Macro Monday: Dizzy: RasterControl

One of the great features about the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is that bitmaps in CorelDRAW are linked to Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Simply select the bitmap in CorelDRAW, click Edit Bitmap and the file is sent to Corel PHOTO-PAINT for editing. This works great for those of us who work with Corel PHOTO-PAINT exclusively. But what about those who are using Adobe Photoshop? Until now, you've just been out of luck if you wanted this easy round-trip editing.

With the release of Dizzy: RasterControl, you can link bitmaps in CorelDRAW to Adobe Photoshop for round-trip editing. There are a number of other features in the package as well. In the short term those other features are unsupported and undocumented. That should change in the near future. Check it out as this little macro has a lot to offer.

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Tutorial Tuesday: 50+ Body Enhancement Tutorials

No matter the subject of the photograph, there is always something that someone feels needs to be fixed. This can include fixing red eyes, weight loss, a virtual boob or nose job, teeth whitening and much more. In total, there are over 50 separate tutorials on body enhancement techniques.

For those of you who use Photoshop, these tutorials will be very straightforward. That doesn't mean that we Corel PHOTO-PAINT users can't follow the tutorials as well. Features in the two programs are nearly identical with the main difference being the name of the feature. You can download The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT to get a cheat sheet on translating the tutorials.

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Photoshop Web Design Book Available For Free Download

I'm certainly not a Photoshop user, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy getting a free book. The folks at Sitepoint are giving away the book The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks and Techniques. This is a book that sells at Amazon for $26. Of course, the free copy is a download so it is a bit different than the printed version. The giveaway is also sponsored by an advertiser so you find one line of text at the very bottom of each page promoting the advertiser. Honestly, this wasn't a distraction at all to me.

There is a running clock on the site that says the offer will expire in a little over 27 days. So expect the offer to be gone by mid-June.

For those of you who use Corel PHOTO-PAINT to do your Web graphics, you might want to get our tutorial The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. It will help you translate some of the Photoshop terms used in the book so you can do the same projects in Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

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Twisting Pixels Releases Classico Plug-In

The folks at Twisting Pixels have some really cool plug-ins that work with Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Recently they added a new plug-in that can make your photos look like a painting by one of the masters.

ArtStudioPro Classico gives you filters like Aged Paint, Artistic Edges, Cracked Paint, DaVinci, Graphite Sketch, Sketch, Painted Background and Vintage Sketch. With each filter, there are a number of settings you can adjust to get the exact look you want.

You can download a free trial version of this and other Twisting Pixels plug-ins as well as purchasing full versions at the Twisting Pixels Web site.

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Twisting Pixels Plug-In Sale

The folks at Twisting Pixels are having a sale on their plug-ins. Enter the Discount Code of ASPCUST and you will get 25% off of any of their products. I'm not sure how long this code will last so take advantage of the sale while you can.

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Big Sale on AutoFX Plug-ins

Were you wondering what present you could give your creativity for a holiday present? How about one of the AutoFX plug-ins? I'll tell you about all the great choices in a minute, but what you really need to know is that they are all on sale for 30% off through the end of the year. There are also some discounted bundles also on sale.

Let me give you a quick overview of the products involved:

Photo/Graphic Edges 6.0 gives you the ability to do cool stuff with edges on your images. It includes a total of 14 effects: Acid Edge, Ambient Brush, Burned Edge, Distort Edge, Edge Brush, Edges, Frames, Montage, Photo Border, Photo Tabs, Putty Edges, Smudged Edge, Transfer and Vignette.

Mystical Lighting allows you to do some amazing things with lighting in your images. Effects include Edge Highlights, Ethereal, FairyDust, Flare, Light Brush, Light Caster, Mist, Mottled Background, Radial Light Caster, Rainbow, Shader, Shading Brush, ShadowPlay, Spotlight, Surface Light and Wispy Mist.

Mystical Tint Tone and Color has effects for color and tonal changes in your images. Effects include Antique Photo, Black and White, Blue Sky, Color Bleach, Color Contrast, Color Mixer, Cool, Dark Contrast, Darken Colors, Deepen Tones, Enriched Black, Gradient Tinting, Green Foliage, Hand Tint, Hard Posterize, Harden Details, HSB Adjust, Image Brush, Levels, Multiply Darks, Over Exposed, Restore Details, RGB Adjust, Saturate Colors, Sepia Soft Posterize, Soft Saturation, Soften Details, Tonal Contrast, Tonal Detail, Tonal Sharpen, Tonal Smooth, Tonal Soften, Under Color, Under Exposed, Vitality, Warm and Washed Out.

DreamSuite Series One has eighteen filters that do a variety of cool stuff. They include 35mm Frame, Chisel, Crackle, Crease, Cubism, Deckle, Dimension X, Focus, Hot Stamp, Instamatic, Liquid Metal, Metal Mixer, PhotoBorder, PhotoDepth, PhotoTone, Putty, Ripple and Tape.

DreamSuite Series Two has fourteen more filters in a variety of areas. Filters include 2 1/4 Frame, 4 x 5 Frame, Dreamy Photo, FilmGrain, FilmStrip, Film Frame Art, Mesh, Mosaic, PhotoPress, PhotoStrips, PlasticWrap, Puzzle Pieces, Tile and Wrinkle.

DreamSuite Gel Series allows you to give your graphics a gel look. This works on both graphics and text.

Also under the AutoFX banner are Xtivity, a Flash authoring program and Pixtivity, a multimedia slideshow generator.

If you give these products a look, you're sure to find one or more that will help boost your productivity.

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