Apply special effects to bitmaps

To apply a special effect

To work with special effects

To inflate a bitmap manually

To choose default bitmap inflation settings

To add a plug-in filter

You can apply a wide range of special effects to bitmaps, such as three-dimensional (3D) and artistic effects. Special effects are applied nondestructively, so you can add, edit, remove, show or hide, and revert to the original image at any point.

Left to right: Add noise effect, Zoom blur effect, Solarize color transform effect, Edge detect contour effect, Sharpen effect

Left to right: Original image, Emboss effect, Cubist artistic effect, Mosaic creative effect, Distort pixelate effect

The special effects are organized into the following categories.

 

Special effect category
Description
3D Effects
Lets you create the illusion of depth. Effects include 3-D rotate, Bevel effect (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Cylinder, Emboss, Glass (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Page curl, Pinch/punch, Sphere, The Boss (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), and Zig zag (Corel PHOTO-PAINT).
Art Strokes
Lets you apply hand-painted techniques. Effects include Charcoal, Conte crayon, Crayon, Cubist, Dabble (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Impressionist, Palette knife, Pastels, Pen and ink, Pointillist, Scraperboard, Sketch pad, Watercolor, Water marker, and Wave paper.
Blur
Lets you blur an image to simulate movement, speckling, or gradual change. Effects include Tune blur (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Directional smooth, Gaussian blur, Jaggy despeckle, Low pass, Motion blur, Radial blur, Bokeh blur (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Smooth, Soften, and Zoom.
Camera
Lets you simulate effects produced by various camera lenses. Effects include Colorize, Diffuse, Lens flare (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Lighting effects (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Photo filter, Sepia toning, Spot filter (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), and Time machine, which lets you walk your image back through history to recreate some popular photographic styles from the past.
Color Transform
Lets you create photographic illusions by using color reduction and replacements. Effects include Bit planes, Halftone, Psychedelic, and Solarize.
Contour
Lets you highlight and enhance the edges of an image. Effects include Edge detect, Find edges, and Trace contour.
Creative
Lets you apply various textures and shapes to an image. Effects include Crystalize, Fabric, Frame, Glass block, Mosaic, Scatter, Smoked glass, Stained glass, Vignette, and Vortex.
Custom
Lets you apply a wide range of effects to your image. For example, you can add texture and patterns to an image (Bump-map effect). Effects include Band pass (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Bump map, and User defined (Corel PHOTO-PAINT).
Distort
Lets you distort image surfaces. Effects include Blocks, Displace,Mesh warp Offset, Pixelate, Ripple, Shear (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Swirl, Tile, Wet paint, Whirlpool, and Wind.
Noise
Lets you modify the graininess of an image. Effects include Tune noise (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Add noise, 3-D stereo noise (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Maximum, Median, Minimum, Remove Moire, andRemove Noise.
Sharpen
Lets you add a sharpening effect to focus and enhance edges. Effects include Adaptive unsharp, Directional sharpen, High pass, Sharpen, and Unsharp mask.
Texture
Lets you add texture to an image by simulating a variety of surfaces, such as cobblestone, elephant skin, plastic, and relief sculpture. Effects include Brick wall (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Bubbles (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Canvas (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Cobblestone, Elephant skin, Etching, Plastic, Plaster wall (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Relief sculpture, Screen door (Corel PHOTO-PAINT), Stone, and Underpainting (Corel PHOTO-PAINT).
Plug-ins
Lets you use a third-party filter to apply effects to bitmaps in CorelDRAW. An installed plug-in appears at the bottom of the Bitmaps menu.

To browse the special effects that are available in the application, see Special effects categories.

When you apply an effect to a bitmap, CorelDRAW automatically adds a border around the bitmap so that the effect covers the entire image. Disabling the automatic inflate option cuts off the effect at the edges of the image. For example, if you apply the Gaussian Blur effect to a rectangle, the corners are cut off.

Gaussian Blur with Auto Inflate (left); Gaussian Blur without Auto Inflate (right)

If you want to use a custom border size, disable automatic inflation, and manually specify the dimensions of the inflated bitmap.

Adding plug-in filters to CorelDRAW provides additional features and effects that you can use to edit images. You can add plug-in filters, and you can remove them when you no longer need them.

To apply a special effect Back to Top

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To browse the special effects that are available in the application, see Special effects categories.

To work with special effects Back to Top

 

To
Do the following...
Show or hide the effect
Click the Show/Hide icon for the effect you want to show or hide.
Apply additional effects
Click the Add effect button and choose an effect from the menu.
Edit an applied effect
Select an effect and click the Edit icon .
Change the order of applied effects
Click an effect and drag it to a new position in the list.
Delete an effect
Select an effect and click the Delete button .
To inflate a bitmap manually Back to Top

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To automatically inflate the bitmap to cover the entire image, click Bitmaps Inflate bitmap Auto inflate bitmap.

To choose default bitmap inflation settings Back to Top
To add a plug-in filter Back to Top

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To remove a plug-in filter, click a plug-in folder from the Plug-in folders list, and click Remove.

 

The features documented in the Help are available in the full version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2019. Some features may not be available in this version of the product.

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