corel questions

[Barbara Buhse]

Hi all... this is probably an easy thing for most of you, but I am not that good with Corel (12) yet...I want to engrave pictures of people and have them also cut out to the shape of the people, for christmas ornaments.I am not sure how to get the outline of the subject to vector. I have been editing original photos in MS Picture It because it seems to be the easiest way for me to manipulate photos, but when I import it into corel, the "cutout" is in a box with a white background which I can't get rid of. So, although the background does not engrave, the only cutouts I seem to be able to do are basic shapes. How can I get the shape of the subject outlined so I can vector it?I don't know much about using Corel trace either.Thanks guys!barbara

[Joe Pelonio]

You are importing a bitmap so it will not cut. You can use the smart draw tool to outline around the shape, use the shape tool to clean it up if needed, then make sure that outline is hairline and you can cut. Make
the outline inside of the undesirable bitmap outline and it will be cut
without it, just makes a little more waste on the material. The smart draw
tool may take a litle practice but it automatically smooths out what you have drawn with the mouse, and the shape tool can be tricky for a beginner, but practice and use the help function. Corel Trace is not going to help, it will trace everything in the bitmap. That should be used for cutting a scanned or clipart solid shape you want to cut out, like a logo,
or silhouette.

[Chris Cordina]

I have a solution, it is not hard but it is confusing. I was shown this in Adobe Photoshop elements. Don’t understand all steps, but it does work.
1. Magic wand all white(or parts you do not want) area tolerance 1 or 2.
2. Delete
3. Select & Inverse
4. Delete
At this point you should see crawlies around the outline

Layer & New & OK
Edit & Fill(Black) & OK
Select & Inverse & Delete(nothing will seem to happen)
Select & Deselect
Layer & Flatten Image
Image & Mode & Bitmap & OK & OK
File & Save as BMP or PSD
Open Corel & Import picture
Bitmap & Trace Bitmap
Trace by Outline & Close & Yes & return to draw
Select everything & Arrange & Ungroup all
Under object manager select monochrome bitmap and delete
Select whole picture again and left click on no color , right click on red color
Clean up
Hope this helps more than confuse:)

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Barbara;
Another way...
I assume you have a picture of a person with a background. In Photoshop:
1. Delete the entire background-use wand, eraser, whatever it takes
2. Select background with magic wand
3. Select inverse
4. Save this image as the detail of your picture
5. Use eyedropper to select black-fill in selected area with black . You should now have an image with a white background and an all black image portion.
Save this as a bitmap file
6. Imort this bitmap to Trace-it will give you a vector of the outline.
7. In Corel, import your detail picture and then your vector bitmap-vector should fit exactly around the detail pic.
Good Luck
George

[Barbara Buhse]

Thanks guys...I don't have photoshop (For shame!) but the steps you gave me to make a cutout have really helped. since I know how to make a background shape in the program I do use, I can really use the same process you have given me here, and adjust it to the program that I use.I never thought of it... I'm going to try to make the background a shape, and then see if I can import just this and use the powerclip feature.I HAVEN'T TRIED IT YET, SO IF ANYONE HAS ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE POST IT, since I can use all the help I can get!Barbara

[Chris Cordina]

Barbara, what I and I think George are both getting at is, once you have a silhouette Corel trace has something to tracearound. I often do this with scans from scroll saw books. After tracing I get rid of extra lines and little nibs that always seem to crop up. Works for me.

[Joe Pelonio]

If it's not affordable and convnient to take a Corel class somewhere, we got a training CD that has been really good for new employees. It's called CorelDRAW12 Unleashed by Foster D Coburn III. It was over a year ago but I think it was about $40, on the box the website is www.unleash.com (http://www.unleash.com)
but maybe Amazon or one of those has it for less. Maybe a suggestion for someone to get you for Christmas.

[J Porter]

You may also want to try the "Cutout" tool in CorelPaint.
From CorelDraw, select a bitmap object and Edit it which will open the object in Paint. Select Image --> Cutout.
Following the screen instructions and use the icons on this window from left to right. Simply follow a rough outline around the oject. (Playing with it, you'll find this is not a very critical step).
Next, use the fill tool on the object. It'll probably look terrible... lol.. just continue on.
Closing Paint will take the object back to Draw with new properties namely being that the object no longer has a background. This should give you a much better Trace If you'll convert it to Black/white, Trace it, and then use a transparent fill with a colored outline after you separate the trace.
Did I totally confuse you? I'm not the best at outlining each step. Feel free to ask questions if I didn't explain this correctly.