COREL DRAW CS3 BY: HARVINDER SINGH

What is the Difference Between Vector and Bitmap Images?

We see computer images all the time, but we rarely stop to think about the composition of those images. How are they put together? How are
they manipulated? The vast majority of computer graphics fall into two categories: vector and bitmap. One is more complicated and time-
consuming to create than the other, but both are in wide use.
The most elementary kind of image in any discussion of vector and bitmap is the bitmap image, which sounds like something from the early
days of computing, a map of bits. A bitmap image is quite literally a collection of squares that, taken together, make up the image. The squares
might be of different colors, but they are all the same size. Reduce any bitmap image to its parts and you'll see this in detail.
Because a bitmap image is this collection of squares, it doesn't hold up well to expansion. Designers, when talking about vector and bitmap
images, often talk about the resolution of those images. That is how many dots per inch an image has. The more dots per inch, the better the
resolution of the image. The higher the resolution, the better detail the image generally has; conversely, the lower the resolution, the less detail
the image has.
It can be difficult to resize bitmap images in some cases. When a bitmap images is reduced in size, some dots must be eliminated, lowering the
resolution. When enlarged, a bitmap image can appear blocky if it does not have a high enough resolution to supply the information for the
image's details.
The other half of the vector and bitmap equation is the vector image. This kind of image is much more sophisticated because it has more
moving parts. Each vector image is made up of a handful of smaller images, just like the bitmap, except that the vector image's parts are scalable.
This means that designers can change the resolution of a vector image in both directions, making a high-res image lower or making a low-res
image higher. If designers are looking for an image that can be easily scaled in both directions, then their choice between vector and bitmap
should be an easy one.
Something else to keep in mind in any discussion of vector and bitmap images is that the vector images are not restricted to a rectangular shape,
as are the bitmap images. A designer who places a vector image on top of another image won't cover up any of the detail of the image
underneath. A bitmap image does this because it is entirely made up of square pixels, even the white ones in the background that we don't realize
are there. This is another point to keep in mind when choosing between vector and bitmap.
A key point in the discussion of vector and bitmap, however, is that most widely used graphics file formats are of the bitmap variety, like GIFs,
JPGs, PICTs, and TIFFs. This is because vector images lack the consistency of bitmap images in terms of photo-realism. If you're trying to
decide between vector and bitmap for digital photos or photo-like images on a web page, the better choice for a more photo-realistic image is
the bitmap. Many vector images and are commonly converted to bitmap format for use on web pages. The widely known exception to this is the
PDF file, which is a vector image and looks rather good when unconverted.

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COREL DRAW CS3 BY: HARVINDER SINGH

What is the Bleed Area?

The bleed area is the edge of the printed paper that will be trimmed and discarded after the printing process. The standard bleed size can vary
from one printing company to the other but generally is 3mm (0.125 inches).

The red border is the Bleed edge. This is the full document size.
The blue border is the Cut edge. This is where the paper will be trimmed and is the final size of the product.
The green border is the Safe zone. Important text and objects should be within this area to avoid accidental cutting.

Printing techniques
First you need to think about who is likely to use your template. That is important from the printing point of view because small quantities of
copies are more likely to be printed digitally while large quantities are printed using other common printing techniques that involve a print press.
A small (50-100) number of copies will probably be printed using a digital printer. This technique does not require trimming the edges of the
paper after the printing process and therefore you don’t need to put bleed areas in your templates.
On the other hand, large quantities of copies are more likely to be printed using other common techniques that involve using a printing press.
Those printing techniques require trimming the edges of the printing paper and you should add bleed areas to your template.

Another thing that you should keep in mind is the dimensions of the final product. Business cards,
flyers, invitations and other small sized templates are trimmed easily using a guillotine. Some
printing companies may not be equiped to trimm large sized templates such as posters..

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COREL DRAW CS3 BY: HARVINDER SINGH

New Enhanced View in CorelDRAW X3 Displays Overprinting

If you have used a previous version of CorelDRAW® to create designs or illustrations destined for print reproduction, you probably know that
you can use various overprinting options. In case you haven't heard, however, CorelDRAW X3 features an enhanced view that displays live
overprinting results. With this new feature, you can check your overprinted colors on-screen before proofing or printing your work. It's another
of those neat features that you won't see in most other graphics programs. Let's take a closer look at some of the benefits this new feature gives
you.
Activating and viewing overprints

Typically, when you print from CorelDRAW, the nonvisible portions of objects layered behind other objects are removed - an occurrence called
a knockout. This happens automatically and behind the scenes, in conformity with established digital printing standards. If you want, you can
preserve the areas layered behind the fill, or outline portions of the foreground object, so that the colors are overlaid. In simplistic terms, this
technique overlays one color onto another and is commonly referred to as overprinting.
In previous versions of CorelDRAW, you could apply overprints to your object fill or outline so that the colors overprinted any underlying
colors, but doing so often required a little imagination (and memory work) to keep track of what you overprinted. With CorelDRAW X3, you can
now see how overprinted colors are affected on-screen. In the example shown below, two silhouetted images feature the same light-gray outline
and a dark-gray fill on a multicolored background. The outline applied to the silhouette on the left, and the fill applied to the silhouette on the
right, are set to overprint.

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COREL DRAW CS3 BY: HARVINDER SINGH

To activate overprinting, right-click any object shape, and choose Overprint Outline or Overprint Fill from the pop-up menu (see below). A
check mark next to the menu option indicates that the overprinting mode has been activated. (If either option is unavailable, check whether a fill
color or outline width property has been applied to your selected object.)

If the object you select is a bitmap, the Overprint Bitmap option is available, as shown below. In this case, only the area occupied by the bitmap
shape can be overprinted, so both the bitmap area and the shape of its clipping path are handled as a single unit.

After you apply your overprinting options, you can view the color results by using the Enhanced with Overprints previewing mode, which is a
new feature in CorelDRAW. To choose this view mode (the application default), choose View > Enhanced with Overprints, as shown below.
When the view mode is activated, any color shifts caused by the overprinted colors become visible. CorelDRAW uses your current color
management settings to simulate the overprint colors.

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COREL DRAW CS3 BY: HARVINDER SINGH

While overprint options are applied to an object, the status bar displays an overprint indication symbol in the Fill Color and Outline Color
indicators (see below) whenever you use the Pick or Shape tools to select the object.