CorelDRAW Commands: Groups, Combine, Lenses & More
CorelDRAW Commands and Features
The Group command allows you to create a single unit from multiple objects. Each object will maintain its original properties. Grouping is useful to avoid accidental changes. Groups are helpful for drawings containing many complex elements.
The Combine command creates a single object from two or more objects. It can create transparent holes and join line segments or curves.
Lenses in CorelDRAW
When a lens is applied to an object, it takes on the appearance of a piece of colored plastic film. A lens can be any color. Placing a lens over objects makes them adopt the color of the lens.
Using Guidelines
Use guidelines to help accurately align objects. Objects close to a guideline automatically snap to it. For example, if you pass the mouse pointer over the center of a polygon and drag it to an oblique guideline, the sticking point will be centered on that line.
Trim and Intersect Commands
- Trim: Select the object to be cropped, then select the target object. The trimmed items must be on or under the target object.
- Intersect: Creates a new object from the area where two or more objects overlap. The result is an object with the size and shape of the overlapping area. The Intersect command allows you to keep any, some, or all of the original objects.
Grayscale Lenses
If a brown Grayscale lens is placed on a photo, it will have a sepia color. A black and white photo uses a grayscale lens. The shade of gray for the “lens” is chosen from the grayscale.
Properties Bar
The Properties Bar is a context-sensitive command bar that shows different buttons and options depending on the selected tool or object.
Blocking Objects
When an object is blocked on a page, it cannot be moved, resized, processed, filled, or altered.
Extrusion and Perspective
Extruding an object gives it an appearance of depth and perspective. The extruded surfaces appear to be moving toward a vanishing point.
Dialog Boxes
Unlike most dialog boxes, some can be kept open while working on a document, providing access to common operations and allowing experimentation with different effects.
Adding Shadows
Shadows can be added to most objects created with CorelDRAW, including artistic text, paragraph text, and bitmap pictures.
Duplication
Duplicating is the same as Copy and Paste.
Bézier Tool
The Bézier tool lets you draw lines and curves by placing each node with the mouse. When connected, nodes form a line or curve. This method allows you to quickly create complex and irregular shapes and precisely control the node position.
Refining Lines with Guides
Horizontal or vertical guides can be refined based on their distance horizontally or vertically with respect to point 0 of the corresponding ruler. Oblique lines are defined by guides in both specific ruler coordinates or in one coordinate and an angle. Objects can be aligned on a visual guide to snap into it for an exact position. Horizontal and vertical guidelines can be created by dragging them from a ruler to the drawing window. The guidelines added appear in all pages of a multi-page document.
CorelDRAW Overview
CorelDRAW is an intuitive graphic design application that offers designers the opportunity to enjoy their work. The program is designed to meet the needs of today’s graphic design professionals, whether working in advertising, printing, poster creation, or manufacturing.
Grid
The Grid helps align objects accurately. When enabled, objects moved or drawn on the grid automatically snap to the nearest grid marker, both vertically and horizontally.