#Corel CD Drive & PCD
8 messages in this thread
I have the Toshiba TXM 3301E1 CD drive that came with the Corel 3.0 Blockbuster
bundle. I was passed a Kodak Photo CD sampler (not the professional series, but
it does say for the MAC on the disc) but get an error msg. that the drive is
not ready or disc is not formated properly.
I was going to open a PCD from the sampler into CorelPaint. I have several
Image companies that I want to get images from and all are in Photo CD (PCD)
format. I even have the Corel Photo CD coming…will I not be able to read a
Kodak Photo CD on this drive?
All help is apprecieated.
DaveM
Sorry, the MAC and PC use entirely different and incompatible CD ROM
formats just as they use different disk formats. You can not read CDs formatted
for a Mac on a PC, or vice-versa.
Gosh Darn!
Okay, let's try another route. If I do get a PC format PCD and I can get it
into PhotoPaint what particular file format would you suggest to export to
Ventura?
If I need to send a color image to the SB for separation what file format do
you suggest?
DaveM
If you are ever dealing with a service bureau you're almost required to use
EPS; all bureaus support it and it's device independent, so even Mac-based SBs
can take your EPS files. When dealing with Bureaus, Postscript is a necessity.
Photopaint will only embed a file (say, TIFF) into an EPS file; to get true
vector, you should use CorelTrace and convert it to vector. Then you can
import, resize, etc. in Draw and export as a true vector file that will print
at the resolution of your service bureau's printer rather than the resolution
of the original bitmap.
Jack,
I unstand what you're saying about EPS and vector files. I haven't used EPS but
have had several vector files ran at the SB with no problems. Most of my CDR
files are vector illustrations with the exception of a few TIF imports into an
illustration (I know I should trace it first but most of these files are line
art that get a varity of reduction from the line art I produce).
I would like to start working with color image files (scans from color
photography). If I understand correctly there aren't any vector scans only
bitmaps, right?
Do you have any suggestion on file formats of scaned photography? I have been
thinking of archiving some of our larger clients to PCD but am not quite sure
of either limitations or advantages.
DaveM
The Kodak format is very good for 24 bit scans but it can be sometimes hard
to translate to other formats depending on the applications used. Scanning in a
vector format would be a nightmare involving a whole separate computer just to
do the math, so, yes, all scanning is by nature bitmap. I've gotten very good
results with TIFF, particularly 5.0 and above, and this is supported by
virtually every graphics program and file transfer utility I know. Stay away
from PCX; while color info is fine, it contains no size info at all and will
expand to fill any empty spaces in other programs.
CorelTrace, I know, does match fills; the problem is that it converts CYMK
to RGB so set your final colors in RGB if vectorizing rather than depending on,
say, Draw, to retain PhotoShop CYMK values–it won't.
When embedding bitmaps, the thing to remember is that, unlike vector, you
won't get any higher resolution from your bitmap embedded in an EPS file than
you had at the start. This means scanning in at a high dpi rate if at all
possible, even at the cost of huge file sizes. Many scanners, like the new
HPIICx, can do interpolated scans to TIFF as high as 1600 dpi, but make sure
you have one heck of a large (and empty) hard disk or optical drive!
Thanks for all the tips Jack.
DaveM
David,
The drive is single session compatible, and even if the disk was multi-session
you should still be able to see the first session. It is possible that the
driver that you are using is not PCD compatible. If it is a version of
CorelDRIVER then you must update the drivers. If it is CorelSCSI version 1.01f
then you must add a /XA on the end of the driver line. If it is a version
after this you should have no problems. If it is a version before 1.01f (1.00
or 1.01c) then you msut update the drivers.
I hope this helps.
Laszlo