CorelDRAW lets you create blends, such as straight-line blends, blends along a path, and compound blends. Blends are often used for creating realistic shadows and highlights in objects.
The highlights and shadows in the object on the right were created by using blends.
A straight-line blend shows a progression in shape and size from one object to another. The outline and fill colors of the intermediate objects progress along a straight-line path across the color spectrum. The outlines of intermediate objects show a gradual progression in thickness and shape.
After you create a blend, you can copy or clone its settings to other objects. When you copy a blend, the object takes on all the blend-related settings, except for the outline and fill attributes. When you clone a blend, changes you make to the original blend (also called the master) are applied to the clone.
Straight-line blends can be used to create graphics with a glass-like appearance. The rollover button (left) contains a blend of tightly overlapped blended objects.
You can fit objects along part or all of a path’s shape, and you can add one or more objects to a blend to create a compound blend.
The straight-line blend (top) is fitted to a curved path (bottom).
You can change the appearance of a blend by adjusting the number and spacing of its intermediate objects, the blend’s color progression, the nodes the blends map to, the blend’s path, and the start and end objects. You can fuse the components of a split or compound blend to create a single object.
This compound blend consists of three blends.
You can also split and remove a blend.
By mapping nodes, you can control the appearance of a blend. Two nodes on the polygon are mapped to two nodes of a star shape, showing a more gradual transition (bottom).
You can also blend objects by using the Blend docker (Effects Blend).
You can’t copy or clone a compound blend.
You can also use the Attributes eyedropper tool to copy a blend. For more information, see To copy effects from one object to another.
You can set object and color acceleration rates by clicking the Object and color acceleration button on the property bar and moving the corresponding slider.
If you have used the Blend along full path command, the Blend spacing button is unavailable.
You can set object and color acceleration rates by clicking the Object and color acceleration button on the property bar and moving the corresponding slider.
You can’t create color progressions by using blended objects filled with bitmaps, texture, pattern, or PostScript fills.
You can set how fast the object’s colors transform from the first to the last object by clicking the Object and color acceleration button on the property bar and moving the corresponding sliders.
You can reverse the direction of the blend by clicking Object Order Reverse order.
To select the blend path, click the Path properties button , and click Show path.
You can’t split a blend at the intermediate object that is immediately adjacent to the start or end object.
You can also remove a selected blend by clicking Clear Blend on the property bar.
The features documented in the Help are available in the full version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021. Some features may not be available in this version of the product.