Creating a mask with CorelDRAW!<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): During the recent launching of CorelDRAW! 5.0 in
\nJakarta, which was organized by PT Sistech Kharisma, Brad Young
\nfrom Corel Corporation, Canada, showed off a masking effect that
\ncould actually be achieved in CorelDRAW! 4.0 as well.
\nNevertheless, the effect drew a lot of "Wow!"s from the audience.
\nHere, in the accompanying illustration I show you an example of
\nthe effect that Brad demonstrated in his presentation.<\/p>\n
As you can see, the characters in the word "INVEST!" have the
\nfill of a bitmap image of a Rp. 50,000.00 note. It looks as if
\nyou had painted each of the characters using some kind of a paint
\nairbrush tool. This effect is actually very easy to create, as
\nCorelDRAW! can combine bitmap images with vector graphics with no
\nproblem at all. First, you have to scan the money. After
\nretouching the scanned image as necessary, using CorelPHOTO-
\nPAINT! or ImagePals, it is later incorporated into CorelDRAW!.
\nOnce it is placed on the page, all you have to do is prepare the
\nmask.<\/p>\n
A mask works more or less like a stencil sheet. When you roll
\nthe stencil machine, the ink bleeds through the perforated part
\nof the sheet and leaves prints on the pages. The mask in Corel
\nDRAW! lets you look at any object placed behind it.<\/p>\n
Before you go on, you'd better change to wireframe mode to
\nspeed up work. Click on the Display menu item, and click on Edit
\nWireframe. The shortcut for this is Ctrl-F9. The imported bitmap
\nimage will turn into a gray scale image, and screen redraw will
\nbe much faster. Then select the Rectangle tool from the toolbox
\nand create a box slightly larger than the bitmap image. Give it
\nthe white solid fill. The next step is to select the Artistic
\nText tool and type in the word "INVEST!". Using the Pick tool,
\npick up the text and place it inside the box. While the text is
\nstill selected, press Ctrl-T to call the Artistic Text dialog box
\nto change the font. Remember, to make the Rp. 50,000.00 back
\nground stand out, you have to use the fattest font possible. If
\nyou chose the slim Helvetica font, people wouldn't notice the Rp.
\n50,000.00 note. For the illustration I've chosen the USABlack
\nfont. If you prefer, you can choose BahamasHeavy or Futura XBlk
\nBT, for this purpose.<\/p>\n
Now your task is to fit the characters into the bitmap image.
\nSince you're working in the wireframe mode, you'll have no
\ndifficulty. Just resize the characters horizontally and vertical
\nly so that they fit the image correctly. Give the characters the
\nwhite fill and hairline border.<\/p>\n
Select<\/p>\n
The next step is to punch the characters out. To do this, you
\nhave to select both the rectangle and the characters, but you
\nshould not include the bitmap. To select the second element in
\nCorelDRAW!, you have to press Shift before doing it. In this
\nparticular case, you select the text and you press Shift as you
\nselect the rectangle. Then combine them by clicking on Arrange,
\nand Combine. Or, you can simply press Ctrl-L. This transforms the
\nselected elements into a mask. All you have to do now is to
\nuncheck the Edit Wireframe menu item or press Shift-F9 again.<\/p>\n
By the way, if you want to make sure that the characters are
\npositioned exactly at the center of the rectangle, you'll have to
\nalign them first before combining them. To do so, while both
\nelements are still selected, call up the align dialog box by
\nclicking on Arrange and Align. The shortcut key is Ctrl-A. Click
\non both Center Horizontally and Center Vertically.<\/p>\n
The possibilities for further improvement are plenty. You can
\nkern the characters before combining it with the rectangle to
\ntighten the look of the word "INVEST!". You can achieve this by
\nusing the Shape menu item and kern the characters interactively.<\/p>\n
Finally, you can also alter the color of the bitmap image if
\nyou wish. You can do this by selecting the image with the Pick
\ntool and calling the Outline Color dialog box. Select the CMYK
\ncolor model, and adjust the value for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and
\nBlack respectively. After that, call out the Fill Color dialog
\nbox and do the same thing until you get the most satisfactory
\nresult.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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