Corel Draw Question Templates

[Jim Watkins]

Hi all,
I am making some templates where I need for some background lines or circles that show the area where text can be placed on a gift.

Does does the laser ignore dashed lines?

In otherwords, if I want to make a circle to show where I can type my text or put my graphics, can I make it a dashed line and will the laser ignore it or what can I do?

I tried to do it in layers, and have one layer unprintable, but it didn't raster or cut anything.

Any suggestions?

All help would be appreciated.

THanks all

[Thad Nickoley]

Cant you just show it as a hairline. Hairline wont raster

[Thad Nickoley]

Just click on you object and go to the right side of the screen to object properties and make it hairline.

I hope i understand what you are looking for,

[Jim Watkins]

THanks for the quick reply. That would be fine if it were a raster only job, which in this case it is.

However I know of times where on some of the projects I am working on, they will be combo Raster/Vector jobs.

Do you have any suggestions for that or will it be I have to do jobs like that in two parts?

Thanks

[Howard Garner]

Select a color that does not print to the laser?

[Thad Nickoley]

how do you Differentiate the colors to the print command?

[Jim Watkins]

No, I have not gotten that far in learning Corel yet.

Guess I have more learning to do.

lol

[Thad Nickoley]

I'm not quite there but I think I'm getting closer. In your print menu go to properties then advanced then color mapping. you can pick a color and adjust accordingly

[Jim Watkins]

Cool, I'll give it a try.

BTW, any hint at getting text to mirror? I a having a problem with that now and I needed it for a gift. Issue just came up a few minutes ago.

[Jim A. Walters]

I think if you would put the objects not to be printed (ontbp) on it's own layer (using the object manager docker), then right click the (ontbp) , select 'order' -> 'to back', then make that layer unprintable. Make sure all other objects are on a different layer, and the different layer is selected as the active layer.

Clear as mud?

I tried this out using CorelDRAW ver. 12 printing to Acrobat. The non-printing layers didn't print.

[Jim A. Walters]

I believe the text has to be artistic text, to mirror properly. Paragraph text has problems mirroring. It wants to rotate 270 degrees instead of flipping.

[Harlan Kilbourn]

Jim

If you get the paragraph test centered where you need it, you can mirror the test by first converting it to Curves and then Mirroring the converted text.

1. Get Paragraph text positioned and Centered
2. With Paragraph Text selected
A. select "Arrange" ---> Convert to Curves
B. Mirror the Converted Curves

Also a dotted line will engrave or cut. As Jim A. indicated put your circle on a different layer and turn off printing and modification of that layer.

A different color will also work if you use the options in the print driver but it should be more error free to put the template on a unprintable layer.

[Shane Turner]

If you're using a recent version of Corel you can make a template by assigning your "template" object to another layer. And then setting that layer to be uneditable and unprintable. That well leave it visible to you, but invisible to the laser.

To use this you need Object manager open. If it's not open already you can access it from the "TOOLS > Object Manager" menu.

Choose "New Layer" from the little arrow button at the top
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Move your template objects to this new layer by dragging them in the object manager.
Then make the layer non printable.
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[Thad Nickoley]

Very cool,

Thank you Shane!!

[Dave Jones]

Do as the others have said, and put the template on it's own layer and set it to not print (printer icon next to the layer in the Object Manager palette).

Be aware that as long as that layer is still visible when you go to print, even if it is set as non printable, it will be flagged by the printer driver as "an issue". The issues tab of the printer driver will show a yellow warning saying "1 Issue" and if you click that tab it will say something about there being a visible layer set not to print. That's OK. You can go ahead and print and that layer will not print.

Or do what I do and make that layer invisible just before printing. Then no warning in the issues tab.

[Jim Watkins]

Wow, you guys are the greatest. I am posting my picture of the plate I did this afternoon. It is a gift for my neice's wedding.

We took her wedding invitation and placed it on a decorative plate. I expect to use this on my website as a regular product.

[James A. Wolfe]

I add a rectangle or circle around the text area and make it in a color the laser driver doesn't "see". I use a Universal laser and the only colors I use are red, black and blue as assigned by the profile. I switch off all other colors and make my guides green or orange.
Jim

[Jerry Allen]

I often use the Guides layer for template items. It defaults to No Print. You can still align to the objects without changing layers. Fitting Text to Path and some other functions will move the objects to the Guides layer, but alignment does not.