NEW Corel Service Bureau Profiler available

Earlier this month Corel released a new Corel Service Bureau Profiler application and made it available for download online. This unique application allows any service bureau to create its own custom `profile’ which customers can use when forwarding a print job to a bureau. Having profiles available allows a service bureau to streamline and better control how jobs are received while simplifying the proves of preparing jobs for designers. For those of you unfamiliar with service bureau profiles, the following list of frequently asked questions and answers is provided. This information will help describe the capabilities of profiles and their usage.

What are service bureau profiles?

Service Bureau profiles are essentially scripts that integrate with the Prepare for Service Bureau wizard within CorelDRAW. Each profile is a separate file with the .CSP files extension.

How are profiles created?

Profiles for CorelDRAW 7,8 and 9 and CorelVENTURA 8 can all be created using the latest Corel Service Bureau profiler, included in Service Pack #1 for CorelDRAW 9 and as well as being bundled with the upcoming release of CorelDRAW 9 Premium Color Edition.

Who can create profiles?

Anyone can create profiles. It is typically the responsibility of the service bureau themselves to create the profile that suits their workflow, however given the sufficient information, a client may create a profile for themselves.

How are Corel Service Bureau profiles be used in CorelDRAW and Corel VENTURA 8?

After the .CSP file is copied/downloaded to the client’s system, it is just a matter of choosing the `Prepare for Service Bureau’ option in the File menu found in later versions of CorelDRAW (including CorelDRAW 8 for Power Macintosh) and Corel Ventura and selecting the profile to be used. Once a profile has been selected, the wizard leads through a series of prompts gathering the information specified by the profile such as Customer info, gathers fonts, saves file and/or generates a Print to File PRN, generates a PDF file, etc. The Download Profile from the Internet option will direct users to the CASB web site and the Find a Service Bureau searchable database where all submitted profiles will be posted in the near future.

How does the profiler accommodate different job types and file preparation methods?

Either by creating a separate profile for each job type (ie.once for receiving color separations, another for low-run digital prints, etc) or by simply having one profile that merely gathers the file, fonts used and linked images. The later method is particularly useful for those that prefer receiving jobs as native file formats and don’t require PRNs to be generated. Moreover, gathering the necessary files in the manner is useful for any workflow and eliminates critical files/fonts from not being provided. What are some of the improvements with this version of the Corel service bureau profiler?

• easy to use and walks through process of creating a profile

• dynamic help screens provide info on options available

• usable for not only with CorelDRAW 9, but can create profiles for earlier versions of CorelDRAW (including CorelDRAW 8 for PowerMAC) and Corel VENTURA 8

• takes advantage of all new printing features in CorelDRAW 9 including the ability to produce a PDF file, creating device independent postscript files and allow specific PPD’s to be used directly when generating a PS/PRN file

• integration with ICC color management technology

CorelDRAW® 9 Service Pack 1 available

A service pack is soon to be released for CorelDRAW 9. This service pack addresses a number of particular issues, many of which are described below. The revision will soon be available for download on Corel’s web site.

The following lists some of the added functionality and issues addressed with CorelDRAW 9 service pack 1. For a more complete listing, refer to the readme.htm file included with the service pack.

CorelDRAW® 9 Revisions

File IO

 The ability to open/import Corel Print House and Corel Print Office files was added.

 Redraw and Open times were improved while running on Windows 95/98 for files containing a great deal of text.

 Files containing Text on a path residing on a master layer will now open correctly.

Text

 Various issues were corrected when separating multiple linked paragraph text frames. In these cases, the text would not re-flow correctly and the file would not read correctly when re-opened. The issue as been addressed for future files.

 Font combos would sometimes appear to have a discrepancy if the option to display the applied font type was disabled. The combos have been changed to display the currently applied typeface at all times including this circumstance.

Effects

 Convert to Outline stability was improved. In some very specific cases converting an outline to an object then applying an Artistic media stroke would result in an error.

Interactive Fills, Uniform Fills, Transparent Fills and Outlines

 Color models in the Fill Color dialog are now consistent when switching to another window setting, or to another color of a different color model or when switching between objects.

 In the Color Palette docker, upon relaunching the application, the behavior of default palette was changed so that it remains set to the one selected by the user, instead of resetting back to the CorelDRAW Palette.

Color Styles

 The Auto-Create feature was improved to allow the user to double click on a color swatch that was created using this method.

Object Transformation and Editing

 The Artistic Media feature was enhanced so that scaled objects now maintain their size after node editing an artistic media stroke.

 Added to CorelDRAW 9 is the ability to return to CorelDRAW 8's Snap to Object behavior. This can speed up dragging of complex drawings significantly, but can result in less precise snapping. This new option is available through the Tools menu's Options dialog (Tools, Options...). Double-Click on the Document section of the Options dialog's tree, and then select Grid. Two new radio buttons can be found at the bottom of the Grid options page which allow you to alternate between snapping behaviors. This setting is maintained in your individual documents.

 For your information, CorelDRAW 9 snaps objects to nodes on both the target and source objects AND the position of the cursor while dragging. CorelDRAW 8 only snaps to nodes on the target object from the position of the cursor while dragging the source object. The new method of Snapping has been improved and is more precise.

Display/User Interface Related

 The Status Bar has been improved to display radius and roundness when either one or 4 corners with same roundness are selected.

 Object Size and Position items can now be customized into the status bar.

 The Status Bar for rectangles with ALL corners rounded to the same value will include the absolute unit value of the roundness. This absolute unit value for roundness will also display if you have only ONE corner selected. Due to space constraints on the Status Bar, CorelDRAW 9 will not show the absolute unit value if you have more than one, but less than all, corners selected for rounding.

Corel PHOTO-PAINT® 9 Revisions

File IO

 Enhanced application stability in File IO

 Vector files now import correctly when scaled

 Rectified issues with creating new 8-bit paletted from the Clipboard

 Corrected problem with saving movies with lenses

Tools

 Thumbnail and path issues with the Deskew Crop tool have been rectified

 Enhanced stability when using Image Sprayer tool on 8-bit Paletted images

 Bitmap Fills loaded from external files will correctly represent the content of the file

 Improved display of transparent or multiple objects

 Improved anti-aliasing of text

Brushes

 Effect Tool - Sharpen Brush support for object layers

 Saving nibs from a vertically docked Property Bar

 Directory default changed for the Brush Textures load dialog

 Added Orbit presets to the Art Brush Paint tool

Pen Tablets

 Added Pressure settings to Artistic Paint tool brush presets. See "Improved Tablet Support" in Corel PHOTO-PAINT readme for details

 Wacom Intuos Airbrush pen - Fingerwheel support has been changed from Brush Rate of Flow to

Brush Transparency

 Wacom Intuos 4D mouse support – improved Thumbwheel support for zooming

 Wacom Intuos - added support for Pen IDs. See "Improved Tablet Support" in Corel

PHOTO-PAINT readme for details

 Wacom Intuos - tablets will now behave correctly after the application has exited

 Pen pressure will release correctly while painting or clicking on buttons with the tip of the pen on older pen pressure devices

Color

 Properly exits the application after having saved color palettes from the on-screen color palette

 The “Add to Palette” button has been enabled in all Color dialogs

Effects and Plug-ins

 Saving last used settings in the Terrazzo effect

 Support for effects on images in the lab color mode

 Enhanced output from the Gaussian blur effect

 Plug-ins will function correctly after using the

Undo List

 Interaction with paths and the Frame effect have been stabilized

 Improved results with Cobblestone, Kid’s Play, Crafts, and Fabric effects

Objects and Masks

 Shortcut keys for Mask Modes have been corrected

 Improved movement of blended objects

Undo/Redo

 Improved stability and support Scripts

 Improved stability within application

 Updated MoviePaste script

 Improved the Imagecutter script interface UI and Help

 Improved directory path support for the Scrapbook Dockers

 Improved scrolling behavior in the Artistic Media

Docker

 Updated sections of the On-line help and What’s this help

VBA

 Users can now make a separate instance of Corel PHOTO-PAINT using macros CorelDRAW® 9 Print Engine Revisions

Print Preview

 Print Preview of the K plate of negative images now properly displays the print job.

Signatures

 Transparencies printed in a signature layout with an inverted frame now print accurately.

 Tiled page and custom layout user interface behavior has been cleaned up. Linked Bitmaps

 Inaccuracies involved in printing a document with linked CMYK bitmaps have been resolved.

Print Dialog

 The issues tab of the print dialog has been enhanced.

EPS

 EPS files with WMF headers are now supported in Corel PHOTO-PAINT

 PP4 & PP5, Picture Publisher 4 and 5 files with objects can be opened

GIF Animations

 Improved GIF Animation export for frame rates Corel® Writing Tools Revisions German

 The German Writing Tools have been enhanced to support both new and old spellings. Print Merge

 Print Merge no longer drops characters. Corel® Color Management 9 RevisionsColor Palettes

 User defined ink tints now display properly in on-screen palettes.

 Problems related to the resizing color palettes have been resolved.

 Default color palette now remembers the last used palette and does not revert to the CorelDRAW default palette.

Color Dialog

 Inaccuracies with the color dialog's mixers and blends have been resolved.

Corel® Filters 9 Revisions PDF

 The PDF Engine has been upgraded to V1.3 and now supports full bleeds.

 An issue with publishing files with hundreds of bitmaps exceeding OS temp file limits has been resolved.

Technical Support Tales From Our Database

This Issue...Printing instability and driver woes, Print Merge and missing text characters in CorelDRAW 9

Problem: "Our company has a Tektronix Phaser 780, we are using Windows98 and Corel Draw 9, we were having problems with CorelDRAW crashing after and during printing to the Phaser. The message we got was "An unexpected error occurred in CorelDRAW 9. Please save your current document in another file, then quit and restart CorelDRAW 9." When we clicked OK Corel would not respond and crash.”

Resolution: This issue is due to a current incompatibility between the current Win9x driver software for the Tektronix Phaser 780. There is a file in the Windows\System directory that needs to be deleted/renamed. For the Phaser 780 the file is tkp780p1.dll. The side-effect of renaming/removing this .dll file is that it will affect the utilities that are included with theTektronix printer. Corel is currently working with Tekronix to resolve this issue.

Problem: CorelDRAW 9 seems to be randomly unstable on certain systems and produces `Unexpected error’ messages, particularly when performing File I/O and printing functions.

Resolution: General system instability has been known to occur on some systems that have the latest PCL 6 driver installed for HP LaserJet 4000. Simply removing this particular printer driver from the system or selecting a different printer for the default has been found to eliminate the problem . Alternatively, the postscript driver for this device available for Hewlett Packard’s website for the HP LJ 4000 can be used when applicable. This issue is currently under investigation by Corel and HP staff.

Problem: When attempting to output certain files to a device via Fiery RIP, CorelDRAW 9 produces an “Unexpected error” message forces the program to be shut-down and nothing is ultimately output.

Resolution: This issue is currently under investigation by Corel, and is not necessarily specific to devices using Fiery RIPs. A workaround is to bypass the system’s postscript driver by using the `Use PPD’ option available in CorelDRAW 9's print dialog for postscript devices, and pointing to the proper PPD for the device being used. Typically device PPD’s can be found in the \Windows\system\ sub-folder. Note: Using the `Use PPD’ option in CorelDRAW 9 imits page size selections to the standard page sizes available for hat particular PPD. Ie. No custom page sizes can be set.

Problem: hen using the print merge feature in CorelDRAW 9, some text letters) don’t output to postscript devices. This is only evident on ith the later pages of a multi-page print merge.

Resolution: This is a known issue with CorelDRAW 9 and has been addressed in Service Pack 1. Workaround: Do not download Type 1 fonts in print options by disabling the Download Type 1 fonts check box. This will in effect send all text as graphics/curves.

CorelNews is presented here as a portion of an original Corel Service Bureau News, distributed solely for Corel Authorized Service Bureaus (CASB). Content concerning only CASB's has been omitted for brevity. All other information is unaltered from original document content, only the layout has been changed. For more information, contact the Corel Authorized Service Bureau page at: http://casb.corel.com