Replace Multiple Photos Xara

When making labels by sheets for customers we usually do a contour cut which we use as the cutline and then the art which is behind it. This is done manually which can prove to be quite tedious and time consuming especially when there is a variety of different labels with different designs. For example if there is an order for 15 different labels of the same size, I'd have to still make different cutline manually. I thought I could make one cutline and simply replace the art with the replace photo option in Xara, but this seems to only work with one image at a time rather than selecting everything and replace all the photos. Is there a way to get this to work or perhaps a way to automate this process via plugins or etc.

It depends on the version of your product.

If you have Live Copies, use that. Change one cutline and image and the others follow.

If you have Smart Duplication, delete back to the one Master, change it and then SD across the page for a row. SD this row down the page to fill it.

Code-wise you could create a Placeholder with <img src="imagename.png" width=100% height=100% />

Add your actual image as the Master of the page and give it an image filename of "imagename". Set its type to lossless so it exports as PNG.
Change this and the Placeholders follow.

Here is an example A4 portrait design: Attachment 133880

Layers

• Layout - duplicates of the image placeholder
• Cutline - your design for showing the contour outline
• Mask - just to hide the Master Image
• Master Image - use Solo mode to change the picture

Acorn

If you select the shapes that you'd like to fill and then open the Bitmap Gallery (by pressing F11) and right-click on the photo you'd like to use to fill the shapes. Does selecting "Apply as fill" do what you hoped?

On a fairly simple basis I'd set up all the images numbered simply 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg etc within a folder named 'images'
Create a xara page/s with placeholders to load:

Quote:

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<img id="myImg1" src="https://your-sire-name/images/1.jpg" width="170" height="254">
<img id="myImg2" src="https://your-sire-name/images/2.jpg" width="170" height="254">
Etc Etc

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Then view each page and print as a pdf.

To change photos just rename 'images' as 'images-old' and create a new images folder with new images within numbered 1 to whatever.

You could add js to develop this further if it's a really big job.

DEMO

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

If you select the shapes that you'd like to fill and then open the Bitmap Gallery (by pressing F11) and right-click on the photo you'd like to use to fill the shapes. Does selecting "Apply as fill" do what you hoped?

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Daniel that works very well but the resultant resolution of the rendered images is pared down to the size on the page. If my design was 256px square then the image becomes that at 96dpi.

My approach renders at the original resolution of the Master Image so no loss of fidelity.
Just tried with a 7.2MB, 2700px square image rendered down to 256px square. The rendered image has a resolution of almost 1,000dpi.
The other down is you cannot touch up, clip view, rotate or alter the image in the Bitmap gallery without going to the trouble of making a Bitmap Copy of the changes and that process is difficult to Undo.

Acorn

Acorn, I've d/l your xar file & on preview it just crashes the browser. I've had issues with Live Copies. I don't know if this is causing it.

UPDATE: Sorted. Rebooted my PC

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Acorn, I've d/l your xar file & on preview it just crashes the browser. I've had issues with Live Copies. I don't know if this is causing it.
UPDATE: Sorted. Rebooted my PC

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Egg, glad it wasn't Live Copies as I didn't use any.

Acorn

Thank you I'll try out each one of those methods and see which works best.

This is how I usually have the labels setup pink being the cutline which I export as an ai file, and the art is behind. I cant use SD and duplicate both of them since I think SD only works one at a time. But if I do it the art first then do the cutline and align it manually (as you can see in the picture) it still doesn't work the way I want. The labels on the side are the ones I want to substitute. I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong or just simply misunderstanding you, apologies as I'm fairly new to Xara.

PHOTO: https://i.imgur.com/Jicsc36.png

callereight, here is a simplified approach based on my original that ensures correct alignment.

There are two tricks:

1. The Image Filename of a single image at a time - you may have to Preview a second time to force Xara to notice. I usually just close and re-open the application. Saving, closing and re-opening the design file also works. This is a Bug that Xara has recorded.
2. The Linking of an object on a Layer to that Later to hide but ensure the content is still available.

Detail all in the file: Attachment 133887

Acorn

As I understood it, you'd have a page like this, filled with bitmaps arranged in the correct locations so that you can export/print them, and you'd like to be able to use the same layout/placement for different labels (which means just using different bitmaps)...

Attachment 133882

As that page layout is just a bunch of bitmaps in the right places (and the guides or other elements that you have), all you need to do is replace them with new bitmaps: I've drawn my three labels as vectors, I've created a bitmap copy of each one (at 600dpi), and therefore I have each of the three bitmaps in the Bitmap Gallery. I laid out the document above with the chicken label, and I have two others:

Attachment 133883

So to replace the chicken label with one of the other two, I just need to select all of the chicken bitmaps on the page (and don't have them grouped), and then from the Bitmap Gallery, right click on the new bitmap to use and select "Apply as fill"...

Attachment 133884

That immediately gives

Attachment 133885

Isn't that what you wanted to be able to do? It seems pretty simple.

@Daniel, I believe @callereight's important issue is lining up his cutline shapes to all exactly overlay the repeated, replaced image.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

@Daniel, I believe @callereight's important issue is lining up his cutline shapes to all exactly overlay the repeated, replaced image.

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I guess we'll find out when they're back, but "I thought I could make one cutline and simply replace the art with the replace photo option in Xara, but this seems to only work with one image at a time rather than selecting everything and replace all the photos"... they're right, there is the ability to replace a photo more than one at a time so in those cases where "there is an order for 15 different labels of the same size", having the guides and layout done the first time over the first photo/bitmap, it's simple to replace the first label's bitmap with the second.

Applying a bitmap as a fill to grouped objects doesn't work (at least, not in a way that I've ever been able to find useful in 25 years) but having them ungrouped does.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

Applying a bitmap as a fill to grouped objects doesn't work (at least, not in a way that I've ever been able to find useful in 25 years) but having them ungrouped does.

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Daniel, agreed.

To achieve that you need to Soft-Group all the images on one layer.
If you group them your Fill action is applied to the whole Group as one shape and not individually for each photo.

On another layer, Group or Soft-Group the Cutline.

The two are independent of each other so they can be moved around on purpose, or more likely by accident.

To get round this, you need to have included an extra registration pair, off-page.
Use this to realign misapplied nudges.

In this case, you can make the registration cutline translucent as a final positioning check.
If you have Live Copy, I would use this for the Cutlines. Even more fine tuning.

As I mentioned above, I believe the Fill approach is flawed as you are stuck with an image. yes, it can be composed from a Bitmap Copy of overlaid material but it is not flexible in use.
The use of the Placeholder instead is way more flexible. You Group all components that make up the final image and ensure is it is rendered as a single image.

Acorn

Thank you so much this method work great for me as is way faster than how i was doing it. @Daniel

P.S We happen to share the same name haha

I will try your method using the place holders images and the code, as it seems to be more flexible as you said. I just need to figure out how to use code in Xara now. Thank you so much for your help and insight. @Acorn