Bleed Limit & Creative Ganging

There is a time when I use Draw's bleed limit function, to get 24 full bleed cards up on an 11 x 17. This saves 4 press sheets per order. But, it's artwork dependent.

A full color photo filling the whole back of the card won't work. For that I print landscape with 20 up.

Click on image: (Note that the anti-aliasing lines in print preview won't print.)

Using Rounded corner outlines as filled blobs underneath

In the vinyl cutting biz, this technique can be quite handy. You can layer colors as expected.

Also, I was exporting a Flash file from Draw once. Exporting text with outlines left those interior subpaths underneath. This doubled the Flash file size compared to my welding method as shown. This is because all of those interior nodes & subpaths were in the Flash file.

Click on the image for a clear view:

Embed fonts inside a CorelDRAW document

Simply use the TrueDoc feature. You'll find it in the Save dialog.

splitting a closed curve into 2 pieces

If you want to split a closed curve into 2 pieces, I often:

1. trim object with a line. delete the line. Then break object apart (Ctrl+K)

OR

2. select shape and use eraser tool to erase a fine line through the object. Then break object apart. (Ctrl+K)

You can trying fooling around with the knife tool, but I use method 1 above Instead. The reason: I can make a precise curve before using it to trim into the shape. If you want to use knife anyway: some interesting tips:

A: you can back-track on your knife drawing by pressiing shift key and going back to previous node.

B. at end point of cut, press tab key to cycle through options for deleting resulting shapes.

Rebuilding for Large Format Output

A friend asked about how to tile a portion of the original logo for 120" of custom pinstriping for some heavy equipment.

He tried powerclipping a portion of that original logo. But I could see that the fountain fill in the chunk he was trying to tile was interfering with a clean tiling (the area between the trees)

I proposed a different way, that only took a couple of minutes.

I redrew a section as 100% vector shapes and created a solid filled area behind the diamond plate. The color is now consistent from section to section.

The advantages:

1. Vector elements are faster to rip
2. They will print as sharp as possible (final results depend on DPI/quality settings in printer driver for your output unit)
3. The file size drops dramatically
4. Easier to edit colors

I enjoy solving industrial problems like this - esp. when they're this easy! :-)

Click for a larger version: note the pattern looks rough here due to the screen shots only.

wOxxOm Hex Color

There's a great new way to work with the full range of Hex values inside CorelDRAW.

This sleek and yet powerful macro makes it much easier for those who build web components.

If you need to specify values in hex colors, this macro is a must-have!

I Work on web stuff with Color Management off. I have the "calibrate colors for display" icon in my workspace to toggle between CMYK and RGB views.

A Hidden Gem in X4

A customer asked me about the Paper Type/Size drop down in CorelDRAW 11, wondering if he could delete some of the existing choices. I poked around the Draw program folders, and even the Registry. No luck.

I suspect many of you would rather populate the list with sizes you use on a regular basis.

There's some room for improvement: Deleting each paper type one at a time is laborous. There should be a way to shift-click or ctrl-click a range.

Maybe in X5? :-)