Creating a Dial in CorelDraw – Originally published Oct 2003

One of the items that we need to create if we are doing work for industrial customers is dials. For a lot of people creating jobs like this can be intimidating and can seem quite daunting. However creating a dial is quite easy. For this exercise I will be creating a dial that has two series of graduations. One set of lines will be set at every 10 degrees starting at 0 and another line will be set every 10 degrees starting at 5 degrees.

1. The first step in creating a dial is to create our initial graduation. We will be duplicating this graduation in our dial. Figure one shows the intial graduation that is created. To keep it easy I would suggest that you start your line so that it is horizontal as per Figure 1. Make the line .5 inch long. … Continue Reading

What the Font

CorelDraw X4 Review – WhatTheFont and the Search Function

You know one of the things I always do when I am eating is save the best for last. Thus I usually eat my vegetables first, starches second and meat last. The same can be said when I am doing reviews of software I will typically save the better parts to last. I will throw in some juicy parts but finish off with some real good ones. Although I still consider the improved print merge function in Corel X4 my favorite the last two items we will look at today can be pretty impressive. … Continue Reading

Corel Draw Graphic Suite X4 Review Part 5

In my experience of dealing with all my customers most people tend to stay in CorelDraw and not venture out of the program. There are a number of reasons. Mostly they are comfortable with CorelDraw. CorelDraw is a very powerful program and for most of what I do CorelDraw is the program that I spend most of my time in. However there are some things that you cannot do in CorelDraw that you can do in PhotoPaint. If you remember my article on the cutout lab this tool is only available in PhotoPaint. Tools such as red eye removal, masking and certain vignette effects can only be done with the PhotoPaint program. Actually some of the tools such as those found in the bitmap section of CorelDraw are actually accessing the tool libraries that are in PhotoPaint. … Continue Reading

Print Merge in CorelDraw X4

If you have been following my columns for the last number of years you know that I have preached the use of the print merge function. As far as I am concerned the one technique that most CorelDraw users fail to utilize is the print merge function. Personally I refuse to do an order for anyone unless they supply the names of everyone in a text file. Not only is it a pain in the butt when you have to type in each name, but you also have to spell check each one of those names. In some cases it takes longer to do the text input than it does to do the actual job. … Continue Reading

This month we are going to look at the upgrade to the trace function that Corel has included with the new suite. If you have been using X3, Corel’s previous release you know that the trace function was revamped. The new trace function in X3 was awesome. That is as long as the artwork that we have received is good. In X4 Corel has added a new feature to the trace function. This new function is the centerline trace. The idea behind the tool is to create a single line instead of the usual inside and outside line that is created when we do an outline trace. CorelDraw’s definition of the centerline trace is as follows …”The Centerline Trace method uses unfilled closed and open curves (strokes) and is suitable for tracing technical illustrations, maps, line drawings, and signatures. This method is also referred to as “stroke tracing.” … Continue Reading