CorelDRAW X5 - Help needed!

Does anyone happen to know how to trace a symbol if I've only got a .jpeg? I need it as a vector so I can actually work with it... what’s the name of the tool used for that kind of thing?

rapidtrucker14 said:does anyone actually know how to draw out a logo if I've just got a .jpeg lying around? I need it as vectors so I can actually work with it... what's the name of the tool for this stuff?

Look, you can always just manually trace the outlines using the Freehand tool (F5)... or—if you don't want to go crazy—just run a trace on the jpeg. Just right-click the image, hit trace, and you can tweak the settings to get it looking right. It basically just turns that crappy raster mess into a vector automatically.

Look, if your image is rocking a bunch of different colors, the trace is gonna spit out separate vectors grouped by those specific hues. You can totally break them apart though—just right-click that traced image and hit ungroup all.
Once they’re ungrouped, just click off onto the empty canvas and you're free to mess with them however you want... total creative control, right?

The end result really just depends on how the original pic looks. But hey, if you want to turn each vector into an actual path, you can easily tweak things—just head down to the bottom right corner and toggle fill color off and switch outline color on.

rapidtrucker14 said:Does anyone know how to trace a character if I only have a .jpeg file? I need it to be vector paths so I can actually work with it... what is the specific tool used for this kind of thing?

Unless the image is—and I mean *really* high resolution (meaning one of those automatic tracing features might actually hold up)—the method that'll cost you the least amount of sanity and time is probably the most tedious one: just drop the image onto a locked layer and manually draw the curves right over the top of it.

Nicholas King said:Unless you're working with a super high-res image that actually works with the trace options, you’ll probably waste more time and energy trying the most tedious method: just drop the image onto a locked layer and manually draw your curves right over the top of it.

Well, the quality isn't great, so whenever I try tracing, everything ends up looking all wavy and distorted...

I guess what I'm really asking is how to actually put an image on a locked layer, and which specific tool I should be using to draw those curves?

rapidtrucker14 said:Well, the image quality isn't exactly top-tier—when I try tracing it, everything ends up looking sort of wavy...

It seems like what I'm actually hunting for is how to lock an image onto its own layer and which specific tool I should be using to plot out those curves, right?

Look, I don't touch X4, so I can't tell you the exact menu path or anything. 🙂

In the older versions, you’d go to Tools -> object manager -> New Layer, then just import your image into that layer and "disable" the editability setting.

As for the curves, you just use the standard drawing tools—you know, lines, ellipses, rectangles, all that stuff. If you aren't particularly gifted in that department, I suppose you could always hand it off to some kid with an ice cream cone; they'd probably knock it out in a heartbeat. 🙂

I know it’s easy enough once you actually get the hang of it..
Do you happen to have a link to any tutorials? I've been trying to hunt some down myself, but I honestly have no clue what the actual terminology is called..

I’m using the X5 version, and I was wondering why the software seems to be dictating my starting points.
I can start at points spaced 200mm apart, but I’m restricted to drawing lines only at 45-degree increments (like 45°, 90°, 135°...).

It’s happening with the eraser, the paint tool, and pretty much everything else...😕

briskbison252 said:I can start at points that are 200mm apart and I can only draw lines at 45-degree increments (45°, 90°, 135°...).

First things first—just turn off Snap to Grid.

Nicholas King said:First off, you should probably turn off Snapchat.

You're totally right! 👍 👍 🙏

I have a few more questions: 😁
-While I was testing out different settings, I used the path tool, and now those lines are just stuck there. I can't seem to select them or delete them at all.

-I'm using CorelDRAW to trace the outlines of an image I imported and then locked it. First, I can't unlock the image to move it anymore. Second, how do I save just the outlines without the background image? If I try to "Save As" a JPG, it includes the bottom image too. Should I just copy the drawn lines into a new document?