Expert: Ran - 6/16/2009

Question
I have a logo that I built in Corel Draw that I need to put on top of another image (a book cover) also in Corel Draw.  Part of the logo has a white background that I need removed and made transparent.

I have tried exporting the logo and turning it into a transparent .gif, but the quality always goes real bad.  I have conlcuded that Corel is completely incompatible with any program that can make the transparent .gif for me.

I looked at blogs on the subject, but none of their instructions worked.  The "transparent background" box as part of the export process was never available to be checked.  I also tried to do it in Corel PhotoPaint, but my controls were different and I really have no idea how to use that program anyway.

Any ideas?

Answer
Hi Don

I've never seen good results when placing images directly on top of drawings, unless the image is rectangular. Even if you managed to get the white bits transparent, you would probably be disappointed with the anti-aliased mess along any diagonals.

The workaround I suggest is as follows:
Create a slightly larger white square on your book cover (or circle, whatever) and place the logo on it.

Alternatively, and for far better image quality, don't export anything: copy/paste your CorelDraw logo directly onto your book cover and keep the whole job as one CorelDraw file.