Defringing Halos 1

This tutorial will detail an example of how to use the "Defringe" command in Adobe® Photoshop. This handy feature removes unwanted halos that may occur in an image with a transparent background. Many times you will find images where white is used as a background matte color. The image will display perfectly over a white background but not over a colored background. If you want to change the background, you need to defringe the image.

In this example, we will be using clip art photos from the CorelDRAW® 8 and CorelDRAW 9 graphics suites. They were opened in Corel PHOTO-PAINT®, then exported as Photoshop PSD files.

1. Shown below on the left is a view of an image of a toucan as it appears in Photoshop. On the right is a view of the Layers palette. The palette reveals that there are two layers, one of which is the image of a toucan on a transparent layer and the other is an opaque white background layer. As you can see the image looks good over a white background. The background layer is the active layer because it is highlighted in the Layers palette.

2. The second photo was selected to be used as a new background. It is the same size as the toucan image - 256 x 384 pixels. Again, the image on the left is a view of the opened photo in Photoshop, and the image on the right is a view of the Layers palette.

Cool Hand Dingbat

1. Start by making a new 290 x 200 pixel RGB image with a transparent background. Using the default foreground and background colors, click on the image with the Type Tool. In the dialog, choose 300 point Zapf Dingbats with Smooth anti-aliasing. Click the mouse in the typing box then press the minus sign on the keyboard. That's the hand and pencil symbol.



2. Select the Magic Wand Tool and with a tolerance of zero and with anti-aliasing enabled, click anywhere in the transparent background. Click Select > Inverse, then Select > Save Selection and save the selection to a new channel. Next copy the layer by dragging it onto the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will make an exact duplicate of the layer so the pixels will line up perfectly.



3. Double-click the new layer to put you back into the Type Tool dialog as in the previous step. Using the Shift key, highlight the text in the typing box then click once on the color swatch to access the Color Picker. In the RGB boxes enter 181 for red, 86 for green and 6 for blue. Click "OK" twice. We need this dark sienna color when we use the frosted glass distortion filter. After applying the new color click Layer > Type > Render Layer. Next, click the magic Wand inside any one of the hollow areas of the hand. In the example below, the forefinger is selected. Click Select > Save Selection and save the selection to a new channel.



4. Click the Radial Gradient Tool then click the "Edit" button in the Options palette. In the Gradient Editor dialog (below), click the "New" button. Give it a name (e.g. "Yellow, Orange"). Double-click the starting color stop (circled - on the left) and set the RGB values to 255, 255, 0 respectively. Next double-click the ending color stop (circled - on the right) and set the RGB values to 255, 128, 0 respectively. Use the default locations for the starting color stop, the midpoint and the ending color stop (0%, 50% and 100% respectively). Click "OK" when done.



5. Drag from the center of the selection outwards then release the mouse to apply the gradient to the hollow area of the forefinger. The strategy here is to make separate selections for each of the hollow areas, save them each as new selection channels then fill them with this yellow, orange gradient.



6. After selecting and filling each of the hollow areas, load each of the selections created from the hollow areas using the "Add to Selection" option in the "Load Selection" dialog. You can then save this composite selection as a new channel. The reason we filled each area separately is to add depth. If all the areas were selected then filled as a unit, the image would tend to look flat.



7. Next click Filter > Distort > Glass... and in the dialog enter the following values:

Distortion Smoothness Texture Scaling

5 3 Frosted 100%

The effect should look similar to the example below. If we had not used the dark sienna color for the hand dingbat, there would have been a black reflection on the ridges of the simulated glass.



8. Click Edit > Copy then select the black layer and click Layer > Type > Render Layer then Edit > Paste Into. This will copy the selection and paste it into the black version of the hand. If everything looks okay select "Merge Down" from the layer options menu to merge the selection into the layer.



9. The Layers palette should look something like the example below. Click layer 1 to activate it then hide the other layers (click the eye icons to toggle visibility).



10. Next we'll add a shadow to the image. Click Select > Load Selection and load the original selection saved in step 2. Next click Select > Feather... and feather the selection 5 pixels.



11. Click Edit > Fill, and fill the selection with 100% Black, Normal mode. Then adjust the opacity slider on the layer down to about 70%. We want some contrast between the black outline of the hand and its shadow so we need to lighten it.



12. If the image will be displayed over a background, open the background tile image and click Select > All, then Edit > Define Pattern



13. Add a new layer under all the other layers then activate it. Next click Edit > Fill, then choose "Pattern" for the "Contents" with an opacity of 100%, Normal mode.

Halo Text Effect 2

6. Next click Select > Feather. Enter an amount for the feather radius. In this case I chose to feather the selection 5 pixels. Click "OK" when done.

7. We want to use this selection on Layer 1 so click this layer in the Layers palette to activate it.

8. Click the foreground color selection box in the Toolbox (below left). This will activate the Color Picker (below center). Pick a color and click "OK" to close the dialog. In this case I picked a blue color. The foreground color selection box will now display the new foreground color (below right).

9. Next, click Edit > Fill and choose "Foreground Color" in the dialog. Click "OK" when done.

10. You can see the effect of the fill in the document window (below left) and as a finished image (below right).

Halo Text Effect 1

Here's a quick and easy halo text effect you can create with Photoshop. I used Photoshop version 5.5 for this example.

1. Click File > New to make a new file. In the dialog, enter the number of pixels for the width and height. This example will be for screen displays so I chose a resolution of 72 ppi. Click "OK" when done.

2. Select the Type tool and click once in the document window.

3. Enter the desired text in the dialog box. For this tutorial I chose 72 point Zapf Chancery Medium Italic. Click "OK" when done.

4. Depending on the font and text chosen, the document window should look something like the example below.

5. In the Layers palette, Cmd-Click (Mac®) or Ctrl-Click (Windows®) on the text layer to make a selection in the shape of the text. The mouse pointer will change to a pointing hand with a square selection marquee (circled below left). After doing this, the document window will show a selection marquee in the shape of the text (below right).

Designing for Accuracy

This tip has been written for CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X5. While similar features might be available in previous releases the tutorial will be fully applicable to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 only.

What you will learn
In this tutorial you will learn how to use
• Dimensioning lines
• Segment Dimension lines
• Call-outs
• Connector lines

CorelDRAW has the power and the flexibility to allow you to create even the most detailed of drawings or designs with ease and accuracy. From straight forward call-outs to dimensioning lines that offer ten decimal place accuracy.

Working with Dimension Lines
CorelDRAW allows you to easily add various types of dimensioning lines and call-outs. By using dimension lines, you can indicate the distance between two points in a drawing or the size of objects. By default, dimension lines and the measurements shown on the lines change when you change an object’s size. This is referred to as dynamic dimensioning and can be very useful if you need to resize an object or group of objects and want to avoid having to recreate the dimensioning lines.

There are four dimension line tools, parallel vertical / horizontal, angular and segment. The Parallel dimension tool allows you to draw dimension lines on any angle. To draw a parallel dimension line, click the Parallel dimension tool in the toolbox. To draw a vertical or horizontal dimension line, open the Dimension tools flyout by clicking the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Parallel dimension tool button in the toolbox, and click the Horizontal or Vertical dimension tool button.
• Click to place the starting point, and drag to where you want to place the endpoint of the dimension line.
• Move the pointer to position the dimension line, and click to place the dimension text.
By default, dimension text is centered on the dimension line, however this can be changed in the interactive property bar.

To draw a vertical or horizontal dimension line, open the Dimension tools flyout by clicking the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Parallel dimension tool button in the toolbox, and click the Horizontal / Vertical dimension tool button.
• Click to place the starting point, and drag to where you want to place the endpoint of the dimension line.
• Move the pointer to position the dimension line, and click to place the dimension text.

To draw an angular dimension line, click the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Parallel dimension tool button to open the Dimension tools flyout, and click the Angular dimension tool.
• Click where you want the two lines that measure the angle to intersect, and drag to where you want the first line to end.
• Click where you want the second line to end.
• Click where you want the angle label to appear.

Creating Segment Dimension lines
To draw segment dimension lines, in the toolbox, click the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Parallel dimension tool button to open the Dimension tools flyout, and click the Segment dimension tool.
• Click the segment that you want to measure.
• Move the pointer to where you want to position the dimension line, and click where you want to place the dimension text.

With the Segment dimension tool, you also have the ability to measure the distance between the two most distant nodes in multiple segments. Using the Segment dimension tool , marquee select the segments, drag to position the dimension line, and click where you want to place the dimension text. You can also measure successive segments automatically by clicking the Automatic successive dimensioning button on the property bar, and marquee select the segments that you want to measure. Drag to the location where you want to place the dimension text and release.

As we have previously mentioned, you can set how dimension lines are displayed. For example, you can specify dimension units, style, and precision as well as add a prefix or suffix to the dimension text. You can also set default values for all new dimension lines that you create.

We have also stated that by default, dimension text is dynamic. If you resize the object to which a dimension line is attached, the dimension text is updated automatically to display the new size. These properties are set from the interactive property bar that is accessible when you have one of the dimensioning tools selected.

To be able to use connector, callout, and dimension lines with precision, you need to snap them to specific nodes in objects. For more information about snapping and snapping modes, see "Snapping objects" in the CorelDRAW help file

Creating Call-outs
Call-outs can be easily created to identify parts of a drawing or to draw attention to specific parts of a design.

In the toolbox, click the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Parallel dimension tool button to open the Dimension tools flyout, and click the 3-Point callout tool.
• Click where you want the first callout segment to start, and drag to where you want the first segment to end.
• Click where you want the second segment to end. A text cursor is displayed at the end of the callout line, indicating where to type a label for the object.
• Type the callout text.

You can also change the callout style and the distance between the leader line and the callout text. This is done from the interactive property bar.

Connector Lines
You can draw connector lines between objects. Objects stay connected by these lines even when you move one or both objects. Connector lines, which are also known as "flow lines", are used in technical drawings such as diagrams, flowcharts, and schematics. For information about drawing flowchart shapes, see "Drawing predefined shapes" in the CorelDRAW help file.

There are three types of connector lines that you can draw. You can draw a straight connector line. You can also draw right-angle connector lines with a sharp corner or a rounded corner. You can edit connector lines by moving, adding, or deleting segments.

Using the controls on the property bar, you can modify the width and style of a connector line as well as apply arrowheads. You can also change the color of connector lines. For more information about Formatting lines and outlines, see "Formatting lines and outlines "in the CorelDRAW help file.

With the new tools that have been added it is easy to see how accurately you can create your designs and to convey this information to the viewer.