X3 is here!

[kevco]

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307335&pid=1047025934319

the trace is awesome! Corel finally has a good trace program:cool1:

[GraphixCALC]

COOL! I didn't even know it was ready for release. I thought it was a ways off yet...thanks for the heads-up!

[Steve C.]

That link is not working for me.


Service Unavailable - Zero size object
The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later.
Reference #15.133bf546.1137519873.2417e308

OK, now it is.

[GraphixCALC]

I was reading thru the documentation, and it now has BEVEL and EMBOSS features...looks pretty cool!

[Bigdawg]

Got to admit - it is very reasonably priced too... always been a big Adobe fan, but at that price Corel will be a definite option when I'm asked to make recommendations....

[kevco]

Haven't played with bevel yet in the trial version, but as I said I was very inpressed with the trace

[Cadmn]

friend of mine in Taft,Cali was beta tester for it & is sign Man & he loved it also said xara was excellent. I'm not sure but he's usually pretty acurate in his judgement

[2972renfro]

I downloaded and tried the trace tool but was not that impressed. I send off about 4-5 jobs a week to a vector service, so I thought I'd try some recent ones, if I could do it myself then the sw would be worth it.

The only thing it did well with was a black and white line drawing of an animal, but the logos I tried were mediocre. Fonts and curves were bad with bumpy edges. And the original was like 400x800 pixels, not bad art at all. Probably would be fine for stuff that's biz card sized, but not good enough to blow up and cut.

I still don't think automated software can do as well as what a person can do by hand, sux but that's a fact.

[kevco]

I downloaded and tried the trace tool but was not that impressed. I send off about 4-5 jobs a week to a vector service, so I thought I'd try some recent ones, if I could do it myself then the sw would be worth it.

The only thing it did well with was a black and white line drawing of an animal, but the logos I tried were mediocre. Fonts and curves were bad with bumpy edges. And the original was like 400x800 pixels, not bad art at all. Probably would be fine for stuff that's biz card sized, but not good enough to blow up and cut.

I still don't think automated software can do as well as what a person can do by hand, sux but that's a fact.
with any vectorizing software you are gonna to have to go back and clean up a few stray nodes. Fonts never trace good that's why its better to find out what font it is.

[2972renfro]

If a font doesn't trace well, then neither does the graphic itself right? Fonts are nothing more than a shape according to the trace software. I guess it has to do with your frame of reference. It did a poor job on simple shapes as well.

[GraphixCALC]

Here's another thing I just noticed:

New! Create Boundary command: The new Create Boundary command
instantly creates a boundary around selected objects in CorelDRAW X3.
Particularly useful for sign-making or engraving, the boundary can be used
for various purposes, such as keylines, cut lines, or outlines around groups of
selected objects.

For those digital printing, looks like this will generate a curve that can be used as a CutContour or CutPath.

And another feature I use often via the Oberon Curveworks pallet:

New! Fillet / Scallop / Chamfer: Users can now easily shape curve
objects by using the new Fillet / Scallop / Chamfer docker. Filleting produces a
rounded corner; scalloping rounds and inverts the corner to create a notch;
and chamfering bevels the corner so that it appears flat.

[Bobby H]

X3 is here? X-Men 3 doesn't get released 'til May...
:tongue:

I'll have to see how Corel has improved the Countour function. Their website claims the X3 Contour tool generates up to 80 percent less control points than before. Not sure what that means in a comparison with similar functions in Illustrator and Freehand.

Apparently some significant improvements have been made with text on path effects.

I tried finding specific wording on how many of the Open Type format's functions are supported by CorelDRAW. Currently, Illustrator and InDesign are the only graphics applications on the market that feature complete support of OpenType functions. CorelDRAW 12 had Unicode support. But it wouldn't automatically insert ligatures and other expert characters or use the proper optical weight of font for a particular size.

[2972renfro]

Here's another thing I just noticed:

New! Create Boundary command: The new Create Boundary command
instantly creates a boundary around selected objects in CorelDRAW X3.
Particularly useful for sign-making or engraving, the boundary can be used
for various purposes, such as keylines, cut lines, or outlines around groups of
selected objects.

For those digital printing, looks like this will generate a curve that can be used as a CutContour or CutPath.



<!--StartFragment -->
Just tried the create boundary on a jpeg but it did the white box instead of following the outer edges of the shape I tried. Maybe it works differently on a file with a transparent bkgd - will try at some point.

[Bigdawg]

X3 is here? X-Men 3 doesn't get released 'til May...
:tongue:


Now that's the X3 I'm waiting for!!

[Fred Weiss]

I downloaded and tried the trace tool but was not that impressed. I send off about 4-5 jobs a week to a vector service, so I thought I'd try some recent ones, if I could do it myself then the sw would be worth it.

The only thing it did well with was a black and white line drawing of an animal, but the logos I tried were mediocre. Fonts and curves were bad with bumpy edges. And the original was like 400x800 pixels, not bad art at all. Probably would be fine for stuff that's biz card sized, but not good enough to blow up and cut.

I still don't think automated software can do as well as what a person can do by hand, sux but that's a fact.

If you think about it, tracing of freeform artwork such as an animal is going to look good even if it isn't all that accurately done. It's the letterforms and geometric shapes that take the time and are best done by hand or by font identifying and typesetting.

Autotracing is a lot like the older technology where most things were done photographically. Work at larger sizes than you will be producing at and everything looks tighter and cleaner. What I have found is that if you fill up a canvas in Photoshop at better than 6000 pixels wide or tall and do a little cleanup at that size, then you can get pretty nice tracing of the more difficult artwork from Streamline, CorelTrace on anything else.

[SteadyBenny]

I'm fairly good at pulling curves. Certainly better than Trace or Streamline. This would have to be a huge improvement to impress me, and I'll be the first one to admit my Corel Draw / Illustrator / Photoshop skills are merely "good" not excellent or world class. Even with the $180 upgrade from 12 price, that's going to have to be some impressive stuff. I went from 9 to 12. I went from 7 to 9. I still use Illustrator 9 and Photoshop 6.0. I'd prefer not to be a slave to the software industry.

[Bobby H]

What I have found is that if you fill up a canvas in Photoshop at better than 6000 pixels wide or tall and do a little cleanup at that size, then you can get pretty nice tracing of the more difficult artwork from Streamline, CorelTrace on anything else.

I agree with that in general. Make a really high resolution scan from a clean original, do a little clean up work and you'll generally end up with a pretty good traced end result.

The problem is most people aren't bringing that kind of artwork to an auto-tracing program or filter. More often than not it is low resolution JPEGs and GIFs grabbed from web pages. None of the tracing programs on the market, even the innovative methods featured in IllustratorCS2's Live Trace and Live Paint, can fix the problem of a low quality source image. More often than not such elements require artwork to be vectorized by hand.

[Steve C.]

I started with Corel3 then went to 4 and now use Corel 8. I have not upgraded because I've heard 8 has less probem with import export and it just works for me. I kept Corel4 installed because I prefered the Trace4 to the Trace 8. Until I got FlexiPro I didnt realize how good a Trace could be. If the new Corel Trace is half as good as the FlexiPro Vectorization tools I'll be impressed. Only thing I don't like about 8 is the enormous amount of nodes when creating contours.

[Rick]

I'm going to upgrade it even though I rarely use my Corel 12, my only question is....What happend to X1 and X2?



(I know... I know....X=10)

[Lance]

Praps X3 is just a fuzzy way to avoid using the dreaded '13'

[Fred Weiss]

Read about it as well in the Graphics Unleashed Newsletter (http://www.unleash.com/news/index.asp).

[Sharp Images]

I hate to admit it, because I am a strong believer in CorelDraw and it's abilities and have been using it since version 2. It has come a LONG way from there!....BUT It sounds to me like they are trying to be more like Adobe (CS11) and also like Lance said avoiding the dreaded number 13!

I am downloading the trial just for fun, but don't believe in upgrading just because some software company comes out with a new release. I used 12 for a while and decided to return to Corel 11.

[Bigdawg]

pcconnection.com has a special on the upgrade - you get a free 4 x 5 Wacom Graphire3 for $159.
here's the link:
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=6330369

[Techman]

Get the deal thru unleash.com @$149 and still get the wacom tablet free via corel draw..

[GraphixCALC]

I haven't really put it thru it's paces yet, but I do really like how they've improved the node count on contours. The new PowerTrace is really good IMO so far. I also dig the improved text2path. I also got it to pull in a PDF that kept crapping out in 12. Looks good so far!

[Cadmn]

well I started waaaaay back in r1went to r3,r5,r9,r12 i find in most softs companies their odd numbered releases are a bit rough. but we'll seee

[Lance]

Interesting you should say that.
I've heard the opposite, that the even no's are a test bed for the real thing. This fits with many peoples thoughts that CD9 is one of the better V's.
I have 4 & 9 and will prolly go to X3 when it's available.
I love the Powertrace and Text to Path, so much fun !!

best

lance

[Shovelhead]

with anything in general, not just this software discussion here.
I thought that COREL 9 was utterly attrocious, as with any odd numbered COREL release. Comfortable with 12.....but might poney-up the $199 for the upgrade
for grins and giggles.
While I'm on the COREL topic....a huuuuuge featured need in COREL is
when doing multiple page layouts with different scales......it should automatically
default to whatever scale you're in instead of having to "break apart".
Also, a docker that shows what scale you're in instead of double-clicking on the ruler.
Have a lovely day people.
Uncle Shovel
:Welcome: