cut out shapes?

[MarkMyWords]

I had a similar cut-out problem and my solution was to use the bitmap tracer. I could then select the border colour, in your case the green, which would be a filled green object. I pasted that over my bitmap adjusted the size and the used Arrange/combine/slice to cut out my original.

This should also give useful 'mask' shapes for almost any flat(ish) colour area with the bitmap.

This works quite well with a hi-res bitmap and complex outlines, but can result in inaccuracies
on the edges of a low- res bitmap.

Oh the settings I used for the bitmap tracer were; Photo, 50 passes, remove noise 0%, minimum area 0, both colour tolerences at 75%, 95% accuracy and 5% smoothing.

By the way, it would be nice to have a thread or perhaps a section in the Xara zone that users could give lots of settings and example results for the tracer, this would certainly help rid us of a great deal of trial and error with this utility.

[remi]

By the way, it would be nice to have a thread or perhaps a section in the Xara zone that users could give lots of settings and example results for the tracer, this would certainly help rid us of a great deal of trial and error with this utility.

There is a great tutorial called Xara Bitmap Tracer vs Adobe Live Trace with a lot of details and tips about the right settings.

Regards,
Remi

[MarkMyWords]

Excellent, thanks Remi.

[pauland]

It would be a very problematic feature for Xara and vectors. A vector shape can have more than one colour (it can have a blend between colours, or a bitmap) and you can't select half a vector object. Perhaps that will help you to understand the problem.

Paul

[stlewis]

Quicker to just do it! (3 minutes...)

[MarkMyWords]

I agree that in this particular case, the outline is so simple that tracing it manually would be just as fast as the method I explained, but for complex outlines, that method can be a great time-saver (and with actions/macros it would be very much faster).

On a more general note, I have noticed many Xara users being a little 'defensive' about Xara and resisting ideas coming from bitmap orientated artists.

I understand entirely that those familiar with Xara, and vector programs in general, are quite happy with it and don't want this gem 'fixed when it isn't broke'.

As a working illustrator (many years as a Photoshop user) I'm always looking for better, more efficient ways of working, we have to compete for a living and time is money.

From seeing Xaras capabilities, speed and the quality of it's output and also watching the progrees of MS's Expression, I am becoming convinced that the future of all digital art (at least 2D art) will be in vector software. There is nothing that can be done in a bitmap program that a vector program cannot emulate and the output of vectors is of a vastly better quality.

If my assessment is right, then those vector programs that make it easier for bitmap artists to transfer their skills will make the greatest gains in expanding their user base. Let's face it there are many times more bitmap artists than vector artists (yes, I know there are those that use both types of program).

That does not mean significant changes to Xara itself (certainly not making it 'bloatware' like Adobe products have become), but perhaps one or two new tools/options and some aspects of its presentation/tutorials aimed at encouraging bitmap artists to make the move to Xara.

[stlewis]

This may be wandering off topic - yes, we can be defensive but that is perhaps because we have seen software bloating, and sometimes adept use of a tool is quicker and produces better results than a gizmo.

On tracing, having watched the struggles of developers to produce effective tools and then as a user still had to do a lot of work to achive good results (eg with Corel Knockout 2), I think that if a company has say 100 programmer-days to use, then there may be other tricks which are a better use of that time. Other threads have done some of these to death and we just wait for the next release in hopeful expectation!