Does Xara have Masking tools?

[Ralph]

I have been using Micrografx Webtricity which had as one of its programs "Picture Publisher 8". It is no longer supported. I've been using it since 1999 and love its features. Unfortunatley it disapears occasionally in the middle of work since I've installed it in XP Pro. Anyhow I found Xara and was wondering if Xara has a masking ability and tools? I use the masking wand to instantly cut around objects as you are able to select the color range percent, fade and plus or minus to mask around things. I also use it and its mask ability to expand or contract by pixels around an object.
Apreciate any help in this matter.

[jamesmc]

Yes, but different than what you are used to. I believe they talk about Masking in the first Demo Video.

I would go to the Xara Xtreme Demo page and view the videos. Would most likely answer most of your questions.
http://xara.com/products/xtreme/demos/default.asp

You can also, download a free trial at http://xara.com.

Once you have the free trial, you can look at the videos or go to Gary Priester's
Xara Xone to see more of its capability.
http://www.xaraxone.com/

For $79.00, you'll be quite amazed.

Not a Xara company rep, just a guy who is impressed with Xara Xtreme and wonder where it has been all my life.

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference, Ralph

Xara is a vector drawing application that can also work with bitmaps in a limited fashion. For example, you can apply a gradient transparency to a bitmap image and have it fade into another bitmap or background simply by dragging the Transaparency Tool in the direction you want the transparency to travel. This is pretty incredible when you consider that to do this in a bitmap application such as Photoshop requires the creation of an intermediate grayscale image and many layers to which transparency is applied.

Xara does not have a magic wand tool for creating a mask. But you can create a vector shape which is more accurate and has a sharper edge than a magic wand mask, and then use a variety of methods to mask an object.

Workbook 35 - Xara's Path Commands explains and illustrates the various methods.

Gary