coraldraw questions

[stanv77]

Thanks mike for the offe to help. I need all the help I can get.
I have watched some of the tutorials on you tube and I see where you can take imported picture and outline it without hand tracing . I would like to know how to do that. I hace coraldraw 7 if that makes a difference.
Thanks again
Stan V

[mtylerfl]

Thanks mike for the offe to help. I need all the help I can get.
I have watched some of the tutorials on you tube and I see where you can take imported picture and outline it without hand tracing . I would like to know how to do that. I hace coraldraw 7 if that makes a difference.
Thanks again Stan V

Hi Stan,

It's been quite awhile since I've used version 7. There are a lot of changes (improvements) in the Power Trace/auto trace since then. I'm currently using CorelDRAW X3 and X4. I upgraded to X4 because they added the centerline trace feature, similar to Adobe Illustrator (I bought that for the same reason - for centerline trace...well, and also so Joe L. and I could seamlessly exchange files!)

Auto tracing is not always the best way to go, but sometimes it can help save some time. I normally just draw my vectors manually over bitmap imports...for example, almost all of my projects begin life as my own hand drawn sketches with pencil and paper. I scan the sketches, import them into CorelDRAW, and draw (trace) the sketch by hand. It is usually faster than doing an auto trace then cleaning up nodes etc. after that.

I briefly googled for some CorelDRAW 7 tutorials for the tracing function. I didn't find any, but I think there must be some still out there. Maybe you can spend a little more time googling for that. Ones I found are for newer versions, so the menu commands may not match what you have. In your version, you won't have the centerline trace option. This means all of your traces of simple line drawings will have "double" outlines around the picture lines. Lots of node editing will be required to eliminate the extra vectors. The centerline trace puts a single line inside of the picture lines.

I've used other trace features in other programs and have a bit more control over how the trace is performed, in some cases. Still, I generally prefer to draw nice clean, new vectors to get the best result overall.

Not much help on this I'm afraid, since I can't really recall what CorelDRAW 7 features were for the trace function. I've been using CorelDRAW since version 1.0 when my wife bought that for me for Christmas. I think that was in the late 1980's (1988 or '89?) since I know I lived in Phoenix AZ at that time. Anyway, when I shift to a new version of "anything" I often forget the specific differences between versions.

EDIT: Just thought of something...maybe you could post a screenshot of your CorelDRAW 7 interface (the part that has the trace menu functions...might be in the "Bitmap" menu). I'll bet that will trigger my memory on it. Maybe I can give you some general procedures to try.

[stanv77]

Hi Mike
Thanks for the reponce on coral draw.I am a little computer challenged. This coral draw program is one a friend of mine gave me to use. Maybe it is to old and out dated. I will look in to purchasing a new version and then I will get back with . Or maybe the tutorials will make more sence to me.

Thanks again
Stan