Coreldraw Crash Course Yannick Kremer Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, February 27, 2007 Outline - Introduction to the basics of digital imaging - Bitmaps - Vectors - Colour: RGB vs CMYK - What can you do with Coreldraw - Using Coreldraw effectively - Tools - Workflow - Tips, Tricks and special effects 1
Two options Bitmaps or Vectors Building blocks: Pixel Picture Element (Scanners, cameras, Monitors, printers) 6x6 pixels Image made with pixels: Bitmap 250 x 250 pixels 2
Resolution Bitmap images become ugly when enlarged too much Resolution is the number of pixels covering a surface. Example: 300 pixels per inch ppi / dpi Screen: ± 80 ppi, Perfect print: 300 ppi, OK print: 200 ppi Resolution and size Image size Megapixels File size (Mb) A4 200 ppi 3,9 12 A4 300 ppi 8,7 26 A3 200 ppi 7,7 23 A3 300 ppi 17,4 52 3
Compression Reduces an image s file size Lossless Lossy No loss in quality Loss in quality Slight reduction file size Strong reduction file size PNG, Tiff, JPEG Vector based images Images are not formed by pixels, but by mathematical descriptions of lines => Line drawings, technical illustrations, but also southpark 4
Vectors and bitmaps Vectors can be enlarged without loss of quality enlarged vector enlarged bitmap It is easy to convert vectors to bitmaps The inverse is a lot harder (Tracing) Digital Colour RGB Red Green Blue CMYK Cyan Magenta Yellow black Mixing light: Additive Monitors, camera s, scanners, internet Mixing ink: Subtractive Printing Colour correction 5
Additive colour mixing RGB Subtractive colour mixing CMY Digital Colour RGB Red Green Blue CMYK Cyan Magenta Yellow black Mixing light: Additive Monitors, camera s, scanners, internet Online photo printers (Hema) Mixing ink: Subtractive Printing Colour management 6
Examples of RGB R 255 G 0 B 0 R 255 G 255 B 0 R 255 G 150 B 0 R 150 G 150 B150 What can you do with Coreldraw Draw! Mix vectors and bitmaps Make artistic & technical illustrations Any size you want. Use your illustrations in print, office, internet, etc. 7
Examples 8
1. Introduction to digital imaging 2. Simple drawing a. Freehand tool b. The Pick tool: Selecting, Moving, Resizing and Rotating c. Lines and fills 3. Drawing by Building a. Rectangles b. Circles c. Shaping d. Grouping e. Working precise 4. Advanced drawing a. Bezier curves b. The Node Edit tool 5. Working with Text a. Artistic text b. Paragraph text 6. Adding Pictures a. Importing bitmaps b. Simple editing of bitmaps c. ( Further possibilities of bitmaps in CorelDRAW ) 7. Combining elements a. Mixing Text, Vectors and Bitmaps b. Aligning elements c. Keeping text Readable 8. Special Effects a. Gradients b. Transparency 9. Publishing your work a. Printing b. Office (Word, Powerpoint) c. Internet 10. Questions 9
Publishing: Printing Print Print > Layout > Print tiled pages (Tegelpagina s afdrukken) Publish to PDF, a PDF is always the same If all else fails -> export to a bitmap file and print the bitmap file, with Corel Photopaint or irfanview To Office Copy -> paste special, windows metafile Export -> Windows metafile (WMF), of Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Use WMF for simple drawings, Otherwise use PNG For png, use a resolution of 300 ppi for print, less for presentations. Use anti aliasing (NL: ongekarteld) 10
Internet Export to Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Joint Picture Expert Group (JPEG) Use a smaller size; +- 100 ppi Learn more http://student.vu.nl/y.kremer advanced effects: http://www.unleash.com/tomknight/ www.computerarts.co.uk http://www.urbancowboy.net/ 11