Graphics Unleashed

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Now Shipping!

2008-06-26T18:12:00.001-07:00

We will begin shipping CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed on June 27th. Anyone who has pre-ordered the book will be processed first and then any new orders will be processed next. The Premium Bonus Content Edition will begin shipping near the end of July.

I am always thrilled when I finish and book and it begins shipping. This book definitely took more time for me than previous books. It has a total of 932 pages. If you are counting, that's 180 more pages than CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed. There were also modifications made to the page layout to allow more information to fit on a page. What does this mean to the reader? It means there is an enormous amount of new information! The new information certainly covers the new features in CorelDRAW X4, but it also provides more detailed information on features that have been around for a few versions.

There are also eleven hours and 34 minutes of videos. That's five hours more than CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed. The Premium Bonus Content Edition will add even more information and even more videos including Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 Unleashed and 37 of Jeff Harrison's best Powertips!

Get your copy ordered today!

FoxIt Reader Provides Small, Fast PDF Reader

2008-06-25T10:06:00.001-07:00

Everybody needs the ability to view PDF files, right? For most users this means you install Adobe Reader. A full install of Adobe Reader v8 takes up 210 MB on your hard drive and it can be a bit slow to load. A new version is on the way with even more features and I fear it will be even larger and slower. We'll soon find out.

The good news is that you don't have to use Adobe Reader to read PDF files. Foxit Reader is much smaller and faster. It only takes 7 MB to install (2.55 MB to download) and it loads lightning fast.

For the past few months I have been working with Foxit Reader and I was hesitate to include it with my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book because it wouldn't automatically open the Bookmarks panel even if it was specified in the PDF file. Foxit Reader 2.3 was released about a month ago and it solved this issue. So we're including both Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader with CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed and the user will have the option of which to install, if any.

For those of you developing PDF files, you really need to have both installed so you can test your files in both products. For the rest of you, I'd highly recommend you use Foxit Reader for its smaller footprint and superior speed!

CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 1 Available for Download

2008-06-23T17:03:00.001-07:00

When a new version of software comes out, there are always a few areas that could use tuning up to get it working just right. Corel released the first service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 today and it is available for immediate download. It is a 42 MB download and should take 5-10 minutes to install.

All of the details for what has been fixed along with the download link can be found on the CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 1 page.

Once I've had more time to work with the new version, I'll discuss it a bit more.

Great Source for Color Combos

2008-06-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

As a designer, you are always trying to find colors that work well together. I ran across a free tool today that can help you create color themes and I want to tell you a bit about it.

Kuler is a free tool on the Adobe Web site. One of its features is that it can create color themes (five color combos) from images posted on flickr. I don't know about you, but I've not used flickr. One of these days I'll have to give it a try.

The great part is that you can see all the themes that have been created right on the kuler Web site. If you have an Adobe ID, you can even download the themes as an Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) file. If you have Adobe's CS2 or CS3 suites, you can use the themes.

I'm a CorelDRAW guy through and through so I wanted to get some of the themes into CorelDRAW. So I used the Eyedropper in CorelDRAW to "Select From Desktop" and snag the colors from the kuler Web site. Once I had captured the five colors from a theme, I could tell CorelDRAW to create a palette from the document and I was all set.

So, visit kuler and create palettes from your favorite themes. Next thing you know, you'll have a nice library of palettes to use in your projects.

New Firefox and Opera Browsers Have Arrived

2008-06-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

Regular readers will know how much I detest Internet Explorer. Unfortunately it is still the most-used browser simply because it exists on all Windows machines. Two of the biggest competitors have released new versions of their browsers this week and it is time you gave both of them a long look. Hey, they are free, so it doesn't cost you anything to get them!

Those of you who give the new browsers a try will find that they are faster, use less memory, have more features and are a much lower security risk than Internet Explorer. They also allow you to easily transfer your list of Favorites so there is really no downside at all to switching.

Opera 9.5 is considered a minor upgrade from Opera 9.2. The Opera folks claim that the new version is more than twice as fast at rendering HTML and JavaScript over the previous version. That's a huge jump! Downloading is also faster with the integrated BitTorrent distribution protocol. Sure there are tabs. You can block content you don't want. It handles newsfeeds. And did I mention it was free?

Firefox 3 was just released today and the folks from Mozilla are trying to set a world record for most downloads in a day. I will be switching to Firefox 3 as soon as the final version is available (I'm writing this a few hours before it is available for download). What will you find? It will be even more secure than Firefox 2.0. It does a better job of managing passwords and add-ons. Downloads can be resumed. Even easier to bookmark and organize your favorite pages. Throw in the much faster performance and much less memory used and you have quite a few new features. Oh yea, and it is free too! You might also be able to say you were involved in setting a world record.

Users who are developing for the Web will definitely want to download both new browsers so that they can test their sites in these new environments. The rest of you should want to download at least one of them because they are just plain better browsers than Internet Explorer. For most users it will take less than five minutes to download, install and convert your favorites. Give them a try, I think you'll like them!

Great Artwork for use in CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator and more

2008-06-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking around for new sources of material for use in CorelDRAW and other graphics software. That recently led me to discover Go Media's Arsenal Professional Design Weaponry.

You'll find some of the coolest vector artwork you've ever seen. Many of the pieces were created by the Go Media design team for major rock bands, fashion companies and Fortune 500 companies. There are also packages of bitmap textures for backgrounds, fonts and motion graphics.

Of course there are also some cool freebies to download. There is no doubt you'll find something that you can use in your projects. You'll probably find many things you want!

Adobe Unveils Acrobat 9

2008-06-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

About a week ago there was an announcement from Adobe about the upcoming Acrobat 9. One of the biggest features is that Acrobat has native support for Adobe Flash technology. This means you could embed Flash video inside of a PDF file.

The new version will begin shipping on June 26th and I'll be anxiously awaiting a chance to try out the new version. My CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book uses both PDF and Flash technology to deliver the written word and movies respectively. If I understand the new features correctly, I would be able to embed the movies directly into the PDF file in the future. This will make for one huge PDF file, but it would also integrate the two main features of the book in a really cool way.

Sure, there are other new features and I'll let you read the release to learn about all of them. But it is the integration with Flash that has me excited. If you'd like to order a copy, I've put together a page listing each of the flavors of Acrobat 9 as well as related books.

Technology Preview of Corel DESIGNER X4 Available

2008-06-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

What do you do with CorelDRAW? Are you often creating technical illustrations? If so, you might want to download the technology preview of Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4 and give it a try.

Corel DESIGNER is built on the same technology platform as CorelDRAW. So if you are already familiar with CorelDRAW, you'll find many things to work exactly the same way in Corel DESIGNER. What you'll find is more tools for technical illustration and more import filters geared towards technical file formats, including importation of 3D CAD files.

This is a pre-release, a beta, so please be careful if you choose to download and install it!

Unleash Your Creativity

2008-06-02T14:57:00.002-07:00

In reading that headline, you might think it is a play on our domain name. Certainly, we enjoyed the headline but it actually comes from another article at Scientific American. In the article, three experts on creativity reveal ways to unleash your creative self.

Read through the interview and you are sure to get some ideas on ways you can increase your creativity. For example, one suggestion was to have "an adventure" once a week. A few years ago I started to doing a walk around the neighborhood once or twice a day. Each walk is about fifteen minutes and I get to see all kinds of the native desert wildlife on these walks. One thing I discovered is that I got all kinds of ideas as I was walking. Some were meaningless, some were small things I just need to remember to do and others were big ideas. The best part is that I get some exercise and relaxation while getting my creative juices flowing.

Give the article a read and I bet you find several ways to boost your creativity. This will certainly help you create better artwork for your clients and you might just enjoy the process!

Do Your Photos Look Fake?

2008-06-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

I just read a very interesting story from the folks at Scientific American. It is titled the five ways to spot a fake photo.

Since many of you are in the business of editing photos, I thought I'd pass along the five ways along with a link to the story with all the details. The five ways listed are lighting, eyes and positions, specular highlights, clones and camera fingerprints. For each of the ways listed, the article has examples and diagrams which explain the problem and potentially ways to avoid the problem.

A related article on the site has a slide show showing photo tampering throughout history.

Libra Helps Organize Books, Music and Movies

2008-05-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

While most of us are using our computers to create graphics during the day, hopefully we all find time to do other useful things with them. I recently ran across a cool utility that helps you to manage your library of books, games, music and movies. It is named Libra and you can download a copy for free.

The hardest thing to do with programs like this is to build your database, especially if you have a large library of media. Libra attempts to make the process easy by searching for the products on the Amazon Web sites. You can also hold up the bar code on the product to your Web cam to have the product found automatically. While this part sounds cool, I was unable to get a clear image of a barcode on my Webcam. Thus I had to search manually. Even this isn't terribly difficult as long as the product exists on Amazon. If you have older, obscure media, then you might not have luck when searching for the product.

Libra also helps you keep track of who borrowed what. This should at least help you to make sure you get things back from your friends. This reminds me that I need to talk to my neighbor about a movie she borrowed about 18 month ago, but I digress.

When you have stocked your library, the screen will displays rows of covers. Users on Vista will even notice that the cover is reflected on the shelves. You can even print out a catalog of your library that is very attractive, though it will probably use a lot of ink. I think it might be better to print it to a PDF file to distribute to friends who may want to borrow from you.

The way that the program is released is also quite interesting. The developers are giving away the software in hopes that its links to Amazon will generate enough revenue to keep the company funded. Currently Libra is labeled as a beta and there are certainly some rough edges. But it sure looks to have a lot of promise and is certainly worth exploring if you have a large library to catalog.

Popular Macros Updated to Work with CorelDRAW X4

2008-05-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

Alex Vakulenko is one of the most prolific programmers creating macros for CorelDRAW. He works for Corel during the day and creates these macros in his spare time. He has just finished updating all of his macros to work with CorelDRAW X4. Most of them work in CorelDRAW 10-X4 as well as Corel DESIGNER 10 and 12. Half of the macros are free and half of them have a cost associated.

Rather than describe the details of each macro, I'm simply going to provide you a list of links to the pages with those details. Calendar Wizard is a more powerful version of the macro included with CorelDRAW. If you have a need to create calendars in CorelDRAW, you'll want to check this out. Copy to Adobe Illustrator makes it easier to copy artwork across the clipboard from CorelDRAW to Adobe Illustrator and back.

Curveworks adds a number of CAD-related functions to CorelDRAW. Most users are familiar with Fit Text to Path. Fit Objects to Path is a macro that let's you place any objects along a path. Function Plotter will plot a graph from mathematical equations you enter. Jigsaw Puzzle Creator creates puzzle shapes out of any graphic.

SecuriDesign makes it simple to create guilloche patterns in CorelDRAW. These are often found on certificates and bank notes but can add cool designs to your drawings. Select Guidelines allows you to marquee select guidelines. Selection Manager allows you to save and restore selections.

It is all the great add-ons available for CorelDRAW that make it such a great product. I'm sure you'll find several of these macros are useful for your workflow.

The Other Corel Products

2008-05-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

Most of the readers of my blog are users of CorelDRAW. You've probably heard about some of Corel's products, but I'm guessing that you didn't realize all of the different products that are in the Corel family. I wanted to use this e-mail to introduce them to you. Even better, I'll give you a code to save 10% if you find something you'd like.

CorelDRAW was the first major product for Corel Corporation, but many people don't realize that it was designed as a tool to create graphics for use in Ventura Publisher. Years later, Corel bought Ventura and still sells it as Corel Ventura. The unfortunate part is that they don't give it the marketing support it deserves. For those of you creating longer documents, Ventura is a publishing powerhouse that shouldn't be overlooked.

Corel PHOTO-PAINT is included with CorelDRAW, but it is only one of the image editors that Corel offers. If you are doing a lot of work with digital photography, you will want to investigate Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. While it shares many of the same features as Corel PHOTO-PAINT, the price is low enough that you can use it in conjunction with Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Another tool for image editing is Corel Painter X. If you are an artist who has painted with a brush, this is the tool that lets you paint directly on the screen. One of the coolest things you can do with Painter is convert a photo into something that looks like the painting from one of the masters. For a lower cost alternative, check out Corel Painter Essentials 4. It doesn't have as many features of Corel Painter X, but it also costs much less.

For those of you wanting to create and edit videos, there is VideoStudio. It has a friendly price and yet does most everything people need for editing videos. If you simply want to watch videos on your computer, then WinDVD 9 will do the trick. It can play both standard DVDs as well as the newer Blu-ray titles.

I've yet to meet a user who doesn't have a need to zip and unzip files. Sure, you can do the basics with the tools in Windows. But with WinZip 11.1, you can do much more.

This is by no means a complete list of products that Corel makes, but they are the products that would be of the most use to CorelDRAW users who want to expand their product arsenal.

Designing Fonts in CorelDRAW

2008-05-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

I've always been very interested in fonts. Each one is new and different. Some are awesome, some are just plain awful. This love of fonts led me to work for a font foundry back in the early 90s. That company had all kinds of software tools for creating fonts. And even while the digitizers at the foundry were using Macs to digitize fonts, I was playing around with creating some in CorelDRAW.

Even back in early versions of CorelDRAW it was possible to create your own fonts. The key is knowing where CorelDRAW is best used and where it should not be used.

Today someone posted a nice story about a font designer who is using CorelDRAW to create some really cool fonts. They are retro, yet hip. He didn't go into all the technical details about how he uses CorelDRAW so I'll have to try and fill in the blanks with my best guess. This guess is based on the process I use to create fonts with CorelDRAW. For those who want to read more about it, there is a chapter in my CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed and CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed books about it.

Set up a template in CorelDRAW with a baseline, cap height, x-height, descender line and any other guidelines you might need. Design each character for your font. That is probably the longest step in the process as a quality font has over 200 characters and possible more. Once you have all the characters drawn, export them one by one to a font file. CorelDRAW can export to either TTF or PFB files.

Where CorelDRAW is severely lacking is the technical aspects of the font. The spacing is creates is OK. It does not include any kerning data and it does not hint the font. Hinting makes a font look good at smaller sizes or on lower resolution devices. Because of this, I'll take the font I export from CorelDRAW and import it into FontLab. FontLab makes it easy to adjust the font's metrics and to add kerning data. The process can be completely automated or you can manually adjust to your heart's content. When it saves a font, it will include very good quality hinting. Yes, you can draw the font in FontLab, but I find it much easier to use the tools in CorelDRAW. If you are looking for a lower-priced editor, the folks at FontLab also offer TypeTool.

All in all, I find that CorelDRAW is a great tool for designing fonts as long as you know its limitations. Even if you don't want to design an entire font, it is still handy for doing a few special characters for a design project or for a client. Just one more thing that CorelDRAW can create!

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Available for Pre-Order

2008-05-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed is almost all wrapped up and boy will I be happy to finally get it all done. I just keep coming up with more information to include and that has led to the book shipping much later than I had originally planned.

There will be two versions of the book for you to choose from. First is the the standard version which will ship in early June. It will contain approximately 920 pages and eight hours of tutorial movies.

Approximately one month later, the Premium Bonus Content Edition will ship. It includes the same 920 page ebook and eight hours of movies adds a book on PHOTO-PAINT that will be around 100 pages plus accompanying movies. Jeff Harrison will have 20 Powertips and accompanying movies. Plus the disc will be filled with free clip art, plug-ins and much more. You'll find a complete list of bonus content on the Web site.

You can pre-order either version of the book now. We will not process your order (or your credit card) until the book is ready to ship. Learn more about the book and order your copy today!

As more details of the book are finalized, we will update the Web site with as much information as possible.

Digital Camera Exposes Original Paintings

2008-05-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Digital cameras have come a long way in the past ten years. The quality of the pictures continue to improve. The number of megapixels continues to rise. But I read about a digital camera today that is truly mind-blowing. It shoots at 240 megapixels.

This camera was specifically developed to photograph "Old Master" paintings. You can read about how it was used to restore one of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. The detail was so good that you can actually distinguish da Vinci's fingerprint in the paint!

What is truly cool about this is that the technology allows the painting to be virtually restored to how it originally looked. Colors that have been hidden for years will suddenly emerge. Dirt creating a haze can be removed and none of this poses any danger to the original painting.

You can read even more if you go to Lumiere Technology's Web site. For example, there is a press release describing the virtual cleaning of the Mona Lisa. If you go to the home page of the site, there is a twelve minute movie showing how the Mona Lisa was photographed and how the technology works. All in all, it is just fascinating. My only wish is that there was a way to download some of the restored, high resolution images. I'm sure that will be possible some day. Then we can all have some of the finest paintings ever created on our own walls.

Photoshop Web Design Book Available For Free Download

2008-05-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm certainly not a Photoshop user, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy getting a free book. The folks at Sitepoint are giving away the book The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks and Techniques. This is a book that sells at Amazon for $26. Of course, the free copy is a download so it is a bit different than the printed version. The giveaway is also sponsored by an advertiser so you find one line of text at the very bottom of each page promoting the advertiser. Honestly, this wasn't a distraction at all to me.

There is a running clock on the site that says the offer will expire in a little over 27 days. So expect the offer to be gone by mid-June.

For those of you who use Corel PHOTO-PAINT to do your Web graphics, you might want to get our tutorial The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. It will help you translate some of the Photoshop terms used in the book so you can do the same projects in Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

The Many Output Devices of CorelDRAW

2008-05-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

As I talk with CorelDRAW users, I find that they know a lot about how they use CorelDRAW in their job but they don't know the many ways it is used in the real world. The great news is that once you know CorelDRAW, you have the ability to pick up new ways to output your files with only a minimal learning curve.

One of our goals at the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference is to allow users attending the conference to see as many of the output devices as possible in action. We want users to see how they can grow their business by adding new methods of output. Behind the scenes I've been talking to vendors and lining up as many devices as possible. Today I'm ready to announce the first group of sponsors and the devices they offer.

Of course, I should mention that Corel is heavily involved in the conference. Two of the men behind the development and promotion of CorelDRAW will be there to interact with users and to deliver sessions during the conference. If you want a direct hotline to the developers, Tony and John will get your requests directly into the pipeline.

Brother will have their garment printer and embroidery machines available in the Output Center. Garment printers allow you to print directly from CorelDRAW to a wide variety of apparel and other fabrics. They'll even be showing the printer in conjunction with a green screen so that a photo can be taken, superimposed on the background of your choice and output on a shirt in just a couple of minutes. I've seen it in action, and it is really cool! CorelDRAW is also the core graphics technology in Wilcom Decostudio e1. It allows you to take a CDR file and create a stitch file for output as embroidery. Brother's embroidery machines can take those files and output them quite easily. Don't believe it, come see it in action!

Digital Art Solutions has so much to offer that it will be hard to list it all here. They offer add-ons for CorelDRAW, production ready clip art as well as a wide variety of output devices. Not only do they have all these great products, their team knows and loves CorelDRAW. So if you are trying to output from CorelDRAW to darned near anything, they can help you with it. This can include garment printing, embroidery, applique, vinyl cutting, print and cut, wide format, screen printing, pad printing and much, much more!

Universal Laser is one of the top manufacturers of laser engravers. 90+% of their customers use CorelDRAW to output to their laser engraver! A laser engraver allows you to mark and cut wood, plastics, paper, glass, leather, stone, ceramic rubber and all kinds of other materials.

This gives you an idea of some of the devices you can work with in the Output Center of the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference. We expect to have even more devices and I'll be back with further details as I have them. The conference is less than two months away and the special pricing for the suites at the resort are only good through June 9! Make sure to get registered now so you don't miss out on all the learning!

CorelDRAW X4 Neuters Dialog Boxes on Vista

2008-05-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

As I've been finishing up my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book, I've done screen shots of some dialog boxes in both Windows XP and Windows Vista so users can see the difference. According to Microsoft, Vista is supposed to be an improvement. Corel's marketing tells us that CorelDRAW X4 has added features on Vista. To me, both of those claims are debatable. Does CorelDRAW X4 add some functionality on Vista? Yes it does. What isn't mentioned is that some functionality is also removed when running on Vista.

This is most evident to me in the Open and Save dialog boxes in CorelDRAW. When running on Windows XP, the Open dialog box tells us the version of the file, compression information and more. It also offers to show a preview of the file. The Vista version of the dialog box has none of that. Yes, you could see a preview if you change the file viewing area to thumbnails. The Save dialog box on Windows XP allows you to enter Notes and Keywords. Vista users will have to select File | Document Properties to enter that information before saving. To me, this change in functionality is a major downgrade.

Today I learned of a workaround that will give you the Windows XP versions of the dialog boxes when running on Windows Vista. It is possible this solution will cause other problems, so please proceed with caution. Some users have reported that some other user interface elements change when you run this way.

Go to the folder on your hard drive where CorelDRAW is installed. Find coreldraw.exe. Press Alt + Enter to bring up the Properties dialog box. Select the Compatibility tab. Place a check in the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the drop-down list. Repeat the process for corelpp.exe if you want to restore the PHOTO-PAINT dialogs. If you find that these changes are causing problems, you'll have to uncheck the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" checkbox and go back to the normal Vista versions of the dialog boxes. Hopefully you can run problem free and you can have the more useful dialog boxes.

Memory Usage Setting Does Nothing

2008-05-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

Frequently I'll hear users talk about how they've increased the Memory Usage setting (at right) in CorelDRAW's Tools | Options | Memory dialog box. Supposedly it has improved the performance of CorelDRAW. I hate to break the news to everyone, but it doesn't do anything.

Back in Windows 98, the operating system allowed applications to fence off memory for themselves. That isn't necessary in Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Given that CorelDRAW X3 and X4 will not run on Windows 98, the feature has been completely non-functional for a couple of versions now. The developers at Corel have admitted it doesn't do anything. It is something that needs to be removed, and I suspect it will be removed in the next version. So if setting the percentage to a higher number makes it seem faster to you, go for it. The reality is that it has no effect at all.

Internet Explorer, How Do I Hate Thee?

2008-05-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the problems that Internet Explorer caused with form filling. Today there is yet another incompatibility. Several people have reported a large white area at the top of pages when they print. This white area covers content and it extremely annoying.

This white area is where the Flash drop-down menus on our site would appear if they were dropped down. Unfortunately Internet Explorer is just flat out misinterpreting the data when it prints! If any other browser is used to view and print the site, the error doesn't occur.

Since Microsoft has the largest market share (and shrinking) for browsers, they have made their own rules for Web site coding. Unfortunately there are standards and Microsoft doesn't follow them. So incompatibilities like this are inevitable.

This is why I beg users to use a different browser. My suggestion is Firefox. It is faster, safer and has more features than Internet Explorer. You can still have Internet Explorer on your system. Firefox is free. Your "favorites" can be transferred. So there are absolutely no downsides. Please take the five minutes it takes to install Firefox if you don't already have it installed. You will certainly enjoy your browsing experience more than you do now!

Corel to Get New CEO

2008-05-06T06:42:00.001-07:00

David Dobson, Corel's current CEO, is leaving to take an executive position with a Fortune 500 company. He will remain on the board of directors through June. Kris Hagerman has been named the interim CEO. Hagerman was formerly a group president with Symantec. Hagerman will start on Thursday, May 8.

So what does this all mean? At this point there are no answers. I'm guessing it is related to the stock buyout offer announced in March. If I learn anything new, I'll keep you updated. As far as the short term, it should have little to no effect on Corel's products.

LCD Monitors and Native Resolution

2008-05-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Many users have moved from a traditional tube-based monitor to LCD monitors in the past couple of years. This can include desktop LCD monitors as well as laptops. There is also the move from monitors with a 4:3 aspect ratio to "widescreen" 16:9 monitors. From reading various questions posed in the support forums, there seems to be a misunderstanding of how an LCD monitor should be run. There are two major issues that I'll discuss in this post. If you want the best results, make sure to have your monitor specifications handy as we'll need them.

The first issue that users have is that they'll draw a square in CorelDRAW and it will be stretched horizontally. This is a classic indication that the user has the aspect ratio set incorrectly on their display. I'll use my laptop as an example. Its native resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels, a "widescreen" aspect ratio. When I'm using the laptop for day-to-day work, I love all the extra resolution. Unfortunately most data projectors have a maximum native resolution of 1024 x 768, a non-widescreen. This means when I project, I have to set Windows to a resolution of 1024 x 768. When I draw squares, they look distorted on my laptop display. Since the people in my training are looking at the image created by the projector, they see a square.

Now let's say that you went out and bought a new LCD for your desktop. It has a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 (a fairly common resolution). But you've always used Windows at 1024 x 768 (an extremely common resolution) so that is what you set on your computer. Everything you draw will appear distorted because you are using the wrong aspect ratio on your monitor. Something like 1280 x 720 would at least keep squares looking square.

The other issue is that people complain their display is "fuzzy". This is a classic symptom of running an LCD at a non-native resolution. If you have a monitor whose native resolution is 1680 x 1050, the only way to get a clear image is to run that monitor at 1680 x 1050! That is because an LCD monitor has discrete pixels on it. So if you run at any other resolution, the monitor has to stretch your display resolution to fill the entire screen. If you've set it at 1024 x 768, each pixel in that resolution is stretched to fill 1.64 pixels horizontally and 1.37 pixels vertically. Oops, you can't have anything but whole numbers and now the math gets really funny. Running the monitor at 1280 x 720 would be stretching 1.31 pixels horizontally and 1.46 vertically. Still funny math.

There are typically two reasons users give for not running their LCD at its native resolution. One excuse is that things are "too small" on screen for my eyes. You'll just need to adjust your screen elements a bit. You can use different font sizes for menus and dialog boxes. Often your programs let you choose different icon sizes. Windows definitely allows you to choose bigger icons if you want. The other excuse is that the video card in the computer doesn't support the needed resolution. In that case, you need to upgrade your video card. It will cost probably less than $100 to get a card to support the new resolution and it will also be faster than what you have.

Hopefully now you understand the issues you face when running an LCD monitor at the wrong resolution. When you are shopping for a new monitor, it is important to know what size (in inches or cm) you need as well as what resolution is required. This will tell you if the elements are going to be too small to be seen. Also check the resolutions your video card supports. If you don't want to have to buy a new video card, make sure to buy an LCD monitor that is supported by your current card.

I will give one other suggestion. Think big! About a year ago my old monitor gave out. I gave out and purchased a 30" LCD running at 2560 x 1600 pixels. The first day it arrived, it seemed huge. Even better, I could fit all kinds of running programs on the same screen. Now that a year has passed, I'm considering getting a second monitor so I have even more screen real estate. Now you won't find monitors like this on sale for $199. But for less than $1500, you can have a big, beautiful monitor. Since you aren't constantly re-arranging your programs, you can be a lot more productive. For a graphics professional, it is worth every single penny. Certainly it is investment you should consider.

Taxes and Training

2008-05-02T08:39:00.001-07:00

If you are in the US, hopefully you got your tax return filed a few weeks ago. Those of you getting a refund have probably already received it. Even better, your "stimulus check" should be coming any day now. These stimulus checks are being sent to help stimulate the economy and can be as much as $600 for a single person and $1200 for a married couple.

I'd like you to consider using your stimulus check to invest in the future of your business. Wouldn't it be great if you could double or triple your investment within a year's time? That's exactly what you can get if you can improve your skills on tasks important to your business. Even better, your investment is most likely tax deductible so you can save money on next year's taxes.

You use CorelDRAW in your business, right? Most of you do and that's why you're here. No matter your current knowledge level of CorelDRAW, you don't know everything. Nobody does, not even the experts. Which means that you can certainly learn something new that will save you time every day. That's why I'm going to encourage you to "invest" in your future and join us at the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference!

We will have something for all levels of users. If you are just getting started, we have crash courses on the first day to get you up-to-speed quickly. Industry specific sessions will be taught on screen printing, sublimation, embroidery, engraving, sign making, digital photography and much more. There will be something on CorelDRAW and something on Corel PHOTO-PAINT in every timeframe. So no matter what you do with CorelDRAW, you will find sessions that give you valuable information for boosting your productivity and creativity.

The instructors leading the sessions have been carefully chosen for their expertise with the software and most of them make their living doing production work with the software and thus you will get lots of practical information. We brought them in from all over the world to share their expertise with you. And when they aren't leading sessions, they will be in the 1:1 Expert Bar. This is the area where you can sit down in front of a computer with one of the experts and ask questions. Or have them help you with a tricky design problem. Where else will you have then chance to work one-on-one with one of the top CorelDRAW experts in the world?

You might ask how Corel Corporation is involved. The man behind the development of CorelDRAW, Tony Severenuk, will be giving our opening keynote and sharing with you the top new features in CorelDRAW X4. He'll also be leading sessions later in the conference where he will share tons of great tips for boosting your productivity. Of course you'll always find him carrying a notebook so he can write down your concerns, your wishlist of new features and anything else that will help shape future versions of CorelDRAW. John Falsetto will also be joining us from Corel and giving a keynote address on the Wide World of CorelDRAW. If you want to talk directly with the people behind the software, this is your opportunity.

Some users have told me that it is too far to travel. Tell that to the attendee who is joining us from New Zealand. There is no other event like this anywhere else in the world and we truly will have the world getting together to join us in learning to get the most out of CorelDRAW. I want to encourage you to invest in your future and join us for four days of incredible training!

Design Studio Packages Loaded with Apparel Templates

2008-05-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

There are many CorelDRAW users creating graphics for apparel. Two new packages have been released that are loaded with high-quality graphics to be used for apparel. Design Studio packages can be bought individually or get both volumes for a discounted price. They are loaded with graphics, templates, fonts, distress overlays and a full color book loaded with examples.

This is a great collection for anyone doing screen printer, garment printing, embroidery and more. And for those using Decostudio, it gives you the multi-decoration artwork that will really show off the capabilities of Decostudio.

Check out the sample images from this collection and you'll find that it can bring even more creativity to the products you are creating.