CorelDRAW Help | Applying special effects in bitmaps

Quick links to procedures on this page:

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To apply a special effect

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To inflate a bitmap manually

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To add a plug-in filter

Applying special effects in bitmaps

You can apply a wide range of special effects to bitmaps, such as three-dimensional (3D) and artistic effects.

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, Cylinder, Emboss, Glass, Page curl, Pinch/punch, Sphere, The Boss, and Zig zag.
Art Strokes	Lets you apply hand-painted techniques. Effects include Charcoal, Conte crayon, Crayon, Cubist, Dabble, 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, Directional smooth, Gaussian blur, Jaggy despeckle, Low pass, Motion blur, Radial blur, Bokeh blur, Smooth, Soften, Zoom, and Smart blur.
Camera	Lets you simulate effects produced by various camera lenses. Effects include Colorize, Diffuse, Lens flare, Lighting effects, Photo filter, Sepia toning, Spot filter, 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 Crafts, Crystalize, Fabric, Frame, Glass block, Kid's play, Mosaic, Particles, Scatter, Smoked glass, Stained glass, Vignette, Vortex, and Weather.
Custom	Lets you apply a wide range of effects to your image. For example, you can transform your image into an artistic media painting by applying brushstrokes (Alchemy effect) or add texture and patterns to an image (Bump-map effect). Effects include Alchemy, Band pass, Bump map, and User defined.
Distort	Lets you distort image surfaces. Effects include Blocks, Displace, Offset, Pixelate, Ripple, Shear, Swirl, Tile, Wet paint, Whirlpool, and Wind.
Noise	Lets you modify the graininess of an image. Effects include Tune noise, Add noise, 3-D stereo noise, 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, Bubbles, Canvas, Cobblestone, Elephant skin, Etching, Plastic, Plaster wall, Relief sculpture, Screen door, Stone, and Underpainting.
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