The frustration of coloring in Xara

Dear Xara,

I do like your software for vector drawing...but coloring inside those vectors is a PAIN (at least to me). PLEASE try to come up with a way that, when we group lines together (as I do for individual brush strokes that make up a drawing), the lines will be JOINED so that I can use the paint bucket to color without the paint spilling outside the lines. Right now I have to use PS for coloring - it recognizes grouped lines if they're touching each other. But PS has its own issues - it'll put a little white seam between the color and the Xara lines, so that I have to go back in and fix it. Grrr! Thanks for reading.

trouble is TC, xara does not have a paint bucket tool [depite it's icon looking like one]- all you can do is fill an existing shape [or recolour a line] - separate lines that touch do not define a shape in xara, they are objects in their own right

you can get round this - I covered it in a previous thread, but PS is actually easier if you do not need pure vector

Do you get the white 'seams' if you disable the bucket anti-aliasing when you fill ? You might also need to tweak the threshold setting...

For what it's worth.

• Select all your Lines that need a Fill.
• Clone them.
• Join Shapes.
• Add a 1px Outer Contour with a Mitre join.
• Click Inset Path (Shape of Lines).
• Cover this 'Shape of Lines' with a Box of the required Colour.
• Select this and the 'Shape of Lines'.
• Combine Shapes > Intersect All Shapes.
• Discard the outer offcut.
• Fit inner shape to original Lines.

Acorn

never done it that way rather than the 'break shapes' route - mind you when I learnt to do it, the 'intersect all shapes' function had not been added to the program

interesting - and when I tried it that way I got a very slight gap

I did make sure the rectangle did not have an outline, maybe did something else wrong....

Attachment 131046

Attachment 131047

At worst, i can just about see a sub-sub-pixel gap.
My 'fix' is just to add a thin Line, 10mp, of the same colour
I also placed my end-shape under the Lines.

Adding an outer Contour is increasing the area covered by the Lines so technically there ought not be a gap.
You can test this by choosing a smaller Contour Width (CW). I used 1px CW with a 1px Line. The method would still work with a 0.1px CW.

Acorn

method works ok I like it

for static work at 50% reduction doubt would see it at all - animation not so good as such things can compound and become visible at zoom

asking for help sorting out bitmap tracing and coloring in xara was more or less the very first thing i did on TG; break shapes is in my blood :) it would just come more natural to me to convert cloned lines to shapes, then combine shapes, then break....

followup:

having tried break shapes way [ and for the record the combine shapes in question is 'add shapes'] still get a sub-sub pixel gap but only on the right hand side !.... hummm

be a function of the high zoom and the way the program handles the specific curvatures I would think.... oh for a CRT and spherical pixels >:)

Attachment 131050

;))

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Originally Posted by handrawn

trouble is TC, xara does not have a paint bucket tool [depite it's icon looking like one]- all you can do is fill an existing shape [or recolour a line] - separate lines that touch do not define a shape in xara, they are objects in their own right

you can get round this - I covered it in a previous thread, but PS is actually easier if you do not need pure vector

Do you get the white 'seams' if you disable the bucket anti-aliasing when you fill ? You might also need to tweak the threshold setting...

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Hmmm...I'll have to try that, handrawn. Thanks!

Here's ivan louette's idea worth trying Toonicorn. Attached xar file to experiment with:

Filling Unclosed Shapes

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Here's ivan louette's idea worth trying Toonicorn. Attached xar file to experiment with:
Filling Unclosed Shapes

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Great egg, a rediscovery that still works 21 years on.

Acorn

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Great egg, a rediscovery that still works 21 years on.

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It still works Acorn but Ivan stated that it worked for bitmap and complex fill's which I can no longer get to work.

you can also come a cropper with winding rule:


Attachment 131076

Attachment 131077

so if you are doing complex lines that resolve into [in adobes terminology] compound paths you have to be rather careful - you may not get all the shapes you want when you break

this will often apply to cartoon line art

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this will often apply to cartoon line art

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Yes I can see this would be an issue with fairly straightish lines HD.

ivan was still posting when I joined TG, we lost him to linux and inkscape as I recall, water under the bridge but I could see why...

anyway ... here is a file with no straight lines [not that there were any in the first file :D]

because of the way xara mandates the winding rule where paths cross, I get something that looks like a poor imitation of picasso on a bad day and break does not give me the shapes I need - could be fixed afterwards, but for this sort of work might as well then do it the other way

Attachment 131081

Attachment 131082

its a neat trick, good to be reminded of it, but I never got consistent enough results using it for this kind of work

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Originally Posted by Toonicorn

Hmmm...I'll have to try that, handrawn. Thanks!

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you know it could just be that you work at too low a resolution

I think that should be tolerance in PS, sorry, threshold is what PT_SAI calls it [also has 'sand-bagging' a wonderfully descriptive term for preventing the fill spreading too far :D]

Great tricks !

Also another solution in bitmap is clip paint.
It has an open gap algorithm with the paint bucket, priceless !

Marc