Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 19

Thread: Losing image clarity when putting images into Corel Draw

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    112

    Losing image clarity when putting images into Corel Draw

    Whenever I copy for example a JPG or Vector and then paste into Coreldraw the image clarity goes and it becomes pixalated. Even then when I have to convert with the trace Bitmap tool to High Quality image lots of the detail can be lost depending on the image.
    Is there a way of copying and pasting a jpeg or Vector image that I'm being really stupid and getting wrong so the sharpness of the image remains or should i be using Corel PhotoPaint for this process first?
    An example image: https://static.comicvine.com/uploads...+-+page+00.jpg
    Looks great in the browser but not as sharp in coreldraw.
    Last edited by Mark Ward; 09-06-2017 at 5:44 AM.
    Trotec Speedy 300 80W

  2. #2
    Mark

    That image is a 72 dpi image. In other words, a very low resolution image and generally not suitable for much besides the internet. Even so, you may get better results when using trace if you try using outline trace-line art.

    The photo is a straight trace (image on the right) with no re-touching. If you want a perfect vector then I think you're in for a lot of drawing. We would need to know what you intend to do with the image in order to advise whether PhotoPaint or CD should be used to edit the image.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Mike Null; 09-06-2017 at 8:00 AM.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Cleveland OH
    Posts
    195
    I agree with Mikes response,

    You want to look for higher resolution pictures - You can find them on google, most likely you copied and pasted a thumb print image (They use these as place holders so the large image doesn't have to load) If you click on the image on google the base picture should be higher quality (The pictures source - Normally a secondary website from google). There is also a option on google to set minimum picture quality, also when working in corel draw try not to copy and paste images, Try to import them into the program - Copy and paste can cause trouble on advance work.
    3X Camfive 1200 48" x 24" 100watt Tube
    Zcorp 450 3d Printer
    Laguna Smartshop 2 - 4x8 ATC

  4. #4
    There is a quick and easy fix for pixelated photos in Corel-- click on: BITMAPS/RESAMPLE-- then up the resolution.

    this is a 72dpi graphic as opens in Corel on the left. The right I changed the resolution from 72 to 1000, much better, and tracing the high res version will give you much better results too...resample.jpg

    note the resample does work better the larger the original is-
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  5. #5
    It does work better but only to a limit unknown to me. CD will reduce the bitmap before tracing it even when set to the highest quality. I also set my smoothing to 1 so that I don't get too soft of corners.
    Chinese 6040 by NiceCut. Originally 60 Watt upgraded to 150 Watt.....I thought I had pretty much every problem in the book of laser cutting. It turns out that there is a set of books.

  6. #6
    DPI is nothing more than a scaler in the digital world. It only exists in the physical world.

    When trying to figure out if an image is of a good quality, you look at the resolution & the actual quality. That image "fails" the resolution test as it's only 457px × 640px. It might be adequate for engraving something small but even then, it's just asking for problems due to the relative complexity of the image.
    Equipment: IS400, IS6000, VLS 6.60, LS100, HP4550, Ricoh GX e3300n, Hotronix STX20
    Software: Adobe Suite & Gravostyle 5
    Business: Trophy, Awards and Engraving

  7. #7
    Any complicated tracing I do in Casmate, which really likes it when I resample with Corel to smooth the pixels down. Since I don't do colors, I use Corel PhotoPaint to remove colors, works very well.

    I rarely use Corel's trace because it's ridiculously frustrating, nothing I love more than when it sharpens round corners, rounds off sharp corners, and deletes graphic segments just when the result almost suits me... IMO it's almost completely useless. The ONLY time I use it is if a customer supplies a large, decent black/white graphic via email that 'quick trace' will work on. And raising the res on them does help.

    Why I don't use Corel-trace: I took Mike's pic, left side original, copied it into CPaint, removed the colors, adjusted the grays left, saved it as a tif, imported into Casmate, traced it, and the only editing I did was to remove clutter above the cards, and made Batman's eyes bigger. Back into Corel where I engraved it onto a small piece of white Rowmark with the LS900. From start to engraved plate took less than 10 minutes. Not possible (for me) to get results like this from 'trace' at all, let alone so quick...
    joker2.jpg

    Anyone with the patience to endure working with Corel's Trace has my utmost respect!
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  8. #8
    Kev
    In my opinion, the one click trace image I did with CD is better than your Casmate image. I just did the one click version so less than a minute was all the time it took. I am a fan of Trace and use it often. Some images are near perfect with the one click trace, others, such as this one require some more work.

    Using resampling such as you suggested is a good idea also.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    112
    Thanks for all the replies guys! I'll give them a proper read over and try out what has been suggested. Good tip on checking the DPI of the original image too, something I'd not even thought of!
    Trotec Speedy 300 80W

  10. #10
    I think the answer your problem is right in your first sentence: "copy... and paste..." [*shudder!*]

    As mentioned you're getting a low-res screen shot @ 72 ppi resolution. That's crummy.

    The only correct way to get a picture with ALL its detail into Corel is to use the File>Import command.

    You can then trace or do what you wish with it, but you'll have it at the original resolution that way.
    You must use the 'resample' option,too, rather than the resizing 'handles' if you wish to keep resolution as you enlarge somethng - unless it is not important.


    Hope that helps.
    Best wishes,
    Ian



    ULS M-300, 55w made 2002 with rotary. Goldenlaser 130 watt, 1300x700 made 2011.
    Flat bed 2500x1300 150/90watt 2 tube laser, 2018 model.
    Esab router, 1989, 4.5 x 2.0 m, conv. to Tekcel, and modded a 2nd time.
    HP L260-60". Roland PNC-1410. Mimaki GC-130 SU.
    Screenprinting carousel 6x4 and 7x4 ft 1-arm bandit vac table.
    Corel Draw X3, Illy, Indesign & Photoshop CS2 & CS5, Enroute 4
    Pencil, paper, paintbrush, airbrush & dagger-liners & assorted other stuff.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster View Post
    I think the answer your problem is right in your first sentence: "copy... and paste..." [*shudder!*]

    As mentioned you're getting a low-res screen shot @ 72 ppi resolution. That's crummy.

    The only correct way to get a picture with ALL its detail into Corel is to use the File>Import command.
    Try as I might, everything bitmap comes in to Corel-- at least MY Corel- at 72dpi, regardless...

    1- click 'import'-- (look close, lol)
    step1.jpg

    choose a pic on my computer- this is 10 mpxl pic of our mutt--
    step2.jpg

    click it in--
    step3.jpg

    I imported it, not copy/paste, it's 53.778" wide x 30.222" tall,
    3,872 x 2,176 pixels, which is definitely all it's detail, and--
    - it's 72 dpi...
    step4.jpg

    No matter what pic or bitmap I copy/paste or import, it's ALWAYS 72 dpi...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  12. #12
    Kev

    Can't lay claim to expertise here but if I import from my photo file I also get 72 dpi images but if I've saved an image to a Corel folder at the original resolution I seem to be able to import it as is in Corel. But, trace will not work if the image is above a certain size and it will ask if you want an auto reduction in order to trace the image. Trace does not reduce the dpi of your original image except for the purpose of the trace.

    The bitmap below is a 300 dpi image from the customer. I used trace with just one click to get the vector image shown. The image needs a little work but I think it's pretty good.

    trace.jpg
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  13. #13
    Your Quick Trace results may differ depending on your CorelDraw settings... If you go to Tools, select Customization, and look in the Workspace section under PowerTRACE, you'll find options that determine how Quick Trace functions. Mine is set to trace using Last Used (whatever method I last chose manually) and highest quality. While verifying this, I also discovered why one trace option (merging colors) wasn't working quite right: I had the tool set to average merging colors, but I wanted merge to first selected color! There is probably a setting somewhere that to change the default dpi for pasted images, because mine defaults to 96 dpi compared with the 72 dpi many people have noted.

    I think the point about dpi vs total pixels has been made at least once, but I'll reiterate that dpi is not particularly important in this context. If you have AxB pixels, it doesn't matter what the dpi is; you'll get the same trace results whether it's 72 or 300 dpi. What matters is how many pixels you have to work with. Mike's original elephant image may have been 300 dpi but, if it only measured (approximately) 865 by 270 pixels (which is about the size of the "300 dpi" example shown above), then any version of CorelDraw trace would have produced a much worse result than he shows. Upping the pixel count to 1730x540 (doubling the image dimensions while quadrupling the number of pixels) significantly improves the trace results. However, attempting to further improve CD's trace by continuing to increase the pixels quickly hits a limit and CD will start to ask if you want to reduce the bitmap before tracing. Up to a point, you can refuse and wait longer for the full image to be traced, but the results typically aren't noticeably better. And, before you can get enough additional pixels to improve the (full image) trace results significantly, CD changes its popup so that, instead of allowing you to continue with full resolution and longer processing time, your only option is reduce resolution or cancel.

    Depending on the image and your needs, you might find that you can get better/acceptable results more quickly by breaking apart a large bitmap (that would otherwise have to be reduced), separately tracing the parts of the image, and then combining the results. In Mike's case, he might split the image to trace each elephant and the central region separately (3 sections) to pick up the fine details better and avoid a lot of manual tweaking. Also, I find that text (especially curved, like Bullet Safaris) often traces poorly and is particularly problematic to tweak manually. If the initial trace of text is unacceptable (and I know/can quickly find the font or a close approximation), I find it much faster and better to throw away the traced text and replace it by retyping the text and fitting that to a purpose-made curve.

  14. #14
    Glen

    Thanks for that explanation. I have always been of the high res gets better traces school so it's good to have your info.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    Try as I might, everything bitmap comes in to Corel-- at least MY Corel- at 72dpi, regardless...
    I imported it, not copy/paste, it's 53.778" wide x 30.222" tall,
    3,872 x 2,176 pixels, which is definitely all it's detail, and--
    - it's 72 dpi...
    step4.jpg

    No matter what pic or bitmap I copy/paste or import, it's ALWAYS 72 dpi...
    Just change the DPI to 600 or whatever, and then click the checkbox "Maintain Original Size".

    This will keep the actual pixel data the same and simply mark the image as a higher resolution. If you look, you'll see that originally, the image is 54" wide. If you bump the DPI to 600 it will cut that down to around 6.5". I'm still learning to use my laser engraver, but I've been told that you want the DPI to be such that the pixels are large enough that your laser's minimum spot size can accurately render the pixels, ideally without any periodic resonance. So if the image is still too large at the DPI suitable for you machine, you may need to resample again to cut the size of the image down fit your machine.

    Dave

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •