CorelDRAW Help | Work faster and more efficiently

Work faster and more efficiently

Become more efficient and productive by taking advantage of a wide array of new and enhanced features — from fills, transparencies, brush selection, and text enhancements to improved multiple document and automation workflows.

New & Enhanced! Fountain fills

You can now create elliptical and rectangular fountain fills, apply transparency to individual fill color nodes, repeat a fill within a filled object, adjust a fill’s angle of rotation, and smooth the blend transition of a fountain fill.

With CorelDRAW X7, you can apply and adjust fountain fills more quickly, accurately, and creatively by using the new interactive controls in the Object properties docker. In Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7, the enhanced Edit fill dialog box provides quick access to all available controls for adjusting fountain fills.

For more information, see Applying fountain fills.

New & Enhanced! Vector and bitmap pattern fills

With CorelDRAW X7, you can efficiently preview, apply, and interactively transform both vector pattern and bitmap pattern fills by using the enhanced controls in the Object properties docker. You can also save personally created or modified fills, and the new FILL format is supported by Patterns, a new iOS app that makes it easy to create bitmap patterns from photos. For more information, see Applying pattern fills.

Examples of pattern fills

New! Edit Fill dialog box

In both CorelDRAW X7 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7, the new Edit fill dialog box gives you more efficient access to all available controls for uniform, fountain, vector pattern, bitmap pattern, two-color pattern, texture, and PostScript fills. With CorelDRAW X7, the Edit fill dialog box also provides a real-time preview as you make adjustments.

New & Enhanced! Custom fills

Both CorelDRAW X7 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7 introduce new options that make it easy to save and share your custom fills. With CorelDRAW, the Save as new button appears in the Object properties docker and the Edit fill dialog box. The button also appears in the Edit fill dialog box in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Plus, the new FILL format preserves and exposes all fill settings, making it quick and simple to modify both saved fills and fills downloaded from the Content Exchange.

For more information, see Saving and sharing fills and transparencies.

New! Fill picker

With both CorelDRAW X7 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7, a new Fill picker makes searching, previewing, and selecting fills quick and easy. The Fill picker also provides access to both locally stored fills and those available in the Content Exchange.

The new Fill picker makes searching, previewing, and selecting fills quick and easy.

New! Fill creation

In CorelDRAW X7, you can now instantly create new bitmap pattern and vector pattern fills from selected objects in your workspace. When you click the New from document button in the Object properties docker, the cursor changes to the Crop tool so that you can define an area of your workspace to use as a pattern. For more information, see To create a vector or bitmap pattern from the workspace.

Enhanced! Transparency

Transparency settings have been added to the Object properties docker in CorelDRAW X7, making it faster and easier to apply and adjust object transparency. New options help you to quickly specify whether transparency is applied to an object’s outline, fill, or both. Plus, you can instantly save transparency settings as a style to enable effortless reuse of your favorite effects. For more information, see Changing the transparency of objects.

It is faster and easier to apply and adjust object transparency.

New! Outline Position

With CorelDRAW X7, the new Outline Position options help you create objects with more precise sizes. The Outside outline, Centered outline, and Inside outline buttons let you specify whether an outline is positioned inside the object, outside the object, or an equal combination of both. By positioning an outline inside an object, you can more easily create layouts with specific sizes because the outline will be rendered within the object’s original measurements. For more information, see Formatting lines and outlines.

Enhanced! Object Properties docker

With CorelDRAW X7, the redesigned Object properties docker has a new tab option that can help new users gain efficiency by reducing congestion. The Scroll/Tab mode button sets the docker to present only one group of formatting controls at a time, making it easier to focus on the task at hand. For more information, see Using the Object Properties docker to modify objects.

New! Brush picker

With Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7, the new Brush picker helps you find the brush you’re seeking by combining all brush categories and brush types in one location. Available for the Paint, Effect, and Clone tools, the new Brush picker provides nib and brush stroke previews as you hover over each preset. It also stores the settings for the last five brushes you’ve used, which makes it easier to reuse a favorite combination.

The new Brush picker helps you find and choose brushes.

New! Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2012

The inclusion of Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2012 provides access to the latest development tools, making it easy for developers to create VSTA automations for all applications in the suite.

New! Font Playground

In CorelDRAW X7 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7, the new Font Playground docker introduces an easier way to browse, experiment with, and choose the perfect font. You can easily add sample text to view its appearance in different fonts, and a handy Zoom slider lets you quickly adjust the size of sample text. With a single click, you can also choose whether the sample text appears as a single line, multiple lines, or a cascading series of increased sizes.

The Font Playground also provides access to advanced features within OpenType fonts. If a text sample uses an OpenType font, you simply select the text to display the Interactive OpenType arrow and then choose which features to apply.

Font Playground lets you experiment with and preview fonts easily so that you can choose the perfect font for your project.

Enhanced! Special characters, symbols, and glyphs

The revamped Insert character docker presents all characters, symbols, and glyphs associated with a selected font, making it easier than ever to find these items and then insert them into your documents. Available in both CorelDRAW X7 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7, the docker includes a filtering option that lets you display only the character subsets that you want. For example, you can choose to display only the Cyrillic characters and symbols for a selected font.

New! Object Styles previews

A new pop-up now appears when you hover over a style in the Object styles docker, offering a quick preview of the style before it’s applied.

New! Welcome Screen - content notification

The redesigned Welcome Screen now provides update notifications directly in the navigation pane, so that you will be immediately informed of any available new content. This makes it easier to stay current with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite application updates, content, learning resources, and more.

New! Welcome Screen docking

You can now keep the Welcome Screen open as a docked tab in the workspace or as a separate floating window, providing constant access to its wealth of versatile resources.

New! Multiple document interface

You can now work with multiple documents in a tabbed view, which helps you stay organized and quickly switch between several active documents.

New! Undocking documents

When working with multiple documents, you can now drag a document outside of the application window to undock it, which is especially useful for dual-monitor workflows.

New! Support for high-resolution monitors

The suite’s applications have been optimized for high DPI resolutions, ensuring that user interface elements appear crisp and legible when displayed on high-resolution monitors.

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