CorelDRAW x5 basics: the viewing modes (7) - Pixels View

The Pixels view viewing mode allows you to see the pixel-based version of your drawing. By using this viewing mode it's easier for you to position the objects of your drawing more precisely; in addition, this viewing mode will help you to see how your drawing will look like when you'll save it into a bitmap format.

To activate this viewing mode go to View and choose Pixels. When the Pixels viewing mode is activated, the Snap to Pixels option will become active, too.

The Pixels view viewing mode is very useful especially when you are working with very large or very complex drawings; it is also useful when you are working with paths and you want to precisely adjust the curves. When the Pixels view viewing mode is active, if you choose a magnification level equal or greater with 800% the Pixel Grid will be automatically activated (sometimes you might find this option annoying, so I'll show you how you can disable and enable it when you need to). When you move the cursor around the grid various snap points (namely, pixel corner, pixel edge and pixel center) appear, allowing you to gain a batter control over your drawing.

If you want to customise the Pixel Grid go to Tools -> Option (shortkey: CTRL + J) and choose Document -> Grid. In the dialog box which is displayed you can choose how the Pixel Grid will be displayed (as lines or as dots) and how "dense" the grid should be. You can also activate and deactivate the following options: Snap to grid, Snap to pixel and Show pixel grid at 800% and higher zoom. CorelDraw offers you the possibility to change either the colour of the grid or/and the grid's opacity (use this option to avoid the inconvenient situation when your drawing and the grid have the same colour).

Learn how to create a simple winter frame for your photos in Photoshop (3)

You can read the first two parts of this tutorial by clicking on the links below:
Learn how to create a simple winter frame for your photos in Photoshop (1)
Learn how to create a simple winter frame for your photos in Photoshop (2)

When you're done with the configuration of the brush, open the Paths panel and select the previously drawn path. With the path selected, click the Stroke path with brush button located in the lower part of the panel (see the image below). Click this button several times until you obtain the desired frame:

When you are satisfied with the result, you can delete the path, because you'll no longer need it:

Open again the Layers panel. Press and hold down the CTRL key and click on the frame layer's icon to select the frame (see the image below):

Keep the selection active, turn off the frame's layer and select the layer beneath it (which should be the photo's layer). Press and hold down the Alt key and click on the Add layer mask button (seee the image below):

Click on the photo's layer icon. Click the Add a layer style button and choose the Inner glow option from the styles list. Turn on the preview option to preview the changes you're going to make. Set the colour to black and the blending mode to Normal. Adjust the size and the opacity and click OK when you're done.

The final step: remove some of the white margin. Select the Crop tool from the toolbox (shortcut key: C). Click one of the Crop Handles and drag it inward. Press and hold down the Shift and the Alt keys to crop the image from it's center and to preserve the image's aspect ratio. Press Enter to crop the image.

Happy Women's Day!

Happy Spring eCards

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Send free Spring Celebration eCards, spring messages and quotes, photos and images with spring flowers. It's time again for the bright colors to blossom and the earth to celebrate the return of the season. Enjoy the spring and share the beauty of this season with all your friends by sending them a cheerful spring greeting card.

Happy Chinese New Year 2015! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

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Chinese New Year of the Goat / Sheep / Ram greeting ecards

Hello everyone, in this post I would like to present you our Chinese New Year ecards gallery. We have tried to cover as many client-wishes as possible, so in this gallery you can find both corporate ecards and e-cards for friends and family, animated ecards and static ecards, e-cards with messages written in traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese characters (and, occasionally, in english). All these e-cards are available for free on our website, www.seiza.ro

Learn how to create a simple winter frame for your photos in Photoshop (2)

This post is a continuation of this one:

Now it's time to personalise the brush that will be applied on the path. First, select the Brush tool from the toolbox (or press the B key on your keyboard). With the Brush tool selected, open the Brush Preset picker and load the Assorted Brushes set (see the image below):

From the Assorted Brushes set choose the Crosshatch4 brush or the Crosshatch2 brush:

Depending on the size of your photo you might need to change the size (diameter) of the brush. For my photo (which is aprox 900x750 px) I've set the diameter of the brush to 50 px. The size of the selected brush is displayed in the Options bar (see the image below). If you need to increase / decrease the size of the brush you're using press the "] [" keys (the square brackets keys).

After you've set the size of the brush click the Toggle the Brush panel button located in the Options bar (or press the F5 key) to open the Brush Panel.

In the Brush Panel open the Shape Dynamics panel. Deactivate the Pen Pressure option and set the Roundness Jitler at about 30-40%

Open the Shape Dynamics panel. Change the scattering settings (Scatter, Count, Count Jitter) until your brush will look (approximately) like the one shown in the image below:

When you're satisfied with the result close the Brush Panel.

Read the 3rd part of this tutorial here:

We are selling: Chinese New Year web banner sets

We are selling on shutterstock.com:

Chinese New Year web banner set. Color model: RGB. Format: high-resolution jpeg file. Dimensions: up to 5000 x 6000 px / 42.3 cm x 50.8 cm. Vertical text meaning: Happy New Year. Horizontal text meaning: Year of the Goat / Sheep. Contains specific elements: lantern papers, oriental gold nuggets.

Chinese New Year web banner set. Color model: RGB. Format: high-resolution jpeg file. Dimensions: 8192 x 4307 / 69.4 cm x 36.5 cm. Text meaning: Happy New Year; Year of the Goat / Sheep. Contains specific elements: lantern papers, oriental gold nuggets.

For more Chinese New Year web banners and ecards / printable cards visit our page on shutterstock: http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1888550p1.html

Learn how to create a simple winter frame for your photos in Photoshop (1)

Hi, everyone. In this tutorial I'll show you how to create a simple winter photo-frame for your photos.

Open your photo in Adobe Photoshop (I use Photoshop CS6, but earlier versions of Photoshop CS are fine as well).

Now, first step: you need some extra space around your photo, so you have to increase the Canvas size. Press CTRL ALT C (C from canvas) to open the Canvas Size dialog box. If you don't want to use shortcuts then go to Menu and choose Edit > Keyboard shortcuts > Application Menus > Canvas size. Don't modify anchor placement (by default, Photoshop centers the image and adds or removes the canvas around it, and that's exactly what we need for this tutorial).

In the Width and Height boxes you can see the width and the height of your photo, which, for the moment, are identical with the width and the height of your canvas. Increase both the width and the weight of your canvas with 50-100px, so you'll have enough space to play with the frame. Don't worry if it's too much space around your photo, we'll remove (some of) it later.

Using the Canvas Size dialog box you can also set a canvas colour. The following options are available: Foreground colour, Background colour, White, Black, Gray, or Other. If you select Other, Photoshop will open the Color Picker dialog box, where you can select any colour you need. In this tutorial we won't use this option, but it's better to know about it.

Step two: Create a new layer beneath the layer that contains your photo. The easiest way to do this is to open the Layer panel (press F7 if you don't see this panel on your workspace; if you still can't see the Layer panel that means the panel was opened but was collapsed, and that's way you wasn't able to see it; by pressing F7 you've just closed it. Press again F7 to open it again) and to click the New Layer button while holding the CTRL key down.

This combination (CTRL + New Layer) will create a new layer beneath the current layer. If you click the New Layer button without holding down the CTRL key, the new layer will be positioned above the current layer (the layer containing your photo). In this case you have to select the new layer and to move it beneath the layer that contains the photo. You can move it by pressing the CTRL and the left square bracket key ("[").

Fill the new layer with White colour: in the layer panel click on the new layer icon to select it, select the White colour as the Foreground colour, press the G key to activate the Paint Bucket Tool (or select it from the toolbar), and click anywhere inside the layer to fill it with the Foreground colour (White). Alternatively, you can select a layer and press Alt + the Backspace key to fill the layer whit the foreground colour (in our case, White colour).

Create a new layer and bring it on top of all other layers. From the toolbox select the Rectangle tool and select the Path drawing mode (see the image below). Draw a path around your photo; try to stay as close as possible to the photo's edges, but don't worry if the path does not match exactly to your photo. If you are addicted to precision, you can specify the dimensions of the shape to correspond with the width and weight of your photo and after that you can center the shape on the canvas to match exactly the photo's edges.

Open the Paths panel by choosing Window > Paths from the main menu. Double click on the path to give it a name and to save it:

Read the part two of this tutorial here:

We are selling: Printable greeting cards for the Chinese New Year 2015

We are selling on shutterstock.com:

Printable Greeting card for the Chinese New Year 2015. Color model: CMYK. Format: high-resolution jpeg file. Dimensions of the jpeg file: 2890 x 4310 / 24.5 cm x 36.5 cm. Chinese text translation: "Gong Xi Fa Chai" = "Congratulations and be prosperous!"

Printable Greeting card for the Chinese New Year 2015. Color model: CMYK. Format: high-resolution jpeg file. Dimensions of the jpeg file: 2890 x 4310 / 24.5 cm x 36.5 cm. Chinese text translation: 1. In the upper side of the image: "Gong Xi Fa Chai" = "Congratulations and be prosperous!". 2. In the left side of the image are the chinese ideograms for the Year of the Goat / Sheep.

For more Chinese New Year web banners and ecards / printable cards visit our page on shutterstock: http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1888550p1.html

CorelDRAW x5 basics: the viewing modes (6) - the Wireframe and Simple Wireframe viewing modes (Part 2)

Why do we need the Wireframe view and Simple Wireframe view

Some people (usually beginners) tend to completely ignore the Wireframe viewing modes, but you should know that they are extremely useful and, as your artworks will become more complex, these viewing modes will become essential for you. The list below, without being exhaustive, provides several examples of situations in which you may need to use one of these two viewing modes.

- in Wireframe view modes it's very easy to precisely position every object of your drawing.

- sometimes you might need to check the basic form of an object; the easier way to see the basic forms of your objects is to preview your artwork in Wireframe view mode.

- use the Wireframe viewing modes to check if you drawing contains unnecessary copies of objects (this method is particularly useful when setting files for output to machinery such as plotter cutting, laser cutting or engraving).

- In Wireframe view mode it's easier to edit a complex path or to check your artwork to see if it contains open paths. Also you can see if the lines are smooth in their curve lines or require the addition of extra nodes, node control points or require adjusting.

- before printing your artwork you should check if two (or more) objects with the same fill and stroke colour are overlapping (in the Wireframe view mode they will appear as overlapping lines). You should pay a particular attention to your text - especially when you are using serif-fonts. If your letters are overlapping this will create problems for industrial machinery and large format digital printing equipment.

- when you can't find an object in your artwork (missing elements, which are usually hidden by other elements rather than actually missing, are a very common problem for the beginners) the easier way to find it is to commute to Wireframe viewing mode - as you can see in the images below:

I wish you all a Happy New Year!