Articles and Tutorials by Anzai! Inc.
NEW!
Photo-Paint 12, CorelDRAW 12, and Ventura
10 Courseware Hot Off the Press!
Articles
“Arch the Angels Sing”
October, 2002 - In what only seemed like a few months since we last met in
Kansas City at the Ventura Summit…(oh
wait a minute, it was only a few months!)…we headed to the Golden, er metallic, Arch
of a city—St. Louis. But before we talk about StL, let’s just comment about the Detroit Metropolitan airport that we flew into
first. The Metro has some things other airports should follow (with a $2 billion price tag
that Detroit spent as part of their Capital Improvement Program).
“On Top of the Ventura Summit 2002”
July, 2002 - Airline ticket? Who Needs an Airline ticket?! Who would have thunk
that you would actually have to click Purchase when you book airline tickets online? Well,
the check-in employees at US Airways certainly want you to. Tom Anzai was caught at the
check-in counter with a reservation in hand but no ticket. After some frantic calls to
host, Rick Altman, and to expedia.com
agents it became apparent that Kansas City was looking farther than Oz especially when
faced with a same-day flight booking of up to $1300 US. “Try one last time to charm
the US Airways check-in people,” said Rick via cell phone.
“CorelWorld '01 Part Deux”
September, 2001 - OK so we left off CorelWorld '01 Part I with the goings-on at
the conference and what do do (and say) while in Boston but there is another part of the
story we'd like to tell you about. It's a bit about how some U.S. foreigners (two
Canadians and one Dutch) fared in their journey home.
“The Ups and Downs at CorelWorld '01”
September, 2001 - It started off looking like it was going to be really quiet in
and around Boston at the annual CorelWorld
Rickfest September 9-14th, 2001. The first hint was the measly three other people along
with Tom Anzai who boarded
the direct flight from Ottawa to Boston. Heck, the solitary flight attendant didn't even
bother with an official emergency speech on the intercom.
“CorelWorld '00 in Lotus Land”
September, 2000 - OK, it was looking real bad the day before Tom Anzai was to fly and
present at CorelWorld 2000,
September 10-15th in San Diego. While bicycling Tom ran into a bee who took exception to
the run-in and left a stinger in Tom's lower lip. Ouch! Well, to say the least it didn't
take too long for Tom to impersonate a prize fighter at the end of the 15th. Swelling
spread from the lip, to the cheek, to the neck, up to the ear.
“Boot Camp North: The First Class, Eh?!”
May, 2000 - So, Tom said there'd be no snow in Ottawa for the first Boot Camp
North April 6-8, 2000 huh?! He figured that fellow presenter, Foster Coburn, would have no
problem crossing the Canadian border en route from Arizona. He also figured that he could
talk to the full class of 24 attendees without having to raise his voice. And, the Anzai
kids would not try to stuff a peanut butter sandwich into the innards of Foster's new Dell
mega laptop. Well, let's just say that only one of the above was found to be untrue by the
end of the week. Read on and we'll tell you all about the inaugural Boot Camp North in the
nation's capital.
“Mania at Graphics Mania 2000”
April, 2000 - Wow, a chance for Tom and Marie to travel to Europe sans enfants.
Not only travel but to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary and participate in Graphics Mania 2000 in Amsterdam,
The Netherlands. Hmmmmmm. What about a babysitter for their four kids ranging in ages from
2 to 9 during March Break (all students get the week off)? What about the business back
home? Where to stay? What to do?
“Chock One Up for Goddesses Everywhere”
December, 1999 - I met Sharon at CorelWorld
'99 in Orlando and was floored by her amazing portraits done in Corel Photo-Paint.
“You did that on a computer”, I said. Amazingly enough, she even bought one of
our Introductory manuals for CorelDRAW! (She says she wants to give a go at the Corel
certification tests for CorelDRAW.) Her self bio below was so enjoyable to read that
we decided to post it “as is” to keep the candidness of Sharon's article. Read
how Sharon got started in computers and the world of Corel in this witty bio. Enjoy!
“A Day in the Life of CorelWorld '99”
Orlando, Florida, October, 1999 - When news first broke that CorelWorld '99 was
being hosted in Orlando, Florida and Tom Anzai would once again be a presenter, we had
visions of palm trees, Flamingos, and leather-skinned Quebec'ers on the beach. Well, we
were right on the mark except for one ingredient. The sun! Where, oh where, could one find
sun in the week of October 3-8th, 1999? Blame it on Tropical “disturbance” #44
coming off the Gulf of Mexico, they said. “Typical Florida weather”, said
another. Well, more reason to move CorelWorld back to San Diego, I say. Mark September
10-14, 2000 on your calendar if you plan to attend CorelWorld '00. You heard it
here first!
“Part II: Venturing Forth” now ready for consumption!
“Ga Ga at the Corel Gala '99”
Ottawa, Canada, April, 1999 - It was kinda like your high school grad. On one
hand, everyone was decked out in their penguin suits or cocktail dresses. On the other
hand, you could imagine yourself ordering a hotdog and coke while watching Alexei Yashin
dippsy-doodle around the center line during an NHL hockey game. An ideal place for the
Corel Gala? Corelians, media, spouses, and undercover Mac users (kidding!) were in
attendance on a Wednesday in April, 1999 for one of the most sought-after celebrations in
the city of Ottawa.
Using Photo-Paint's Histogram, BCI, and Tone
Curve (an excerpt from our Corel Photo-Paint 10/11 courseware)
Instead of using Brightness-Contrast-Intensity you may find better results using the
Tone Curve feature to adjust the tonal range of the image to fix under or over-exposed
photos. Individual pixel values are plotted along a response curve that appears in a graph
and represents the balance between shadows, midtones, and highlights. This allows you to
fix a specific problem in these areas without affecting other tones.
Follow along with this step-by-step tutorial compliments of David Macdonald who's prior
experience lies in lighting and photography for film and TV.
Step 1: Download the target.wi file required
by the tutorial (68k)
Step 2: Download the PDF version of the Tone
Curve tutorial (204k)
Tom's
Terrific Tips for CorelDRAW 8, 9, & 10
OK, I thought this session would be real easy to do until I had to whittle my
favs down and document them for CorelDRAW versions 8 through 10. We all have our favorite
ways to do things in life, but sometimes it’s hard to categorize them into some sort
of logical sense. So here goes my list of DRAW features that I frequently use and would
like to share with you. Hang onto your hats!
Using Print Merge in CorelDRAW 8 & 9
I won't be surprised if you've never heard of print merge before. And if you
had seen or used the command in DRAW version 5, 6, or 7, I bet that you thought it no
longer exists in versions 8 and 9. Right?! To be honest, we used to include an exercise on
print merge in our DRAW 5, 6, and 7 Advanced manuals but we took it out of our newer 8 and
9 manuals because we didn't see it in the menu either. We figured it had vanished along
with the ability to Extract and Merge Back text files (hands up if you remember these
commands back in DRAW 3!).
Understanding
the Basics of Fills and Outlines
Since its inception, DRAW was always tough to beat when it came to fills, and
to some degree, its outline possibilities. Now in version 8/9 DRAW has even more to offer,
some options of which are buried deep within particular dialog boxes and dockers or
require magical mouse clicks. Whether your drawings are for offset, fancy, web graphics,
or custom purposes, this session will discuss when and how to use the right type of color
and outline for your drawings.
Mastering
Layers in CorelDRAW 8 & 9
The layering feature of CorelDRAW gives you added flexibility for organizing
and editing the objects in your drawings. In its simplest form, and without knowing it,
you can place all your objects on the default layer called Layer 1. Try it. Draw a
rectangle on the page then look at the Status Bar. It displays "Rectangle on Layer
1". Now, in a more complex drawing, you can divide a drawing into multiple layers,
each containing a portion of the drawing's contents. DRAW's layering feature allows you to
have multiple layers, each with its own image content. Each layer can be configured to
make them visible or invisible, locked, and whether or not they will be printed. You can
also use the Master Layer option that allows you to repeat all objects on a designated
layer to every page of the drawing. All layer options are saved with the document.
Saving Defaults for All New Documents
in CorelDRAW 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9
Are you tired of seeing AvantGarde Bk BT, 24 points come up as the
font-of-choice whenever you use the Text tool? Ever wanted to permanently set Snap to
Guidelines on? Always wanted your outlines to scale with image when sized? Never quite
understood why you kept getting an uncalled-for default setting dialog box? If your answer
is a resounding “Yes!”, “Maybe", or “What the heck is he talking
about?”, then this article is for you.
Pssst! Heard the latest scoops? Visit What's New to find out the latest patches, gossip, and breaking news of the month!
Want to suggest an article? Email your request to service@anzai.com
[Home] [Courseware] [News] [Articles] [Resellers] [About Us] [Order] [FAQ] [Download] [Support]