greenmachine

Photoshop Corel problem

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Why does a Photoshop file saved with no background import into coreldraw with a box around it so that I cannot apply a contour cut line to it. 

 

any ideas or help.

 

greenie

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Corel doesn't like transparency from Photoshop for whatever reason and treats all "canvas" as square. Photoshop is a bitmap editing program after all and not a vector editing program. Illustrator and Photoshop play nicely together obviously since they're built by Adobe, but Corel is and always will be the step sibling Adobe hates since they are competitors. But with that being said...There are a few ways to tackle this but none is the "easy" answer.

 

First thing I can think of is creating paths in Photoshop CS6 or above (I have CS6 so I can't check other versions) and then exporting those paths as an illustrator file. Then import the .ai path file into Coreldraw and then powerclip the square bitmap image into this shaped path. The path is a vector path and can be used as a boundary and contoured again to get desired results. (You are probably familiar with Photoshop's magic wand tool for making selections and such...also using Photoshop's Invert Selection tool can help a lot too. You should learn about making masks and selections based on those masks in Photoshop, they are where the real power of the program lies).

 

I just drew a very irregular shape in Photoshop CS 6, filled it with black as a test and then reselected the entire layer using CTRL and clicking on the layer in Photoshop's layers panel, then switched to the Paths tab on the Layers interface. I then created an outline path by selecting the big circle with 4 little circles tiny icon button and then was able to generate a path. Then from FILE > EXPORT I select PATHS TO ILLUSTRATOR. It generates a vector file of the path outline. I then import this path outline vector to Coreldraw X7 (I use this version so I can't check earlier versions as I don't have them installed). You can then import the square bitmap image you're working with in Photoshop and then powerclip the bitmap into the vector outline path shape from Photoshop. Problem solved.

 

Another way I work with square bitmaps is a bit of a clipping mask hack but it's very powerful. Nodes of bitmaps in Coreldraw have always been editable using the Shape Tool (F10). I mean, you can't edit the pixels but you can definitely use the Shape Tool to edit the paths around the square bitmap image. It takes time obviously to trace out a "mask" on bitmaps but it is possible to then use that boundary as a clipping mask. You can use curves and lines just as you would using Corel's Bezier pen tool. Essentially you're shaping the square bitmap mask into an irregularly shaped path that matches your desired contour. You can then even use Coreldraw's OBJECT > SHAPING > BOUNDARY tool to assist if you need a separate path for whatever reason. I often use this technique to quickly dump an image into a mockup and drag the bitmaps nodes around to mask out areas I don't want. BOUNDARY works wonders when Corel's Contour Tool doesn't. You can even make pen outlines into a contour shape using Corel's OBJECT > CONVERT OUTLINE TO OBJECT but I'm sure you knew that.

 

See if those techniques help you out or use a combination of them both.

 

Following images show variations of what I'm trying to describe.

 

  1. First image shows Photoshop's path tab on the Layers panel generating working paths which you'll export to "Illustrator's" .ai format.
  2. Second image shows a powerclipped version of a square bitmap inside of the generated Illustrator Paths from Photoshop inside of Coreldraw X7, note the powerclip has no outline by default but I added a black outline to show it against the black bitmap shape.
  3. Third image shows a very exaggerated wireframe view of me quickly editing the nodes of a bitmap mask in Coreldraw (the default shape would be the square/rectangular shape you're getting from Photoshop but as you can see you can manipulate this shape) as well as an empty powerclip frame (the one with the X) of the paths shape imported from Photoshop. Place the bitmap inside the powerclip frame and you're in business.
  4. Fourth image shows the powerclipped bitmap image inside the vector shaped container in Coreldraw's outline view mode. You can't see the bitmap but if you switch to Enhanced View you will see a perfectly outlined bitmap just like the second image...sweet! Give the powerclip outline no stroke color and it will not be black like it is in the image.

post-96816-0-39859100-1454362048_thumb.j

post-96816-0-36528500-1454362058_thumb.j

post-96816-0-77637900-1454362182_thumb.j

post-96816-0-43323000-1454363419_thumb.j

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