Here are some more tricks that you can do with CorelDRAW!
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Here are some more things that you can do with CorelDRAW!. You can use any of these tricks to create stunning company logos or eye-catching headlines for your newsletter. Among the things I have created in the accompanying illustration, only Objects C and D needed the feature of CorelDRAW! 5.0. The rest can be accomplished with Version 4.0.
Both the Intersect and Trim commands are new features of CorelDRAW! 5.0. When I intersected Rectangle A with Ellipse B, I obtained Cutout D. That's pretty straightforward. But if you experiment with different shapes, such as a rectangle and a letter "a", you can get an object that will make a good base for a logo. Try it.
Here's an example of what you can use the Trim command for. Using Ellipse B for trimming Rectangle A gave me Object C. This is a powerful command that can produce nifty results.
To apply the Intersect or Trim commands, you have to select both the object to be trimmed and the trimmer. You can use the marquee select technique to do this. Or, you can select the first object, press and hold down the Shift key, and select the other one. The only thing to remember is that the trimmer object should be placed on top of the object to be trimmed.
You can trim only one object at a time; if you'd like to trim multiple objects using the same trimmer, you'd have to apply the command repeatedly. Trim is an extremely helpful command when you're drawing a map of a housing complex, for instance.
Blend
The blend command is another powerful tool that's available in most of today's graphics illustration programs. In CorelDRAW!, you can specify the number of intermediate objects that create the blend look. You can also rotate the intermediate objects in a pre-specified degree, and you can even apply different intermedi ate colors.
To create Object E, I first drew a horizontal line. I created a duplicate of this line by pressing Ctrl-D. Or, I could have just clicked on the Duplicate command, found under the Edit menu item. I placed the two lines on top of each other by using the Align command. Then I opened the Blend Roll-up, which can be found under the Effect menu item (or I could just press Ctrl-B). I entered 18 for the number of steps and 180 degree for the rotation. That gives me an intermediate line every 10 degrees. The result is as shown in the illustration. Actually, you can enter any number for the intermediate steps as long as it is an even number, as an odd number will cause a missing spoke.
Object F is actually the same as object E, only this time I started with a rectangle instead of a line. The fill of the starting and ending rectangles were different, though. One rec tangle was filled with 50 percent black, and the other 100 per cent white. I had entered 12 for the number of steps and 180 degree for rotation.
Object G can already be used as a logo, can't it? The tech nique used was the same, except that I started with a letter "A" in USABlack font instead of a segment of line or a rectangle. I filled the letter with 100 percent black. I created its dupli cate, filled it with 30 percent black, placed the black letter on top of the gray one, align and blended them. Only this time I entered 30 for the number of steps and 360 degree for the rota tion. To make the black letter A really stand out, I selected the ending one and changed its outline color into white. I really like this effect. By the way, if we use the white outline for both starting and ending letters, the result would look like Object J.
Objects H and I were created in the same way as the previous blended objects. I started with a stretch of line for Object H and a rectangle for Object I. The only difference was that to create Objects H and I, I moved the ending object away from the starting one. If I move the upper horizontal line of Object H on top of the lower one, I will get exactly Object E.
If you use two different colors to fill the rectangles to be blended, you can even specify that the intermediate rectangles should be filled with rainbow color. You can even specify whether the rainbow colors should follow a clockwise or counter-clockwise path in the color fill. Just click on the middle button on the top left corner of the Blend Roll-up. In creating object I, I filled the starting rectangle with solid blue color and the ending one with pink. The resulting object really looked pretty on the screen. It's a pity I still don't own a color printer yet.
Emboss
Embossing, or creating a carved impression on a surface, can be created automatically in most bitmap editing programs, such as CorelPHOTO-PAINT, Micrografx Photo-Magic, Image-Palls, Harvard Graphics, and of course Photoshop. With these programs, creating the emboss effect is just a single click operation. With a little trick, however, you can also create the same effect with a vec tor-based graphics program as well. Take a look at the "Corel DRAW!" banner in K.
The emboss in K actually consists of four elements. A rec tangle as the background, and three text objects identical in font and font size. To create the text objects, all you have to do is create the first one and duplicate it twice.
The secret is to give different fill to each of the text objects. In the illustration, I filled one of them with the same level of gray as the background rectangle. The next text object was filled with white, and the last with black.
I aligned the three text objects with the Align command, but then I moved the white one a little bit up and to the right and the black one down and to the left. I suggest that you use the nudge technique--moving the selected object using the arrow keys on the keyboard. However, don't forget to set the nudge distance very small. In case you don't know how to do this, click on Special, Preference. Choose General, if it's not already on top. I used 0.010 inch for this purpose, and I had to hit the arrow keys three to four times to move the object sufficiently far.
Once the horizontal and vertical positions of the objects were correct, I proceeded to order them so that the gray one stood in the front, followed by the black and the white. The Order command, found underneath Arrange, was the tool I used for this purpose; it enabled me to put these objects in the right order.
In creating the emboss effect, we have to make sure that we don't overdo things. If too much of the white text is shown, or too little of it, the effect would look unnatural. You need some experimentation to get the subtle emboss effect such as the one in the illustration.
Plain shadow
The shadow effect such as the one in Object L is very easy to use. I guess you don't have to be taught how to create this. However, just in case you're truly a beginner, here's how to create it anyway: Enter the text using the font and font size of your liking. Fill it with light gray, and give it no outline. While it is still selected, create a duplicate by pressing Ctrl- D. Fill the new object with 100 percent black. Then position it a little bit to the left and to the top of the gray one. Presto!
Contour
Contour is another powerful tool in CorelDRAW! 4.0 and 5.0. It's a tool with which you have to practice in order to create interesting effects. Contour gives you a blend-like effect, but the intermediate duplicate objects are concentric. These objects have different fills as well.
The word MORE (Object M) was first created using Bodnoff font, 60 points. I called up the Contour Roll-up. I specified 0.003 inch for the offset and I entered 20 for the number of contoured objects. I also chose To Outside in the Roll-up before I pressed the Apply button. The result was as you can see in the illustration.
Uebung macht Meisters.
There's so much truth in this old German saying. Now that you've learned some more tricks in CorelDRAW! you can continue your exploration. Experiment with different options and different settings to see their effects. Remember that you should not overuse a tool all the time to get the best results. Finally, perhaps you can also share your creations and the techniques you've discovered with other readers of this column.