Applying special effects

Corel PHOTO-PAINT provides special effects filters that let you apply a wide range of transformations to images. For example, you can transform images to simulate drawings, paintings, etchings, or abstract art.

In this section, you’ll learn about

•working with special effects

•applying preset styles

•applying color and tone effects

•managing plug-ins

Working with special effects

Corel PHOTO-PAINT special effects let you change the appearance of an image. You can apply a special effect to the entire image, or you can use a mask or a lens to transform only part of an image.

Applying special effects

The following are all the categories of special effects available, each of which includes several different effects:

•3-D effects	•Color transform	•Distort
•Art strokes	•Contour	•Noise
•Blur	•Creative	•Texture
•Camera	•Custom

When you apply a special effect, you can adjust its settings to control how the effect transforms an image. For example, when you use a vignette effect to frame an image, you can increase the offset value and decrease the fade value to decrease the size and

Corel PHOTO-PAINT: Applying special effects

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opacity of the frame. With a watercolor effect, you can decrease the size of the brush to show more image detail or increase the size of the brush for an abstract effect.

Applying special effects to part of an image

You can apply special effects to part of an image by defining an editable area. For information about editable areas, see “Masking” on page 413.

You can also use a lens to apply a special effect to part of an image. The following special effects are also preset lens types:

•Jaggy despeckle	•Scatter	•Invert
•Smooth	•Pixelate	•Posterize
•Soften	•Add noise	•Threshold
•Psychedelic	•Remove noise	•Solarize
•Sharpen

When you use a lens, changes are not applied to the image; instead, they are seen on the screen through the lens. For information about lenses, see “Working with lenses” on page 409.

Repeating and fading special effects

You can repeat a special effect to intensify its result. You can also fade an effect to diminish its intensity, and you can define how the effect is merged with the image. For information about repeating and fading a special effect that you’ve applied, see “Undoing, redoing, repeating, and fading” in the Help. For information about merge modes, see “Understanding merge modes” in the Help.

To apply a special effect

1Click Effects, choose a special effect category, and click an effect.

2Adjust the settings of the special effect filter.

If the image contains one or more objects, the special effect is applied only to the background or the selected object.

When you preview the special effect in the image window, you can press and hold F2 to hide the special effect dialog box.

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