newbie question about outlining

[james burchfield]

this may be a easy answer question but i have tried and cant figure any other way of doing it without hand tracing it. i have these 2 images that im trying to outline the outside to cut them out. when i outline the santa the whole picture is red and i cant even outline the snow flake. im using corel draw x3, not asking for anyone to do it just wondering if does anyone know a way to do it and could tell me.

thanks

[George M. Perzel]

Hi James;
This is one of the most discussed questions in the history of SMC-lot of threads available showing many different methods. Here's a quick one:
1. Select entire image
2. Click on "bitmap"- convert to bitmap
3. Select "edit bitmap"- should open in Paint
4. Select "magic wand tool"
5. Click on background- (selects area around object}
6. Click on Mask-Invert (selects object)
7. Select Paint Bucket and fill selection with color-any
8. Close image- should go back to Draw-now with solid color image
9.Select image
10. Trace-quick trace
11. You now have outline of image in vector format.

Sounds complicated?- takes about a minute.
Good luck
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[George M. Perzel]

Hi again, James;
Forgot-Here's your traces. (in X3)
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Don Necaise]

George
DOes that work in corel 11 also? I am having the same problem when I am trying to trace a bitmap.

[Dave Johnson29]

i have these 2 images that im trying to outline the outside to cut them out.


Hi James,

Any chance of saving those in version 10 and post them here? I am a newbie too and would like to follow along and learn these techniques.

Thanks in advance.

[james burchfield]

i dont have version 10 so cant save them as 10 but here they are in i believe bmp format

[John Noell]

James, choose "Save As" and then look on the right hand side of the Save dialog box for "Version." It is a pop-out menu that offers you the chance to save in an earlier version (all the way back to V7 for X3).

[John Noell]

Hmmm. I took the Santa, chose "Trace bitmap" with 'remove background', then out a Contour around it (at .001 in), broke the contour group apart, and there is my outline. (The computer takes a minute or two -and this is a pretty fast computer - to to do the Contour but this seems simpler and easier.) Then remove black fill and change line to black hairline - there is the outline. Is there some reason not to do it this way? (I'm new to this as well.)

[Dave Johnson29]

i dont have version 10 so cant save them as 10 but here they are in i believe bmp format

Thanks James,

As John pointed out it is an easy option in the Save Dialog of Corel. I will have a play with this one and see what I come up. Can you post your results after lasering and I will do likewise.