Welcome! If you’ve stumbled onto this site in search of illustration tutorials using CorelDRAW, congratulations are in order. I’m Steve Bain, author and co-author of a dozen or so reference books on past versions of CorelDRAW and other graphic applications (see my About page).
There are roughly 60 or so tutorials on this site.You’ll find tips and tricks on using CorelDRAW and PHOTO-PAINT. If you find them useful, consider supporting this site by making a donation. All donations go straight back into supporting the site.
If you’re upgrading, consider purchasing through the Upgrade page to get the latest discounts and support this site.
To get started, visit the Tutorials page or use the Search field to locate something specific. If you’re considering copying anything you see here, note that all content is copyrighted.
You can influence what kind of content appears on this blog using the survey below.
Otherwise, be sure to comment on your successes (and failures) with any of these tutorials so that all may benefit from your experience. I will definitely read all comments with interest.
Enjoy!
Steve Bain
s.bain (at) telus.net
CorelDRAW! Tips & Tricks 
Love the ease and simplicity with which this site can be navigated. It’s obvious that much thought and effort have gone in to the layout, articles, and tutorials. Congratulations, Steve, and keep up the good work…I’m sure your blog will see many hits.
Great site Steve! At last a tutorial site with an author that knows the shortcut keys in CorelDRAW.
How about a quick tutorial on making a movie in
Photo Paint? i,e. in frame 1 make a box here,
frame 2 a box here, now run the movie..etc
thanks
Great idea. The movie function can be used to make animated GIFs etc. I’ll add it to the growing list.
I’m so pleased to find this. I’ll be trawling through all the posts I think. Most of the graphics tutorials I have found up till now are all Photoshop, but I have Corel Draw and Photo Paint which are great programs and I love them, so it’s great to finally find something to help me make the most of them.
Saw the post in the CD4 newsgroup … I’ll be checking this out. Thanks.
very interesting. Looking forward to learning more from you, Steve.
There are more tutorials on the way Oxana. Thanks for the encouragement.
Excellent blog!!! Thanks Steve, you are very generous for sharing your great articles with us.
Thanks Michael.
Steve –are there any tutorials on how to take a photo, isolate object from background and then turn the object into a one or two tone silhouette? By the way — very good website —thanks
Rhonda, the short answer is, likely no. But, posterization allows for as few as two colors. Try this brief sequence:
Mask the object (any mask tool)
Copy and remove mask
Paste as new object
Image > Transform > Posterize … Level=2.
I am so glad to have found you (Steve) and the work you have been providing.
I have been reading your tutorials from the corel website and I must say you have made me grow in terms of skills in corel. My first work was a result of the tips I got from you. Steve, how about making short videos?
Thanks once again.
I’m proud of this tutorials, thank you very much for helping me
Greatly Appreciated
You have made our decorated apparel line so much easier thanks to your tutorials. No question your info. is the easiest to understand out there!
Thanks Again
Ric
Thanks ya stave, kamu udah membuat aku semakin Creative dalam membuat sebuah design object yang bagus & Baik. Karna memang pekerjaan aku adalah seorang Setting design. Sekali lagi thanks atas tips & triknya.
Senang mendengar anda menikmati blogsite. Semoga beruntung! Glad to hear you are enjoying the blogsite. Good luck!
Tutorial of creating a glass bead is effective to the learner .
Web Designing Company
Great work Steve! You’re appreciated.
Thanks Steve…
Sangat bermanfaat buat kami…..
I have challenges bringing my designs to life and also making use of the effects on the corel draw app, what can you please recommend
I recommend starting with importing bitmap images of the scenes you’d like to illustrate and use them as a tracing source. Start with the basic line drawing tools and progress to applying color and special effects such as blends and contours. Also, consider picking up a study book such as the CorelDRAW Official Guide.
Love this site! Would you happen know a script code for PhotoPaint (X3) that resizes and resamples differnt size photos to the same height and width? (As you know, using the PhotoPaint “Record” button processes everything at the same percentage)
Sounds like you are looking for a macro. You could create one yourself with a little research, or there are plenty of downloadable macros online. Try http://www.macromonster.com for starters.
keka anna steve anna ( Steve Brother Superb)
How easy is it to create stick people/pets in coreldraw?
Hi Linda, assuming this is a serious question — stick people and/or animals are childs’ play in an application like CorelDRAW. In fact, there are pre-drawn symbol fonts included with CorelDRAW that are filled with people/animal shapes, so you wouldn’t really need to draw them.
Yes, it was a serious question. Very new to coral draw and I really appreciate this blog. Thanks for answering.
How do you retain old fonts from one version to the next. Every time there is an upgrade I lose fonts and my computer guy doesn’t seem to know how to save them. Can I open an old version of Corel and just retreve the fonts without uploading the entire program? Note: when I get a new computer I don’t go back and upload my older versions, I just start with the last and then upgrade.
Kay- Font files are stored and installed independently of your computer applications. Before upgrading your computer, try copying the fonts to a USB drive and reinstall from there. Cheers and good luck. -Steve
Thanks so much to this site..
i have some questions
1. Can i work in corel draw without using mouse ?
the purpose of this question is that i want to improve my speed to work with corel draw.
2. how much usefull a script in corel draw?
the purpose of this question is that i want save my time to create design again and again same format so i am searching scripts (like Java script) where i create a multiple design formats. it is possible or not. please ensure me about this question.
Yes, I believe CorelDRAW is compatible with most recent tablet hardware. I recommend Wacom.
Regarding scripts, they are extremely useful if you can find an existing script that will fit your exact needs. Failing that, CorelDRAW comes with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) which enables you to create your own scripts. Using the right scripts will definitely save you time for repetitive tasks – especially if they are complex tasks. Many script developers have also sold the scripts they have created to supplement their income.
Hi Steve,
Even though Corel can import most versions of an .ai file, in many cases it always seems to be a version behind Adobe — therefore not being able to open the “latest version” of an Illustrator file (now CS5). And sometimes even .PDF files don’t import very well into Corel. They import with a “This file is Corrupted” error message.
I don’t want to work in Illustrator, so I wanted to know if there is a file conversion program out there that I can use to simply open an .ai file and convert it to a .cdr file format or even an .eps format so I can bring it into Corel.
Thank you for your site and your help,
Ray2
I’ve been using Corel Draw since 1992 and have tried other alternatives. I use it in real world applications for design and fabrication. Something Adobe just could not do for me with the exception of AutoCad. Nothing beats Corel!
Hi John, great to hear from a long-time user like yourself. Thanks for your comment. I totally concur!
Hi,
When i use the sphere effect on PhotoPaint X5, it can take 10 minutes to process, with “quality” and -2 settings.
I’m using a laptop with 4MB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo, 64 bit.
File is a jpg photo, 7 MB, paper size set at at 10000 x 6000 pxls.
Any idea how to speed up the process?
when Iam Doing postscript it appears”one or more fountain fills may shows banding” . How can I overcome from this problem
I love this site, its so full of new designs and I’ve learn t a lot just now
I wondered if you can help me. I have been getting corel 11 files and we work in x 14 and x 15. Some times when we get the file the colors have been changed into different colors in corel. Customer says it is a pantone color light blue but it opens as black. Is this an issue with the old versions of corel?
This is a color management issue. Color managment tools in CorelDRAW X5 are vastly different than in previous versions. If you are handling files created by other users and from different versions, you may wish to research all the related issues. I suggest checking the Corel site for a teaching resource. Start with this: Choose Resources > Product Help > CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5, click the Search button, and enter Color Management as the term. Click Go to see the a list of results and start with the ‘Understanding Color Management’ topic. That should get you started. You may also want to check out ‘Managing Colors When Importing and Pasting Files’ topic.
Hi Steve. Since you are an expert in this field I wonder if you could recommend how we might find a programmer to develop some Corel add-ons for us. We are a company in the label and nameplate business and use the software extensively but need some upgrades to match our business growth.
If you can track down Nick Wilkinson (my contributor on the CorelDRAW 10 and 11 Official Guides) in Whales he may be able to help. Nick wrote the VBA chapters of both those guides, as well as Corel’s VBA Scripting Guide and is an expert in the field. I will forward your query to him.
I’m using Corel X4. I’ve never used the Image Adjustment Lab feature in X4 so I thought I’d give it a try. The procedure is the same for X4 Draw and Paint. In Draw I clicked on a photo then went to Bitmaps > Image Adjustment Lab (IAL). The IAL dialog window opens up and a before & after image is there. As you make the adjustments you see the after window show the changes. So far so good. The problem starts when I was ready to click the OK button to SAVE the changes. The dialog window is not large enough to display the buttons at the bottom of the window and there is no side slider to go up or down. I’ve tried resizing the window, but that doesn’t work either. I just can’t get to those bottom buttons to save my adjustments. When I use the “X” to close the window I lose my photo adjustments. It’s same problem with my X4 Draw & Paint programs. I can only see as far as the “Create Snapshot” button.
Did I get a “Lemon” X4 program?
Any suggestions for solving this problem??
Thanks,
Ray2
Great efforts, keep it up dear.
Very nice sharing guys such a lovely and informative content
I have a problem with my Dialog box of powerTrace I couldn’t see the ok button and cannot accept the trace.. can you help me thanks
Such as really amazing tutorials its very helpfull to beginers… thank 2 Steve Bain
Really in this site every tutorials is abstract and its usefull to every beginer.. thank 2 Steve Bain
I have just found your site. I will be taking a look around. I have been using CD for years, Version 5, 10, 11, X3 and now X5. I love Corel Draw but I am very intimiated with Phot Paint. I can take a photo form draw to pant edit it and then back to draw, I am interested in any tutorials that will help me get to know paint better. I would love to creat entire files in paint as I have seen some do in Photo Shop (which I do not know or have). Many Thanks
To start into PhotoPaint, try this blog on Mastering the Art of Selections in PhotoPaint.
We’re a screen printing company and my wife has been using Corel since .v3. Printing separations for multi-color designs is a breeze. I am just getting into web design and would appreciate ANY help/assistance possible. If not here, just point me in the right direction.
We just ordered x6 and I am looking forward to it’s arrival.
Always great to hear from a long-time CorelDRAW user Mark! CorelDRAW is excellent for creating site prototypes/concepts, and for creating excellent graphics for Web site designs. However, I wouldn’t recommend using it for the actual deployment. Instead, try using software specifically designed for creating Web pages.
Huge fan Steve Bain, love the tutorials, along with the official CorelDraw 12′ Guide. keep rocking it !
whoah this blog is wonderful i love studying your articles.
Keep up the great work! You understand, lots of persons are hunting round for this info, you could aid them greatly.
Steve ,Thanks a lot my dear.I am very happy to find your amazing tips and tricks for working on a very difficult software like this Corel Draw.I am doing it very good now. Thanks again.
I loved the book CorelDraw Studio Techniques by David Huss and Gary Priester (1998). Do you know of similar books, videos, pdfs along these lines of information for current versions. Would really appreciate finding some resources other than Lynda.com. Thank you.
Thanks Steve. Today is my first time to use Corel Draw, and I do anything reasonable. Am really in need of ur hand guide me through. As beginner, how can I design a form of my choice? e.g. Ma broda has a clinic & I want design all the lab request form for the clinic, it might comprise of some images. waitn to hear from u. Tnx once again
I am trying to print a picture that’s in an email. I want it to print through my CorelDRAW. If that’s possible? Can you refer me to the directions on how to do it?? A friend of mine told me about you! I hope you can help me like you helped her. Thanks!!! Michelle
Right-click the picture and choose Copy. Launch PhotoPAINT and choose New From Clipboard in the Welcome screen. Or if PhotoPAINT is already open, choose File > New from Clipboard.
David Lewis, I’ve been using CorelDraw since the beginning, had my son on it when he was 5 yrs old. My Corel 15 @ work has stopped showing a preview when I go to clip art. Any suggestions?
David, have you tried reinstalling the suite?
Please how can I make my text in one paragraph to display in a pherical form?
Try using a Powerclip effect.
Hi all! I see a few people have had the same problem as I’m having, with the PowerTrace window being too large for the screen and not being able to access the OK buttons – very frustrating!!! They don’t seem to have received any responses though, does anyone know how to fix this problem please?
Hi Steve … I’m a rank amateur on Corel X7. After a while the mask do no want to be removed from the screen. What am I doing wrong and how do I remove the mask ?
Try using Ctrl+R (remove mask command). I recommend opening the Object Manager docker to keep track of the objects/layers you are working on.
Steve, I have been preparing text in my local language Hindi in MS Word, using INSCRIPT or MS Transliteration methods. I would like to import some documents in CorelDraw X7 and prepare a publication, but the import is not happening properly and even fonts are not being recognized. Can you pls advise? I am using font Mangal in MS Word
I use CorelDraw 12 installed on 2 pcs: an old Viao and my main Lenovo, both laptops. Several type faces have failed to make the transition from Viao (and my Mini Mac) to the Lenovo: Even though the type face is listed on the drop down, when I key in I get little boxes where the letters should be. On the Lenovo in Word these faces do appear, but when transferred to CorelDraw, same little boxes, no type.
A related problem is the inability on the Lenovo to toggle between CorelDraw and CorelPaint; a feature that is not greyed out on the less usable Viao. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Steve, I am a new user and found the tutorial I read quite informative and easy to understand. I was wondering if you have any resources on how to create a “player card” in CorelDrawX7? My grand daughter’s (age 3) soccer team is doing pictures and I would love to make them a player’s card. Thank you for some great information.
It sounds like an intensive, one-ff project. You can certainly do this in CorelDRAW, but have you checked out http://theplayingcardfactory.com ?
I did check out the resource you suggested but this site is for playing cards – the 52 in a deck variety. I am after a player’s card – the child’s picture on one side and game ‘stats’ on the other side. I played with a template and created a png file that I superimposed on the photo of the child. I added the name and player number then printed the card on 5×7 photo paper. It was a hoot! Thanks for the suggestion Steve.
I’m new to this Corel Draw. Please do kindly help me with the details of the editing, drawing, sizing the photos or picture or any other information.