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Introduction
Is this big book youre writing the reason
that you can never play golf with me? my father asked, with just
the right amount of sarcasm to make me smile and feel guilty at the same
time.
While the ideal retort might have been, No, Dad, Im scared
to ride in the golf cart with you, the fact is that he was right.
Is it another monster? my father continued. And does
it have any of that Internet stuff in it?
Oh, yes. You cant write a book today without discussing the
World Wide Web.
Oy vey, the whole worlds gone meshuga.
Repartee with my father is now a tradition here in the introduction,
and were quite sure that he is responsible for the first instance
of the Jewish expression for gone crazy ever to appear in
a CorelDRAW book.
Mastering CorelDRAW 9 is the sixth go-round of this special type
of mishigos for me and my writing team, but in many ways it feels
like the first. While it is fine to allow a chapter here and there to
ride from one year to the next, we decided it was time for a true house-cleaning.
The result is a book that is over 95-percent fresh material. I have the
sore fingers to prove it.
What Is CorelDRAW?
Since its debut 10 years ago, CorelDRAW has been a clear and obvious
leader among Windows-based drawing and illustration programs. But what
is neither clear nor obvious is what exactly it means to be a drawing
program. Is it a program that allows you to work with refined curves and
objects to produce precise artistic effects? Is it a powerful typographic
engine for the creation of logos and other text-based work? Is it a laboratory
for manipulating photos and images? Is it the hub of a World Wide Web
tool? Or does CorelDRAW continue to be, primarily, a tool for driving
book authors...meshuga?
The fact that CorelDRAW is actually all of these things underscores the
impression this program has made in its community. One way or the other,
the applications in the box of software known as CorelDRAW assist you
in the creation of modern-day graphics. They are the tools with which
you can create:
- Full-color illustrations
- Complex drawings
- Logos
- Graphics for the World Wide Web
- Fancy headlines
- Photo-realistic images
- Surrealistic images
- Animation sequences
- Libraries of clipart
- High-quality drawings from low-resolution
originals
CorelDRAW
Is for Graphics
Be it for traditional media or for the Web, CorelDRAW is a graphics clearinghouse
of tools. With it you can create illustrations from scratch, enhance clipart,
use and embellish scanned photos, and send your finished work out one
of many ways. This is the domain of the Big TwoDRAW and PHOTO-PAINTand
these are what users buy the software for. Many users occasionally turn
to the services of Corel TRACE for help in converting a scanned image
into more refined artwork, but day in and day out, DRAW and, increasingly,
PHOTO-PAINT, are what see the most active duty.
This lopsided popularity is not lost on us, and the lions share
of this book is devoted to DRAW, the flagship product. But unlike in previous
editions, where we confess to having virtually ignored PAINT, we devote
six chapters to the creation of bitmap graphics, and two to the fundamentals
of image editing.
For Whom Does
This Book Toll?
As lead author, I like to think that any CorelDRAW user on the planet
will enjoy the pages of this book. The fact that I wont try to convince
you of that is a sure sign that I have no future as the marketer of books,
only the writer of them. From our ongoing series of CorelDRAW seminars
and conferencesat which I meet several hundred users every yearI
have defined a clear profile of you, the mainstream user: You produce
lots of one-page fliers, logos, small brochures, signs, banners, T-shirts,
and increasingly, Web pages. You do not necessarily have a professional
background in the arts; in fact, most of you do not. But even if you do,
your primary aim is to develop a better understanding of DRAWs tools
and functions and learn the hidden treasures that allow for faster and
more efficient operation.
This book is written with the following users in mind:
- Technical illustrators, who want to reduce
the amount of busywork involved in producing diagrams, charts, and simple
drawings.
- Amateur and budding designers, who strive
to develop an eye for good, clean, simple designs.
- Web designers, who seek a powerful tool for
creating graphics and who wonder exactly what role DRAW can and should
play in their Web sites.
- Desktop publishers, who need a better understanding
of DRAWs text-handling capabilities.
- Commercial artists, who might be auditioning
this new version of DRAW for producing their next double-page advertising
spread.
- Fine artists and illustrators, who will not
tolerate a book that tries to teach them their business, but who want
to sharpen their CorelDRAW skills and their understanding of its tools.
- Brand-new users looking for a book that neither
talks down to them nor leads them laboriously by the hand, but rather
arms them with information and gives them the practice they need to
become self-sufficient.
- And prospective users, who want to get a
sense of what CorelDRAW is all about before they make their purchase.
Your Roadmap
In this book, we include both tutorial and reference material, and when
necessary, we specify right away any chapter that is either for beginners
or more advanced users. Teachers and trainers will want to keep an eye
out for the Step by Step sections that frequent many chapters,
as they make for ideal training exercises.
Part I, A Quick Tour of CorelDRAW, is an introduction
to the software in general, and the elements that are new to the program.
We know that many users play leapfrog with versions, and that many of
you are coming to DRAW 9 from version 7. As a result, Chapter 2, our Whats
New chapter, details additions and improvements introduced in DRAW
8 and DRAW 9.
Part II, Life in an Object-Oriented World, explores
the lifeblood of DRAW: curves, nodes, object creation, fills, and outlines.
Part III, Mastering Text, coversyou guessed
ityour work with text in DRAW: paragraph and artistic, fancy and
conservative, fast and slow, good and bad.
Part IV, Effects and Affects, features the stellar
performers found under the Effects menu, responsible for the more dramatic
effects possible with DRAW.
Part V, Drawing for Cyberspace, focuses on creating
graphics for the World Wide Web. It covers in detail the creation of Web
graphics, Web pages, image maps, hyperlinks, backgrounds, and much more.
It offers many strategies for creating successful Web graphics, including
frank discussions about DRAWs strengths and weaknesses.
Part VI, The Bitmap Era, is a brand new section of
the book dedicated to the wonderfully scary world of bitmap imagery. One
of the chapters focuses on the services that DRAW can perform for imported
photographs, and then two chapters explore PHOTO-PAINT.
Part VII, The CorelDRAW Freeway, exposes DRAW as the
expressway it is, with emphasis on its exits and entrancesnamely
printing, color and prepress theory, importing, and exporting. You wont
want to miss Chapter 28, where we introduce the new Publish to PDF tool.
Part VIII, Taking Control, explores the improved functions
of styles, templates, object management, recordable scripts, and the amazing
opportunities provided by DRAWs customizable interface.
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| NOTE This book also has a companion Web
site at www.sybex.com. There youll find additional information
that will help you master CorelDRAW 9. Youll find files that
will help you get started with many of the tutorials, as well as drawings
that you can reverse-engineer to learn more about special techniques
and all that goes into a successful drawing. Just click the Catalog
button on Sybexs home page (www.sybex.com), then use
the search engine found on the Catalog page to arrive at the companion
Web site for Mastering CorelDRAW 9. Once you reach this Web
site, we suggest you bookmark it for your future visits.
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The Foundation of CorelDRAW
I remember it as if it were yesterdaythe day that CorelDRAW 1 was
first released. Up until then, the closest things to illustration software
were unremarkable paint programs and nongraphical applications that required
you to describe the effect you wanted, instead of drawing it. (Circle,
2-inch radius, create.) CorelDRAW was one of the first Windows-based
drawing programs to take hold.
Today, over 10 years later, CorelDRAW is one of the giants of the industry,
in terms of its customer base, its stature, and the depth and breadth
of the programs that are included in this one product.
It is no mystery why this is so. From its inception, CorelDRAW has been
one of the most approachable and most inviting of all graphics programs.
Its army of users covers virtually all corners of the graphics community:
from fine artists to illustrators to technical artists; from freelance
designers to desktop publishers; book publishers and newsletter editors;
sign-makers, T-shirt designers, and logo creators; secretaries turned
designers; well-meaning but unartistic managers...and even my six-year-old
daughter, Erica. Granted, becoming proficient with CorelDRAW might be
a challenge; but more than two million users will attest to the fact that
playing around with, developing a feel for, and even getting the hang
of this program is not difficult at all.
Drawing vs.
Painting
When we first started hosting the CorelWORLD User Conferencethree
days of seminars and workshops, dedicated to DRAW and PAINTI was
surprised to discover how many users did not understand the essential
qualities of the two broad categories of illustration programs. Today,
a good six years later, we still encounter hundreds of users who are unclear
on the concept, because many electronic artists simply take for granted
what these programs do in the background. When you get past all of the
jargon about Béziers, pixels, halftones, clipping paths, and process
colors, graphics programs produce art in one of two ways: they produce
curves, lines, and other distinct shapes that are based on mathematics;
or they produce dots. At the core of it all, everything that comes from
graphics software is curves or dots.
The one characteristic that distinguishes vector-based drawing programs
like DRAW, Xara, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, and others is
their particular degree of intelligence. When you draw a circle in one
of these programs, the circle has a set of propertiesan identity,
if you will. It has a radius from the center, a circumference, a set of
x- and y-coordinates, an outline, and an interior color. If you change
the appearance or size of the circle, DRAW still knows that the circle
is a circle.
Painting programs, on the other handsuch as PHOTO-PAINT (included
in the CorelDRAW box), Adobe PhotoShop, and PaintShop Procreate
graphics that are not nearly as smart. In fact, theyre pretty dumb,
but dont think of that as an insult. Their primary job is to lay
down pixels on a screen, no questions asked, just as a painter would apply
paint to a canvas. The circle you create in a paint program is simply
a collection of pixels, perhaps millions of them, lined up in rows. Taken
together, the dots might happen to look like a circle, but there are no
properties identifying it as a circle, as there are in DRAW.
When You Have to Choose...
When buying graphics software, its unlikely that you would choose
either a vector-based or a paint program. Most businesses
need the services of both, because whether dumb or smart, both
types of software play important roles. That is precisely why every copy
of CorelDRAW includes DRAW (the drawing program) and PAINT (the painting
program).
If You Need Clipart Turn to DRAW and the gaggle of prefab clipart
images on the CorelDRAW CD. Because vector drawings can be edited so easily,
DRAW is the perfect tool to produce simple art from scratch or to modify
existing art.
If You Need to Scan Photos Thats a job for PAINT. The undying
virtue of bitmap image editing is the extraordinary level of control you
have. You decide how small each dot is to be (that is, how high
the resolution is), and you can change the color of every dot that
makes up the image.
If Youre Creating Artwork for the Internet Take your pick,
or use them both. The revolution and the miracle that is the World Wide
Web is fertile ground for both vector and bitmap software. Ultimately,
graphics make their way to the Internet in bitmap formas .gif
or .jpg filesyet both DRAW and PAINT are capable
of creating them. Within the bounds of good taste, all of DRAWs
formatting prowess and special effects arsenal can be brought to bare
on a Web site in search of a personality. Part V looks at the exciting
and sometimes scary world of Internet graphics.
If You Need to Capture and Refine Computer Screen Images Here,
as well, give the nod to your paint program, coupled with a screen capture
program (such as Corel CAPTURE, included in the CorelDRAW box). When you
take a picture of your screen, it is stored as a bitmap. Although this
bitmap is not as detailed as most photographs, you can still edit all
the way down to the dot level.
If You Need to Set Lots of Type Hightail it back to DRAW, where
all the fidelity of your typeface format is honored, including letter
spacing, tracking, kerning, and hinting.
If Youre Producing Technical Drawings Once again youre
in DRAWs domain, where you can achieve utter precision, razor-sharp
lines, and can scale, reshape, group, and duplicate individual objects.
If Youre Creating Logos, Fliers, Brochures, or Ad Layouts
Chances are youre going to want both DRAW and PAINT, because todays
electronic art often contains text and other vector-based objects integrated
with scanned images. DRAW can be your Grand Central Station for such projects,
because it allows you to import bitmap images into a drawing and even
apply special effects to them.
The Magic
of the Curve
We may be guilty of a bit of oversimplification, but the cornerstone
to DRAW can be summed up in one plural noun: curves. The essence
of DRAW is its ability to create curves, and this stands in stark contrast
to what a paint program does. This bears repeating: paint programs do
not understand that the millions of dots that they are storing
are supposed to look like somethingthat happens practically by accident.
DRAW understands the dynamics responsible for an objects shape;
it knows about radiuses, angles, straight and curved lines, and all of
the subtleties of typefaces.
As a result, vector art is quite lean. Bitmap images can get big in a
hurry, with all of those dots to cart around, but vector art is marked
by its tidy set of mathematical instructions for describing objects.
Figure 1 is a drawing of President Clintons family, produced in
DRAW. The curves and fill patterns that make up this image will require
less than 100K of disk space, but if it were converted to a bitmap image,
youd be looking at a minimum of 500K for a low-resolution rendition,
and as much as 5MB for one in full color.
No question about it, if you choose your paint program to produce work
that is better suited for your drawing program, youll hear about
it from your hard drive. And if you decide to go all out and use a professionally
scanned photograph of the Clintons and the First Feline (the catwere
talking about the cat) standing in the Oval Office, youre talking
about really high rent: 10MB to 40MB.
Absent
FIGURE 1 Rendered as vector
art, the Clinton family is a lean, 100K DRAW file. Described as bitmap
art, this same image grows to at least 500K and likely more.
Youll read a lot about curves throughout this text, especially
the so-called Bézier curve, shown in Figure 2. Its named
after the man who discovered the dynamic relationship that exists between
a starting point, an ending point, and the two control points that determine
the path taken by the curve from start to finish. You dont need
to understand the intricaciesjust know that Bézier curves get
the credit for just about everything that CorelDRAW does right.
Absent
FIGURE 2 The magic of the
Bézier curve
CorelDRAW
Is Greater Than theSumofItsParts
Like most sophisticated graphics programs, CorelDRAW hits its stride
when you apply a few of its special effects to otherwise simple objects.
Creating a few ellipses, like the ones shown at the left of Figure 3,
may not be cause for celebration, but you will really begin to turn heads
when you unleash the higher-octane features. Theres Blend, which
transforms one object into another, and Trim, the tool responsible for
creating the sprocket in the center of Figure 3 from the four simple ellipses.
Theres Extrude, which produced the depth-defying effect for the
finished sprocket. Theres Radial Fill, which gently changes the
fill color from one to another, and Rotate, Envelope, Weld, Distribute,
Trim, PowerClipthe list goes on. As Figure 3 shows, the relationship
between simple objects and powerful effects might be the marriage made
in electronic heaven.
Absent
FIGURE 3 CorelDRAWs
special effects steal the headlines every time.
Typefaces:
the Final Frontier
To many, the most impressive part of CorelDRAW is the control it gives
you in handling text. A mind-boggling number of typefaces ships with the
product. Its typographic engine allows for the setting of a typeface in
point increments as small as .001 point, and for rotations in equally
fine steps. In short, CorelDRAW allows you to manipulate text on your
electronic drafting table just as you would other objects, using all the
same special effects.
Historically, DRAWs text prowess has been responsible for two things:
pure joy on the part of eager users accustomed to having substantial constraints
on their ability to manipulate type; and horror at some of the less-than-stellar
efforts foisted upon the user community by those same eager but artistically
challenged users. Many users start out blissfully unaware of the skills
required to effectively pilot the software, and indeed, CorelDRAW users
contributions to the Desktop Publishing Hall of Shame are substantial.
Perhaps this is the inevitable price to be paid for software so inviting
that practically anyone can use it.
On this last point of irony, I will close this introduction. CorelDRAW
has made a name for itself as an artists tool despite the factmaybe
because of the factthat a majority of its users are not artists.
This demographic distinction is not lost on us, and our intent in this
book is to speak to the practical, pragmatic demands of mainstream CorelDRAW
users. We do not hope to convert you into brilliant artists, and we believe
one of the virtues of this book is that we will not try. Rather, we hope
to broaden your understanding of the software and help you become more
efficient and productive.
In our user conferences and ongoing series of seminars, I have met thousands
of skilled DRAW users who turn to the product for technical work, simple
logos, sketches, headlines, and other projects that dont require
formal training in the arts. These power-users enjoy the continuing search
for better and faster ways to pilot the software. I have also encountered
accomplished artists (those who really do the program justice) who wouldnt
know a keyboard shortcut if it landed on their foreheads. Users in both
categories will benefit from a more complete understanding of the inner
workings of CorelDRAW, and that is what we intend to deliver.
Rick Altman
www.altman.com
Acknowledgments
I have two daughters, ages six and three. I feel as
if I also have a son. He exhibits many of the tendencies and much of the
behavior requisite of an offspring: he is constantly demanding of attention,
he devises creative strategies to get his way, he has good days and bad
days, and he has woven himself throughout my life in countless ways.
This son of mine is not flesh and blood, but instead bark and pulp. Hes
about 800 pages long, and youre holding him in your hands right
now. Parenting this wayward child cannot be done in the traditional waythis
is one of those times when both the Democrats and Republicans would agree
that it really does take a village. As chief witch doctor, I am grateful
for the assistance of my team of villagers.
Heading the list is our technical editor, Joe Donnelly, who represents
perhaps the finest coup this book has ever enjoyed. We signed him up just
one month after he decided to leave his post at Corel... as CorelDRAW
Product Manager! He spent two years directing the team of engineers,
determining which features would stay and which would go, and how they
would be implemented. For two years, he was CorelDRAW.
We wondered how he would respond to the areas in this book where we are
critical of Corel or the software. Would he take it personally? Well,
in Chapter 2, when we wrote about being underwhelmed and unimpressed
by DRAW as a Web page creation tool, his quick retort was that we
had misspelled underwhelmed.
Following very close behind is our primary contributor, Debbie Cook,
whose star is rising steadily in the Corel community. She began making
her mark with volunteer technical support on newsgroups and other online
discussion venues for CorelDRAW users. She also has been a prominent member
of the technical team at the annual CorelWORLD User Conference, and has
most recently found prominence for the set of scripts she created for
producing effects within PHOTO-PAINT. Her keen eye and persistent research
graces our Whats New chapter, and much of Part VII,
The CorelDRAW Freeway.
Returning for his sixth season is Wayne Kaplan, whose influence can be
found throughout the book. As a Tier 1 beta tester (which
means that Corel Corp. pays Wayne to test the product before its release),
Wayne is as close to the program as is possible, without actually being
one of the engineers.
Working with the team at Sybex was especially gratifying this yearfrom
Acquisitions Editor Cheryl Applewood on down, it was clear that the people
involved in this book came from a background or an interest in graphics.
Julie Sakaue kept the ship afloat with unusual aplomb, and returning for
a second year as copy editor, Anamary Ehlen lived up to her initials of
A.C.E. Each member of the production teamMaureen Forys, Lisa Reardon,
Richard Ganis, Bonnie Hart, Jeff Chorney, Lindy Wolf, and especially Kate
Kaminskicontributed their special talents to turn the manuscript
and art files into a book.
As always, I owe a debt of gratitude to the over 800 CorelDRAW users
who have joined us at the annual CorelWORLD User Conferences since 1993.
Your feedback, experiences, suggestions, positive attitude, and overall
good humor and cheer continue to fuel our creative fire. We will be in
Orlando in October of 1999 and would love for all our readers to join
us there. For details about this and many other opportunities for DRAW
users, visit us at www.altman.com.
And finally, a special thanks to Greg, Kathy, Sharon, and Steve, who
make up the nucleus of the coed volleyball team that proved to be my sole
refuge during book-writing season. We all met as new parents, and when
we discovered a mutual affinity for the game, we joined a league and decided
to name our team No D.I.N.K.S. Get it...?
Rick Altman
Lead Author
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