CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp Video and New Dates

Three new fall dates have been added to the CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp schedule. In addition to the upcoming classes on May 7-9 and July 9-11; Boot Camps have been added on October 1-3, November 5-7 and December 10-12. All dates are in 2009.

Not sure if you should attend? I'll share comments from three students at the 100th Boot Camp held earlier this month.

"Your real world examples of your past projects and what you have learned along the way helps me not make the same mistakes. This should save me tons of time. Definitely worth the price and the trip to Arizona."

"Time very well spent."

"Huge help! Great teaching, thanks so much! This was an excellent class!"

Want to get a better idea of what you'll get from CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp? I have just posted a new video on the CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp Web page and you can download a high-resolution copy of the video. We also have a PDF version of the Boot Camp flyer you can download for your own reading or to put on the boss' desk for approval. I hope you will join me soon for three solid days of productivity and creativity boosting training. And while you don't need to tell the boss, you'll have fun in the class!

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Video Tour of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Now Available

When users think of an ebook, they aren't always sure what exactly that means. Of course there are many different flavors of ebooks on the market.

If you are using CorelDRAW X4, the CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed ebook is the best learning tool available. So that you can see exactly how it works, a video tour of the book was developed. You can watch it on the CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Web page, on YouTube or you can download a high-definition version to watch on your computer. Whichever method you choose, I think you'll realize the power of this training resource.

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Corel's April Deals Include Free Pantone Huey

Below are the latest special offers from Corel. These offers expire on May 1, 2009 so take advantage now before it is too late. You'll note the the first offer is limited to only the first 100 orders so jump on it while you can!

• Save up to $30 on CorelDRAW X4! First 100 orders get a free Pantone Huey for color profiling your display. CorelDRAW X4 New $399.00, Upgrade $189.00
  Order CorelDRAW X4 Now!
• Save up to $20 on WordPerfect! Plus you'll get a free t-shirt & USB flash drive. Corel WordPerfect Office X4 - Standard New $279.99 - Upgrade $149.99
• Save Up to $30 on Paint Shop Pro! Plus get a free copy of DVD Copy 6. Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate New $69.99 - Upgrade $49.99
• Save 25% on Photo Album 7 Deluxe! Plus you'll get a free Painter Photo Essentials 4 with purchase. Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe only $29.99!
• Save $30 on PhotoImpact X3 Plus get a free copy of Painter Photo Essentials 4 with purchase! ($50 value) Corel PhotoImpact® X3 New $39.99 - Upgrade $29.99
• Free Shipping with Coupon Code DEALALERT. Get new Corel Painter 11 plus a new Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet - Now Available in THREE Sizes!

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CorelDRAW Economic Stimulus Plan

In these tough economic times we all need to find a way to get the most from the products that we sell or products we use on a regular basis. You should also consider ways to make your business more profitable without a lot of added time to your work day. First, I'll tell you a great way to do this and then I'll give you a special discount that is only available for a very short time. I’m sure most of you are aware of the CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed ebook, but how well do you really know how to use the CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT tools and use them to the fullest extent? Here at Unleashed Productions, we have just what you need to become more successful in your business. We have a 3 day class called the CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp. This class will equip you with the tools necessary to increase your productivity and to help you produce a better product. We can show you new techniques and tools that will get you out of the rut you have put yourself in because you just do the same things over and over again. Our classes are offered several times a year and I will be the one teaching you. The class size is limited to 12 campers so you have great opportunity to interact with me and get a tremendous amount of information. Here are just a few of the comments our former camper have written:

"You exceeded my expectations. I’ve worked with Corel for 10 years now, if I had attended your Boot Camp years ago you would have saved me thousands of hours!"

"You packed a ton of learning into those three short days. After using CorelDRAW for so many years, I had fallen into a set way of doing things and just never thought to try anything new. Thanks to you I’ve found my enthusiasm again!"

"LOVED IT! More than worth the money, I should have done this years ago"

Each Boot Camper will receive:

• Full-color handout with over 160 pages of detailed notes on each Boot Camp session.
• Boot Camp DVD-ROM with software and samples to practice what you’ve learned.
• Copy of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Premium Bonus Content Edition.
• A Certificate of Completion to show their accomplishment.
• Continental breakfast, lunch and refreshments each day.
• Enjoy a fantastic BBQ dinner on the second night.

Our classes are geared for the intermediate to advanced user of CorelDRAW. We do however accept beginners, if we have advanced notice. We can send you the class information ahead of time for you to go over and get yourself familiar with CorelDRAW.

This class is not only a fantastic way to improve your business, it will open your eyes to endless possibilities with CorelDRAW.

Our April Boot Camp will be the 100th Boot Camp since we started them back in 1996. I want to make sure that every seat is filled so I'm going to give you a $100 discount if you use the code "100CAMPS" when you register. I'll even allow you to use this code for the July camp in case April won't fit on your calendar. This is a very limited time offer and you must register no later than March 20, 2009 or when the classes are full, whichever comes first.

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Boot Camp Cruise Has Sailed

I have had a few e-mails lately asking me where I had been hiding. In a two week span I attended three trade shows (I'll cover those in another post) and then hosted the CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp Cruise as we sailed from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera.

We had a great group of ten students and their guests from as far away as Norway. Others came from Georgia, Texas, Alberta, Arizona and California. While the ship was in motion, we hunkered down in the ship's cinema to go over the ins and outs of CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. And when the ship docked in a port, we got off the ship and enjoyed the local sights and sounds.

Everyone was encouraged to take lots of pictures. All of those pictures were collected so that we could all share. Then on the last day of class, we found almost 100 of the best photos and applied minor repairs and color adjustments to them. That's right, we fixed 100 photos in less than two hours! That left us with another two hours to put them all into ProShow Producer and create a multimedia movie. You can download a copy of the movie so that you can experience just a little bit of the fun we had. Keep in mind that this movie was created live in class in a very short amount of time. We did encourage students to modify the movie and send us updated versions. So as I get new versions, I'll post them as well.

I've already been asked when and where the next Boot Camp Cruise will take place. At this point I haven't even looked for a time and place. But if you would be interested in joining us, feel free to leave a comment with your suggestion for where and when we should set sail.

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CorelDRAW International Design Contest is Back!

If you haven't already heard, CorelDRAW is now 20 years old. As part of the birthday celebration, Corel is doing a few things to commemorate it. Today two more things have been announced. The biggest news is the return of the CorelDRAW International Design Contest.

Those of you who have been using CorelDRAW for many years will no doubt remember the contest. Designers from worldwide would submit their best artwork in hopes of winning fame and prizes. The new contest is a little different, but the prizes offered are very nice.

There are six categories in which you can enter. You may only enter one piece of artwork in each category. The exception is the Academic category. If you enter in that category, you can not enter in other categories. Below are each of the categories with the descriptions provided by Corel for that category.

• Advertising & Marketing: Flyers, brochures, logos, signs and other designs related to advertising, marketing or point of purchase (POP)
• Promotional Items, Awards & Personalization: Designs to be used in the engraving, awards, dye sublimation and other related industries
• Vehicle Wraps: Designs to be used for car, truck, boat or other vehicle wraps
• Textile & Fashion Design: Designs for fashion, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing
• General Illustration & Fine Art: Artistic, creative and unique designs
• Academic: To enter this category, you must be able to prove that you attend an educational institution. You may submit entries from any of the categories listed above into the Academic category.

First, second and third place winners will be selected in each category and will win a very nice prize package designed for the category in which you win. So if you win the Vehicle Wraps category, your prize package is related to designing vehicle wraps.

Each of the six first prize winners will then compete for the grand prize of a $22,000 Roland VersaCAMM printer/cutter.

I know that I'll be watching the results of the contest very closely as I'd like to feature some of the winning entries in a future version of my CorelDRAW Unleashed book. Find your best artwork and enter the contest now. You could be the winner walking away with the big (it is really big) prize!


A second announcement was also made. There is a special version of CorelDRAW box called the CorelDRAW Anniversary Edition. It includes CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 (the same version you may already have), a Wacom Intuos3 tablet and Corel Painter Sketch Pad. If you haven't already gotten a copy of CorelDRAW X4, this may be the perfect chance for you to get a copy and much more. It is available as both a full version and an upgrade.

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CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 2 Available for Download

Corel will officially release Service Pack 2 for CorelDRAW X4 next week. But you can download it now and get started on the new version now. If you'd like to learn more about what has been fixed, Gerard Metrailler has detailed it all in his blog.

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Sunday Stock: Sports Volume 1

As I travel around and train CorelDRAW users, one area where users are always creating products is for sports teams from the local area. There are many packages on the market with templates, but today I'm featuring a product with great templates and a great price. Sports Volume 1 has 277 templates covering thirteen different categories.

All of the files are stored in CorelDRAW 10 format which means they work in all versions from CorelDRAW 10-X4. You'll also get 32 bonus fonts included on the disc. If you are creating sports themed products, this collection may be just what you need.

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Tutorial Tuesday: CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard

Users are always asking about easy ways to change all of the colors in the their artwork in CorelDRAW. There are a number of different tools that approach this common problem. One of them is the Find and Replace Wizard. Today's tutorial shows you how to use the Find and Replace Wizard in all of its different variations.

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Tutorial Tuesday: Exporting PNG File From CorelDRAW

PNG files are fast becoming a very popular choice on Web sites because they support a full alpha-channel for transparency. They also provide a great way to load transparent bitmaps into Microsoft Office.

In today's tutorial, Jeff Harrison shows you how to export transparent PNG files directly from CorelDRAW. You don't have to do any ready as Jeff has prepared a short movie that shows you all of the steps for free.

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Special Deal on CorelDRAW X4 Software

Corel has a special deal available on CorelDRAW X4 upgrades and the full version. The full version sells for $399 ($30 off the list price) and the upgrade sells for $189 ($10 off the list price). Please make sure to buy the boxed version so you get all of the fonts, clip art, photos manuals and more. These are not included with the download version and the boxed version has the same cost.

In addition to the price savings, you get a copy of CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide. This 892 page page normally sells separately for $49.99. Of course, I'd love it if you would also consider getting my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book as it not only has the written material, but also 11.5 hours of video tutorials.

This is a limited time offer so if you are wanting to upgrade, make sure to take advantage while you can. It is a great way to not only get the software at a discount, but also to get a third-party training resource to help you get the most out of it. Get CorelDRAW X4 and CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide now!

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Tutorial Tuesday: CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference Handout and Disc

The staff of experts at the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference put together some amazing sessions for those in attendance. If you weren't able to join us at the conference, we are now making available the Conference Guide and the Conference Disc.

This isn't just a single tutorial, it is a collection of information that took three days to present. The Conference Guide is 152 printed pages of full color information. On the Conference Disc, you'll find the Conference Guide as a PDF file complete with links to tutorial movies on many of the subjects covered. We then loaded the disc with clip art, plug-ins and other content of value.

You can get just the Conference Disc or a package with both the printed Conference Guide and the Conference Disc. Note that if you order the printed Conference Guide that your package will not ship until October 30th. Orders for only the Conference Disc will ship right away.

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CorelDRAW on Inside Digital Design Radio Show

A few weeks ago I was a guest on the Inside Digital Design radio show. You can find an archive of the show if you would like to listen.

It was great to be able to speak to the audience about CorelDRAW, but it was sad that the hosts hadn't done any homework about CorelDRAW or Corel Corporation. Some of the questions they asked were about outdated information, really outdated information, that really had nothing to do with CorelDRAW. And like many Mac/Adobe users, they had no idea the power of CorelDRAW and the many ways it is being used today. I had the opportunity to try and correct some of the myths these users hold, but time limited me from truly presenting the power of CorelDRAW. Hopefully I can return to the show to present more useful information. It would also be great to see other CorelDRAW power users as guests on the show.

If you had five minutes to tell the world why you find CorelDRAW to be the best graphics tool for your needs, what would you say? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Sunday Stock: CorelDRAW Layout Templates

Sometimes you run across something that doesn't always make sense to you. Someone recently alerted me to a series of CorelDRAW Layout Templates that can be downloaded from 48HourPrint.com. You'll find business cards, postcards, nightclub flyers, brochures, sell sheets, envelopes, letterhead, rack cards, pocket folders, door hangers, table tents, posters, notepads and much more. All of them are CMYK templates in CDR format and all are free to download.

Now I'm sure the idea is that they want you to use their template to design something and have it printed at 48HourPrint. That's where I found it a bit strange. When I looked at their notes on preparing files, they won't support CorelDRAW X3 or X4. They also don't support the two latest versions of QuarkXpress. Yet they don't list version limitations on any of the Adobe products. The fact that they haven't upgraded CorelDRAW (or QuarkXpress) to the newest versions tells me that they aren't really worried about supporting people using those programs. That's really too bad for us and for them.

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Tutorial Tuesday: Athletic Tails

In the world of sports apparel, there are a handful of effects that are used quite often. One of those techniques is the use of an athletic tail. That's where the last letter in the word makes a huge swooshing tail underlining the entire word. Typically another word appears in that tail.

Richard Reilly, aka Fluid, tackled the subject of creating Athletic Tails in this weeks tutorial. Not only does he show you how to create and use them, he supplies you ten tails in a CorelDRAW file so you can get started. If you are creating sports apparel and you aren't already using athletic tails, you'll want to read this tutorial so you can incorporate them into your workflow. You're clients will love it and that will bring you more projects!

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CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps and CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed

Dreamtech Press just announced the release of CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps. Below is the publisher's brief description of the book.

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

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

Now I need to add some clarification. Dreamtech is located in India and right now the book is only available in India. I have asked the publisher if the book will be available elsewhere and they are hoping to work out distribution deals for Europe and North America. They did provide a Web site for placing bulk orders. This link is for someone who wishes to place a bulk order, not for single copies.

For those of you wanting a CorelDRAW book available worldwide, please consider CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed. It comes in two editions. Each edition comes with a 932 page ebook along with 11.5 hours of tutorial movies. The Premium Bonus Content Edition adds the 125 page Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 Unleashed with two more hours of tutorial movies and Jeff Harrison's top 37 Powertips with another hour of tutorial movies. We also load up the DVD-ROM of the Premium Bonus Content Edition with clip art, plug-ins and other valuable content.

The standard edition of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed is shipping now. The Premium Bonus Content edition will begin shipping on August 5, 2008. We have a huge number of pre-orders so any new orders will not ship until a few days later as it will take us time to catch up on the existing orders.

As I mentioned earlier, we can ship CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed anywhere in the world. The best price for shipping outside of North America is less than $2 more than shipping within the United States. Get your copy now and start getting more out of CorelDRAW X4!

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CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Premium Bonus Content Edition Nearing Completion

For us, it seems like a good news and a bad news situation. The vast majority of orders we have received for CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed are for the Premium Bonus Content Edition. That's awesome and we think you've made the right choice. The bad news is that it takes longer to complete than the Standard Edition.

Not a day goes by that someone asks us why they haven't received the copy they ordered a while back. We clearly labeled the product page to say that it wouldn't ship until the end of July and that we would not charge credit cards until the book was ready to ship.

Today we hit another milestone towards completion. All writing is finally finished. Given that I started writing last September, I am thrilled to have the writing done. That just leaves some minor editing and the physical production. We are still targeting a shipping date of July 31 though it is possible that it will slip to August 5 or 6 at the latest because of the time it takes to produce the discs, package them and prepare them for shipping. If you have already ordered a copy, we'll send you an e-mail as soon as your copy has shipped. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, get your order in now so you get your copy as soon as possible.

Where else are you going to get over 1100 total pages of written instruction and over 14 hours of video training at such a bargain price? In the days of CorelDRAW 9, you would have paid over $400 for a package like this and we sell it for only $74.95. Wow, all of this writing must have affected my sanity to allow such an awesome resource to sell at such a low price.

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CorelDRAW Developers Explain Custom Add-Ons

Behind any major software project are numerous talented engineers. Most of the time they remain behind the scenes. Recently one of the engineers from the CorelDRAW team posted information about one of the coolest features in CorelDRAW X4. Go ahead and memorize the list of features publicized by the marketing department. Try to figure out which feature we're talking about. Got your answer?

Well, this isn't a feature that has been heavily promoted by Corel and that's really too bad. CorelDRAW X4 allows any developer to create a custom add-on and/or a custom Docker. Prior to CorelDRAW X4, add-on features didn't always mesh completely with the program. By putting the add-on in a custom Docker, there is really no way to tell that the feature wasn't built-in to the product. For novice users, this also make it easier to work with add-ons.

I'll warn you, the information on this feature is a bit technical and is geared towards developers. But I think it is worth reading by all users, even if you never plan on developing your own. It will describe to you what is possible and I'm excited about all the cool new stuff we'll see down the road.

So, follow along as Henrik Wagenaar explains the process of creating a custom add-on and/or a custom Docker. Look carefully and you'll see a cool example of a Docker for custom tables that you can download. If you regularly visit the MacroMonster.com site, you'll know that several cool custom Dockers are already available and Jeff has told me about several more that are in the works. I'll certainly cover some of the best in my Macro Monday posts.

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CorelDRAW Around the House

One reason CorelDRAW is so popular is that it can be used in so many different ways. While it may not have been designed for all the uses, there are still ways to make it work.

Alex Vakulenko had an interesting blog post about how he recently used CorelDRAW and Corel DESIGNER to help with some remodeling projects around his house. Now if you don't know Alex, you might know some of his work. During the day he works at Corel and is responsible for the cool macros in the CorelDRAW box like Calendar Wizard. In his spare time he runs the OberonPlace Web site and offers several useful macros for sale. He is also the programmer behind our popular EZ Metrics add-on for CorelDRAW.

Alex is definitely not the first, nor will he be the last, to use CorelDRAW for these kinds of projects. I designed the floor plan for my current house in CorelDRAW 5 back in 1995. Tony Severenuk, CorelDRAW Program Manager, recently designed a salon for his wife using CorelDRAW. It is really cool to see how household projects like this can be made easier in CorelDRAW.

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Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4 Announced

There is a member of the CorelDRAW family that many users know very little about and today that family member has been updated. Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4 is available for immediate purchase as a download and a boxed version will be available soon.

Corel DESIGNER is built on all of the same engines as CorelDRAW so many parts of the product will be immediately familiar to CorelDRAW users. It includes Corel PHOTO-PAINT, Corel PowerTRACE and Corel CAPTURE just like the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. While there are similarities, there are also powerful features in Corel DESIGNER that are not found in CorelDRAW.

If you are working with technical illustrations, then you'll want to give Corel DESIGNER a long look. For example, support for importing 3D CAD files from all of the popular formats is included. You'll also find support for CGM files from popular design programs. When designing your own drawings, there are improved tools for adding dimensions and arrowheads as well as projected drawing modes. There is also a large library of hatch fills that can be used to fill your graphics.

These are only a few of the features you'll find in Corel DESIGNER. A free trial is available for download, so give it a try for yourself!

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Site Updates, Blog Updates and More

Today I spent most of the day updating the home page of the CorelDRAW Unleashed site. Not only did I want the page to be visually appealing, I wanted to make sure it was easy to find the training product that best met your needs for learning how to use CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. I'll be doing similar updates to the Graphics Unleashed site in the near future that are much more extensive. If you have suggestions for ways we can make either of the sites better meet your needs, please leave your suggestion in a comment.

There will also be changes coming to this blog in the near future. I haven't always been good at posting every day and I want to change that. I want to make sure to get you new information on a daily basis and possible to have multiple posts on a given day. One example would be to suggest a free font every Friday in a post. I'm making a list of other categories where I can provide you with examples on a regular basis. Again, I'd like your input. Post any of your suggestions in a comment. Not only do I want to provide information more regularly, I want to make sure it is the information that is most useful to you.

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More Revived Tutorials

Yesterday I told you about some of our older tutorials that had been revived recently. Today I'll give you a list of three more that have recently been revived.

One of the most common tasks that CorelDRAW users face is converted lousy bitmap logos into vector artwork. The Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW tutorial shows some of the basic techniques on a relatively simple logo.

If you need to draw in isometric views, Constructing Isometric Grid Paper will show you how to set up a grid system for doing it. For the occasional project, this tutorial will definitely get you going in the right direction. If isometric drawing is something you need regularly, check out the EZ Metrics add-on for CorelDRAW that creates isometric views with a single click.

Do you need to print color charts for color matching? Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart tells you why it is important to do this and it provides pre-designed palettes you can download plus instructions for creating your own charts automatically.

I'll be away for a few days hosting the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference and then I'll return with more revived tutorials and even more goodies! You can expect some blog updates from the conference when I can find a free minute.

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A Few Oldies But Goodies

Over the past few days I've been doing some updates on some of the older tutorials on the Web site. In case you haven't read them recently, I wanted to highlight them. This will probably be the first of several blog posts highlighting older tutorials as I still have quite a few to update.

Back when David Karlins wrote Creating Web Page Background JPEG Files, it was common to use a small tile able bitmaps for the the background of Web pages. I don't think the technique is used very often these days, but there is still some valuable information you can pick up from the tutorial.

Mike Bresciani showed how you could take an old grayscale photo and give it color in his Adding Color to Black and White Photos with Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Certainly a few of the features have changed in Corel PHOTO-PAINT, but these techniques will still work today. Find an old grayscale image and give it a try!

Everyone loves t-shirts that are personalized. Ron McIntyre shows you how to create your own in Creating Stencils to Paint on T-Shirts. I certainly would have preferred that he create shirts heralding the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks instead of our rival, but the techniques are still something you can use to make stencils for your designs.

As I get more pages updated, I'll post the tutorials here so you can refresh your memory or even see these for the first time.

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CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Now Shipping!

We will begin shipping CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed on June 27th. Anyone who has pre-ordered the book will be processed first and then any new orders will be processed next. The Premium Bonus Content Edition will begin shipping near the end of July.

I am always thrilled when I finish and book and it begins shipping. This book definitely took more time for me than previous books. It has a total of 932 pages. If you are counting, that's 180 more pages than CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed. There were also modifications made to the page layout to allow more information to fit on a page. What does this mean to the reader? It means there is an enormous amount of new information! The new information certainly covers the new features in CorelDRAW X4, but it also provides more detailed information on features that have been around for a few versions.

There are also eleven hours and 34 minutes of videos. That's five hours more than CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed. The Premium Bonus Content Edition will add even more information and even more videos including Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 Unleashed and 37 of Jeff Harrison's best Powertips!

Get your copy ordered today!

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FoxIt Reader Provides Small, Fast PDF Reader

Everybody needs the ability to view PDF files, right? For most users this means you install Adobe Reader. A full install of Adobe Reader v8 takes up 210 MB on your hard drive and it can be a bit slow to load. A new version is on the way with even more features and I fear it will be even larger and slower. We'll soon find out.

The good news is that you don't have to use Adobe Reader to read PDF files. Foxit Reader is much smaller and faster. It only takes 7 MB to install (2.55 MB to download) and it loads lightning fast.

For the past few months I have been working with Foxit Reader and I was hesitate to include it with my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book because it wouldn't automatically open the Bookmarks panel even if it was specified in the PDF file. Foxit Reader 2.3 was released about a month ago and it solved this issue. So we're including both Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader with CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed and the user will have the option of which to install, if any.

For those of you developing PDF files, you really need to have both installed so you can test your files in both products. For the rest of you, I'd highly recommend you use Foxit Reader for its smaller footprint and superior speed!

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CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 1 Available for Download

When a new version of software comes out, there are always a few areas that could use tuning up to get it working just right. Corel released the first service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 today and it is available for immediate download. It is a 42 MB download and should take 5-10 minutes to install.

All of the details for what has been fixed along with the download link can be found on the CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 1 page.

Once I've had more time to work with the new version, I'll discuss it a bit more.

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Adobe Unveils Acrobat 9

About a week ago there was an announcement from Adobe about the upcoming Acrobat 9. One of the biggest features is that Acrobat has native support for Adobe Flash technology. This means you could embed Flash video inside of a PDF file.

The new version will begin shipping on June 26th and I'll be anxiously awaiting a chance to try out the new version. My CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book uses both PDF and Flash technology to deliver the written word and movies respectively. If I understand the new features correctly, I would be able to embed the movies directly into the PDF file in the future. This will make for one huge PDF file, but it would also integrate the two main features of the book in a really cool way.

Sure, there are other new features and I'll let you read the release to learn about all of them. But it is the integration with Flash that has me excited. If you'd like to order a copy, I've put together a page listing each of the flavors of Acrobat 9 as well as related books.

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Popular Macros Updated to Work with CorelDRAW X4

Alex Vakulenko is one of the most prolific programmers creating macros for CorelDRAW. He works for Corel during the day and creates these macros in his spare time. He has just finished updating all of his macros to work with CorelDRAW X4. Most of them work in CorelDRAW 10-X4 as well as Corel DESIGNER 10 and 12. Half of the macros are free and half of them have a cost associated.

Rather than describe the details of each macro, I'm simply going to provide you a list of links to the pages with those details. Calendar Wizard is a more powerful version of the macro included with CorelDRAW. If you have a need to create calendars in CorelDRAW, you'll want to check this out. Copy to Adobe Illustrator makes it easier to copy artwork across the clipboard from CorelDRAW to Adobe Illustrator and back.

Curveworks adds a number of CAD-related functions to CorelDRAW. Most users are familiar with Fit Text to Path. Fit Objects to Path is a macro that let's you place any objects along a path. Function Plotter will plot a graph from mathematical equations you enter. Jigsaw Puzzle Creator creates puzzle shapes out of any graphic.

SecuriDesign makes it simple to create guilloche patterns in CorelDRAW. These are often found on certificates and bank notes but can add cool designs to your drawings. Select Guidelines allows you to marquee select guidelines. Selection Manager allows you to save and restore selections.

It is all the great add-ons available for CorelDRAW that make it such a great product. I'm sure you'll find several of these macros are useful for your workflow.

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Designing Fonts in CorelDRAW

I've always been very interested in fonts. Each one is new and different. Some are awesome, some are just plain awful. This love of fonts led me to work for a font foundry back in the early 90s. That company had all kinds of software tools for creating fonts. And even while the digitizers at the foundry were using Macs to digitize fonts, I was playing around with creating some in CorelDRAW.

Even back in early versions of CorelDRAW it was possible to create your own fonts. The key is knowing where CorelDRAW is best used and where it should not be used.

Today someone posted a nice story about a font designer who is using CorelDRAW to create some really cool fonts. They are retro, yet hip. He didn't go into all the technical details about how he uses CorelDRAW so I'll have to try and fill in the blanks with my best guess. This guess is based on the process I use to create fonts with CorelDRAW. For those who want to read more about it, there is a chapter in my CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed and CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed books about it.

Set up a template in CorelDRAW with a baseline, cap height, x-height, descender line and any other guidelines you might need. Design each character for your font. That is probably the longest step in the process as a quality font has over 200 characters and possible more. Once you have all the characters drawn, export them one by one to a font file. CorelDRAW can export to either TTF or PFB files.

Where CorelDRAW is severely lacking is the technical aspects of the font. The spacing is creates is OK. It does not include any kerning data and it does not hint the font. Hinting makes a font look good at smaller sizes or on lower resolution devices. Because of this, I'll take the font I export from CorelDRAW and import it into FontLab. FontLab makes it easy to adjust the font's metrics and to add kerning data. The process can be completely automated or you can manually adjust to your heart's content. When it saves a font, it will include very good quality hinting. Yes, you can draw the font in FontLab, but I find it much easier to use the tools in CorelDRAW. If you are looking for a lower-priced editor, the folks at FontLab also offer TypeTool.

All in all, I find that CorelDRAW is a great tool for designing fonts as long as you know its limitations. Even if you don't want to design an entire font, it is still handy for doing a few special characters for a design project or for a client. Just one more thing that CorelDRAW can create!

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CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Available for Pre-Order

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed is almost all wrapped up and boy will I be happy to finally get it all done. I just keep coming up with more information to include and that has led to the book shipping much later than I had originally planned.

There will be two versions of the book for you to choose from. First is the the standard version which will ship in early June. It will contain approximately 920 pages and eight hours of tutorial movies.

Approximately one month later, the Premium Bonus Content Edition will ship. It includes the same 920 page ebook and eight hours of movies adds a book on PHOTO-PAINT that will be around 100 pages plus accompanying movies. Jeff Harrison will have 20 Powertips and accompanying movies. Plus the disc will be filled with free clip art, plug-ins and much more. You'll find a complete list of bonus content on the Web site.

You can pre-order either version of the book now. We will not process your order (or your credit card) until the book is ready to ship. Learn more about the book and order your copy today!

As more details of the book are finalized, we will update the Web site with as much information as possible.

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The Many Output Devices of CorelDRAW

As I talk with CorelDRAW users, I find that they know a lot about how they use CorelDRAW in their job but they don't know the many ways it is used in the real world. The great news is that once you know CorelDRAW, you have the ability to pick up new ways to output your files with only a minimal learning curve.

One of our goals at the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference is to allow users attending the conference to see as many of the output devices as possible in action. We want users to see how they can grow their business by adding new methods of output. Behind the scenes I've been talking to vendors and lining up as many devices as possible. Today I'm ready to announce the first group of sponsors and the devices they offer.

Of course, I should mention that Corel is heavily involved in the conference. Two of the men behind the development and promotion of CorelDRAW will be there to interact with users and to deliver sessions during the conference. If you want a direct hotline to the developers, Tony and John will get your requests directly into the pipeline.

Brother will have their garment printer and embroidery machines available in the Output Center. Garment printers allow you to print directly from CorelDRAW to a wide variety of apparel and other fabrics. They'll even be showing the printer in conjunction with a green screen so that a photo can be taken, superimposed on the background of your choice and output on a shirt in just a couple of minutes. I've seen it in action, and it is really cool! CorelDRAW is also the core graphics technology in Wilcom Decostudio e1. It allows you to take a CDR file and create a stitch file for output as embroidery. Brother's embroidery machines can take those files and output them quite easily. Don't believe it, come see it in action!

Digital Art Solutions has so much to offer that it will be hard to list it all here. They offer add-ons for CorelDRAW, production ready clip art as well as a wide variety of output devices. Not only do they have all these great products, their team knows and loves CorelDRAW. So if you are trying to output from CorelDRAW to darned near anything, they can help you with it. This can include garment printing, embroidery, applique, vinyl cutting, print and cut, wide format, screen printing, pad printing and much, much more!

Universal Laser is one of the top manufacturers of laser engravers. 90+% of their customers use CorelDRAW to output to their laser engraver! A laser engraver allows you to mark and cut wood, plastics, paper, glass, leather, stone, ceramic rubber and all kinds of other materials.

This gives you an idea of some of the devices you can work with in the Output Center of the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference. We expect to have even more devices and I'll be back with further details as I have them. The conference is less than two months away and the special pricing for the suites at the resort are only good through June 9! Make sure to get registered now so you don't miss out on all the learning!

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CorelDRAW X4 Neuters Dialog Boxes on Vista

As I've been finishing up my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book, I've done screen shots of some dialog boxes in both Windows XP and Windows Vista so users can see the difference. According to Microsoft, Vista is supposed to be an improvement. Corel's marketing tells us that CorelDRAW X4 has added features on Vista. To me, both of those claims are debatable. Does CorelDRAW X4 add some functionality on Vista? Yes it does. What isn't mentioned is that some functionality is also removed when running on Vista.

This is most evident to me in the Open and Save dialog boxes in CorelDRAW. When running on Windows XP, the Open dialog box tells us the version of the file, compression information and more. It also offers to show a preview of the file. The Vista version of the dialog box has none of that. Yes, you could see a preview if you change the file viewing area to thumbnails. The Save dialog box on Windows XP allows you to enter Notes and Keywords. Vista users will have to select File | Document Properties to enter that information before saving. To me, this change in functionality is a major downgrade.

Today I learned of a workaround that will give you the Windows XP versions of the dialog boxes when running on Windows Vista. It is possible this solution will cause other problems, so please proceed with caution. Some users have reported that some other user interface elements change when you run this way.

Go to the folder on your hard drive where CorelDRAW is installed. Find coreldraw.exe. Press Alt + Enter to bring up the Properties dialog box. Select the Compatibility tab. Place a check in the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the drop-down list. Repeat the process for corelpp.exe if you want to restore the PHOTO-PAINT dialogs. If you find that these changes are causing problems, you'll have to uncheck the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" checkbox and go back to the normal Vista versions of the dialog boxes. Hopefully you can run problem free and you can have the more useful dialog boxes.

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Memory Usage Setting Does Nothing

Frequently I'll hear users talk about how they've increased the Memory Usage setting (at right) in CorelDRAW's Tools | Options | Memory dialog box. Supposedly it has improved the performance of CorelDRAW. I hate to break the news to everyone, but it doesn't do anything.

Back in Windows 98, the operating system allowed applications to fence off memory for themselves. That isn't necessary in Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Given that CorelDRAW X3 and X4 will not run on Windows 98, the feature has been completely non-functional for a couple of versions now. The developers at Corel have admitted it doesn't do anything. It is something that needs to be removed, and I suspect it will be removed in the next version. So if setting the percentage to a higher number makes it seem faster to you, go for it. The reality is that it has no effect at all.

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Taxes and Training

If you are in the US, hopefully you got your tax return filed a few weeks ago. Those of you getting a refund have probably already received it. Even better, your "stimulus check" should be coming any day now. These stimulus checks are being sent to help stimulate the economy and can be as much as $600 for a single person and $1200 for a married couple.

I'd like you to consider using your stimulus check to invest in the future of your business. Wouldn't it be great if you could double or triple your investment within a year's time? That's exactly what you can get if you can improve your skills on tasks important to your business. Even better, your investment is most likely tax deductible so you can save money on next year's taxes.

You use CorelDRAW in your business, right? Most of you do and that's why you're here. No matter your current knowledge level of CorelDRAW, you don't know everything. Nobody does, not even the experts. Which means that you can certainly learn something new that will save you time every day. That's why I'm going to encourage you to "invest" in your future and join us at the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference!

We will have something for all levels of users. If you are just getting started, we have crash courses on the first day to get you up-to-speed quickly. Industry specific sessions will be taught on screen printing, sublimation, embroidery, engraving, sign making, digital photography and much more. There will be something on CorelDRAW and something on Corel PHOTO-PAINT in every timeframe. So no matter what you do with CorelDRAW, you will find sessions that give you valuable information for boosting your productivity and creativity.

The instructors leading the sessions have been carefully chosen for their expertise with the software and most of them make their living doing production work with the software and thus you will get lots of practical information. We brought them in from all over the world to share their expertise with you. And when they aren't leading sessions, they will be in the 1:1 Expert Bar. This is the area where you can sit down in front of a computer with one of the experts and ask questions. Or have them help you with a tricky design problem. Where else will you have then chance to work one-on-one with one of the top CorelDRAW experts in the world?

You might ask how Corel Corporation is involved. The man behind the development of CorelDRAW, Tony Severenuk, will be giving our opening keynote and sharing with you the top new features in CorelDRAW X4. He'll also be leading sessions later in the conference where he will share tons of great tips for boosting your productivity. Of course you'll always find him carrying a notebook so he can write down your concerns, your wishlist of new features and anything else that will help shape future versions of CorelDRAW. John Falsetto will also be joining us from Corel and giving a keynote address on the Wide World of CorelDRAW. If you want to talk directly with the people behind the software, this is your opportunity.

Some users have told me that it is too far to travel. Tell that to the attendee who is joining us from New Zealand. There is no other event like this anywhere else in the world and we truly will have the world getting together to join us in learning to get the most out of CorelDRAW. I want to encourage you to invest in your future and join us for four days of incredible training!

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CoCut Cutting Add-On Released for CorelDRAW X4

The CoCut add-on for CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and AutoCAD has been updated to work with the latest versions of the supported software including CorelDRAW X4. It is available in two versions. The regular version of CoCut provides a driver that works with Allen Datagraph, Anagraph, Gerber, Graphtec, Ioline, Mimaki, Mutoh, Roland, Summagraphics, Wild, Zund and more cutters. For users looking for more control over their output, CoCut Pro adds even more features. With CoCut, you can turn CorelDRAW into full-blown cutting software. Use the graphics tools you know and output to your favorite cutter.

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CorelDRAW in the Web Marketing World

I saw an article today about Web marketing. When I read these articles, I'm expecting to find a tip on how to better promote my own Web sites. I got that from the article. Even better, it showed one of the many ways that CorelDRAW is used in the real world.

It is all about how a company at a trade show was using an Epilog laser engraver to mark the cel phones, laptops and MP3 players of anyone who visited their book. Rather than giving away trade show junk, the company would engrave something onto the visitor's devices for them. Since it was a device they carried on a regular basis, that company would be visible to the visitors long after the show.

If you watch the movie closely, you'll see they are using CorelDRAW to create the artwork to be etched onto the devices. What can you create with CorelDRAW that will steal the spotlight at a tradeshow?

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Creating Icons with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Users frequently ask how to create icons with the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. While the ICO file format is listed as one of the file types you can create with CorelDRAW and/or Corel PHOTO-PAINT, it is not the best way to create icon files.

Icons are bitmap files. So even if you create the base graphics in CorelDRAW, it is best for you to bring the graphic into Corel PHOTO-PAINT to create an optimized bitmap. Make sure to size the bitmap to the exact pixel size of the icon you wish to create. When the bitmap is just right, save it to either BMP or PNG format. PNG would support transparency if you want transparency in your icon.

Now you need another application to take your graphic and convert it to a proper icon file. This really can be as simple as opening the graphic you created in Corel PHOTO-PAINT and resaving to ICO format. All you need is the proper application. A very good tool for this is @icon sushi. Best of all, it is a free download. If you have a PNG file with a mask, @icon sushi will save the icon file with transparency.

You've got a really powerful tool for creating graphics with CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Combine it with @icon sushi and you can easily create all kinds of cool icons.

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CorelDRAW Unleashed Font Substitution Update

If you read the Letters to the Editor in the April/May issue of CorelDRAW Unleashed magazine, you know that some readers are having a problem seeing the correct font when reading the magazine. Thanks to the letter appearing in the magazine, several readers have written me with suggestions. We still don't have a complete answer for the problem, but we've certainly discovered why it happens for some users.

The main font used for body text of the magazine is Georgia. It is a font supplied with most all recent versions of Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and more. So, it is a font that most users should have on their systems.

Where things get strange is when users don't have Georgia on their systems. Those are the users who are having the weird font substitution problems. This shouldn't matter as the Georgia font is supposed to be embedded into the magazine. I had a long talk with the fine folks at Ascender Corporation, who created the Georgia font, and we discovered that a weird conversion problem was causing only the regular weight of Georgia to not embed into the PDF properly.

We will create a new PDF of the April issue that solves this problem, though it may be a few days before it is available for download. In the meantime, there are several ways to read the magazine without having this problem. First, make sure you have the Georgia font installed and that Advanced | Use Local Fonts is checked in Adobe Reader. Second, use FoxIt Reader to read the magazine as it substitutes a font that is much more readable for Georgia.

Now for the solution that we'll have to implement when we re-publish the issue. It seems the problem is a fairly obscure setting in Corel products. No, Corel didn't do anything wrong, it is just a setting that needs to be changed to avoid this issue. On the Objects tab of the Publish to PDF Settings dialog box, the default setting is to Convert TrueType to Type 1 fonts. Georgia is a TrueType font. When this setting is unchecked, the problem goes away.

You can't believe how glad I am to discover the solution to this problem. It took discussions with experts in a wide variety of software to stumble upon the problem. While many users would have called this a bug, it was truly user error all along.

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CorelDRAW Boot Camp Cruise Price Drops

I got an e-mail yesterday from someone asking about the CorelDRAW Boot Camp Cruise to be held in January, 2009. This person claimed that rates for the cruise on another Web site were $200 lower than what we offered. This just didn't sound right to me so I did some research on my own and also consulted with the travel agent who set up the cruise portion of the Boot Camp.

The discrepancy turned out to be a misunderstanding by the person who contacted me. The rates we list include all of the "extra" costs that cruise lines typically list in small print. Those include port taxes, government taxes and a fuel charge which total $240.23 per person. So it turned out that our fares were already cheaper when properly compared. That was good news to hear.

Today I got even better news. Our travel agent checked with the cruise line and there had been a reduction in prices. Even better, we can pass that reduction on to anyone who joins us on the CorelDRAW Boot Camp Cruise. Prices for balcony cabins have dropped $50 per person and outside and inside cabins are $100 less per person. That was great news to hear!

The CorelDRAW Boot Camp Cruise is your opportunity to have a great vacation while boosting your productivity with CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Since it is a business trip, you may even be able to write off some or all of the travel costs on your taxes! Check with your tax adviser on this.

I look forward to seeing you on the cruise for some serious learning and some fun times on the Mexican Riviera.

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Speeding up CorelDRAW X4 Opening and Saving

Ever since CorelDRAW X4 was released there have been comments from a small percentage of users about how the speed of opening and saving files had decreased quite a bit from previous versions. I'll describe what is causing the slowdowns for these users and also give you some ways to speed things back up. I can't guarantee this will solve the problem for everyone, but it should help the majority of users.

Let's start by reminding everyone about a major change to the CorelDRAW file format. Starting with CorelDRAW X4, CDR files are simply ZIP-compressed files renamed with the CDR extension. Those who want to peek inside can certainly rename their files with a ZIP extension (please do this on a copy of your file) and unzip the file to see the various parts. Why change to ZIP compression? I can only guess the true reason though it isn't hard to make some logical guesses. First, Corel Corporation also own the WinZip program so they have the technology in house to use ZIP compression. It is also a very common compression format and it is always good to follow standards when possible.

This means that anytime you open a CorelDRAW X4 file it will have to be unzipped and anytime you save it will have to be zipped. The larger the file, the more processor time it will take for these operations. By default, all previous versions would also compress files using a different compression format. Therefore you should see very little, if any, difference in save times if you used the default settings. Some users would turn off compression in previous versions to get the fastest possible save times. That just isn't possible in CorelDRAW X4 as all files use ZIP compression. In the Advanced portion of the Save dialog box, you can turn off compression for the internal parts of the file. This may speed things up a bit, but the file will still be compressed in the end. Unless you are saving very large files (over 100 MB), I don't think you will notice any significant speed difference.

When opening files, the ZIP file will be uncompressed. This also takes time, though again it shouldn't be any different from previous versions since they were also compressed for the vast majority of users. Those few who turned off compression may have seen a slight speed increase. If you have seen a large slowdown in opening files, the source of the problem is most likely not the compression. It is probably your anti-virus software scanning every CDR file when you attempt to open it. The reason for this is because the anti-virus software notices it is a ZIP file in disguise and is worried that it might have some unwelcome contents. Go into your anti-virus software and tell it to not process CDR files. Each anti-virus software is different so I can't provide you the exact steps to do this. I personally use the Zone Alarm Security Suite and I haven't noticed that it has any effect on CorelDRAW X4 files. If you are looking for security software, you can save $20 when you download ZoneAlarm Security Suite today.

There are certainly some things that we can hope Corel will implement in future versions of CorelDRAW. Right now CorelDRAW will only use a single processor core to compress and decompress files. Many users have computers with two or more processor cores. If they could re-write the code for compressing and decompressing to use all available processor cores, the speed of those processes would increase with each core you have on your computer. This definitely won't be something that happens in a service pack for CorelDRAW X4, it is just wishful thinking for future versions. While I don't know the WinZip technology well, I don't believe it uses multiple cores either. So if Corel develops the technology to do this for WinZip, it should be fairly easy to use it for CorelDRAW as well.

Hopefully the processes described above will help you to get as much speed as possible when opening and saving files in CorelDRAW X4. And we'll all keep our fingers crossed that the software can be coded to be even faster in the future!

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The Myths About Phoenix Heat in July

I've received a few e-mails telling me that it is crazy to hold the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference in Phoenix in July. I've lived in the Phoenix area since 1989 so I think I understand the heat very well and I think it has been blown way out of proportion.

The average July high in the zip code where the conference is held is 102 degrees. The average low is 74. I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised that it was that low. Now some of you will say that 102 is still very hot. To truly understand the heat, you have to remember it is a "dry heat". The average humidity in the morning is 43% and drops to only 20% in the afternoon. Typically the humidity rises during the month of July so you'll probably find the humidity during the conference to be lower than those numbers. So while it may be 102 outside in the sun, it doesn't feel as hot due to the low humidity. The coldest I have ever felt in my life was getting out of a swimming pool in Phoenix in July. Why? Because it is so dry that the water on your body evaporates very quickly. We're talking teeth-chattering cold. Now I'll admit, that was after dark and it isn't like that during the day.

Let's look at the typical day at the conference. You'll be sleeping in your air conditioned guest suite. Typically it will be 78 degrees in your room and you can change it to whatever feels best to you. In the cool morning air, you'll walk outdoors under a roof to the ballrooms where the conference is held. The ballrooms will also be air conditioned to a comfortable temperature. We'll most likely serve breakfast outside simply because it is so nice out there in the shaded courtyard in the morning. Maybe you'll walk back to your suite after lunch to freshen up. The next time outdoors would be a walk back to your room in the late afternoon after the high temperature of the day has started dropping.

For those who wish to cool off, the resort features a number of pools and an on-site water park. If you don't want to be in the sun at all, there are plenty of indoor activities at the resort.

Some of you are probably golfers and you think it is too hot for golf. The sun rises very early in the summer since we ignore daylight savings time. So you could probably tee off as early as 5 am and get in nine holes before the conference day starts. And since this is summer in Phoenix, you'll pay a green fee about a quarter of what you would pay in the winter. This is before the heat of the day so you'll probably be much more comfortable than you would be playing golf in your hometown.

There are also places you can visit in Arizona where the temperature is even cooler. The average high temperature at the Grand Canyon is 80 and the average low is a very chilly 50 degrees. It is around a four hour drive from the resort. The beautiful red rocks of Sedona are a two hour drive and their average high is 97 with an average low of 64 degrees. Visit Slide Rock and the water will definitely give your backside a chill. Kartchner Caverns is also a two hour drive from the resort and the cave is 68 degrees year round.

Now there is one thing that I will guarantee is hot about this conference. That's the productivity and creativity tips that you'll learn from the top Corelians in the world! Bring your sun screen, your swim suit and we'll give you the best information to be found anywhere in the world on CorelDRAW and a little bit of fun in the sun. Just make sure to register soon or you might miss out while your competitors are at the conference soaking up the information presented.

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Learn CorelDRAW While Enjoying the Tropics

In January 2007, Jeff Harrison and I led a group of Corelians through the Eastern Caribbean while learning the hottest tips on CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. The CorelDRAW Unleashed Boot Camp Cruise is back and this time we're visiting the Mexican Riviera in January 2009.

For those who aren't familiar with how the cruise works, I'll give you a brief description. We set our Boot Camp classroom on the Norwegian Star cruise ship and share our best tips on getting the most out of CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT while the ship is moving. When we dock in port, you are free to explore the port on your own or a group of us can explore together. We also make sure to give you plenty of free time to enjoy all the fun activities on the ship.

We worked really hard to find the exact itinerary that would give us plenty of teaching time and also gives us exciting ports to visit at a very affordable price. In fact, you might find it less expensive to spend a week on a cruise ship than to come to our land-based Boot Camps in Arizona. For those of you who suffer through cold winters, there is the perfect getaway. You get warm weather and even hotter CorelDRAW training! Make sure to get your reservations in early as the ship most likely will sell out. If you would like to invite friends and family, they can also take care of the great rates on the cruise.

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Free Video Tutorial on T-Shirt Template Design

Tom Knight has created a new video tutorial that will teach you to create a t-shirt template in CorelDRAW 11-X4. As Tom goes through the creation of the template, you'll learn about a number of different features in CorelDRAW. So even if you aren't in the business of creating t-shirts, there are a number of tips that you can apply to your workflow.

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Buy CorelDRAW X4 From Corel and Save 10%

I've been talking with the folks who run the Corel estore in hopes that they would give a special deal to loyal Unleashed visitors. They responded with a special coupon code for 10% off of your purchase. This code is valid for purchasers in the US and Canada. Sorry, I lobbied for a way to help those of you outside of North America.

There are several steps you need to follow in order to get the discount. Nothing difficult, I just don't want you to miss out by missing a step.

Step 1: If you are in the US, click here to go to the CorelDRAW X4 shopping page. Canadian customers should click here.

Step 2: Select the product you want and press the Add to Cart button. Note: I highly recommend you purchased the Boxed version so you get the manuals and the DVD with all the clip art, fonts, photos, etc. You should get a serial number right away so you can download and use the software before the box arrives.

Step 3: When you get to the shopping cart, enter the coupon code "unleashed10" (see box in lower left marked in red). Click Apply and the discount should show up on the right side as marked in red below.

Step 4: Continue the checkout process and you'll be all set.

This code also applies to other Corel software such as Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite 12, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 + FREE T-Shirt, WordPerfect Office X3 , InterVideo WinDVD 8 Platinum HD/BD, WinZip 11.1, and Corel Painter X. Enjoy the software!

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ROMCat v6 Now Released with CorelDRAW X4 Support

A little over a month ago I wrote about the apparent demise of ROMCat. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "the rumors of ROMCat's death have been greatly exaggerated."

Actually, it is the users who are to thank for the reincarnation of ROMCat. As I stated in my earlier post, the author has gotten so few donations that he had no motivation to work on a new version. So a big thank you has to be extended to everyone who donated. Your donations gave him the motivation to update ROMCat.

If you haven't already donated, I ask that you select Help | Donate to ROMCat's Author and send the author a little financial love. If you've used ROMCat, you know just how wonderful it is and he is certainly deserving of a contribution.

So without any further ado, the new version is posted on the Graphics Unleashed Web site and ready for download. Enjoy!

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Corel PHOTO-PAINT Training/CorelDRAW Add-On Special Offer

By now I hope you are all familiar with the training videos produced by Tom Knight. If you aren't familiar with them, there are a number of free videos available.

Today I wanted to tell you about a special package that Tom put together. He has bundled his PHOTO-PAINT Power Training Videos along with the Advanced Artist Distress Generator plug-in for CorelDRAW. The Distress Generator alone cost $39.95 and the PHOTO-PAINT Power Training videos have a list price of $99. With this special offer, you get all of it for only $39.95. Basically you are getting the videos free when you buy Distress Generator.

There is one difference from buying the more expensive products. This offer is only for Web access to the products. So you'll need to have a broadband connection to download the add-on and the videos. It is same content, you just won't receive a physical CD or DVD. This also means you get access to it much sooner than waiting for a disc to arrive.

Check out the bundle now and get your order in!

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CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Nearing Completion

It seems like I get an e-mail nearly everyday with someone asking my if there will be a CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed. Absolutely! I've included information in our last two newsletters stating that it was in the works. Now I'll try to give you as much information as I can right now. No, I'm not withholding any information, there are just aspects that are still unknown at this point.

I don't have a release date though I'm going to estimate that it will be sometime in April. That is pretty vague, but I don't want to promise it too early and have people asking why it was late. Believe me, I want to get it done! But I also want to make sure it contains the best information possible so I'm not going to rush it out if it isn't complete.

Until it is finished, I won't have a page count. The CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed book was 752 pages and I'm estimating that CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed will have at least 900 pages. The same goes for the amount of video content. CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed had around 6.5 hours of video content and I'm guessing CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed will have over 8 hours.

You'll definitely find the new book to be more colorful. You'll find the video segments are even more clearly marked. I've even added a chapter to help you get the most out of the book.

Another new addition is that I've brought in another expert to write a few chapters. Jeff Harrison has written three chapters in the book which include videos on the subjects he covers. Since Jeff works in a production environment, he can bring some expertise on his techniques for more creativity and amazing productivity.

We'll be including some sample files and some useful macros in addition to the book and movies. I'm hoping we can fit all of that on a CD.

OK, so that explains the CD-ROM version (assuming it fits). What about a "Special DVD-ROM Edition" as we did with CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed? There will definitely be a DVD-ROM edition and it will follow the CD-ROM around a month later. I'm working on a 100 page or so book on Corel PHOTO-PAINT that will only be on the DVD. Of course it will come with sample files and videos. The length of the book and the videos is unknown at this point as there is still a lot of writing to do. Jeff Harrison is also compiling Powertips to include on the DVD. That is in addition to a wide variety of valuable software that we will include on the disc.

Whew. That's a lot of information and hopefully it has whet your appetite for the new book. There is still a lot of work to do, so I'll stop blogging and get back to working on the book. As soon as the book enters final production, we'll get information up on the Web site so that you can pre-order a copy and be one of the first to get the book in your hands.

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Three New Free Video Tutorials

Tom Knight has created three new video tutorials to help teach you how to get more out of CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

The first tutorial is two parts and teaches you how to create spot color flame effects in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. You'll also see a number of different ways to adjust your brush settings. Next up is a five part tutorial creating a skull and flames design. You'll start with a stock photo of a skull and convert it into a monochrome bitmap that can be recolored easily in CorelDRAW. The newest tutorial walks your through a project using the new PowerTRACE that comes with CorelDRAW X4. This is a good way to see some of the cool new features.

All of these free videos and many more can be found in Tom Knight's section of the Graphics Unleashed Web site.

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Who Should Attend the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference?

Do you use CorelDRAW to make money? For many of you, it is a tool that you use all day long to produce artwork for your company. Others may use it occasionally and wish they could find a way to use it more. Maybe you are just a hobbyist that just enjoys using CorelDRAW and/or Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

As I was putting together the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference, I wanted an event that that would take users to a higher, and more profitable, level with CorelDRAW. And we've done our best to provide information for CorelDRAW users of every type.

During each of the time frames where training is provided, you have six choices for what you want to learn. And we've gotten the top experts from the CorelDRAW community to lead the training. Nowhere in the world will you find this much CorelDRAW expertise in one location.

Maybe you are currently using CorelDRAW for laser engraving. Yes, we've have information on how to get more out of laser engraving. But what if you could expand your business by adding sublimation? You'll see how easy it can be. Maybe a garment printer would help your screen printing business. Best of all, we'll have an "output center" where you can try all kinds of different machines and see how your artwork can be output on the machines.

Now I realize that it is an investment to come to a conference like this. We certainly have to charge a fair amount to provide you with this level of expertise, provide tasty meals and give you the biggest productivity boost you've ever had with CorelDRAW. And I know there are travel expenses to get to Phoenix and join us for four days. Remember this is an investment in your business or maybe the info you need to start a new business. This is an investment that pays great dividends. When we save you time, you finish more projects and make more money. When you find that CorelDRAW do give you more types of products to sell, you have a wider product line and make more money from the designs you've already created. We take your investment seriously and our team will make sure that you return to your desk overflowing with information on getting the most possible from your copy of CorelDRAW!

Look over the conference information using the links I've provided. Talk it over with your boss (or yourself, if you are the boss) and register for the conference. We also know that during the summer that families often take vacations. You might want to bring your family along to enjoy the amazing resort where the conference will be held. I look forward to meeting you in July!

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DecoStudio Takes Embroidery to a Higher Level

If you are currently a Corel DRAWings user, the last couple of weeks have probably been very confusing for you. Those of you not using Corel DRAWings to turn your artwork into stitches should give the new guy in town a long look.

Corel DRAWings was a partnership between Corel Corporation and Wings Systems. Corel provided the graphics engine via the inclusion of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite and Wings provided the embroidery technology. I know that probably oversimplifies things, but gives you a basic understanding of the product.

That partnership is no longer. Now Corel is partnering with Wilcom on the new DecoStudio e1 product. Wings Systems is releasing DRAWings 4 and it does not include the CorelDRAW technology any more. Quite simply, if you want to continue to use CorelDRAW to directly create artwork for embroidery, you'll need to continue using Corel DRAWings X3 or move to DecoStudio.

I've studied the capabilities of DecoStudio and I think it is a huge jump forward for those creating embroidery, appliqué or any type of multi-decoration on apparel.

The only thing that might scare some users is that the current version of DecoStudio is integrated with CorelDRAW X3. Seems a bit strange to some since CorelDRAW X4 has been released by Corel. With this type of technology, it takes a bit of time to integrate two products like this. There is a plan to release DecoStudio e2 later this year. It will be built on CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 and will also include more features for the multi-decorator.

Those who buy DecoStudio e1 for a limited time will be allowed to upgrade to DecoStudio e2 for a nominal price (cost of materials and shipping). There is special crossgrade price for Corel DRAWings users to move to DecoStudio e1 for only $999.

To learn more about DecoStudio, watch a video of it in action or to purchase a copy, we've set up a DecoStudio page on the site with all the information you need.

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CorelDRAW X4 Font List

One of the questions that always arises with new versions goes something like "so what fonts are included?"

As a writer, I often get my hands on the discs a little before the public and I do have a copy of the DVD for CorelDRAW X4 in my hot little hands. Overall there are 1191 font files though 96 fonts are duplicated. That leaves 1095 fonts if my math is correct. That number may still be off by a little bit as I haven't actually counted all of them.

The fonts of biggest interest to engravers will be the 10 single line fonts that make their debut in CorelDRAW X4. I'll let you look at the full font list and decide for yourself which fonts are new to you.

Did I mention that the installer will automatically copy (not install) the fonts to a folder you specify on the hard drive? It will also copy clip art, photos and other extra content on the DVD. All in all, there are some great things to like about the extras included with this release.

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ROMCat and CorelDRAW X4

Upon seeing this title, I can see many of you ready to click on the link to download the new ROMCat and catalog for CorelDRAW X4. Unfortunately I've got some bad news to report. There won't be a new version of ROMCat for quite some time and it is possible that it will never come.

The first thing to understand is that each version of CorelDRAW introduces a new file format. Typically this has very little impact on ROMCat as the changes don't affect the thumbnail and metadata portions of the CDR file that ROMCat uses. CorelDRAW X4 introduced a radically different file format. In fact, a CDR file is a Zip file in disguise. Go ahead, rename a copy of a CorelDRAW X4 file (please don't play with the only copy) to have a ZIP extension. Open it up in Winzip. Voila, you can now see the guts of the new CDR file!

Inside you will find a bitmap for the thumbnail, named thumbnail.bmp, which is 256 pixels square. That's a lot bigger thumbnail than in previous versions. You will also find one bmp file for each page in your document. This is a thumbnail of each of the pages. That's pretty cool as well. There will be XML files with data on links, metadata and textinfo. This means that any human can look at these XML files in Notepad and see data that was once only viewable by hex editors and programmers. Lastly you'll find the actual graphic data in a file named riffdata.cdr.

Now I don't really expect any of you to regularly look inside a CDR file like this. I just wanted you to understand that this was a big change. And it is the kind of change that would allow ROMCat to show us much better thumbnails and allow us to include much better metadata in our files for ROMCat to catalog.

Unfortunately such a big change means that it takes the man behind ROMCat many hours to add support for the new format. As he says "It's more work than I can justify — ROMCat doesn't pay my bills." Remember, ROMCat is completely free so it doesn't really pay any of his bills.

Prior to the updates of ROMCat v5, he was asked to add some new features at the request of enthusiastic ROMCat users. These users would gladly pay if the features they wanted could be added. So ROMCat v5 was released with many of the requested features and the ability to donate money to the author. Let's just say the total of all the donations he has ever received wouldn't even buy him a nice dinner. And none of those donations came from the users who begged for the new features.

That's brings us to the problematic fork in the road. ROMCat would need a lot of programming work to be made compatible with the new CorelDRAW file format. Just by supporting that format there would be a number of really cool improvements most notably nice big thumbnails. Sadly there is no way to justify the work for the pittance that has been donated to date.

So I'll ask all of you to stop and think for a second about how important ROMCat is to your workflow. If you have found it useful, please consider making a donation. This donation goes to the author and I don't get anything from it. Just select Help | Donate to ROMCat's Author within ROMCat. If you are like most users of CorelDRAW, ROMCat has been a big help to you and this is the least you can do for the man who has brought it to you for free for fifteen years. Even a dollar for each year you've used it seems like the least you could do.

Now I'm not making any promises. There may never be another ROMCat. But maybe if we all show the author the appreciation he deserves then he'd be more willing to spend some time and upgrade it. If not, he still deserves some reward for all the hours that he has put into the program over the years. To get the ball rolling, I've already donated more than he had received in total prior to today for my appreciation of ROMCat.

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Photos Included in CorelDRAW X4 Greatly Improved

You looked over the feature list of the CorelDRAW X4 Graphics Suite and there were some things that probably caught your eye. As you got to the end of the list, some of the "extras" were listed.

In this post I'll specifically address the line reading "1,000 professional, high-resolution digital photos". Just to check, I looked at the press release for CorelDRAW X3 and the photos were simply lumped in with the clip art. How many of you saw this and jumped for joy? Probably not many and that's too bad because this is one of those hidden improvements.

The photos included with CorelDRAW X3 were stored in the JPEG 2000 format and their size in pixels was 768 x 512. They might be usable for a Web site, but there just wasn't enough detail there to use them in a print project.

Now we jump to CorelDRAW X4 and there is a huge improvement. Photos now are stored as JPEG files with minimal compression. Even better is that they are of a size that is usable for a lot more types of projects. All of them are 3000 pixels in the longest dimension. Also I feel there is a better selection of photos. This batch was licensed from the online stock agency, iStockphoto where you would pay $6-$10 each for the pictures Corel includes for free. Now obviously you aren't going to have a need for every one of these photos. Let's just assume that you have a need for even 50 of the 1000. That's a minimum of $300 you've saved by Corel including them for you.

One other cool feature in the installer is that you can have it "install" the "extra" content for you. This includes clip art, photos, tiles, patterns, fonts and all the other cool stuff that is normally hidden on the "other" discs. Now that Corel has shipped CorelDRAW X4 on a DVD, they can pack it with great content and make it easier to use.

Read the CorelDRAW X4 press release and see what else is new. When you are ready to order a copy, check out our CorelDRAW X4 page. We certainly appreciate your support in buying CorelDRAW X4 from our site.

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Easier Searching and Bookmarking

We've made a few changes to the interface of the Graphics Unleashed Web site in the last couple of weeks. Our goal is to make the site even more useful to you. These changes are small changes overall, but we hope their usefulness outweighs the size of the change.

Users are always looking for that nugget of information on the current design problem they need to solve. We've always had a Google search box to search the Graphics Unleashed site in the top navigation bar. Unfortunately it was getting lost next to other items. Since this is such an important function, we have moved the search box to the upper left of the page. Now if there is something you need to find, it should be easier to find it.

The next item we added is a Bookmark link to the upper right of the page. When you hover over this cool widget, a number of choices will pop down that allow you to bookmark the current page in a wide variety of places. This makes it easier for you to keep track of the pages that interest you the most. We like it when you bookmark as it also helps us get new traffic. Some of the services will require that you have an account so that the links get saved with your account. To the best of my knowledge, all of the services are completely free.

These changes have only been made to the Graphics Unleashed site so far, but we plan to soon make the same changes to the CorelDRAW Unleashed site. I hope you find both of these changes useful and we'll certainly be on the lookout for other changes we can make to improve the sites for you.

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