Irfanview File Viewer, Converter and Editor

It seems at least once a year I feel compelled to tell you about the wonderful Irfanview utility. Loyal readers are aware that I had a failing hard drive and had to re-install my system. Prior to the re-install, I made a list of all the software I needed to install and Irfanview was near the top of the list.

First, it is free. When you download it, make sure to also download the free plugins/addons offered. My number one reason for using it is as a bitmap file viewer. So I associate it with common formats like JPG, GIF, PNG and TIF. Why? Because it loads the image instantaneously even if the program hadn't been running in advance. Yes, it is that fast.

Another situation came up earlier this week and Irfanview handled it perfectly. I got a bitmap in Gimp format. Personally, I don't use Gimp and therefore don't have it installed. Yes, it is also free so I could have easily downloaded and installed it. Yet I didn't need to do that as Irfanview was able to convert the Gimp file to PNG for me. Even with the things I described, I am severely under-utilizing Irfanview. It has a lot more features for those who want to explore it in more depth. I just wanted to bring it up again for new readers or for longtime readers who had yet to take advantage of this great tool.

Octin College Fonts

If you create artwork for a school of any kind, then you are probably in need of a "college" style font. It is the style of font with block letters so commonly found in school-related artwork. Octin College Fonts gives you a collection of eight different weights so you'll have exactly what you need.

What do you think of this font family? Post a message on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page and share your thoughts or post a graphic you've created with the fonts. How about sharing a picture of something related to a college? Do you have any friends that like free fonts? Of course you do! Can you suggest even one of your friends become fans of the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page. That way they can enjoy the fonts we feature.

If you've missed some fonts, don't forget to visit Fonts Unleashed where we keep a list of all of the fonts available for download.

What Is That One Feature For You?

We ask two questions on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page and we'd love to hear from more users about these questions. You can either click the link on the question to answer directly on Facebook or you can post a comment to the blog if you don't use Facebook. Please read both questions before answering as they are very similar.

The first question:
If there was one feature added to the next version of CorelDRAW that would make it a must-have upgrade for you, what would it be? Remember, only one feature! Please post a comment and share your thoughts.

The second question:
If there was one feature added to the next version of Corel PHOTO-PAINT that would make it a must-have upgrade for you, what would it be? Remember, only one feature! Please post a comment and share your thoughts.

Don't worry, the folks at Corel will be reading these posts so your answers could definitely influence what may be added in the future.

What Is The Best Way to Learn CorelDRAW?

Not a day goes by where I don't see someone asking the best way for them to learn CorelDRAW. I am certainly biased since I create training products, but there is not a universal answer.

The first place to start is by RTFM (read the fine manual...though some have another definition for the acronym). CorelDRAW does come with a good manual that covers the basics of the software. It also comes with a help file and some tutorial videos (with X4 and X5 specifically). One issue I have with the included training materials is they don't necessarily tell you about problems areas. That could be features to avoid or important workarounds.

Another suggestion I often hear from others is to search the Internet for free tutorials. There are some good ones out there and there are some that are just plain awful. Searching for the good ones is an investment of your time and I honestly don't think the payoff is worth it. Not only are some of the tutorials poor, they can also teach you wrong information and that wrong information could lead to costly mistakes for you. Again, there are some good ones out there, it just takes time to find them and a new user may not know the difference between the good ones and the bad ones.

There is no doubt that I feel my CorelDRAW X5 Unleashed Training DVDs are the best training resource available for both new and experienced users. Yes, I'm biased since I created it. Then again, my career has been creating training materials for CorelDRAW since 1993 so at this point I feel I know what users need to know and how to teach it to them. I got a very long e-mail from one happy customer. Below is part of that e-mail.

"This is so clearly laid out. The fonts are large and easy on the eye to read with the diagrams large and clear also. Your writing style is very conversational which makes me feel as though I'm sitting across a table listening to you in person. The videos are superb with their clarity and sharpness. I'm just sitting here entertained by the quality and simplicity of the tutorials. I'm really enjoying this learning process. This eBook is going to make my PC learning quick and efficient. Thanks again for producing such a wonderful product. I would genuinely recommend CorelDRAW X5 to anyone just for this DVD eBook."--Steve Bolack, Colorblast

Thanks Steve, you described the DVDs quite well. I do my best to cover all the features you need to know about. That does not mean every single feature. Some are pretty obscure and few users need that feature. I'll also warn you about features that could cause you problems. If there is a workaround for the problems, I'll give it to you. My goal is for you to have the best experience with the software. I want you to get projects done as quickly as possible. Ultimately, I want you to be profitable with the software.

If you decide to learn without using my training DVDs, that is certainly your choice. I simply feel they will help you learn faster and give you the best end result. So while it is an investment up front, you'll get a great return on that investment in time and mistakes saved.

Graphics Unleashed Newsletter for January 26, 2012 Now Posted

We've posted the January 26, 2012 edition of the Graphics Unleashed Newsletter. Make sure to check out the thirty-seven new articles and a lot of exciting new products.

Cables To Go USB 2.0 to IDE or Serial ATA Drive Adapter

I shared the ordeal of my hard drive failing with you in a post last week along with the way I set up my systems to help make sure the data gets properly backed up. There was a small amount of data on the system drive and I transferred almost all of it to my data drive before replacing the old, failing drive.

Installation of the new drive went well and I've gotten almost everything installed on the new drive. I'm sure there are a handful of utilities left to install and that will happen as I find a need for them. Once I got up and running again, I realized there were three files I had forgotten to copy from the failing drive. None of them are particularly hard to re-create, but it would sure be easier to copy them from the drive that now sits on my desk. One solution would be to re-open the case and install the drive in an empty slot. While that would work, it is a bit of a hassle for the three files I want to grab. OK, so there are probably more than three if I look hard though I've only missed three so far.

An easier solution to this problem was to get the Cables To Go USB 2.0 to IDE or Serial ATA Drive Adapter. It will allow me to quickly attach the old drive (or other old drives I have laying around) to a USB port so that I can grab the files I need. While I got this cable specifically for this situation, I'm sure it will become a valuable addition to my computer toolkit.

Free Update for Corel® Painter™ 12 Customers Further Enriches the Creative Experience for Digital Artists

Building on the success of Corel Painter 12 announced last year, Corel is excited to announce the availability of a new free update to the world's most powerful art studio. Loaded with enhancements and valuable additions, this free update provides artists with fresh, new ways to explore their creative vision. Corel® Painter™ 12.1 offers new brush sharing and management options, workspace management, and Photoshop® plug-in support, along with the enhanced Live Brush Stroke Preview that now enables artists to quickly view and select brush attributes on the fly. These updates, along with general usability and performance enhancements, equip artists with everything they need to create stunning and realistic digital art creations.

Free Update Offers Painter Community Even More Flexibility and Creative Freedom

In direct response to feedback from the Painter community, the Corel® Painter™ 12.1 update includes the following enhancements for even greater levels of creative power and freedom:

• New! Brush Sharing and Management – Easily install and share brushes with other digital artists by emailing, posting online or downloading to a memory device
• Enhanced! Live Brush Stroke Preview – Now preview the brush stroke and attributes prior to painting, significantly speeding up and simplifying the brush selection and customization process
• New! Moving and Copying Brush Variants – Quickly move or copy a brush variant to any category
• New! Workspace Management – Delete, replace and reset default workspaces
• Enhanced! Color Mixer Palette – Easily import a color collection as a RIFF, PSD, JPG, PNG or TIFF and use it as a baseline color mixer
• New! Drag and Drop Support for Panels – Drag and drop panels to specific locations in the workspace allowing for more control of the workspace layout
• New! Panel Resizing and Panel Presentation Option – Quickly resize individual panels and hide context sensitive information when not in use adding extra room to the workspaces
• Enhanced! Photoshop Plug-in Support - Take advantage of 3rd party Photoshop® plug-ins on Mac® (32-bit) and 32- or 64-bit Windows

"Artists are always looking for ways to make their work stand out and to spark an emotional response in their audience. We are inspired by what our Painter users create and our focus is to provide them with new tools and workflow options that enable them to push their creative curiosity even further," said Andy Church, Senior Product Manager, Corel Painter. "Artists want to focus on what they are creating, not on the software they’re using. With this in mind, Corel Painter 12.1 was designed to give our Painter community free access to more artistic and workflow options so that it is now even easier for them to experiment with new techniques, collaborate with other artists and share their work."

Availability

The free Corel Painter 12.1 update (Windows® and Mac®) is available in English, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean for Corel Painter 12 users.

E-Mail Newsletters and Good Screenshots

It seems that about every week I see somebody asking questions about how to create an e-mail newsletter in CorelDRAW or how to take a screenshot. Both of these topics have been covered in previous blog posts so I'll first give you links to those and then I'll share some additional information about screenshots.

First and foremost, an "e-mail newsletter" is nothing but a Web page. CorelDRAW is not the right tool for Web pages and is thus the wrong tool for e-mail newsletters. It is a great tool for creating graphics for those newsletters. Read the post I wrote about designing e-mail newsletters.

In another post I told you about the free Greenshot tool for creating screenshots. Along with that, I mentioned that I didn't use any special tool for the thousands of screenshots I do each year for my CorelDRAW Unleashed Training DVDs. I use the PrintScreen (whole screen) and Alt + PrintScreen (active window) shortcut keys to capture what I want. Then I select File | New From Clipboard to paste the results into Corel PHOTO-PAINT. In most cases, all I need to do is save the file at that point. There are a few where I need to delete a little extra stuff that isn't relevant to the shot. Quick work with the masking tools in Corel PHOTO-PAINT gets the job done.

Often I see users talking about the resolution of screen shots. I will make this as crystal clear as I possibly can. Resolution doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is capturing the pixels exactly as they appear on screen. Some tools will upsample the image if you use a higher resolution and this actually makes the image worse. Please don't overthink screenshots, they are really easy with the information I've provided in this post.

Graphics Unleashed Media Marketplace Now With More Than 1500 Products

The Graphics Unleashed Media Marketplace was built as a resource for products of interest to users of graphics software, most notably CorelDRAW users. There are now more than 1500 unique products available, such as vector artwork, seamless bitmap textures, add-ons, fonts, training materials and much more. Included are products not only created by Unleashed Productions but a wide variety of products from other companies.

"Graphics Unleashed Media Marketplace has grown from an idea to a destination for designers to have access to reasonably priced design assets and tools." says Foster D. Coburn III, President of Unleashed Productions.

Of the more than 1500 products in Graphics Unleashed Media Marketplace, there are currently 78 that are completely free and another 1141 are priced at $5.00. There are 56 products priced between $5.01-$10.00, 56 priced from $10.01-$20.00, 73 priced between $20.01-$50.00, 51 priced from $50.01-$100.00 and 44 priced above $100.00.

Graphics Unleashed Media Marketplace is constantly growing with new products. Unleashed Productions is also looking for new products to add. Information on adding content can be found in the Media Marketplace FAQ.

The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook

I know from your interaction with the blog and the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page that some of you are big fans of Facebook. It is also clear that some of you absolutely hate it and you've written to tell me about it. Many of you have your own businesses and the rest of you may be influential in the marketing of your employer. Today I wanted to tell you about a book entitled The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook.

One thing I find important in books on hot topics like social media is that they are current and this book was released in December 2011. I got my copy immediately and have already read it cover to cover. There is no doubt that I've picked up enough good tips to easily cover the cost of the book.

For those of you who are already fans of Facebook, you can learn how it can benefit your business. In fact, numerous methods are described and surely one of them applies to your business. Those of you who are not fans of using Facebook may see why it would be a good reason to give your business a presence in the world of social media.

This book has definitely shown me the things I was already doing right, but also some of the things I was doing wrong and how to correct them. For many small businesses, Facebook is one of the most economical methods of marketing and this book will help you take advantage of it. Spend the small amount of money for the book and read and absorb the great advice provided!

US Flags Unleashed Volume 1

If you have been using CorelDRAW for a long time, you may remember the time when it came with various flags as part of the the clip art collection. Just because they are no longer included doesn't mean that you don't have a need to use flags in your artwork so we've put together a collection of United States flags that covers most anything you could need. US Flags Unleashed Volume 1 contains a total of 246 flags. You'll find the national flag, every state flag, numerous city flags, historical flags, Native American flags, federal flags and much more. Each of the files has been keyworded so you can easily search using ROMCat or Corel CONNECT. Files are provided in both CorelDRAW 9 and CorelDRAW X5 format so all users (who have upgraded in the past ten years) have a file they can use. The CorelDRAW X5 files support more keywords, larger thumbnails and embedded color profiles. The collection is priced so every user can afford to add it to their collection. Thumbnails of each of the included images is shown below and you can download a free PDF catalog of the artwork for free from the product page. To see more low-cost clipart, make sure to visit Clipart Unleashed where there are currently eleven collections with many more to come.

10 Alternative Book Covers & Film Posters

It is also inspirational to look at designs by others. Of course there may be times when you envision a way that you would have done the design a bit differently. You'll definitely want to check out a post entitled 10 Alternative Book Covers & Film Posters to see how some famous titles have been redesigned. I don't remember all the originals, but I certainly like the redesigns presented. What do you think? Post a comment here or on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page with your thoughts!