David B.

Asanye

INTRODUCTION TO CorelDraw X7

[Document subtitle]
Contents
CorelDraw BASICS........................................................................................................................................2
CorelDraw Terms.........................................................................................................................................2
CorelDraw X7 Start Screen..........................................................................................................................2
CorelDraw X7 Workspace Interface.............................................................................................................3
CorelDraw X7 Toolbox.................................................................................................................................4
Drawing Lines..............................................................................................................................................6
Drawing Shapes...........................................................................................................................................6
Inserting Text...............................................................................................................................................7
Page Layout.................................................................................................................................................7
Working with objects...................................................................................................................................8
Effects..........................................................................................................................................................9
Fill and Outline..........................................................................................................................................10
Editing Photos............................................................................................................................................11
Keyboard Shortcuts...................................................................................................................................12

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CorelDraw BASICS
CorelDraw graphics suite is a professional graphic design software. It is a vector graphics editor that can
be used to create a wide range of designs for many different needs. The program offers many features
and special effects that can be used to design banners, flyers, logos, business cards, brochures,
newsletters etc.

CorelDraw Terms
Before you get started with CorelDraw you should be familiar with the following terms:

Object: An element in a drawing such as an image, shape, line, text, curve, symbol or layer.

Drawing: The work you create in CorelDraw; for example, custom artwork, logos, posters, and
newsletters.

Vector Graphics: An image generated from mathematical descriptions that determine the position,
length and direction in which lines are drawn.

Bitmap: An image composed of grids of pixels.

Docker: A window that contains available commands and settings relevant of a specific tool or task.

Fly out: A button that opens a group of related tools or menu items.

List box: A list of options that drops down when a user clicks the down arrow button.

Color Palette: A dockable bar that contains color swatches.

Node: A node is a colored dot that appears on a line or shape or object. It is used for reshaping objects.

CorelDraw X7 Start Screen

The start screen will allow users to choose a blank document or tutorials, and pre-designed templates
for new and experienced designers. Once you click new document, a pop-up screen will appear that
allows you to name your new design, choose a page size, choose the number of pages you want and also
choose a resolution for your design.

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CorelDraw X7 Workspace Interface

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The Title bar: This displays the title of the open document.

Menu Bar: Located and the top of the window, this area contains drop-down menus and commands.

Toolbar: A vertical bar containing tools for creating and modifying objects in the drawing.

Property Bar: A detachable bar with commands that relate to the active tool or object. For example,
when the text tool is active, the text property bar displays commands to create and edit text.

Drawing Window: The area bordered by the scroll. It includes the drawing page and its surroundings.

Drawing Page: The rectangular area inside the drawing window, it is the printable area of your work
area.

Document Navigator: An area at the bottom left of the screen that contains controls for moving
between pages and adding ages.

Status Bar: Contains information about object properties such as type, size, color, fill and resolution. The
status bar also shows the current mouse position.

CorelDraw X7 Toolbox
Note: some tools in CorelDraw have other tools embedded in them. To access an embedded tool, click
and hold the tool you want, an option box will appear right next to the tool which contains the other
tools

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The Pick Tool lets you access the pick tool, freehand pick tool and free transform tools. They can be used
to pick and move objects in a drawing.

The Shape Edit tool lets you access the shape, smooth, smear, twirl, attract, repel. Smudge and roughen
tools. These tools basically enable you edit shapes in your drawing

The Crop tool lets you access the crop, knife, virtual segment delete and the eraser tools.

The Zoom tool lets you access the zoom and Pan tools.

The Freehand Tool lets you access the freehand, 2-point line, pen, B-spline and other smart drawing
tools. It I used to draw curves.

The Artistic Media Tool provides access to the preset, Brush, sprayer, calligraphic and pressure tools.

The Rectangle fly out lets you access rectangle tools.

The Ellipse fly out lets you access the ellipse tool. This tool enables you to draw circles.

The Object fly out lets you access the polygon, star, complex star, graph paper, spiral, basic shapes,
arrow shapes and other kinds of shapes.

The Text tool lets you type words directly on the screen as artistic or paragraph text. The Table tool is an
embedded tool which lets you draw and edit tables.

The Dimensions tools fly out lets you access the parallel dimension, vertical and horizontal dimension,
angular dimension, segment dimension, and 3-point callouts

The Connector tools fly out lets you access the straight-line connector, right-angle connector, rounded –
right angle connectors and edit anchor tools

The Interactive tools fly out lets you access the drop shadow, contour, blend, distort, envelope and
extrude tools.

The Transparency tools lets you apply transparency to objects.

The Eyedropper fly out lets you access the color eyedropper and attributes eyedropper tools. Which can
be used to sample colors and attributes of an object.

The Interactive Fill tool lets you access the interactive fill and mesh fill tools. These tools are used to fill
colors in an object.

The Smart Fill tool lets you create objects from enclosed areas and then apply a fill to those objects.

The Quick Customize button lets you add tools to the toolbox.

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Drawing Lines

The drawing tools from the Freehand fly out lets you draw curved and straight lines, and lines containing
both curved and straight segments. The line segments are connected by nodes, which are depicted as
small squares.

The Freehand and Polyline tools let you draw freehand lines as if you were sketching on a
sketchpad. The Bezier and Pen tools lets you draw straight lines and curves. The B-Spline tool lets you
create smooth curves with fewer nodes than curves drawn with freehand paths.

Drawing Shapes
CorelDraw offers a wide variety of tools for drawing shapes.

Rectangles
By dragging diagonally with the rectangle tool, you can draw a rectangle or a square by holding down
Ctrl.
Ellipse
You can draw an ellipse by dragging diagonally with the ellipse tool. Hold down Ctrl to constrain the
shape to a circle.
Complex Shapes
You can use the tools on the object fly out to draw polygons, grids, spirals, and two types of stars:
perfect and complex. Use the property bar to change the number of polygon sides, star points, grid
columns, or spiral revolutions.
Perfect Shapes

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With the tools on the object fly out you can also draw basic shapes, arrows, flowchart shapes, banners
and callout shapes. Select a preset shape on the property bar and drag the diamond-shaped handle to
modify the appearance of some shapes.

Inserting Text
There are two types of texts you can add to drawings: Paragraph text and Artistic Text. You can also
import existing text from and external file or paste text from the clipboard.

Paragraph Text

Paragraph text can be used for larger bodies of text that have greater formatting requirements. Before
you add paragraph text, you must click the text tool and drag on the drawing page to create a textbox.

Artistic Text

You can use artistic text for short lines of text to which you can apply a wide range of effects. To change
to artistic text:

Use the text tool and insert your text, select he pick tool and right click on your text a menu box appears
then you can select convert to artistic text.

Fix text to path

To fit text to a path, select the text and click Text > Fit text to path. Move the pointer over a path and
use the dynamic preview to position the text. Click to attach the text to the path.

To type text on a path, click the Text tool, and point to a path. When the pointer changes to fit to path
pointer, click to add text.

Font playground

Font playground (Text > Font Playground) lets you view the same sample text in different fonts and sizes
to help you choose fonts for your project. You can preview preset text samples, or you can type or paste
text. Font playground also provides access to advanced features within OpenType fonts.

Insert Character Docker

The Insert character Docker (Text > Insert Character) presents all characters, symbols, and glyphs
associated with a selected font, making it easier to find and insert characters into your documents.

Page Layout
The page property bar lets you adjust page settings, such as page size, dimensions, orientation
(landscape or portrait), units of measurements etc.

To access the page property bar, select the pick tool and click a blank space in the drawing window.

Right-click a page tab on the document navigator to open a context menu that lets you rename, delete
or duplicate the current page or insert new pages.

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Page layout tools

You can display rulers, grids and guidelines to help you organize objects and place them exactly where
you want. To view or hide grids, guidelines and rulers, click the View menu, and choose the item you
want to display.

Alignment Guides

Alignment guides help you position objects more quickly. These temporary guidelines appear when you
create, resize or move objects in relation to the center or edges of nearby objects.

To display alignment guides, click View > Alignment Guides.

Working with objects

Working with objects is an essential part of creating drawings

Use the Pick Tool to select an object and activate the selection handles. Drag a corner handle to change
object dimensions proportionally. Drag a middle handle to change object dimensions non-
proportionally.

To move a selected object, point to its center and then drag the object to its new location. Press the
arrow keys to nudge the object by a preset distance.

To select multiple objects, hold down Shift, and then click each object.

Click twice on an object to activate the rotation handles. Drag a corner handle to rotate an object
clockwise or counterclockwise

Grouping objects

When you group two or more objects, they are treated as a single unit. Grouping lets you apply the
same formatting to all the objects within the group.

To group or ungroup selected objects, click Object > Group, and choose the option you want.

Objects in a group exist in a stacking order, usually the order in which they are created or imported.

To change the order of selected objects, click Object > Order and choose an option from the menu.

Shaping objects

You can change the shape of an object by using the Shape tool. Different types of objects can be shaped
in different ways.

To change the shape of an object, select the shape tool and click on the object. Drag any nodes on the
object to reshape the object.

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To add a node, double-click on the path and click add nodes button on the property bar.

To delete a node, double-click the node and then click delete nodes button on the property bar.

To reshape a polygon or a star, click the Shape tool, and drag a node in any direction. To create a star
from a polygon, drag a node towards the center.

In addition to the shape tool, the shape edit fly out includes tools that provides creative options for
refining vector objects. The Smooth tool lets you smooth cured objects to remove jagged edges and
reduce the number of nodes. The Smear and Smudge tools lets you shape an object by pulling
extensions or making indents along its outline. The Twirl tool lets you click an object and hold to apply a
twirl effect. The Attract and Repel tools lets you shape objects by pulling nodes together or by pushing
them apart. The Roughen tool lets you drag along an objects edge to apply a jagged or spiked effect.

For each tool, the property bar controls let you set the size of the brush nib and the intensity of the
effect.

Effects
You can create the illusion of three-dimensional depth in objects by adding contour, drop shadow or
bevel effects.

Contour

You can contour an object to create a series of concentric lines that progress to the inside or outside of
the object.

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To apply a contour, select an object, click Effects > Contour, click the setting you want in the Contour
Docker, and click apply.

Drop Shadow

Drop-shadow simulates light falling ono an object from one of five particular perspectives: flat, right,
left, bottom and top. When you add a drop shadow, you can change its perspective, and you can adjust
attributes such as color, opacity, fade level, angle and feathering.

To apply a drop shadow, select an object and click the drop shadow tool. Drag from the center of the
object and set your drop shadow. Specify any other attributes in the property bar

Bevel Effect

A bevel effect (Effects > Bevel) adds 3D depth to a graphic or text by making its edges appear sloped.

Fill and Outline

You can add colored, patterned, textured, and other fills to the inside of objects or other enclosed areas,
as well as change the color of the object outline.

Object Properties Docker

The object properties Docker (Window > Docker > Object Properties) presents object-dependent
formatting options and properties. For example, if you create a rectangle, the object properties Docker
automatically presents outline, fill and transparency options as well as the rectangles properties. If you
create a text box, the Docker will instantly display character, paragraph and frame formatting options, as
well as the text frame’s properties.

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Fill Type

You can fill objects with uniform, fountain, pattern, texture, postscript, and mesh fills.

Fountain fill have a smooth progression of two or more colors.

Texture fills can stimulate the look and feel of natural materials such as water, clouds, and stone.

Mesh fills create smooth color transitions to give objects volume and realistic 3D effects.

To fill an object, choose the type of fill you want in the Fill area of the Object Properties Docker, and
choose the fill options you want.

Choosing colors

A color palette is a collection of color swatches. You can choose both fill and outline colors by using the
default color palette.

To fill an object with a solid color, click a color swatch on the color palette, or drag a color onto the
object.

To change the outline color, right click a color swatch on the color palette, or drag a color onto the
outline of the object.

To mix colors, select a colored object, hold Ctrl and click another color on the color palette.

To choose from different shades of a color, click and hold a color swatch.

You can also choose fill and outline colors from the color dialog boxes by double-clicking the Fill button
or the Outline button on the objects properties Docker.

The Eyedropper tool is used for sampling colors. When you sample a color with the eyedropper tool, the
tool automatically switches to the Apply Color mode so that you can immediately apply the sampled
color. To activate the Eyedropper toll quickly, press Ctrl + Shift + E.

Editing Photos
CorelDraw Graphics suite offers a large number of features to effectively and efficiently edit photos and
other bitmaps. Some of these features are available only in COREL PHOTO-PAINT

Remove unwanted areas from a photo

The Cutout Lab in Corel PHOTO-PAINT (Image > Cutout Lab) lets you cut out image areas from the
surrounding background. This feature allows you to isolate image areas and preserve edge detail such as
hair and blurred edges

The Smart Carver (Image > Smart Carver) makes it easy to remove unwanted areas from a photo and
simultaneously adjust the photo’s aspect ratio without distorting the remaining content.

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Image Adjustment Lab

The Image adjustment lab consist of automatic and manual controls, which are organized in a logical
manner for image correction.

Keyboard Shortcuts
To view all keyboard shortcuts, click Tools > Customization. In the Customization list of categories, click
Commands, Click the Shortcut keys tab, and click view all.

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