Dear all, welcome to this tutorial dedicated to CorelDRAW, the ultimate
software for vector drawing and image correction from Corel. In just
13 minutes we will see everything you need to know to start using it!
When opening CorelDRAW its welcome screen appears with several options to
start including tutorials, news and the latest articles from Corel. On
Get Started you can open any existing document or go to New Document... to
go for a new one. Just define name, the number of pages and the color mode
between CMYK and RGB. Then select the page size across several standards
available and customize it in width and height. Set the orientation, the
resolution and then go to OK.
The new document opens on the main interface under a dedicated tab on top
with all its pages listed at the bottom. On the left you have the toolbar,
collecting all the tools inside CorelDRAW. Some of these buttons show a
dark corner, collecting multiple tools inside. In this case click and hold
over the button and release the click when selecting the right tool to use.
On top you get several bars showing options and properties for the current
tool or selected object and on the right you have several panels you can
use to manage your drawings and document. In particular you can take a look
at the Hints panel to get tips and help on the current tool you are using.
If you find any of these panels closed you can reopen these from the Window
tab, under Dockers.
There are three kinds of objects on CorelDRAW: the vectors, the images (or
bitmap object) and the annotations. Let's see how to work with vectors
first.
Enable the Freehand tool to draw freehand by clicking and dragging on the
document. You can also try LiveSketch and Smart Drawing to have your
strokes and shapes smoothed and adjusted automatically.
With the Polyline tool click several times to drop straight segments and
click and hold to draw freehand as you like. Segments and curves follow one
after another until you double-click or close the shape.
Use the 3-Point Curve to drop arcs by clicking and dragging to define the
basic segment and then release and click to define the arc.
To draw curves you can use the Bézier, the Pen and the B-spline tools. With
B-spline you drop curves by clicking several times, double-clicking to
apply. With Bézier and Pen click to define straight lines and click and
hold to draw curves with the help of the tangents, represented as blue
dashed arrows.
To drop regular shapes and circles you can enable the tools between
Rectangle and Polygon and click and drag on the document. You can also use
Common Shapes to drop other shapes, selectable from the bar on top.
With Artistic Media tool you can drag artistic sketches, selecting trace
style, properties and width on top.
CorelDRAW has several drawing aids to help you with your drawings. On top
you can enable and disable Rulers, Grids and Guidelines. You can change the
measurement unit used by right-clicking on any ruler.
Guidelines are very useful to take references at defined horizontal and
vertical positions. You can drop any by dragging from any ruler. Whereas
use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
CorelDRAW includes several snapping options, all collected under Snap To
above. You can snap to the grid, the guidelines, or several object
keypoints including nodes, edges, midpoints, intersections and centers.
Now let's see how to manage these vectors. Enable the Pick Tool and click
on any curve to select it. Then click and drag to move it or use the black
nodes to scale it properly. If you click once again the nodes will change
so that you can 2D rotate or skew the object. Move the central node to
change the rotation point if needed.
To edit the selected object appearance you can use the bar on top or the
Properties panel on the right. Under Outline adjust the line color, its
thickness, style, its corners and endpoints. Under Fill you can apply
filling in several ways, by adding any uniform color or any gradient with
Fountain fill, selecting color and transparency level for each marker and
setting gradient direction at the bottom. With Vector or Bitmap pattern
fill you can apply patterns by either using vectors or images.
Whereas to edit the vector shape you can use all the tools collected inside
the second button of the toolbar. With the Shape tool you can move nodes
and tangents to refine the vector shape and double-click on it to add new
nodes if necessary. Enable the other tools to apply nice effects by
clicking and dragging over the vector paths.
Always use CTRL (or CMD) and Z to undo any action if you need.
Let's see how to work with images. In respect to vectors these are pixel
rendered objects that may lose quality if you reduce their size or edit
these deeply.
To import one go to File, Import and browse for it. Then click and drag on
the document to fix its correct size with the help of CorelDRAW. You can
enable the Pick tool to move, scale and rotate it as seen for the vectors.
Each image is delimited by a vector contour that can be edited and cropped
with the Shape tool or other vector tools just seen. You can also vectorize
the image by going to Trace Bitmap above, getting a group of vectors
realizing the image that you can manage and modify just like simple curves.
Moreover you can select the image and open the Properties panel to apply
several effects on it. Under Transparency you can apply uniform, gradient
or pattern transparent effects just like the shape fillings just seen.
Click on No Transparency to remove any transparency effect instead.
With Bitmap Effects you can apply several effects and corrections. Click
on the plus button to browse for the effect and adjust its properties while
checking the image. Inside the Adjust section you find all the adjustments
to correct the image brightness, contrast, saturation and much more.
All these effects will be listed above in order, with several buttons on
the right. Use the pencil to edit the effect properties and the eye button
to turn it ON or OFF. You can also change the effects order by pulling one
up or down.
To drop text and annotations you can enable the Text tool and click and
drag on the document to define a text area under dashed contours. This
delimits the maximum text spread as you type in. If you go over it its
contour becomes red and hides part of the text content. In this case you
can click and drag the nodes to extend the box as you need.
Moreover you can enable the Pick tool to select and move, rotate and skew
the text box as seen for other objects. You can also adjust the text font,
size, style and colors from the top bar or the Properties panel. Make sure
to select any text or changes won't be effective at all.
You can set the colors for the text fill, its background and outline. At
the bottom manage caps and customize the text characters and switch to
Paragraph to adjust text indentation and distribution.
With the Pick tool you can select any object and use CTRL (or CMD) and X,C
and V to cut, copy and paste it. You can also select and edit multiple
objects by clicking and dragging over these.
To see and manage all the elements inside your document you can open the
Objects panel. You can show or hide any object with its eye button and
block any modification on it with the lock button. You can also click and
drag any through the list to change its order of visibility, especially in
case some objects overlap.
You can apply several effects such as shadow, contours, distortion and
extrusion with the effects tools at the bottom. Most of these work on
vectors and some on image borders as well.
Select one and click and drag to apply it. If you enable the Extrude tool
you will add some 3D extrusion that gets updated in case you edit its
basic shape section. You can adjust its direction with the black cross and
its total length with the small white block.
Always with the Extrude tool you can click once on the extrusion and click
and drag to rotate it or drag from its green circle to rotate around its
axis. Consider that you won't be able to adjust the extrusion direction
after this, as you can see from the white cross.
You can also select the extrusion and set its properties above, including
type, 3D rotation and color - taking the shape filling color, an
independent solid color or a cool gradient. You can also correct its bevels
and add up to three lights from different directions. Use Clear Extrude to
remove the extrusion effect.
To save your project, go to File and then to Save As. CorelDRAW projects
are all saved under a .cdr file format with all your object properties and
their placement over the document. Choose other formats such as .PDF to
render and print the document or .SVG to upload it on the web.
Thank you very much for watching this tutorial! Make sure to visit our
YouTube channel and our official website for other free tips and extras!!!