Jeff Harrison's Daily Diversion: February 2010

Simulated Painting Effect

A user asked me:

"I've seen some stunning work in the community, and at present I am trying to outline a photo to turn it into a digital painting using the Bezier Tool in CorelDRAW. Am I doing this correctly, or am I going about it the wrong way?"

To make a photo look like a painting, I'd use PHOTO-PAINT (not CorelDRAW).

There are many excellent filters to try in this regard. Be sure to experiment with the adjustments inside each filter's dialog box.

Here are some steps:

Cool updates for macro series

My Sooper Dooper "Must Have" Macros V1 package has some cool updates.

I decided to enhance the Gimme Numbers macro with some extra buttons: I also sped up the code and it offers a single undo.

The other change was was more significant. We now have a dialog box with some new options (and other behind-the-scenes code optimizations):

If you've purchased these before, log into your account and re-download from your order history area.

Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 shortcut keys list

A user named Jack Ross took some time to compile a list of shortcut keys.

PHOTO-PAINT has been able to export the list for some time, but often it imported poorly into Excel. So, he had to do some tweaking.

I reformatted it to 8.5 x 11, and put in some gridlines. Then I created a PDF for you, so you don't even need Excel at all. click here to get it.

The CorelDRAW shortcuts are here.

Sometimes it's easier just to rebuild artwork

One user was having trouble dealing with artwork that may have originally come from Autocad.

I suspect this user spent hours trying to fill the shapes and reconnect the lines so that the shapes could be filled in CorelDraw.

After seeing his file and the examples, I was having a tough time getting some cooperation from the Smart Fill Tool with this particular artwork. Normally it works quite well.

Then I realized that many of his elements weren't complex. They could be re-drawn quite quickly, and then filled with ease.

For example, here is a toilet that needed to be redraw. It took about 1 minute.

The reason my objects are snapping smoothly is because there are vector lines to snap to in the original artwork under my new objects.

Tip: ALT+Z toggles Snap to Object.

Custom Full Color Pattern Fills

CorelDRAW has features that have been there many years, but are often overlooked.

Recently, a user wanted to fill an area with a dashed appearance. He'd toyed with Postscript Fills, but the one he needed wasn't there. While it's possible to create custom Postscript Fills, it's way beyond the scope of most users.

Instead, Full Color Pattern Fills can meet the needs for some projects. I created a .pat file that can be used as this type of fill. Note: Full Color Pattern Fills don't need to be in color.

This fill type can be interactively tiled as shown, for both scaling and rotation. Since the contents of the original fill are pure vector shapes, the integrity of the image will be excellent at any scale.

I've included the .PAT file in this ZIP:

dash.zip

To use it;

Make a vector shape such as a rectangle or circle, shape must stay selected

Press the G key to invoke the Interactive Fill Tool. Notice the details...

Navigate to where you saved the .pat file.

Try it out! Left-click on mouse and Drag across the face of the object.

NOTE: If you require transparency where the white area is, you'll need the superfill macro.

Basic Monitor Calibration

If you're wondering if your monitor is set to some decent default values, the utility below will be helpful.

The file below doesn't require an installer to run, so it's handy to put onto a USB thumb drive. Then you can run the .exe file directly.

To use the utility, press ESC to go from module to module. Otherwise, follow the instructions on screen.

You may need to consult the manual for your monitor, to find the controls available for certain parameters.

More information is available on this page, including the official installer.

monitorcalibration.zip

Cool new macro for random functions and artwork

John-Dan Key's Random Macro offers a variety of unique functions!

See the product page for another animation which shows the Random Object function a bit more.

CorelDRAW X4... are you updated?

Already have X4? Ensure you're updated, there are many good fixes.

Your version from the factory MAY already have service packs applied.

Check to see the version you're running before you download the updates from this page.

How to check?