Scan and fill

I've searched previous postings until my eyes are crossed, and I've tried various things recommended, and I still cannot figure out how to DO this: I want to draw a line drawing, black and white lines much like in a coloring book, scan it into my computer, and then fill in the spaces defined by the drawn/scanned lines with different colors - again, like coloring in spaces in a coloring book. The posts I have found recommend scanning and manipulating drawings first by using expensive Adobe or Corel software that I do not own. I do own a primitive version of Corel Photo House (which, BTW, lets me do exactly what I am trying to do in Xara X, but the results are a very small bitmap). How do I do this without spending $200 and up on some other software just so I can use Xara? Or is it even possible? :confused:

You would likely have to import your scanned file, and manually trace your line drawing, using the freehand tool.
Jim

Hello Mudwoman, welcome to the forums.
Maybe it's scanning your hand drawn image, importing it into XaraX and then applying a stained glass transparency. This leaves only the pencil lines (not as lines but as a bitmap) then on a layer behind you can add fill shapes.
Egg

You can achieve good results using this method.

Egg/Anyone, I hate to be dense, but I've taken a few runs at this, and I must be missing something. I scanned a line drawing (thick lines), and then opened it in Xara X - I've tried this with BMP, TIFF, JPG and PNG formats. I clicked the 0% Stained Glass Trans, and it did indeed appear to leave just the lines (part of the drawing was off the "page"). Then I went into the layers gallery and created another layer, but I'm not sure if it's above or below the original bitmap. I'm also not sure if the Layer 2 is supposed to be foreground or background, but I can't get it to work either way, so maybe I'm not even creating the layer correctly. And when I go back to the page, I'm not ever sure which layer I'm at. I'm probably making this much harder than it really is. I need to fill some very irregular drawn shapes. Here's a "before" and "after" I crudely sketched out, scanned, and then filled with colors using WinXP Paint, to let you know what kind of things I need to do (if I attached it correctly). Any ideas on what I'm not doing? I'm usually pretty good with such things.
(Oops - Sorry I didn't mean to make the images so big - I'm obviously new at this.)

Hi

I think you are having a common difficulty - not being aware that there are two types of graphics tool - some like Windows Paint, Photoshop and the like, (predominantly) deal with the pixels directly - the dots that make up an image. Others like Xtreme, Corel Draw etc (predominantly) deal with shapes - circles, rectangles and shapes with lots of 'corners', as well as lines. These are described by the X & Y parameters of the points, the fill used, line colour etc.

So to 'fill' lines from a painting paackage in Xtreme, you need to import the gif, jpg etc, and then create matching shapes which you can then fill. Most of us then delete the bitmap - its job is done. To create the matching shapes, you can use the Xtreme bitmap Trace tool but the results are not always helpful, or as suggested above, you manually trace the shapes.

I expect someone is already doing a picture to explain this, but I'll have a go too.

Hi!
Do you have to draw and scan these shapes?

You could just draw your shapes directly in Xara using the Freehand or the Shape Editor, adjust the width of the lines to suit and then fill with one click.
There is plenty of help here on how to do it that way.

Even investing in a graphics tablet (if necessary) will be a lot cheaper than most software?

Egg, stlewis, Kiwi, everyone, thanks! I've at least gotten a start now. A slightly different procedure, kind of a blending of everyone's recommendations, and some experimentation. So for anyone with the same question, here's what I did, click-by-click: 1) Use Bitmap Tracer, Insert; 2) Click on new bitmap; 3) Apply Stained Glass Flat Transparency at 0% (ok, now I think I get the layers thing); 4) Click Arrange / Ungroup; 5) Click off to the side; 6) Right click on new bitmap in one of the shapes, and select Shape Tool Editor; 7) Click on a color, and it will fill in the shape; 8) Right click on each shape to be filled, and click on color. (If it doesn't work one time, check and make sure Shape Tool Editor remains checked.) Can also change line thickness at this time. 9) Make sure the whilte arrow is selected, and then pull the shapes apart; 10) Get rid of everything but the shapes you want. May need to sweep over some of the left over lines to "select" them, and then delete; 11) Reassemble the shapes. Done! I may have added a few unnecessary steps, but I just kept clickin' til I got what I wanted. This is a slick program - and forum! Thanks for your help, all! :D

Mudwoman,

You seem to have achieved the results you were after. Glad to have been of help.

Egg