Mask and transparancy

I know how to mask, and I know how to make a pic partially transparant (in its entirety), but what I am trying to do is mask off a single puzzle piece (just a part of the pic), keep that in tact, and then make the rest of the pic transparant without deleating it persay. If I mask and then delete, the puzzle piece relative to the rest of the pic changes as the rest of the pic no longer exists. I want to keep the rest of the pic in place, only transparant. This way, the puzzle piece stays in place relative to the rest of the pic. How can I achieve this?

Use the shape tool to cut out (ctrl+4 - slice shapes) the piece then apply a transparency to that piece only.

Here is a sample file.

Take care, Mike

Is there anyway to use the shape tool to protect the piece I want to and then make everything else transparant?

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IeMS are you talking about a vector drawing or a photo?

Vector I guess - that globe puzzle I posted on your other post? I was thinking of making what is grey transparant.

Attachment 89622

Is the file you licensed a jpg or an eps?

Those are the two formats that most microstock sites offer. If you licensed a jpg, then it's a photo or bitmap (same thing as far as Xara is concerned). If you licensed an eps, then it's a vector.

If it's a vector, then you can simply select the gray parts and apply the transparency.

If it's a photo, then you'll need to draw around the edges of the piece you want colored and slice it out of the photo as sledger suggests. Once you have two separate pieces, you have a couple of alternatives:

- Apply the transparency to the gray part. Export the colored part and the gray transparent part together as another jpg.

- Copy the colored part to the clipboard. Apply the transparency to a copy of the entire photo and lay the colored part on top of it. Export the combination.