CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 36. Learn to create outstanding fine art and eye-catching commercial graphics with one powerful tool! CorelDRAW X5: The Official Guide is your comprehensive reference and workbook to get you started designing visually captivating CorelDRAW artwork. Learn, step by step, how to create the illustrations you've imagined, quickly assemble layouts for print and package designs, import and edit photos, master the art of typography and the science of color theory, make 3D scenes from 2D objects, and apply special effects to ordinary pictures. Packed with expert techniques and advice for creating professional-quality art, this. | 314 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Types of Cuts with the Knife Tool There are three ways to cut a shape with the Knife tool and each one requires a different keyboard mouse technique. Straight cuts Suppose you want to slice an object into two separate shapes as you d do with a workshop saw. To produce straight lines on sides of both objects you aim the cursor on the near side of the object hover until you see it change from an angled cursor to an upright one click release the mouse button and then click the far side of the object as shown in Figure 11-5. Freeform cuts This technique can be used for example to quickly create an illustration of a sheet of paper roughly torn in half. You hover the cursor until it turns upright click-hold the near side of the object and then drag until you reach the far side of the shape as shown in Figure 11-6. Bezier cuts If you need to guide the Knife tool to make smooth jigsaw-like cuts you hold SHIFT and then click-drag points beginning at the near side and completing the cut at the far side as shown in Figure 11-7. Notice that not only do the cut result objects inherit the original shape s fill but this applies to all types of fills including gradients. The shapes in this figure each have a gradient start and end point inherited from the original shape and if you choose the Interactive gradient tool you can adjust each object s gradient directly and come up with a visually interesting jigsaw puzzle composition or other complex drawing. CHAPTER 11 Editing Objects 315 FIGURE 11-6 Click-drag to create a freeform cut. Naturally if you have a specific cut in mind you ll get the best results using the shaping operations and you cannot edit a Bezier cut s path as you make the cut but the Knife tool does provide fast and easy results. Tip I If you hold both SHIFT and CTRL while click-dragging to make a Bezier cut doing 11 I so constrains the direction of the path to 15-degree increments for more predictable results in making the edge .
