Principles of work with corel photo-paint
Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №12 - 2020
Authors: Leshukov Anton, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan
Tolstikhina Tatyana, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan
Currently, an ordinary user increasingly has to turn to
the help of graphic editors, but as they say "demand creates supply"
and the software market, in particular, graphic editors, is constantly
improving. The variety of graphic editors, closely competing with each other,
allows the user to choose the most suitable program for his professional needs.
There are two main types of two-dimensional computer
graphics. It is vector and raster. Vector graphics represent graphic objects in
the form of geometric primitives and allows you to scale objects without any
loss of quality. Raster graphics builds an image from a collection of points, each
of which has its own color. Each of the above types of graphics has its own
advantages and disadvantages, and is also used for implementing different
tasks. But in this work we will talk about raster graphics, namely, a program
for working with raster graphics which is Corel Photo Paint 2019 [1, 2].
Corel Photo Paint 2019 is a powerful tool for creating,
editing and viewing raster images developed by the Canadian company Corel. The
program is distributed as an addition to the program CorelDraw (program for
editing vector images). The editor is written in C ++. It supports basic
graphic extensions such as JPEG, PNG, TIF, GIF, CPT (Corel Photo Paint), and
can also work with the Adobe Photoshop - PSD extension [3].
Object Selection Tool
To begin with, I would like to discuss the tools that
are on the left side of the program in the quick access panel (see Figure 1). I
will describe them in order of their arrangement from top to bottom. All Corel
Photo Paint tools have a panel with additional useful settings.
Figure
1 - Quick Access Panel
1) The first tool offered by the program is the Object
Selection tool. In order to use it you push the hot key "O". This
tool is designed to manipulate and transform objects. This tool can be used
manually, or you just set the necessary parameters in the panel of additional
settings (object position according to the coordinate system, length, width,
angle). This tool combines 6 tools: position and size, rotation, scale, tilt,
distortion and perspective [4].
Mask Tools
2) Below is a rectangular mask tool. Holding the tool
button, you can see the tools included in the group of this tool.
Most group tools have four main modes: Normal mode,
Additive mode, XOR mode, and Subtractive mode. The main mode is used by
default. Additive mode allows you to add additional zones to the already
selected. The XOR mode excludes areas that do not overlap with the selection
areas (see Figure 2). The subtractive mode can work as an inverted selection.
Figure
2. The XOR mode
3) Number 3 is the mask conversion tool. Hotkey for the
tool is "M". This tool allows you to edit the selected area. Its'
functions are similar to the Object Selection tool, but it is only applied to
the selected area, and not to the object.
Cropping Tools
4) Next comes the Crop tool. This tool also contains a
group of tools.
1) You use the key "D". With this tool, you
can crop the image to a specific size. This can be done either manually or by
setting the necessary parameters in the advanced settings panel. Also, in the
advanced settings panel, you can select blanks for the main print formats (A2,
A3, A4, etc.).
1) Straighten tool is a very useful tool for
photographers. With it, you can straighten the image segment. The shortcut key
is "SHIFT + X" (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - The Example of Using Straighten Tool
1) Correction of perspective allows you to slightly
correct defects of perspective. The keyboard combination is "SHIFT +
C".
2) Image splitting allows you to split large images into
small fragments, which is very useful for web-programming. These fragments may
also contain hyperlinks. The hotkey for tool is "6".
Scaling Tools
5) Number five is the Scale tool. Allows you to scale
the selected area, or it can be used by pressing the left mouse button to zoom
in and by pressing the left mouse button while holding down the SHIFT key to
zoom out, the hot key of the zoom tool is "Z". The tool is not so
often used due to the fact that the program can be scaled by rotating the mouse
wheel, but is suitable for pinpoint zoom.
Retouching Tools
6) The Cloning tool is similar to the Stamp tool in
Adobe Photoshop. To select a tool, you can use the key "C". At the
first click, an area is selected, which will then be used as a brush. The tool
offers different forms of brushes for a wide range of tasks. It has 4 operating
modes: Impressionist cloning, Pointillist cloning, Cloning from the saved,
Cloning from the fill.
Red-eye removal. The operation of the tool is clearly
shown in Fig. 4. Hotkey for the tool is "5".
Figure 4 - The Example of Working with the Tool "Red-Eye
Removal"
1) The retouching brush allows you to eliminate
wrinkles, cracks and other defects in photographs by flowing textures and
colors. The hotkey is "7".
2) Recovering cloning uses the built-in texture library
to eliminate image defects. For a quick access to the tool use the key
"0".
Tools for Local Color and Tone Adjustments
7) The Palette Knife tool is designed to blur the image.
You can use the keyboard shortcut "Shift + S". There are two modes of
operation: pointed and smooth palette knife. A pointed one uses curves with
sharp angles, while a smooth one uses smooth curves. In additional parameters,
you can change the size and pressure of the pen.
8) Number 8 is the Effect tool.
Text Formation Tool
9) The Text tool is a standard tool in all graphic
editors. The hotkey for the text is also a standard letter "T". Using
it, you can place text on the image. Options are also available for formatting
texts: a standard set of fonts, changes of text sizes, colors, line spacing and
character spacing.
Drawing Tools
10) Corel Photo-Paint provides a huge set of brushes for
a wide range of tasks. Hotkey "B". The brush tool is divided into 15
different brushes, each of which contains different variations: brush,
airbrush, spray, pencil, ballpoint pen, pen, felt-tip pen, marker, text marker,
crayon, colored pencil, charcoal, watercolor pastel and art brushes.
11) The rectangle tool allows you to draw rectangular
shapes. It can be selected using the key "F6". There are 5 types of
fills for shapes to choose from: no fill, color fill, fountain fill, bitmap
fill, pattern fill.
12) An eraser tool is a brush designed to remove parts
of an image. Hotkey for the eraser is "X". If an object is selected,
only the parts of this object are "erased". It has no varieties, but
provides fine setting for the eraser brush: the ability to change the shape of
the brush, size, sharpening, adjusting the thickness of the tip of the brush
and the degree of rotation of the brush.
Tools for Creating Shadow and Transparency
13) Shadow tool. The hotkey is "S". A rather
interesting tool that allows you to create shadows for selected objects. In
order to create a shadow, you need to click and hold the object to which you
want to give a shadow with the left mouse button. An outline of the object will
appear, which will be the shadow of the object. After building the shadow, the
tool interface appears (see Figure 5).
Figure 5 - Working with Shadow Tool
14) Changes the transparency of the object. There are 5
modes of operation.
- No transparency removes the transparency effect
- Homogeneous transparency imposes a transparency
effect adjustable in percentage terms on the entire object.
- Fountain fill allows you to change the transparency
parameter relative to the center of the line. Figure 6 illustrates the
operation of the tool.
Figure
6. Working with Transparency Tool
- Transparency with a raster pattern creates a
transparency effect by superimposing on top a raster pattern from the same
library as the Rectangle tool.
- Transparency with a texture works the same as the
previous mode, but differs in that it imposes a pattern from the Corel
Photo-Paint library on the transparency effect, however, you can use any other
textures in the .fill format.
Color Tools
15) Eyedropper is an important tool when working with
graphics. We select color samples in the image and sets them as the primary
color, in order to select the fill color we use the tool with the
"CTRL" key pressed. In addition to the main mode, there are three
operating modes: 3x3 (we select the average color value from the 3x3 pixel
area), 5x5 (similar to the previous one, but in the 5x5 pixel area), sample
selection (it displays the average color value in the selected area).
16) Fill fills the selected region or object with color,
texture, or a raster pattern. The fill options are identical to the fill
options for the rest of the tools, the rectangle tool in particular.
Also in the same group of tools there is another tool -
this is Interactive fill. It offers more options for filling, for fountain
(gradient) filling in particular. It allows you to select the angle and border
of the transition between colors. The tool is used in the same way like the
Transparency tool.
And now about the benefits, the program contains many
interesting tools and there is a deep customization for each of them. In
general, the program interface is quite satisfying. There are great
opportunities for personalizing the program (you can freely move all the
windows of the program, change all the hot keys, load additional tools). The
program supports almost all modern graphic formats, including the .PSD format.
Given all of the above, we should summarize. Despite its
shortcomings, the program is a worthy graphic editor, which is more suitable
for ordinary users than for professionals. Since the program cannot be
purchased separately from Corel Draw, the program can be called a fine addition
to Corel Draw.
REFERENCES
1. Schiessl P. Corel PHOTO-PAINT
2018 & PHOTO-PAINT HOME AND STUDENT 2018: Training Manual with many
integrated Exercises Paperback - September 21, 2018.
2. https://ru.wikipedia.org/
wiki/
3. http://product.corel.com/help/PHOTO-PAINT/540227992/Main/RU/
Documentation/
wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=Corel-PHOTO-PAINT-c-Welcome-to-CorelPHOTO-PAINT-Help.html
4. https://htmlacademy.ru/blog/boost/graphics/rastr-vector
Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №12 - 2020
|