Chapter 4: CorelDRAW Basics | 35•The Basic shapes tool lets you draw a full
set of shapes, such as hexagrams, smileys,
and right-angle triangles.
•The Arrow shapes tool lets you draw
arrows with a specified shape, direction,
and number of arrowheads.
•The Flowchart shapes tool lets you draw
flowchart symbols.
Creating lines and curves
If you want to create your own unique shapes,
you can use one of the curve tools that let you
draw an almost unlimited variety of shapes.
Before you get started, however, it's a good
idea to get familiar with the following basic
concepts.
After drawing a line, you can convert it to a
curve. This is helpful when you want to make
detailed changes to the basic shape of a line.
When you convert a line to a curve, you are
essentially reducing the line to a series of
points, called nodes. By moving the nodes, you
change the line’s shape.
Top: Straight line. Middle: The line has been converted
to curves and now contains curve nodes. Bottom: The
curve is shaped by manipulating the nodes.
A line in which the starting point and endpoint
do not meet is called an open path. You can
join the points to make a closed path. This is
useful for adding a fill to the area enclosed by
the line.Left: Open path. Right: Closed path with a fill added.CorelDRAW provides many tools for drawing
lines and curves, including the following:
•The Freehand tool lets you draw line
segments and curves by using a mouse or
pen tablet.
•The Artistic media tool provides access to
four additional tools:
•The Brush tool lets you draw lines that
look like brushstrokes.
•The Sprayer tool lets you spray
objects, such as snowflakes or bubbles,
along a path.
•The Calligraphic tool lets you draw
lines that resemble strokes drawn with
a calligraphy pen.
•The Pressure tool lets you draw lines
that resemble strokes drawn with a
pressure-sensitive pen.
•The Pen tool lets you draw curves and
straight lines one segment at a time.