CorelDraw Photoshop Contour Cut
CorelDraw Photoshop Contour Cut
CorelDraw Photoshop Contour Cut
Open the raster/bitmap file. Click on Options tab to show the options of the current tool picked.
Click the foreground/background tool(small icon) to set the default colors in black and white.
The image will be placed in background and locked layer if it is opened for the first time in Photoshop Double click on the layer to change it to unlocked layer.
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Press Alt+I then click Canvas Size to resize the canvas to make room for the mask to grow. Add 0.2 to the values of horizontal and vertical input box. Click OK.
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Canvas Is enlarged
Unselect Preserve Transparency check box if selected. Press W to select the Wand tool. Change the tolerance value in the Brushes dialogue box that is large enough to select the background but not select part of the image. The value used is 20 pixels. Click on the area of the background color (White) then press Delete. Do the same with all the areas that are big enough to cut that has background color. Such as inside text that are to be cut out.
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Click on the button next to Paths as shown above then select Duplicate Layer in the menu.
Click on Contour layer. Click on the transparent background of the image. Press Alt+S then click Similar to select all the background.
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Press Alt+S, select Modify then click Expand. Change the value to 3 pixels. Click OK. This will mask more of the image in the contour layer to reduce its size. Press Alt+S, select Modify then click Smooth. Change the value to 3 pixels. Click OK Press Delete to reduce the jaggy. The values may need changing big enough. if the clearance is not
Press Alt+S+I to invert the selection. Press Alt+S, select Modify then click Expand. Change the value to 5 pixels. Click OK. This will make the contour image larger than the image in the image layer so that there is allowance fo cutter inaccuracy. The new size of the image in the contour layer will become 2 pixels larger then the image in the Image layer.
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Press Alt+E then click Fill to open Fill dialogue box. Change the Contents color to Black. Click OK.
Press Alt+F then click Save as. Click the file type in the drop down menu. Click on PSD format. Change the filename to a different name so that the original file is not overwritten e.g the word New was added to the filename. Click OK.
The images are now ready to be imported in CorelDraw to make a contour cut lines. Add the registration marks to make the image ready for print and cut.
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Editing the raster/bitmap image in CorelDraw Open a new document in CorelDraw. Setting up the docker tools and environment
The following docker tools at the bare minimum must be selected with check marks as shown on the right to create contour cut lines: 1) Properties 2) Object Manager 3) Contour 4) Transformation The tabs will be shown in the docker window that is to the right of the screen
Before getting started the docker window needs to be set so that the necessary tools for making contour cut line are in place Set the paper size and orientation that matches the image to be contoured. The image used in the illustration is in landscape and fits 8.5 X 11. Click Laout then click Page Setup. Select Letter paper size Click Landscape radio button. Click OK. The printer needs to be setup for the paper size and orientation. Click File. Click Print Setup. Select the printer to be used Change the paper size and orientation in the printer property. Click OK. The printable area is made visible as reference in placing the registration marks. To show the printable area click View, select Show then click Printable Area. The area inside the second dotted border is the printable area. Page 8
Shortcut Keystrokes
The chart above contains all the shortcut keystroke that are built in CorelDRAW X3. It will explain and give meaning to all the shortcut keystrokes that are used in this illustration. Shortcut keystroke convention: Alt+key+key+... means press and hold Alt key then one key at a time less the + character in the order that was in the list e.g. Alt+F+E Ctrl+key+key+.. means press and hold Ctrl key and the rest of the keys less + Character e.g. Ctrl+V Page 9
To start, the image is designed within Corel Draw as a vector drawing or bitmap or combinations of imported bitmap and vector images.
The name of the file of the created in Photoshop is New DraconianAB.psd as shown above. Select it then click the Import button. The image file is not included with the tutorial. The file is used for demonstration only.
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Right click on the object. Select Trace Bitmap. Click High Quality Trace.
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The Trace dialogue box opens in high quality trace mode. The selected object was wrong If the image is shown in color. Change the settings of the trace dialogue as shown above. Select Delete Original Image and Remove Background check boxes. Set Smoothing to 100. Set Detail to max.
The RGB object will be replaced with groups of 2 vector objects which are the contour outlines.
Right click on the new group of 2 objects. Click on Ungroup to ungroup the 2 objects.
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Right click on the 2 highlighted objects. Click on Combine to make one curve object. Right click the RGB object. Click Lock Object. Double click on the image to select the nodes of the contour outline.
Press F12 to open the Outline Pen dialogue box Change the width to 8 points. Click OK. If there is no spiking then skip to page 14. Otherwise do the following: Press F12. Increase the value of Miter Limit. Click OK. If spiking is still visible then press F12 again. Keep increasing the Miter Limit until spiking is gone.
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The contour image with thicker outline for the value of 8 points with black color contour line and fill image behind the color image as shown above. To change the fill and outline colors to match the shirt color press Ctrl+A to select the outline. Right click on the color in the outline color palette that matches the shirt color. Left click on the same color in the color palette to match the fill color to the shirt color.
The image with red fill and outline colors is shown above after the red color in the palette were right and left clicked.
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The rectangle is drawn inside the printable border and away from the image. It is centered Horizontally and Vertically.
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Click on the Application launcher icon (Rocket ship) then click on Registration Marks.
Change the Thickness value to .02. Click on Convert rectangle check box. Click OK.
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Press Ctrl+P to open Print dialogue box. The warning message will show if the page orientation does not match with the printer. Click Yes.
The image above is the dialogue box for Print. The default printer is the Oki C5200n laser printer as shown above. Select the laser or inkjet printer if it is different from the brand used in this tutorial. Assuming that the transfer is opaque the image will be printed normally. Change the property for opaque media weight, select Multi purpose tray and necessary color settings . Click Apply. Click Print to print the image, contour cut lines and registration marks.
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Export the image as a Photoshop (PSD) format. Name the file different from the original image file. Press Ctrl+E to export the image.Select the format in the drop down list. Click on PSD then click Save. Open the file in Photoshop and print it.
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Load it in the cutter. Press enter to reset the carrier. Move the media, using up/down and left/right buttons in the cutter control panel, so that the knife is inside the first registration mark (right bottom). As shown below.
The knife location only works with registration mark scanning in Manual mode. Check the cutter user manual for Auto mode.
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Rotate button
Click on Rotate button to orient the display with the media orientation. Click Send.
The message box will appear to let the operator know to load the media in the cutter. Click OK.. The cutter will search for the registration marks then cut the media.
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Sample Cut
The left image is the cutout and the right image is the weeded is still on the carrier sheet.
media which
Closeup of the cutout. Notice non-symetrical cut of the outline due to the cutter inaccuracy.
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