with the software”

1. Object Docker and Selection/Alignment:

• The Object docker provides a visual representation of objects within the document, allowing users to turn visibility on/off and lock objects.
• Selection can be done with the pick tool (single click or marquee select).
• The tab key cycles through objects in the order they were created.
• Alignment tools (T, B, L, R, C, E) are used to align objects.
• The Alt key allows “digging down” to select objects underneath others (e.g., in a stack of objects). The control key allows selection of multiple elements within a group.
• “now I mentioned the uh Object docker. Object docker is a docker that parks on the right-hand side as most dockers do and in here I can see elements that are within the document here we can see I have a number of pages if I wanted to I can select this icon and that’s only going to show me the elements that are on this one particular page I can change pages up here as well and one thing you’ll notice if you’re a user of older versions of krill draw we enhance this quite a bit in CorelDRAW 2019 where we now have a visual representation of the objects that are on screen”
• “selecting and aligning objects so selecting of course is done with the pick tool i can single click on an element and that will select that i’ll do a ctrl z to undo that if i left click and drag it’s what we refer to as a marquee select so i’m going to marquee select this area and you can see that i can actually take this and pull this aside now if we have objects grouped together i don’t need to do a marquee select it’s simply a matter of single clicking and moving that element”

1. Copy vs. Duplicate:

• The presenter strongly recommends using “Duplicate” (Ctrl+D) instead of “Copy” (Ctrl+C) and “Paste” (Ctrl+V) to avoid creating temporary files that can slow down the system.
• The “Duplicate” function can remember the distance for duplication.
• Ruler origin can be reset by dragging from the intersection of the rulers.
• “so copy versus duplicate i usually recommend that users do duplicate rather than copy when we do a copy of an element i want you to watch my cursor i’m going to do a ctrl c to copy and you’ll notice that my cursor turned to a little blue circle spinning circle it’s actually called a throbber but what was happening there it was taking the content from that image and copying it to the windows clipboard to do that it creates a temporary file watch my cursor once again when i do a ctrl v to paste that back in again i got that circle back it was reading from the temp file and it was dropping it into my document for me now the problem with that is that we end up building up a lot of temp files on the system”

1. Shaping Tools:

• CorelDRAW provides various shaping commands (Combine, Weld, Simplify) to modify objects.
• The Shape tool allows for corner rounding, chamfering, etc.
• Shaping commands are based on the last object selected.
• The Freehand tool can create straight lines (with Ctrl key for constraints) or freehand curves.
• “so let’s talk a little bit about shaping now shaping in CorelDRAW is done of course with the shape tool there’s also a number of different shaping commands so if I select this rectangle you’ll notice on my interactive property bar at the top there’s some some things i can do with this I can change the type of corner rounding on this so for example if I grab my shape tool now I can change this to a chamfer let’s go back to the rounded corner”

1. Crop, Knife, and Virtual Segment Delete Tools:

• The Crop tool crops selected areas. If nothing is selected, it can delete the entire design.
• The Knife tool splits objects. It offers options for two-point lines, free lines, bezier curves, overlaps, or gaps.
• The Virtual Segment Delete tool removes segments. Holding the Alt key allows marquee deletion.
• “i’m going to show the crop tool now so in my toolbox i have a couple of different tools here i’m going to grab the crop tool i’ll left click and drag and i will double click that’s going to crop this out but you’ve noticed that it’s gotten rid of the entire design this is actually a common call that we used to get on the support line the reason it did this is because i did not have anything selected”
• “the next tool i want to show is the knife tool and with the knife tool i’m going to tap my space bar marquee select this get my knife tool back and you’ll notice on the knife tool setting on the property bar i have the ability to do a two-point line i can do a free line i can do bezier a number of things here i also have the ability to set an overlap or a gap now if i’m doing a vinyl for windows and i want to span a couple of window panes then maybe i want to do a gap to allow for the aluminum uprights in there if i’m doing embroidery and i want to create a split front then i’ll want to go with an overlap”
• “virtual segment delete tool we used to have to take a circle if i wanted to cut a piece out of this circle i would have to convert the circle to curves i’d have to add nodes break the nodes apart break the entire thing apart and then delete that element with the virtual segment delete tool it made it much much easier i can draw a line across here i’m going to grab my virtual segment delete tool and then simply click on this line here and that will delete that and then of course i can select this line and delete it and so i’ve cut the top off”

1. Interactive Tools (Blend, Contour, Envelope, Extrude, Drop Shadow):

• These tools provide interactive effects.
• The Blend tool creates a smooth transition between two objects. Blend objects have control objects that determine their color.
• The Contour tool creates multiple contours inside or outside an object (useful for creating applique designs).
• The Envelope tool distorts text or objects. Double-clicking a node removes it.
• The Extrude tool creates a 3D effect.
• Drop Shadows include regular drop shadows and inside drop shadows (new in CorelDRAW 2020).
• The Block Shadow tool creates a block shadow effect, which can be broken apart.
• “i’m going to show you some of the interactive tools within CorelDRAW now i’m going to right click and i just want to make sure that i have lock toolbars deselected that then will allow me to click and hold and i can grab the gripper bar at the top and pull this toolbar right out so this gives me the ability to bring the tools out at hand and this is just to start to customize the interface so if i use these two little tools a lot i don’t want to have to go digging through that i can bring them out on screen the first one i want to show is a blend and i simply left click and drag and so i’m blending from one object to the next”
• “select this element and then I’ll click on extrude and this now allows me to pull this back and i can change my vanishing point to wherever i want to zoom in a little bit and in the interactive property bar at the top there’s a number of different features”
• “the inside drop shadow and this is a new one we added in 2020 with this one i simply click and drag and that will create a shadow for me”

1. Perspective:

• CorelDRAW 2021 adds the ability to draw in perspective (not covered in detail in this session).
• Perspective can be added to bitmaps via the Objects menu.
• “in CorelDRAW 2021 we’ve added the capability to draw in perspective I will not be covering that here you’ve already seen that in the in the previous presentation but uh I do want to show you perspective with bitmaps that we’ve recently added to CorelDRAW”

1. Text (Artistic and Paragraph):

• CorelDRAW supports both artistic and paragraph text.
• Artistic text is created by clicking on the page and typing; paragraph text is created by dragging a text frame.
• Text can be fit to a path using “Fit Text to Path” (either right-click and drag or Text menu).
• Variable fonts allow for modifying font parameters.
• “in CorelDRAW there’s two types of text we have artistic text and paragraph text they’re both created using the same tool so on the left-hand side in the toolbar I’ll simply click on my text tool and now if I click on my page I can type artistic text to create paragraph text with the text tool selected it’s a left click and drag and i create a paragraph text frame now in this frame if i was to right click for example i can insert placeholder text and that will give you a visual representation is what this is going to look like”
• “one more thing on text is variable font support and that’s relatively new in CorelDRAW as well so with variable fonts you have the ability of changing certain parameters of that font with the font selected and let me just move my page over to this side with the font selected i’ll click on this icon it’s a drop down with all the different properties that i can change for this piece of text now this particular font has quite a large number of variables that i can modify most pieces of variable text that i’ve seen or most fonts that i’ve seen will typically have one two three or four options that you can play around with”

1. Corel Font Manager:

• Corel Font Manager allows users to explore and manage fonts, create collections, and use watched folders.
• Fonts don’t need to be installed to be used (reducing system slowdown).
• Fonts can be filtered by various criteria.
• “let me just bring up Corel Font Manager and in chrome Font Manager you’ll notice that i have libraries on the left hand side i have a number of filters here on my toolbar across the top i have the ability to create what we call a watched folder now a watched folder is a folder that’s located on your hard drive and any font that you put in there the Font Manager will pick up on and we can make use of that you no longer have to have the font installed in order to be able to use it in fact if you look on the right hand side fonts that have the green bar are fonts that are installed those that have the yellow bar they’re not installed”

1. Clipart:

• Clipart is accessed through the Connect Content docker.
• Users can add their own clipart collections (local or network).
• “clipart is very easy to access so to access my clipart i’ll go into the connect Content docker i already have that open so I’ll click on that and in here you can see we have a add the clipart up here i have the ability to search so just type in horse and very quick it’s found a number of images that have horse as a keyword to use that of course simply click and drag and i can bring that in on the screen and then make use of that of that image”

1. PowerClip:

• PowerClip allows users to place objects inside containers (text, objects, etc.).
• Right-click and drag is the recommended method.
• Containers can be centered, and their contents can be edited.
• PowerClip can be used in conjunction with the Graph Paper tool to create effects like murals.
• “gives me the ability to take an object or group of objects and put that inside a container now this container can be a piece of text it can be an object or a group of objects I’m going to select this bitmap image I’ll right-click and drag and left the mouse button go and power clip inside it’s as easy as that a lot of people will go to the objects menu and do power clip there I find this quite a bit quicker”

1. PowerTRACE:

• PowerTRACE converts raster images to vector images.
• “Group by color” is important for vinyl cutting or screen printing.
• Color reduction and editing are possible in the PowerTRACE dialog box.
• PowerTRACE can be used to create cut lines around bitmap images.
• “so power trace allows you to convert from a raster image to a vector image i’m going to start with this one here and if i go to the trace bitmap menu i can also access this from the bitmap menu as well but we have it on the interactive property bar so much quicker to access from here i’ll click on the drop down go to outline trace and then i’ll select clipart this opens up my powertrace dialog box i’m going to make that full screen”
• “with this image I’ve often been asked how do I take a bitmap image and create a cut line around it so I want to do a print cut solution I need a cut line around this easy way to do that is within power trace I’m going to go to outline trace again I’ll select clip art and here what I’m going to do on the colors tab I’ll reduce my number of colors right down so I’m going to bring that down to about three or four colors”

1. Bitmap Handling (Cropping, Resizing, Resampling):

• Be aware of the difference between cropping with the Shape tool (soft mask) and the Crop tool (permanent). Convert to Bitmap after cropping with Shape tool to make it permanent.
• Rotated bitmaps can increase rip time; convert to bitmap to resolve.
• Resizing images by dragging the sizing handles only changes the visual footprint, not the actual bitmap size. This can lead to increased file sizes and printing times. Convert to bitmap to reduce the bitmap size.
• CorelDRAW 2021 integrates bitmap upsampling (previously BenVista PhotoZoom).
• “customers will import bitmap images click and drag to size them the way they want them put them on their screen maybe they’re doing a uh a catalog of sublimatable items that you create so you’ve got 25 bitmap images on a page that you’ve imported resize down and then you go and print it and you wonder why it’s taking so long to print when you resize an image down in this manner by using the shaping handles take a look at the resolution down below you’re not reducing the size of the bitmap itself you’re only reducing the visual footprint of it”

1. PHOTO-PAINT Labs (Cutout Lab, Image Adjustment Lab):

• PHOTO-PAINT includes labs for advanced image manipulation.
• The Cutout Lab removes backgrounds.
• The Image Adjustment Lab adjusts temperature, saturation, brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, and midtones.
• “i’m going to select this image here I’ll right-click and I’ll select edit bitmap now this is going to launch PHOTO-PAINT for me um now I’ll maximize the screen and from the image menu I’ll go down to cutout lab this gives me the ability to remove the background”
• “next is the image adjustment lab so I’ll select this image right click and select edit bitmap and let’s maximize PHOTO-PAINT and now from the adjust menu I’m going to Image Adjustment Lab”

1. Distressed Effects:

• A distressed effect can be created by converting an image to grayscale, adjusting the tone curve to intensify blacks and reduce whites, converting to black and white (line art), and then setting the fill to white and the outline to nothing.
• “effect now this can be done with a raster image i find that rusted metal this is an old piece of weathered wood maybe a photograph of ripples on a a swimming pool stuff like that work quite well what i’m going to do is i’ll start off by resizing this image to completely cover my artwork now from the bitmap menu i’m going to go down to mode and i want to select grayscale next i’m going to go to my effects menu down to adjust and i want to bring up my tone curve”

1. Non-Destructive Effects:

• CorelDRAW (from 2019 onward) supports non-destructive effects (applied to both bitmaps and vectors).
• Effects can be turned on/off, edited, and reordered.
• Object styles can be created from bitmap effects and applied to other objects.
• “new to quell draw 2019 we’ve added the ability to create non-destructive effects these effects can be applied to both bitmaps as well as vector so i’m actually applying bitmap effects to a vector object”

1. Art Styles:

• Art styles (Acrylic, Neon, etc.) can be applied to objects through the Effects menu. These effects are fairly processor intensive.
• “styles are a lot of fun to play with if I go to my effects menu down to creative and in here I have art style now there’s a number of different art styles that we have available to us first one is smooth acrylic these effects are fairly intensive and there is a control within tools options that I can have it use GPU processing as well to improve the speed of that”

1. Scripts/Macros (Color Swatch Creator):

• Scripts and macros can automate tasks.
• The Color Chart Creator macro creates color swatch documents based on open color palettes. This script only works with color palettes that are currently open.
• “down to scripts and then run in here under macros in i want to select color chart creator and i’ll click run once again in this dialog box when i hit the drop down you’ll see i have a number of palettes in here these are the palettes that i’ve just opened up as well as my document palette across the bottom so i want to select this palette here i can add a date printer information i can also set the spacing i’m going to bring that spacing down to two i can put an outline around each color i don’t want to do that and i’ll simply click ok and as you can see it’s created the document for me”

1. Pointillizer:

• The Pointillizer effect creates pseudo-halftone patterns.
• Patterns can be based on circles or custom shapes (e.g., for creating cross-stitch patterns).
• “i want to show you one more with this process so I’m going to select this clipart image under shape you can see I have circle I also have custom I’m going to select custom I’ll click on select and I’ll click on this it’s just a piece of text I created with the letter x and I’ll apply so I’ve taken this clipart image and I’ve now created a cross stitch pattern”

1. Custom Color Palettes:

• Custom color palettes can be created from a document or selection (Windows Menu -> Color Palettes -> Create Palette from Selection).
• “from time to time you’ll want to create a custom color palette based on a document or a selection i’m going to select this element and then from the windows menu i’ll go down to color palettes and then create palette from selection so very quickly it’s brought the dialog box i’m just going to call this flower and i’ll click on save and what that’s going to do is it’s going to create a custom color palette for me and it’s docked over here and this is based on the colors that are in this particular file”

1. Workspace Customization (Keyboard Shortcuts, Toolbars):

• Workspace customization is a key feature for productivity.
• Keyboard shortcuts can be customized (Tools -> Options -> Customization). The presenter uses customized shortcuts for page navigation, wireframe, and grouping/ungrouping.
• Custom toolbars can be created by dragging commands onto the screen (using Ctrl+Alt+Left Click).
• Workspaces can be exported and imported (for sharing or upgrading).
• “I want to talk about I briefly mentioned this at the beginning is learn.corel.com this is our Discovery Center and it’s here where you can access all sorts of items things such as tutorials so there’s tutorials for graphics, for PaintShop Pro, VideoStudio that sort of thing you’ll also find a Q&A series this is a Q&A series for CorelDRAW as well as a PaintShop Pro so when we get customers sending us questions or common questions that come in through the support line we have videos on here that will take you through the Q&A of that you’ll find a link for free stuff we have regular contests in here that you can enter with your artwork support as well as community so it’s a great place to visit it’s easy URL to remember it’s learn.corel.com”
• “from time to time you’ll want to create a custom color palette based on a document or a selection i’m going to select this element and then from the windows menu i’ll go down to color palettes and then create palette from selection so very quickly it’s brought the dialog box i’m just going to call this flower and i’ll click on save and what that’s going to do is it’s going to create a custom color palette for me and it’s docked over here and this is based on the colors that are in this particular file”

1. Learn.Corel.com (Discovery Center):

• learn.corel.com is the Corel Discovery Center, offering tutorials, Q&A series, free content, contests, support, and community resources.

Conclusion:

The training session provides a comprehensive overview of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021, covering both fundamental and advanced features. The presenter emphasizes the importance of customization and efficient workflow techniques to maximize productivity within the software. The session highlights several new features in the 2021 release, making it a valuable resource for both new and experienced CorelDRAW users.

CorelDRAW 2021: Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about CorelDRAW 2021

• What are the main components included in the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021?
• The suite includes CorelDRAW (vector illustration and page layout), CorelDRAW.app (online graphic design), Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 (raster editing), Corel PowerTRACE (bitmap-to-vector conversion), Corel CAPTURE 2021 (screen capture, Windows only), and Corel Font Manager (font exploration and management).
• How can I access learning resources and templates within CorelDRAW?
• The Welcome Book (Help > Welcome Screen) provides access to “Get Started” tutorials, recently edited documents, templates (File > New from Template), workspaces, learning materials (learn.corel.com), the Discovery Center, and the Corel Store for purchasing content like applications, plugins, and fonts.
• What’s new in the New Document dialog box in CorelDRAW 2021?
• The New Document dialog box now includes options for single or multi-page view. You can specify the name, preset, number of pages, page view, primary color mode, and dimensions. You can also set the rendering resolution, which affects how lenses and transparencies are rendered. Lowering the rendering resolution for large format prints can decrease the file size and speed up rip time.
• How does the Autofit feature work in CorelDRAW 2021?
• The Autofit feature (found in the interactive property bar when no objects are selected) allows you to automatically adjust the page size to fit the content on the page with a specified margin. It does not affect elements on master layers.
• How can the Multi-asset export feature in CorelDRAW 2021 help me export assets?
• The Multi-asset export docker (Windows > Dockers > Export) allows you to select multiple objects and export them in various formats (JPEG, GIF, PNG, PDF) with individual settings (resolution, transformations). You can duplicate assets with different settings and add assets with existing settings for streamlined export.
• What is the difference between copying and duplicating objects in CorelDRAW, and which is recommended?
• Copying (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) uses the Windows clipboard, creating temporary files and potentially slowing down the system, and it is therefore not recommended. Duplicating (Ctrl+D) creates a copy directly within CorelDRAW, remembering the distance and is the recommended practice to prevent build up of temp files.
• How can I customize my workspace in CorelDRAW for increased productivity?
• You can customize keyboard shortcuts (Tools > Options > Customization > Commands), move interactive tools out for closer proximity and export the workspace (Tools > Options > Workspace > Export) to share with other designers.
• What are the benefits of using Corel Font Manager with CorelDRAW?
• Corel Font Manager lets you explore, organize, and manage fonts without needing to install them in Windows, preventing system slowdown. Fonts that are not intalled have a yellow bar and fonts that are installed have a green bar. You can create collections, use watched folders for automatic font detection, and filter fonts within CorelDRAW based on your collections.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021: A Quick Overview

The CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 includes several components:

• CorelDRAW is for vector illustration and page layout.
• CorelDRAW.app is an online graphic design interface accessible via the web.
• Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 is for raster manipulation and editing bitmaps.
• Corel PowerTRACE is part of CorelDRAW and converts bitmaps to vector objects.
• Corel CAPTURE 2021 is a screen capture utility, available only for Windows.
• Corel Font Manager allows font exploration and management. It helps create font collections.

The CorelDRAW interface consists of the following:

• A standard drop-down menu at the top.
• A standard toolbar with common features like new document, open, print, import, and export.
• An interactive property bar (context-sensitive) that changes based on the selected tool. It provides more functionality to the tools.
• A toolbox on the left-hand side. Tools with a small triangle in the bottom right corner have additional tools underneath.
• Page navigation in the bottom left corner to move between pages.
• A status bar at the bottom to indicate what is selected and provide information about that item. The right-hand side of the status bar shows the fill and outline.
• A color palette on the right-hand side, set up based on the color mode of the document.
• Dockers on the right-hand side that offer additional tools and functionality. Dockers are accessible via the windows menu or by clicking the icon.

CorelDRAW: Vector Illustration and Bitmap Conversion

CorelDRAW is used for vector illustration and page layout. Corel PowerTRACE, which is included with CorelDRAW, allows for the conversion of bitmaps to vector objects.

Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021: Raster Manipulation and Editing Bitmaps

Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 is used for raster manipulation or editing bitmaps.

CorelDRAW has features that allow a user to work with bitmaps:

• PowerTRACE converts bitmaps to vector objects.
• Bitmaps can be imported.
• CorelDRAW 2021 has added the capability to add perspective to a bitmap.
• Bitmaps can have effects applied to them.
• Bitmaps can be cropped.
• CorelDRAW allows a user to up sample bitmaps.

PHOTO-PAINT labs include:

• Cutout Lab to remove backgrounds.
• Image Adjustment Lab to modify image properties such as temperature, saturation, brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, and midtones.

CorelDRAW Interface Overview

The CorelDRAW interface includes:

• A standard drop-down menu at the top of the interface where most of the commands can be found.
• A standard toolbar that functions as a button bar, which includes common features such as new document, open, print, import, and export.
• An interactive property bar, also known as a context-sensitive property bar, that changes depending on the tool selected within the toolbox. It gives the user more functionality for the tools.
• A toolbox on the left-hand side has tools, and any tool with a small triangle in the bottom right-hand corner indicates that there are additional tools underneath.
• Page navigation in the bottom left-hand corner, which allows the user to go backward or forward a page, or to the end of the document. The user can also click on specific page tabs to go to that specific page.
• A status bar located at the bottom provides an indication of what is selected and gives information about the item. On the right-hand side of the status bar, the fill and outline are shown, allowing the user to see them when an object with a fill and outline is selected.
• A color palette on the right-hand side that is set up based on the color mode of the document.
• Dockers on the right-hand side provide additional functionality and tools. Dockers are accessible from the windows menu down to dockers, or by clicking on the icon.

CorelDRAW Customization: Workspaces and Keyboard Shortcuts

CorelDRAW has several customization options.

Workspace customization options include:

• The user can export and import workspaces. Workspaces can be shared. Workspaces from CorelDRAW x7 and forward can be imported.
• The user can customize the interface by turning features on and off.
• Commands that are used often can be added to a custom toolbar. To add a command, hold the control and alt keys down while left-clicking and dragging the command onto the screen.

Keyboard shortcuts can be customized. Go to tools, options, and then customization.

• To customize, select commands, then the menu where the command is located. After selecting the command, a shortcut key can be assigned.
• The user can assign single keyboard shortcuts.

The Original Text

Welcome to this breakaway session entitled the  power behind CorelDRAW my name is Roger Wambolt   and I’m Senior Product Trainer  at Corel. During this session,   we’ll be discovering some of  the powerful tools and features   that are available in CorelDRAW 2021 so  without further ado let’s get started. in CorelDRAW Graphic Suite 2021 it includes  CorelDRAW which is vector illustration and   page layout; CorelDRAW.app is an online  graphic design interface via the web;   Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 is for raster manipulation  or editing bitmaps; we have Corel PowerTRACE,   which is part of CorelDRAW itself and it,  allows you to convert bitmaps to vector objects;   Corel CAPTURE 2021 is a screen capture utility,  and I should point out that it’s only available   for Windows; and, then finally we have the Corel  Font Manager with uh giving you the ability to do   font exploration and it’s a management tool allows  you to create collections and that sort of thing. Now let’s take a look at the interface  from the top we have a standard   drop down menu across the top  where you find most of the commands   below that is a standard toolbar or button bar  and it includes some of the more common features   such as new document open print import export and  that sort of thing below that is the interactive   property bar also called the context sensitive  property bar as it changes depending on the tool   that you select within the toolbox and it gives  you more functionality to these tools speaking   of the toolbox down the left-hand side are your  tools any tool that has a little triangle in the   bottom right hand corner that’s an indication  that there’s additional tools underneath that   looking down at the bottom left hand corner and  let me just do an undo on that bottom left hand   corner we have page navigation this allows me to  go back a page i can go forward a page i can go to   the end of the document or i can click on specific  page tabs go to to go to that specific page   below that is the status bar and the status  bar will give me an indication as to what i   have selected and give me information about that  item on the right hand side of the status bar we   show the fill and outline so if i had an object  selected that has a fill and an outline i’ll be   able to see that there looking at the right hand  side we have our standard color palette this is a   color palette that is set up based on the color  mode of the document itself so this one for   example if i do a mouse over one of the colors i  can see that this is actually an rgb color palette   to the left of that we have dockers now dockers  give additional functionality there’s additional   tools in the dockers dockers are accessible  from the windows menu down to dockers and   you can see them all listed here another way to  access those is by clicking on this icon here   and it will show me a list of all the dockers and  i can just turn on and off the ones that i want all right let’s move on to my next page next we  have the Welcome Book now the welcome book is   located this tab right here if this by chance  isn’t opened up you can go to your help menu   down to welcome screen and in here we have  the get started now get started allows you to   start with a new document you can continue editing  when you’ve previously edited or recently edited   this is what i refer to as give it a try and so in  here you can actually click on these icons they’ll   launch an application they’ll launch a document  and give you some steps on how to use some of   the things within it below that we have open  document so if it’s not a recently edited document   you’ll be able to come down here and open  that document you also have new from template   next we have workspaces within the workspaces  tab there’s a number of different workspaces we   have the light workspace default touch workspace  for those that are on the road and maybe using   a tablet or something like that and then we have  some specialty workspaces illustration page layout   and Adobe Illustrator now the Adobe Illustrator  workspace is designed to make it easier for   those who use Adobe Illustrator and want to  migrate over to CorelDRAW so we put the tools   in a familiar spot for you make it easy  to use we have the learning where you have   different tutorials in here and access to  different content we also have in here our   discovery center and you can access that from  learn.corel.com and finally the store and the   store is where you’re going to be able to access  purchases that you want to make for software   we have applications there’s plugins maybe we want  to purchase fonts and that sort of thing you’ll   also notice that I have something called free and  this is where you get the free content that comes   within CorelDRAW so things such as the fonts uh  various textures fills bitmap fills as well as the   clipart to access any of this content it’s simply  a matter of clicking on the pack that you want   and simply click on download it’s as simple  as that okay let’s go back to our next slide   now let’s take a look at the new document dialog  box so from the file menu i’m going to select new   in the new document dialog box we have a spot  for the name the name is what’s going to appear   in your title bar at the top there are a number of  presets i can dictate how many pages I want this   new document to be i can also select either  page view as a single page or multi-page   and this is new for CorelDRAW 2021. here’s my  primary color mode and this will dictate what   color palette is appearing on the right-hand side  and under dimensions there is a number of preset   page sizes that I can have access to I also have  the ability to create a custom page size and then   my rendering resolution now just a little point  about the rendering resolution what that is is   the resolution at which lenses and transparencies  get rendered out as and so if you’re doing a large   format print let’s say you’re doing a banner that  is maybe 48 inches long and you have a piece of   text on that with a drop shadow that drop shadow  is going to get rendered out at 300 dpi something   like that I would probably recommend bringing  that down to 96 dpi you’re not going to lose any   quality and what it will do is it will speed up  the rip time for you and decrease the file size   when you’re saving this file out I’m going to hit  cancel on this and we’ll move to the next slide now one of the other features that we’ve added in  2021 is the autofit I love this feature I’m going   to deselect the everything on the page you’ll  notice my interactive property bar shows my   page information here this icon is referred to as  autofit so what i’m going to do is I’ll click on   the autofit icon and here I can set up a margin  now i’m going to set up a margin of an eighth   of an inch rather than trying to figure out what  the decimal point is for that i’m just gonna go   one divided by eight and then i’ll select autofit  now it created the page it autofit the page it did   not take this into consideration simply because  this is on what we refer to as a master layer   and i’ll talk a little bit more about that in a  moment so it’s a great way to take an object or   take a design and shrink the page or stretch  the page to fit the actual content on screen   now let’s take a look at the Pages docker  the Pages docker gives you the ability   to easily edit multi-page documents from the  windows menu I’m going to go down to dockers   and I’ll select pages now within the Pages docker  I have the ability to do a single page view   I can do a multi-page view and  with the multi-page view I’ll just   zoom out a bit and you can see that I have my  multiple pages set up here for this particular video within the multi-page within the multi-page  view I have the ability to dictate the layout   whether I want it as tiled I want vertical  horizontal or maybe I want to do a custom   layout of the pages themselves I can also dictate  how many columns and the spacing between columns   so if I was to drop this down by one  then this is going to refresh itself   and it will give me seven columns across now  another nice thing about it is that I can select   any of the pages within the docker itself that  then becomes the active page you’ll notice the   active page the page number is in blue one  other really nice feature about dealing with   the Pages docker is if I had an object on the  page and I want to move it to a different page   then I simply need to click and drag and  that object will now be on this next page   so it makes it very easy to edit across pages I  also have the ability to sort the pages or reorder   them so in the docker I can select a page click  and drag and move it to a different location and   thereby reordering my pages now let’s take a look  at file i o with file i o or file input output   we talk about importing and exporting so i’m  going to import an image i’ll click on my import   icon alternatively i could have done a control  I or file import and i’m going to bring in this   image here one thing I want to point out here  is bottom right hand corner on the import icon   i have a drop down here i have the ability to  import this i can import it as externally linked   i can import as high res for output provided  i’m using an opi server in this case i am not   and that’s why it’s grayed out i also have the  ability to resample and load or crop and load   if i selected crop and load for example  it’s going to allow me to crop this image and then I’ll simply click ok and it will bring  this image in now here I can simply left click my   mouse button which will drop it in place at full  size i can hit enter it’ll center it on the page   or spacebar for original position I can also  click and drag and dictate what size I want   this to come in at and so there’s my my image  importing now one other new feature that we’ve   added to CorelDRAW 2021 is the Multi-asset  export to access the Multi-asset export   from the Windows menu I’m going to go  down to dockers and I’ll select export   in the Export docker I can select an image and  then click on this icon here which will add that   to my export list here we can see it’s picked up  the name based on the name that i’ve given this   in the object manager and here I can see that  I have the ability to change this from jpeg   to gif to png or pdf I’m going to select png  for this under the settings I have the ability   to set the settings for the png and of course  there’s different formats of png or different   flavors of png in here under the transform I  can set my resolution so if I wanted to use this   on a web page something like that I might want  to drop this down to 96 dpi and I can click ok   now here I have the ability to duplicate this  and what that will allow me to do is it will   put another copy of the alamo here and I’m going  to change this and I want this as a gif image   I’ll leave the settings as default I also have the ability to add an asset  with these settings so if I selected this   image here and I clicked on I’m going to  go with png add asset with the settings   it’s going to add the greek runes to this with  the same settings as the png for the alamo   so if I had multiple objects selected I can select  these objects I can come down here and I can add   these objects to my export list as well and now  it’s simply a matter of clicking on export all and   what this will do is it will export these files  out to a folder that I’ve already set up in here   now that I have the images exported I can open  up the folder where I’ve sent them to and we can   see that I have my images in here so I have the  jpeg the png and then these other png’s as well   all right let me close this docker  off and we’ll go on to the next page so new from template or templates as I mentioned  very easy to create new documents based on   a template it’s simply a matter of going to  the file menu and selecting new from template   and what this is going to do is it’s going to  open up a template dialog box in here we can   see that I have my templates I can also select all  templates and with all templates selected we’ll be   able to see the templates that are provided with  the software and this allows me as I say to get a   head start on creating a design so I can scroll  through here I can select a specific template   if I want to see these thumbnails larger then  I can certainly do that just sliding this open   a bit and then it’s simply a matter of clicking  on the open and start to work with that template now I mentioned the uh Object docker. Object  docker is a docker that parks on the right-hand   side as most dockers do and in here I can see  elements that are within the document here we   can see I have a number of pages if I wanted  to I can select this icon and that’s only   going to show me the elements that are on this one  particular page I can change pages up here as well   and one thing you’ll notice if you’re a user  of older versions of krill draw we enhance this   quite a bit in CorelDRAW 2019 where we now have  a visual representation of the objects that are   on screen so for example if I select this flower  you can actually see it in the Object docker also in here I have the ability  to turn that visually off   or I can lock it and do a number of  other things within the Objects docker okay selecting and aligning objects so selecting  of course is done with the pick tool i can single   click on an element and that will select that  i’ll do a ctrl z to undo that if i left click and   drag it’s what we refer to as a marquee select so  i’m going to marquee select this area and you can   see that i can actually take this and pull this  aside now if we have objects grouped together   i don’t need to do a marquee select it’s simply a  matter of single clicking and moving that element   if we take a look at grouping for those that are  relatively new to CorelDRAW and that term grouping   if you visualize taking a bundle of pencils and  putting an elastic band around it you still have   your individual objects but they’re tied together  with something so grouping basically allows you   to tie objects together all right let’s take  a look at another way of selecting elements   i’ll select this ellipse and if i use the tab  key it will cycle through objects in the order   they are created so i’m going to select the cyan  tab i’ll select my green tab yellow and i’m just   hitting the tab key each one here’s magenta and  then finally i’ll go with purple now aligning   objects is very easy as well so with this object  selected i’m going to hold my shift key down   and i’ll start selecting these objects i’m  going to select the red object last and now i’ve   selected the red object i want to align these so i  can align the top with t b for bottom l for left r   for right c for center and e for even so very easy  to align objects so if i had something like this   over here i would marquee select these elements  and then tap the letter l for left alignment   and it would do that for me now two more things  i want to show you about selecting elements   first i’m going to take this cyan ellipse i’ll  make it larger in fact i’m going to make it cover   the entire image i’m holding the shift key down  and that’s going to resize from the center out   now i want you to watch in my Object docker over  here if i hold the alt key down and i click right   here it has selected the green element if  i click again i have my yellow my red my   and and then finally the purple element so  selecting with the alt key down we refer to that   as a dare key and it allows you to dig down one  level at a time each time you click an advantage   or a situation where you might use that is you’ve  got a bitmap on screen with a lens over top of it   maybe there’s some text on top of the bitmap  and then the lens and you want to edit the text   without having to move the lens  you can simply use the alt key   now another keyboard shortcut that  helps with selecting is the control key   so i’m going to take this element and do a shift  f2 to zoom into it now with the control key held   down i’m going to start clicking on some of these  elements within here you’ll note that my sizing   handles are round dots so i’ll click here and  i’ll simply with the shift keyhole down as well   i’ll select some of these elements and so very  easy to select elements within a group using   the control key one more thing you can use  the control key for is in the color palette   if i hold the ctrl key down and click on a color  it’s going to add 10 percent of that color each   time i click on it so each time i’m clicking  it’s adding 10 percent more red to that element   i can go and click on a bit of orange and change  the color of that so 10 is added each time i   click on a color within the color palette with  the control key held down one more thing about   the color palette is if i click and hold on  it you can see that i have an array of colors   that i can use and these are based on  hsl or hue saturation and lightness   let me just move out to my full page  and let’s move on to the next page   so copy versus duplicate i usually recommend  that users do duplicate rather than copy   when we do a copy of an element i want you to  watch my cursor i’m going to do a ctrl c to   copy and you’ll notice that my cursor turned to a  little blue circle spinning circle it’s actually   called a throbber but what was happening there it  was taking the content from that image and copying   it to the windows clipboard to do that it creates  a temporary file watch my cursor once again when i   do a ctrl v to paste that back in again i got that  circle back it was reading from the temp file and   it was dropping it into my document for me now  the problem with that is that we end up building   up a lot of temp files on the system there’s  other processes that will build temp files as   well such as printing and importing and exporting  but temp files excessive temp files can really bog   down the system if i was to draw an analogy it’s  like hair and a drain it just plugs it right up   now usually what i recommend is ctrl  d and that would duplicate the element   if i select this hold the ctrl key down to  constrain it move that over i’ll do another   ctrl d and you can see it’s duplicating and  it’s remembering the distance that i used   let me show you one other thing i’m going to  marquee select these and delete them we’ll   do this once again so i’ll do a ctrl d and you’ll  notice on the interactive property bar this is an   inch wide by one and a quarter high this is the  position based on the zero zero coordinates of   my rulers now if i want to change the zero zero  coordinates of the rulers let’s say i do laser   engraving and i want my zero zero to be top left  simply clicking in the intersection up here drag   this out i’ve now reset my rulers to zero zero  being top left so i’m going to select this element and you can see I’ve duplicated that let me do a  ctrl z I’ll duplicate that again and now in here   I’m going to click plus one inch because  that’s the width of it plus uh 3 16.   3 divided by 16 and hit enter so that has now  created a copy of that 3 16 of an inch apart   and if i keep hitting the ctrl d it will create  an array for me i’ll marquee select these ctrl d   and it’s 1.25 so in here I want to go minus 1.25  minus and I can mix and match units of measure   so here i want to go one millimeter and I’ll  hit enter so these are a millimeter apart and   control d and it will remember that so if  you want to do for example you’re doing a   name plates and cravings some name plates and  your name plates are three quarters of an inch   by two inches or inch and a quarter by three and  a half inches whatever they might be you create   those rectangles duplicate them into an array  cut that out to make your jig and then simply   put that in the engraver create your document  and you’re ready to go so it’s a great time saver   all right let’s talk a little bit about shaping  now shaping in CorelDRAW is done of course with   the shape tool there’s also a number of different  shaping commands so if I select this rectangle   you’ll notice on my interactive property bar at  the top there’s some some things i can do with   this I can change the type of corner rounding on  this so for example if I grab my shape tool now I can change this to a chamfer  let’s go back to the rounded corner   and now if I hold the shift key down  and select the yellow object as well   I have two objects selected now my interactive  property bar is changed here I can do a combine   and a combine will create a knockout where the  objects overlap i’m going to do a control z to   undo that I’ll do another control z I’ll select  the yellow object first hold the shift key down   select my blue element and then hit combine  and you’ll notice that they’ve changed blue   so shaping commands are based on the last  object selected let me do a ctrl z for   this and now with the shift key held down I’ll  click weld and think of machine shop metal shop   welding two pieces of metal together they become  one and that’s basically what we’ve done here I’m   going to do a ctrl z and the final one I want to  show is simplify so selecting these elements i’ll   click on simplify and that acts as a cookie cutter  and it cuts down below so I can move this element   out of the way and you can see that it has cut  out of the red it’s also cut out a little yellow   I’ll select my yellow i can move that aside and  that’s actually cut out of the red let’s just go   ahead and i’m going to move this back here now one  more thing with respects to shaping and freehand   drawing and that sort of thing dealing with  curves i’m going to grab my freehand tool and if   i do a single click and move my cursor someplace  else it will allow me to create a straight line   if I hold the ctrl key down it will constrain that  on 15 degree increments of course i can change   that in tools options but for now I just want to  point out that if I left click now it will lock it   in place you’ll note that my cursor is a downward  pointing arrow if I left click now it’s actually   going to join to that element i’ll click over  here a second click and then I can click up here   and that will end that off i’ve now created  a solid shape but I can then give a fill   i’m going to tap my space bar now the space bar  here’s another little tool tip the space bar   will actually toggle back and forth between  your pick tool and the last tool selected   so if i have the rectangle selected and i draw a  rectangle i tap my spacebar it goes back to the   pick tool that allows me to move elements around  or select other elements okay I’m going to show   you some other stuff with the freehand tool so  i’ll click on my freehand tool I’ll left click   drag down here i’m going to double click  i’ll double click over here in this spot   up here as well and then finally i want to move it  do i get that pointed arrow and I’ll single click   now if i grab my shape tool and I marquee  select this on the interactive property bar   I can convert these lines to  curves and now with the shape tool   i can come over here and zoom in a little bit and  I can actually move these curves into position   and this is a typically how you would recreate  a logo or redraw a logo by by grabbing these   elements and move them into position I’m just  doing this very quickly to give you an idea   now i’m going to tap my spacebar I’ll come back  over here and I’ll grab my freehand tool again   and again I’m just going to do this very quickly close that off grab my shape tool and  marquee select this convert to a curve and then I will move these into position   tap the space bar I’m going to do a control d to  duplicate that and i’ll just move this down here   it’s not accurate but you get an idea now if i  marquee select this i’m going to give them all   a color and if you remember combine creates  a knockout where objects overlap i’ve now   combined that and we now have created this shape  again let’s do it on f4 to zoom out to my page   and i’m going to move on to my next page i’m  moving back and forth on pages and i’m using   number one and number two on the keyboard i’ll  explain why later on when we get to the end of   this session and i’ll show you some other ways in  which you can save a lot of time in design work   okay i’m going to show the crop tool now so in  my toolbox i have a couple of different tools   here i’m going to grab the crop tool i’ll  left click and drag and i will double click   that’s going to crop this out but you’ve noticed  that it’s gotten rid of the entire design   this is actually a common call that we used to  get on the support line the reason it did this is   because i did not have anything selected so let me  just do a control z to undo i’ll tap my space bar   i’ll marquee select this element tap my  space bar again gives me back my crop tool   and now when i crop i can double click and it  will crop out from what i have selected and this   is typically the way you would want to do it now  the next tool i want to show is the knife tool   and with the knife tool i’m going to tap my space  bar marquee select this get my knife tool back and   you’ll notice on the knife tool setting on  the property bar i have the ability to do a   two-point line i can do a free line i can do  bezier a number of things here i also have the   ability to set an overlap or a gap now if i’m  doing a vinyl for windows and i want to span a   couple of window panes then maybe i want to do a  gap to allow for the aluminum uprights in there   if i’m doing embroidery and i want to create a  split front then i’ll want to go with an overlap   i’m going to set my overlap for this design at  quarter inch and that’s simply a matter of left   clicking and dragging hold the ctrl key down  to keep that constrained when i let the mouse   button go you can see it’s actually cropped it  for me now if i marquee select this area here   i’m going to move this straight down you can see  that i’ve created a bit of it let me move that   down a little bit more you see that i’ve actually  created an overlynch a 1 8 overlap for this   let me just move that back into place temporarily  all right so the next thing i want to show is the   virtual segment delete tool we used to have to  take a circle if i wanted to cut a piece out of   this circle i would have to convert the circle  to curves i’d have to add nodes break the nodes   apart break the entire thing apart and then delete  that element with the virtual segment delete tool   it made it much much easier  i can draw a line across here   i’m going to grab my virtual segment delete tool  and then simply click on this line here and that   will delete that and then of course i can select  this line and delete it and so i’ve cut the top   off now with the virtual segment delete tool i  can go through this design and delete whatever   lines i want um that to make my design also if i  hold the alt key down i can left click and drag   and whatever this marquee touches will be  deleted when i release the mouse button all right i’m going to show you some of  the interactive tools within CorelDRAW   now i’m going to right click and i just want to  make sure that i have lock toolbars deselected   that then will allow me to click and hold  and i can grab the gripper bar at the top   and pull this toolbar right out so this gives me  the ability to bring the tools out at hand and   this is just to start to customize the interface  so if i use these two little tools a lot i don’t   want to have to go digging through that i can  bring them out on screen the first one i want to   show is a blend and i simply left click and drag  and so i’m blending from one object to the next   when we create something like a blend or a drop  shadow even an extrude there’s something referred   to as a control object i’m going to tap my  space bar i’ll deselect and now if i select this   magenta element you can see that i have in  the status bar a control ellipse selected   if i change the color of this control ellipse  it will change the way the blend appears   there’s so with the blend there’s two  control objects the other one is at the back   and i’m going to change that i also have the  ability with the blend to change the number of   steps it’s going to make it a lot smoother there’s  a number of features up here where i can change   the the rate at which it blends and that sort of  thing next we have the contour tool so with the   contour tool and the object selected i can set the  number of contours to the outside or to the inside   i can also dictate the width of that so if i’m  creating an applique i may want two steps to the   outside i can then take these elements and from  the objects menu i can i can break that apart tap my space bar and i now have these separate  elements that i can use i’ll need to ungroup that   and so these are my three separate elements  i can use if i’m using tackle twill or   something like that i can simply send  these to the engraver and cut them out   or whatever method you use for cutting your twill   all right next one is the envelope tool so  with the piece of text selected i’ll click   on the envelope tool i’m going to zoom into this  a little bit you’ll notice that i have nodes here   if i click and drag this node you can see it’s  not a very smooth curve do a control z if i double   click the node it’ll remove it if i double click  anywhere on the line it will add a node for me   and so i can move from there if i wanted  to if you want a nice smooth curve   delete that node and simply move my line straight  up let me do a control z delete this note as well   that sort of got in the way and i can move this  straight up so i have a nice smooth curve here   i’m going to show you another little tool tip  is if i hold my rollerball on my mouse down it’s   going to change the pan tool and i can pan around  my document now i could use the letter h for pan   the drawback with using that is i then have to go  back over to my toolbar to select a different tool   in order to get it away from the pan tool so  the rollerball on your mouse is very easy to   zoom around one other thing you can do is tap the  letter n on your keyboard i refer to this as a   nano preview and what that’s going to do is it’s  going to show me my entire page and so i can move   to a different area when i’m in the area that  i want i’ll simply left click my mouse button   i also have that capability down the bottom right  hand corner clicking here would do the same thing   for me i prefer the letter n it’s a lot easier  so let’s take a look at extrude i’m going to   select this element and then i’ll click on  extrude and this now allows me to pull this   back and i can change my vanishing point to  wherever i want to zoom in a little bit and   in the interactive property bar at the top  there’s a number of different features so   for example if i wanted to i could add color  to this and within the color i can change   whatever color i want maybe i want that to go  from red to to green then i can certainly do that I’m going to do an f4 to zoom back out and the next is drop shadow now in 2020 we added a  new drop shadow called the inside drop shadow and   so we’ve changed the drop shadow here uh this used  to be the regular drop shadow now if I select that   I have to come up to the direct property bar for  my regular drop shadow and I will click and drag and that allows me to create a drop shadow uh i  can set this drop shadow any position i want to   if i was to do it from the edge of the document  or from the bot let’s say from the bottom   creating a drop shadow allows me to change  the angle of that the perspective and it now   makes it look as though the light is coming  from above and behind i’m going to undo that   and

let’s just do your regular drop shadow  with the drop shadow one thing you can do   is i can come up here on the interactive property  bar and i can change the color of that drop shadow   i could also grab a color from the color palette  and drag and drop into the square now the next   drop shadow i want to show is the inside drop  shadow and this is a new one we added in 2020   with this one i simply click and drag  and that will create a shadow for me   so this is an inside inside drop shadow and it’s  now made it look as though this is a cut out   depending on where this is will  determine how that’s going to look   i want just a little bit on there  and so that’s a pretty cool effect   and the final shadow is the block shadow now  the black shadow is part of the effects toolbar   so with this object selected i’m going to hold  my roller ball down just pan up a little bit i’m   going to select my block shadow tool i’ll click  and drag and i’ll just move that off a little bit   on the interactive property bar i  can do a number of things such as   changing the offset changing the  angle of it i can change color   i have the ability to simplify simplify is  actually kind of interesting i can remove   holes and whatnot i’m going to simplify that and  now from the objects menu i’m going down to break   block shadow apart i’ll tap my space bar to give  me my pick tool and then i’ll just move this out   of the way so we’ve created an interesting  effect right here with our block shadow tool let’s move that back onto the page I’ll do an f4  to zoom to the entire page and let’s move on to my   next page we talked a little bit about enveloping  a very quick way to create a virtual sample simply   matter clicking and dragging and there we have  it actually this doesn’t really look like a very   good virtual sample we can easily dress this up  a bit I’m going to make this a little bit smaller I’ll position this I’m going to grab my envelope  tool and now I’m going to double click this node   to remove it and I want to bring this down  and I’m going to try and match the curvature   of the top of the mug and here I want to  match the curvature of the bottom of the mug   and so now that looks a little bit more realistic  for a virtual sample I can use my cursor keys to   nudge this up a little bit and now I can send this  off to the customer and potentially get the order transparencies and lenses  so they’re fairly similar   with lenses there’s a number of different things  you can do I’m going to grab this magnifying   glass and I actually have a magnifying  lens that I grouped into this lens itself   so when I click and drag and I bring this over  my image you can see it’s magnified in there I’m   going to open up my lens docker from the windows  menu down to dockers down to effects and lenses so you can see that I have no lens effect and  that’s because I’ve selected a group of elements   I want to select just the lens itself so if you  remember control plus click allows me to select   an object within a group I can now change  the type of lens so if I want a color limit   maybe I want a fisheye lens or  something like a heat map lens   so there’s a number of different lenses in  here that you can play around with and create   various effects tinted grayscale transparency  wireframe bitmap effects and that sort of thing transparencies allow me to take an object and  actually let’s go back to the previous page where   I have a little more space I’m going to draw a  rectangle I’ll give it a solid color fill and   I’ll select my transparency tool now here I can  left-click and drag and create a transparency   so we faded out to this position if I move this  up here I can set the fade on that and actually   have it fade away to nothing if I was to put this  over top of an image you can see that I’ve got   it faded down this way let’s take a look at that  other page in here we can also do this to bitmaps   so I’m going to select this element I’ll hold  the shift key down I’ll select this image here and if you remember the alignment keys it’s l for  left b for bottom and now with the transparency   tool selected i’ll left click and drag and i  basically cause the image above to fade into the   one in the back so i’ve created an interesting  effect let’s do it one more time with this   i’m going to do a shift f2 and that will  zoom into this element i’ll tap my spacebar   i’ll left click and drag on a bit of an angle  here and so i’ve taken this front image and   i’ve created transparency on this half of it i’m  going to tap my space bar to return to pick tool   i hold my alt key down I’ll click once more  that has now selected the second bitmap down   i’ll tap my spacebar and i’ll left click and drag  with my transparency tool and just bring this up   a little bit and so i’ve actually created another  transparency in here move that down a little bit   make a little bit more realistic so very easy i’ve  taken three separate images and created a rather   interesting effect with those if i was to pull  this apart you can see what that would look like okay let’s undo these and I’ll move  on to my next slide so perspective   now just a little side note here in CorelDRAW 2021  we’ve added the capability to draw in perspective   I will not be covering that here you’ve already  seen that in the in the previous presentation   but uh I do want to show you perspective with  bitmaps that we’ve recently added to CorelDRAW I’m going to shift f2 to zoom into this and  now by selecting this bitmap i’m going to   position the upper left hand corner in this  and this is relatively new the ability to   add perspective to a bitmap so from the  objects menu i’ll go down to perspective   and then select add perspective now it’s simply  a matter of moving the corners of this image   onto this billboard itself and that will make it  look as though the image is right on the billboard   let’s move this in i’ll let it go and  that way i can see where i want that to go   so very quick and very easy i’ve given  the illusion that this image is on the   billboard i’m going to zoom back out  here it is with text the same sort of   thing i’ll move it on to this easel and  from the objects menu down to perspective   and then add perspective and it’s simply a  matter as i say dragging these four corner nodes   into the corner areas of the chalkboard or  blackboard and there we go so we create a   sandwich board that we can stand outside  the restaurant maybe i’m doing a mock-up   of a restaurant and i want to put something  like that inside then i can certainly do that all right let’s talk a little bit about text  now in CorelDRAW there’s two types of text   we have artistic text and paragraph text they’re  both created using the same tool so on the   left-hand side in the toolbar I’ll simply click  on my text tool and now if I click on my page   I can type artistic text to create paragraph text with the text tool  selected it’s a left click and drag and i   create a paragraph text frame now in this frame  if i was to right click for example i can insert   placeholder text and that will give you a visual  representation is what this is going to look like   so if i wanted to create a mock-up of a newsletter  or something like that then i can certainly   do that just to to draw the differences  between artistic text and paragraph text   as an analogy if you take a look at a box  of cereal the brand of cereal on the front   or the the name of the serial in the front is  going to be artistic text the contest rules or   ingredients on the back is going to be paragraph  text one common question we get is i want to be   able to wrap my text around a circle or around an  ellipse and i want to be able to read it properly   so with the text selected right click and drag  i’m going to let the mouse button go and i’ll   select fit text to path that’s put the text on  the path for me now bottom left hand corner or the   of the piece of text itself i have a little red  glyph it’s kind of hard to see here but it’s there   and as i move my text you’ll see a red beam appear  so the text is starting at the 12 o’clock position   it’s centered at 12 o’clock and i have these  red beams at 3 6 9 and 12 o’clock positions   and it allows me for easy centering i’m going  to select this piece of text now because this   object is no longer an ellipse is now considered  a compound object i cannot right click and drag   so instead what i’ll do is i’ll go to my  text menu and down to fit text to path   and then i’ll point to where the path is once  i position the text where i want it i’ll let   my mouse button go and then i want to flip this  around so on the interactive property bar i’m   going to mirror horizontally mirror vertically and  now if i want to i can just grab the glyph here   and position that text in place you’ll also notice  that there’s a little flag there that says it’s   .375 inches that’s a great way to ensure that this  piece of text is the same distance as that one all right one more thing on text is variable font  support and that’s relatively new in CorelDRAW   as well so with variable fonts you have the  ability of changing certain parameters of   that font with the font selected and let  me just move my page over to this side   with the font selected i’ll click on this icon  it’s a drop down with all the different properties   that i can change for this piece of text now  this particular font has quite a large number   of variables that i can modify most pieces of  variable text that i’ve seen or most fonts that   i’ve seen will typically have one two three or  four options that you can play around with so for   example i can change inline i can bring that up a  bit and you can see we now have a little bit of a   an outline type font maybe i want  to change the weight of it as well   so i can bring that up there’s a number of  different uh options for this particular   font that i can do as you can see very easy to  to modify the text let me just bring this back   centered on the page and if  i type another piece of text and we’ll type a piece of  text let’s call it breakaway   I’ll select this with my pick tool selected select this piece of text right click and drag  let the mouse button go and copy all properties   so i’ve now included those properties or added  these properties to this piece of text and it   makes it a lot easier than me having to go back  in here and figure out exactly what settings i had   okay let me just bring up Corel Font Manager and  in chrome Font Manager you’ll notice that i have   libraries on the left hand side i have a number  of filters here on my toolbar across the top   i have the ability to create what we call  a watched folder now a watched folder is   a folder that’s located on your hard drive  and any font that you put in there the Font   Manager will pick up on and we can make  use of that you no longer have to have   the font installed in order to be able to use  it in fact if you look on the right hand side   fonts that have the green bar are fonts that are  installed those that have the yellow bar they’re   not installed we can also see that these are  open type fonts this is a true type font and i   can scroll through here and see all the fonts that  i’ve got and actually if you look at the bottom   left-hand corner you can see i have over 8 000  fonts on this system they’re not installed they’re   not all installed into windows and therefore  it’s not going to be slowing my system down   further on the right hand side if i was to select  a font over here i’m going to be able to see   the glyphs that are within that font i can also  filter those glyphs so i want to see what currency   glyphs are in that particular  font or mathematical symbols   and that sort of thing now for me to install  a font if i scroll down to a font that’s not installed I’ll select a font right click and  it’s simply a matter of clicking on install   if I have a font that’s already installed  and I want to remove it then simply matter   right-clicking and uninstalling with respect  to the collections if I pull this down a bit   you can see I have a number of different  collections in here so here are my chalk fonts   I have grunge fonts poster these are collections  that I’ve created to create a collection it’s   simply a matter of clicking on this icon and  that will allow me to create a new collection   and I can give that whatever name I want and  then it’s simply a matter of going to my fonts I can right-click on a font  and I can add to collection   and then in here I’ll just dictate  what collection I want to put that in   and now if I was to go to that collection  I can see that I have that font in there   how does this work with curl  draw let me just minimize this i’m back in CorelDRAW i’ll select this piece of  text up here i’ll go to my fonts drop down and   in here you can see i have filters actually turned  on right now just click the funnel it’ll turn your   filters on i’ll deselect this filter actually i  can clear all filters that are currently selected   and i can go through looking for specific  filters maybe i want to go into my grunge folder   that i’ve created i can click on this and that  will select all the grunge fonts and it will   allow me to pick from those instead of having to  scroll through a great big massive list of fonts   all right let’s move on now clipart is very easy  to access so to access my clipart i’ll go into   the connect Content docker i already have that  open so i’ll click on that and in here you can   see we have a add the clipart up here i have  the ability to search so just type in horse   and very quick it’s found a number of images that  have horse as a keyword to use that of course   simply click and drag and i can bring that in on  the screen and then make use of that of that image   if i have my own collection of clipart and  i want to bring that in it’s easy enough to   do i’ll select the drop down and at the very  bottom i have add new in here i can click on   create alias and then browse to a folder where i  have that content now that content can be on the   local drive or it can be on a network share so  i can have access to that clipart and that can   be shared out for other people that have licenses  for CorelDRAW that also want access to the clipart   let me just close off the Connect docker and i  might as well close off these other ones as well okay let’s talk a little bit  of PowerClip now PowerClip   gives me the ability to take an object  or group of objects and put that inside a   container now this container can be a piece of  text it can be an object or a group of objects   I’m going to select this bitmap image I’ll  right-click and drag and left the mouse button   go and power clip inside it’s as easy as that a  lot of people will go to the objects menu and do   power clip there I find this quite a bit quicker  now I want to center that properly you’ll notice I   have a small menu up here I can hit the drop-down  and I go center content if I want to edit this   hold the ctrl key down and click on the container  itself that will put me into the edit state and   I can move this around I can resize it or do  whatever I want to with it to finish editing   control-click outside and that takes me  out of the editing of the power clip image now in this scenario I have an image and I do  sublimation I’ve got a customer that owns a   restaurant and I want to pitch to him that we can  take this image and make a mural on the back wall   of the restaurant using ceramic tiles in CorelDRAW  something like that is very easy to do takes me   very little time and to do a mural on ceramic  tiles I can probably earn a pretty penny on that   to do it in CorelDRAW in my  toolbox underneath the polygon tool   I have my graph paper tool now this particular  image is 4×6 so with the graph paper tool selected I want to change it to I want to have 12 by 8  and now if I left click and drag I’ll create   a grid over top of this tap my space bar I’m  now going to move this grid over here now if I   take this image I can right-click and drag power  clip inside and then I want to center my contents with the contents in here I’ll select the element   I’m going to use ungroup and it’s now ungrouped  the individual cells for that graph paper tool   I’ll marquee select the top  row I’ll move it straight up and I’ll take this element here and I’ll move  that straight over now if I marquee select this   I can do a shift e for evenly space and I  can do it for the subsequent roles as well   so if I was to move this up here align  that with this object here marquee select and a shift e you get the idea so we break all  this out I’ve then go ahead and print this on   my sublimating paper sublimate the tiles and then  I can take it to the customer site and install it   we have a beautiful mural in  the back of his restaurant wall all right power trace so power trace allows you  to convert from a raster image to a vector image   i’m going to start with this one here and if i  go to the trace bitmap menu i can also access   this from the bitmap menu as well but we have it  on the interactive property bar so much quicker   to access from here i’ll click on the drop down  go to outline trace and then i’ll select clipart   this opens up my powertrace dialog  box i’m going to make that full screen   now for those that are doing excuse me for those  that are doing vinyl cutting or screen printing   i want you to pay attention to this one item  here this is group by color and this will become   evident in a few seconds so i’m going to select  group by color then i can go to my colors tab   and in here i can reduce the number of colors so  i’m going to hold the ctrl key down and click on   this and i’ll merge these colors i also have the  ability in here to edit the color so if i wanted   something other than blue i can certainly do that  so i’m just simply reducing these colors down   we’re doing a screen screen print we don’t  want to deal with too many colors in there   seven colors is a bit much but  i’ll leave it like that for now   on the adjustments tab here i have the ability uh  if it’s a low quality jpeg image that i can remove   the jpeg artifacting i also have up sampling  options available as well for illustration and   photo realistic i’m simply going to click ok to  this it’s going to return me back to CorelDRAW   let me go ahead and select the background and are  the bitmap image rather and i’ll delete that now   if i select this element and i look in my Object  docker you can see i have a group of six objects   i’m going to ungroup this now i have ungroup  and i have ungroup all i’ll simply ungroup it   with it ungrouped you can see i have a group of  seven objects by selecting that double clicking   the outline fill or sorry the fill dialog  down here in here i can select color palettes and I can go into my spot color so very  quick and very easy we’ll be able to take   this image and convert it to spot colors  so I can get ready for making my screens once I’ve gone into the proper palette that I want  to use it will automatically match the closest   color to it I’ll simply click ok and now all  of these items all these blue items are now the   spot color blue of course I do have the  ability to change that if I want to grab a   specific Pantone color then I can do that as well  now with this image I’ve often been asked how do I   take a bitmap image and create a cut line around  it so I want to do a print cut solution I need a   cut line around this easy way to do that is within  power trace I’m going to go to outline trace   again I’ll select clip art and here what I’m  going to do on the colors tab I’ll reduce my   number of colors right down so I’m going to  bring that down to about three or four colors on the settings tab I want to make sure that  I have d delete original image not selected   I’ll click ok to this now with this vector group  selected I’m going to go to my objects menu down   to shaping and then to boundary that’s now created  a hairline outline around the perimeter if I hold   my alt key down I do a single click I’ve actually  selected the group of elements of course i could   do this in the Object docker and it’s simply a  matter of hitting delete I now have a cut line   around the perimeter of that bitmap that I can go  ahead and send that out and then do the cutting all right continuing with bitmaps this  is just a couple of little watch outs or   things not to do within CorelDRAW or ways to  to overcome particular issues so for example   we can crop a bitmap and of course you can use the  shape tool to marquee select these two nodes hold   the control key down and i can move that in and i  can crop the the image that way the drawback that   with that is i haven’t really changed the image at  all all i’ve done is i’ve created what we call a   soft mask now if i select my crop tool and marquee  select i can double click and it will crop that   for me if you do want to use this method here you  certainly can for example maybe i wanted to round   one of the corners then i can do that if you’re  doing that i strongly recommend that after you do   that go to the bitmap menu convert to bitmap set  whatever resolution you want and then click ok   what that’s going to do is it’s going to get rid  of that soft mask and make it the bitmap the way   it is resizing an image very similar as well this  is actually a power clip so if a control click you   can see that my image is actually rotated  when we have a rotated bitmap in CorelDRAW   and send that down to the printer it’s going to  have to rotate those lines of of a pixel sort   of thing as it’s ripping it and that’s going to  increase the rip time at when you’re printing   to overcome that bitmap menu convert to bitmap and  then set your resolution in here that’s all there   is to it one other very very common mistake is  customers will import bitmap images click and drag   to size them the way they want them put them on  their screen maybe they’re doing a uh a catalog of   supplemental sublimatable items that you  create so you’ve got 25 bitmap images on a page   that you’ve imported resize down and then you  go and print it and you wonder why it’s taking   so long to print when you resize an image down  in this manner by using the shaping handles take   a look at the resolution down below you’re not  reducing the size of the bitmap itself you’re   only reducing the visual footprint of it so if you  need to reduce a bitmap down like that once you’ve   done that go to bitmap convert to bitmap and then  simply click ok that now has gotten rid of that   extra weight on the bitmap and it will increase or  sorry it will reduce your file size tremendously sampling up until CorelDRAW 2021 we provided  ben vista photo zoom uh which was an application   that allowed you to up sample bitmaps we’ve  now brought the capabilities of up sampling   into CorelDRAW 2021 and it’s done a beautiful  job i’m going to select this bitmap here it’s   150 dpi and you can see it’s roughly 6×7 inches  if i go to my bitmap menu and down to resample   in here i have the ability to increase or decrease  if i select that i want to increase the size   and i’m going to do something  crazy i’m going to go 800 percent   automatically you’ll see i now have these options  down here so i can do the up sampling illustration   photorealistic or just leave it as is for time  photo photo realistic is going to take a bit   of processing time i’m just going to leave  it as is just to show you that keeping in   mind that photorealistic will give you much  higher quality so simply click ok to this   and you can see very quickly it’s upsampled that  image now i had two copies of this image on this   page so if i hold the alt key down and i click  right about here it’s going to dig down it’s   going to select that bitmap below i’m going to  bring that to the front and now i’m going to do   an f4 and that zooms out to my entire page  this is my original image that was 150 dpi   this is the resized image at 800 percent larger  it’s now 56 by 34 at 150 dpi so really does a   beautiful job of up sampling i’m going to select  this and delete that and move on to the next page let’s take a look at a couple of the  labs that we have within PHOTO-PAINT   I’m going to select this image here I’ll  right-click and I’ll select edit bitmap   now this is going to launch PHOTO-PAINT for me um now I’ll maximize the screen and from the image  menu I’ll go down to cutout lab this gives me   the ability to remove the background so let’s  maximize this screen as well first I’m going to   grab my highlighter I’ll zoom in a little bit  more and what I want to do is I want to draw   a border around the element itself or the  object that I want to cut out notice that   I’m trying to keep half on half off I’m not  being super critical or super careful rather   that’s not a problem at all I can fix that up in  a few moments let me just zoom out a little bit and I’m going to come straight across here and we’ll go up this side as well now I can change  the brush size to make it finer or coarser that   basically allows me to go a little bit faster  I probably could have made this a little bit   wider and gone a little bit quicker but that’s  fine once I’ve got the area marked off that I   want to keep I’m going to use the fill bucket and  that will preserve the area that I want now bottom   left-hand corner I’m going to click on preview  this allows me to preview my image I can zoom in and it’s going to pan down a little bit you’ll  notice some areas that I’ve taken out too much   and other areas where I haven’t taken  out enough this allows me to add back   areas that I’ve taken out too much and it’s  just a matter of brushing over this area and sometimes it’s a little difficult to  see with this grid pattern in the background   so what I can do is under background  I have none I can select grayscale   I can set matte black or I can set white  matte and this allows me to better see   what areas that I have to remove or  what areas that I have to fill in   now for speed or sorry for time-wise I’m not  going to go around the entire image just want to   show you basically how this is done so it’s just a  matter of brushing out the areas that I don’t want and we’ll come down here and to brush in the areas that I do want and I’m  going to leave it like that you get the idea I’ll   simply click ok to this that’s going to return  me into PHOTO-PAINT with the background removed   I can click on finish editing or simply close  out the application I’ll answer yes to this   and it’s going to put me back  into CorelDRAW with this image   cut out from the background now  let’s take a look at one more lab   and that’s the image adjustment lab so I’ll select  this image right click and select edit bitmap and let’s maximize PHOTO-PAINT and now from the  adjust menu I’m going to Image Adjustment Lab and let’s maximize this now in here there’s a  number of different changes that I can make to   this image first off I can change the temperature  so that’s brought made a little bit warmer   brought the colors a little bit more natural  I also have the ability to increase saturation   can modify brightness contrast highlights shadows  and midtones and basically bring up the image   to get something that is acceptable also within  the image adjustment lab bottom left-hand corner   you have this camera icon by clicking on that  it’s going to create a snapshot so I can go   through I can make some additional changes maybe  I want to bring up the contrast a little bit and let’s play with the shadows I’ll create another snapshot try bringing this down quite a bit and see  what happens there that’s a little bit too dark and so we can play around with this I could  have tried the auto adjust to see if that   how that is this allows me the ability  to set my white point and my black point   and so once i’ve gone through and i’ve gotten  an image that i like the the coloring to   i’ll simply select it you’ll note the blue bar at  the top and when i click ok that’s the image that   i’m going to be bringing back into PHOTO-PAINT so  let me just close this down again that’s going to   return me to CorelDRAW with the image update um  this is a little effect i like to show creating   a diff distressed effect now this can be done with  a raster image i find that rusted metal this is an   old piece of weathered wood maybe a photograph of  ripples on a a swimming pool stuff like that work   quite well what i’m going to do is i’ll start  off by resizing this image to completely cover my   artwork now from the bitmap menu i’m going to  go down to mode and i want to select grayscale   next i’m going to go to my effects menu down  to adjust and i want to bring up my tone curve   now in the tone curve what i want to do is  i want to reduce the amount of white in the   image and intensify the blacks something  like that and i’ll click okay to this   all right now that we’ve got this what i’m  going to do is i’m going to go to my bitmap menu   down to mode once again and i’m  going to select black and white   now with black and white i want to make sure i’m  using line art and here i can set the threshold   to make it more or less noticeable i’ll leave  it like that and click ok now one thing about   a black and white image image is that it’s a  one bit image that bit can either be on or off   what i can do is i can change my fill to white  and my outline to nothing and what that’s done   is it’s basically giving me the white area  so this allows me to create a distressed look   all right the next i want to show is  non-destructive effects so new to quell draw 2019   we’ve added the ability to create non-destructive  effects these effects can be applied to both   bitmaps as well as vector so i’m actually  applying bitmap effects to a vector object   so if i go to my effects menu i’m going to go  down to art strokes and i’ll select impressionist let it process that I’ll click ok now  if I go back up to the effects menu   I want to go to creative and then to fabric we’ll apply the quilt effect and finally back up  to the effects menu down to blur and I’m going to   add a gaussian blur to this and I’ll accept the  defaults that I have here and click ok now if I   right-click on this you’ll see that I have object  properties selected so that tells me I have the   object Properties docker already opened up on the  right-hand side I’m going to click on properties   and in here when I select this element I now have an effects tab I’ll click on my  effects tab and you can see that I’ve applied   a gaussian blur fabric impressionist in here I  have the ability to turn that vision on or off   I also have the ability to edit it directly in  here and I can add another effect if I wanted to   i also have the ability to delete the  effect or change the order of the effect so   we’ve been able to add effects to this element  without actually causing any distortion or any   um degradation of the original element now  one more thing about this that makes it very   useful is if I right-click on this and I  go down to object styles new style from   bitmap effect and I’m just going to call this  uh test and I’ll click ok I’ve got open object   Style docker selected so when I click ok  it will open up the object Styles docker   with this style in it that I can then make use  of so I have my style that I’ve created I can select this element click apply to selected  and this will apply that same style to this   I have a piece of text over here I  can apply it to this object as well   it’s simply a matter of selecting the  text and simply click apply to select it   now if I wanted to I can come back in here I can  select this effect I don’t want that I simply hit   the delete key and it will delete the effect  from all of the objects that I have on screen all right let me close off the Styles docker and we’ll go on to our next page so art  styles art styles are a lot of fun to   play with if I go to my effects menu down  to creative and in here I have art style   now there’s a number of different art  styles that we have available to us   first one is smooth acrylic these effects  are fairly intensive and there is a control   within tools options that I can have it use GPU  processing as well to improve the speed of that   so this is the acrylic style I’m going to grab  neon for example and I’ll make that medium and here we have that effect so it’s a lot of fun  to play with this I’m going to hit cancel on this   let me go on to the next slide now in here we have uh scripts and macros I’m just  going to show you one macro and that is the color   swatch so you have a you’re doing sublimation  or screen printing you’ve approached a school   phys ed class they want track suits made and they  also want um sorry track suits printed on and they   want their gym bags to have a logo on them as  well so you want to be able to match the school   colors so what colors are you going to  use if we go to the windows menu down to   color palettes and i’m going to click on palettes  now in here i’m going to go to spot palette   i’ll click on pantone and then i’m going to  go into previous version and i want to select   the first one which is the corel8 pantone palette  this is the pantone palette that has the pantone   white in it now this particular script will only  work with color palettes that are currently open   so if i was to open a couple of other color  palettes and here’s the pastel color palette   now i’m going to launch the script so  if i go to my tools menu down to scripts   and then run in here under macros in  i want to select color chart creator   and i’ll click run once again in this  dialog box when i hit the drop down   you’ll see i have a number of palettes in here  these are the palettes that i’ve just opened up   as well as my document palette across the  bottom so i want to select this palette here   i can add a date printer information i can also  set the spacing i’m going to bring that spacing   down to two i can put an outline around each color  i don’t want to do that and i’ll simply click ok and as you can see it’s created the document for  me I’ll go back to the beginning of the document   and now I have the ability to go through this  document let me just go to my windows menu down to   dockers and I’m going to select pages in here I’m  going to select multi-page and I’ll just zoom out   and you can see that we have a number of pages  in here with my color palette on that so very   quick and very easy I can print out whichever  sheet that I want to and then and then go from   there all right let’s go back out to a single  page I’m going to close off the Palettes docker   I’ll close off my Pages docker and let’s  just close off this file completely all right Pointillizer so this is a used  to be called an extension that we shipped   with CorelDRAW x8 and it’s a great way  to create a pseudo halftone type pattern   uh within document so with the file selected  I’m going to go to my effects menu and down to   Pointilizer and in here I’ll just leave the  defaults as they are I’ll simply click apply   very quickly it’s gone through and it’s created  a half tone pattern using 16 colors let me do a   ctrl z to undo that I’ll deselect color limit  and I’ll click apply once again so it’s going   to go through the file and it’s going to  create that image with the multiple colors I’m going to delete this and I  want to show you one more with this   process so I’m going to select this clipart  image under shape you can see I have circle   I also have custom I’m going to select custom  I’ll click on select and I’ll click on this   it’s just a piece of text I created  with the letter x and I’ll apply so I’ve taken this clipart image and I’ve now  created a cross stitch pattern so if you wanted to   sublimate something like that onto a cotton towel  or something like that then you can certainly do   that I’m just going to do an f4 to zoom back  out to my page and let’s go on to the next okay I’m going to close off this docker  and I also want to close out these color   palettes so go to my windows menu down  to color palettes and then to palettes   now I could drag these off and close them out  one at a time I can also come in here and I will   simply deselect the pallets that are in here  and that will effectively turn them all off okay I’ll close up the Palettes docker so from time to time you’ll want  to create a custom color palette   based on a document or a selection i’m  going to select this element and then   from the windows menu i’ll go down to color  palettes and then create palette from selection   so very quickly it’s brought the dialog  box i’m just going to call this flower   and i’ll click on save and what that’s going  to do is it’s going to create a custom color   palette for me and it’s docked over here and this  is based on the colors that are in this particular   file so if i bring those out you can see we have  that all right let’s go to the next page and   we’re actually at the end of this almost  workspace customization i’ve saved the   best for last this is uh in my opinion is my  favorite tool within the entire application   the ability to customize you’ve seen that i’ve  been moving forward and backwards on the pages   without really doing much of anything i’ve  customized some keyboard shortcuts for that   to customize a keyboard shortcut we go to the  tools menu to options and then customization now in here I want to select commands   and once I customized are in the layout menu and  what I did is I changed the next and previous page   so next page shortcut key I’m using the number two  and previous page I use the number one my thought   is this I’ve got my right hand in the mouse I’ve  got my left hand on the keyboard if I want to do   page up page down to go forward and backward  I have to take my hand off the mouse and use   my keyboard that takes time with my left  hand on the keyboard I tap the one or tap   the two it takes me forward and it takes  me back other keyboard shortcuts I use   are in the view menu and I go to wireframe and my  keyboard shortcut for wireframe is the letter w and I assign to get out of  wireframe I go to enhanced view   and the one I use for that is the letter q an  easy way to remember that is that I want to quit   wireframe a nice thing about it is there’s side by  side on the keyboard so I can very quickly toggle   back and forth I’ll click a sign for this let  me just double-check my wireframe to make sure I   did click a sign on that I did that’s good next  ones I’m going to do is under the objects menu and I’m going to go down to group and if I have a problem finding it here  I have the ability search I can also go to   the objects menu here down to group and then  select group and so it’s automatically found   that for me currently it’s ctrl g I’m going to  delete that and I’m going to use the letter g   from time to time I have arthritis in my hand  and it acts up it’s difficult to do a finger   stretch uh to control u or control g so just use  a single keyboard shortcut and I can do that with   my left hand tapping those keys so I’ve assigned  that and then of course I want to do an ungroup and the keyboard shortcut I  assigned for that is the letter u and I click assign so very easy to assign keyboard  shortcuts I’m going to click ok to this now one   more thing about customization is you’ll find  that around the screen we have these icons here   I’ve got another one over here and I have one  for my dockers as well over here for example   when I click on this I have the ability to  turning on and off features you’ll notice   that by default we don’t have the outline pen uh  on the on the bar so I can actually click on this   and it will add the outline pen for me if  I want to create a custom keyboard shortcut   it’s very easy to do some of the commands I use a  lot is contour so I’ll click and hold I’m going to   hold the control plus alt key down I’ll left-click  contour and I’ll bring this out onto the screen   I’ve now started to build my own toolbar  back under the tools here I want the   envelope tool click and drag and I’ll drop  that right there next is from the text menu and I want fit text to path so control plus  alt-left click and drag and I can drop that right   on there and the final one I use a lot is convert  to bitmap so again control plus alt-click and drag   and I’m going to bring this right out here  so I’ve now effectively created a toolbar that I can dock wherever I want on the system  and it’s a great way to save time and really   speed up productivity within the application  once we’ve done that from the tools menu   to options to workspace in here what I want  to do is I want to export the workspace   and that’s going to export with my keyboard  shortcuts my layouts and everything else so if I’m   in a design shop maybe there’s three designers we  all want to use the same workspace for efficiency   then I can export my workspace and share that you  also if you have a previous version of CorelDRAW   from CorelDRAW x7 and forward we’re able to bring  in previous workspaces so if you’re upgrading   from CorelDRAW 2020 to 2021 then of course  you can save your workspace and bring it in   and it’s simply a matter of clicking on  import to import the previous workspace now the final thing I want to talk about I briefly  mentioned this at the beginning is learn.corel.com   this is our Discovery Center and it’s here where  you can access all sorts of items things such as   tutorials so there’s tutorials for graphics, for  PaintShop Pro, VideoStudio that sort of thing   you’ll also find a Q&A series this is a Q&A series  for CorelDRAW as well as a PaintShop Pro so when   we get customers sending us questions or common  questions that come in through the support line   we have videos on here that will take you  through the Q&A of that you’ll find a link   for free stuff we have regular contests in here  that you can enter with your artwork support as   well as community so it’s a great place to visit  it’s easy URL to remember it’s learn.corel.com and that brings us to the end of this session  I do want to thank you very much for your time   and uh I hope you’ve enjoyed uh what I’ve  presented I hope you’ve learned uh some   tips that you can take away with and become a  lot more productive and a lot more prosperous   thank you very much and have a great day

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

Affiliate Disclosure: This blog may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you click on the link and make a purchase. This comes at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I believe will add value to my readers. Your support helps keep this blog running and allows me to continue providing you with quality content. Thank you for your support!