How to Use CorelDRAW to Produce GraniteArt
Transcription
How to Use CorelDRAW to Produce GraniteArt
How to Use CorelDRAW to Produce GraniteArt By Louie Alvarez Greetings to the members of ACDRP, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Louie Alvarez, I am an “Independent Sales Representative” for Vytek Industrial Lasers and I am the newest addition to CorelDRAWPro ENews contributing writer family. I look forward to the two articles I hope to provide you monthly on the topics of “CorelDRAW Innovations” (new uses and techniques from my perspective) and “Electronics Frontier” (innovative gadgets, software and ideas that will make your work easier and ultimately more profitable). I remember Mike Neer, CorelDRAW Pro Editor got me started in the circuit some 15+ years ago writing for his publication way back then. Today with my many years of experience in the industry Mike once again approached me to possibly write articles for the esteemed readers of CorelDRAWPro E-News. Some of you may remember me from years of seminar speaking, workshop instructing, various publication writing contributions and even from my years of selling laser engraving equipment. Throughout the years I’ve done various other endeavors beyond what was already mentioned, including, owning my own laser engraving business, Internet business and even hosting my own live radio talk show on computers and the Internet for 2½ years. I hope all the knowledge I’ve garnered over these past years from the technology industry (CorelDRAW, lasers, internet, computers, etc.) will; through the articles I submit to the CorelDRAWPro E-News venue; assist you in new operations of CorelDRAW or even help in running your business a little more efficiently. Finally, to the readers of CorelDRAWPro E-News if there are any specific topics of interest within my two designated categories please don’t hesitate to send me an email ([email protected]) to address it. I am always open to suggestions and/or requests so feel free to ask away and I will do my best to provide valuable information on said request. With that said let’s dive into this months article suggested by Mike as my opening topic. “How to use CorelDRAW to produce Granite Art.” An interesting subject, one of which I am intimately familiar with, such as, the characteristics of the material, the misconception many people have of working with granite and even the limitations of CorelDRAW. In this case using a laser engraving system to produce a quality image on the surface of the granite, you’ll see my slant on CorelDRAW will lean towards its use with laser systems as that is my most specific use of CorelDRAW and what the laser industry has chosen to standardize on. First of all let me begin by clarifying a misconception of working with stone in general, granite specifically. When printing to paper using either an inkjet or laser printer the printer can dynamically resize the dot of the ink/toner printed to the paper, hence using 300 dpi (dots per inch), 600 dpi, 1200 dpi, 2400 dpi or higher the human eye can easily distinguish the differences due to this dynamic resizing of dots printed. Using regular copy paper you can actually achieve pretty good quality with a high dpi, change the paper to photo quality paper and you have a photograph that looks professionally printed. DPI is not the same with laser systems, most units on the market ship with a 2” lens which provides a dot size of .005”, change the dpi on the laser from 500 – 1000 and you not only will take precisely twice as long to finish the same image but quality improvement is so insignificant that the double time to complete the project is unjustifiable. The reason for this is that a laser’s dot size is static, meaning it NEVER changes in size when dpi is changed, the only thing that changes is the Y axis movement is slowed down, essentially forcing the dot to overlap the previous dot lasered. Now factor in the crystals that are an inherent characteristic of the granite and you can see how using high dpi is useless when working with granite. www.LouieAlvarez.com © 2009 After all that, my point is in order to produce quality granite artwork you must use a low dpi. Experiment as you may find that 500, 400, 300 or even 200 dpi will provide you with the necessary dpi for a quality image. Secondly unlike marble where you can achieve great detail of the finest lines (Marble Sample) on granite you must always factor in the crystals (Granite Sample) so using larger images without much detail will work far better in achieving quality artwork on granite. Marble Sample Granite Sample So to wrap up the above, two issues must be addressed when creating granite artwork. 1st use low dpi on you image matching that setting on your laser, 2nd use larger, less detailed images. Small artwork or artwork with much detail simply gets lost amongst the crystals of the granite. I might add that darker granite works best, such as absolute black, for providing highest contrast. Now onto creating quality granite artwork, I’m sure this won’t go over to well with all the hardcore CorelDRAW users but CorelDRAW is terrible for photos. Although CorelDRAW can do amazing things with text, vector artwork, page layout, working with logos and clipart, it simply wasn’t designed for any kind of significant manipulation of photographs. That is where Corel Paint or similar applications excel in. Although you will still use CorelDRAW to layout your final design the actual manipulation of the photo will take place elsewhere. Ok, let’s begin the process. You’ll be using your image manipulation software, i.e., Corel PhotoPaint, PhotoShop or equivalent and PhotoGrav (www.photograv.com) to properly prepare your image for lasering. The steps involved are quite simple and the process is very quick. I will note where an image may need more time than typical, which is not an issue as you should be charging accordingly. First and foremost is obviously to get your image into a digital format onto your computer. If scanning and the choice is provided you’ll want to scan your image in at the dpi and size you’ll ultimately want to laser at (actual size) so if going to work on a 5”x7” granite piece and working with a wallet size photo, enlarge at the scanner level if possible, otherwise you’ll have do this in your image manipulation software, also ensure you set your dpi to match whatever you’ll use on your laser. In my case I get best results at 200 dpi on my Vytek laser systems www.LouieAlvarez.com © 2009 (remember the dpi clarification from earlier?). Of course if working with a digital camera photo then you’ll resize and adjust your dpi in your image manipulation software (Image | Resample) as I’ve displayed below. Resample starting point Resample changes Now however you get your image into your computer I find that unless I have to clean up a beat up, scratched photo or remove background clutter (this can be labor intensive so charge appropriately) I’ve only had to adjust brightness, contrast, midtones and highlights. Corel PhotoPaint provides a one stop screen to adjust these settings (Adjust | Image Manipulation Lab). Note the two images below (1st is original, second has been manipulated), I find that working with dark material (i.e. black granite) starting off with a dark image doesn’t come out nearly as well as working with a lightened up photo. You can see from the numbers on the right side what and how much was adjusted for this particular photo. Now this is something that your personal tastes will determine what looks best. Just remember your working with dark material with many crystals competing with your photograph so adjust accordingly. Once satisfied with your image, convert your image to grayscale (Image | Convert to Grayscale (8-bit)) and save as (File | Give your file an appropriate name, ensuring you’ve selected “Save as type: BMP – Windows Bitmap” as your file type, then save into a known location. Save As...) a Bitmap. Now fire up PhotoGrav, if you don’t have it, get it, although possible to generate images without PhotoGrav, this one button processing application speeds up, simplifies and takes the thinking out of this final process. Well worth the investment if you plan on EVER doing photos or clipart with your laser. Select the Black Granite parameter (Blkgranite.prm) and click on the “Auto Process” button and let PhotoGrav do its magic. Once completed click on the “Cycle Images” button until “Save Engraved” is noted to the right of this button. Click on “Save Engraved” and place the file into the same folder location as the Windows BMP you saved earlier in Corel PhotoPaint. www.LouieAlvarez.com © 2009 This file will be the one you place into your CorelDRAW layout for final processing to your laser system. Within CorelDRAW import the PhotoGrav file you created, layout your text and other objects as necessary. Save and print. Tune in next month as I get more specific on how to utilize PhotoGrav to produce the best images your laser is truly capable of. Louie Alvarez began acquiring his experience in the awards and engraving industry in Central California over 19 years ago, first as an employee of the largest and oldest trophy shop and then as owner of one of the first laser engraving businesses. Louie has been a featured workshop instructor and seminar speaker throughout the industry in addition to being a contributing writer to numerous industry publications. Louie is based in Las Vegas, NV and can be reached via LOUIEALVAREZ.com. www.LouieAlvarez.com © 2009