Resizing photos - there must be a quicker way

[diniel]

I have a 5 megapixel camera and use it on the 2592x1728 (3:2) setting most of the time. When importing an image into Xara, it fills way more than the whole screen, so it needs resizing before I can use it.

Say I want the image to be 300pix wide, I'd type 300 into the width box on the Infobar, hit return, and my image would be resized.

Invariably though, this means that the image shoots off the bottom of my screen (I'd guess, centred to the same point as the original was?), so I have to zoom out, move the image, and zoom back to 100%.

I must do this twice or three times a day, though there must be a quicker way - or a way to have an object resize but use its top left point to base its new location on?

[diniel]

I have a 5 megapixel camera and use it on the 2592x1728 (3:2) setting most of the time. When importing an image into Xara, it fills way more than the whole screen, so it needs resizing before I can use it.

Say I want the image to be 300pix wide, I'd type 300 into the width box on the Infobar, hit return, and my image would be resized.

Invariably though, this means that the image shoots off the bottom of my screen (I'd guess, centred to the same point as the original was?), so I have to zoom out, move the image, and zoom back to 100%.

I must do this twice or three times a day, though there must be a quicker way - or a way to have an object resize but use its top left point to base its new location on?

[Egg Bramhill]

Daniel
1: You could set the magnification to 10%, then import the photo, type in 300 pixels, move the resized image to the page area, select 100% view.
2: Or use the 'Set Origin' icon to top left.
3: Or use the rotate feature and reset the centre of rotation to the page area.
4: Or buy a bigger monitor/graphics card or take the photos at a lower resolution.

One further point: Why not set XaraX as the default application to open your photos, which will save you the convoluted Send to routine.
Egg

[Don Lamb]

Daniel,

"I must do this twice or three times a day, though there must be a quicker way - or a way to have an object resize but use its top left point to base its new location on?"

There is. Thre is a little square divided into six smaller squares to the left of where you set the image width and height called Set Origin Position. If you select your large image and move the upper left corner of it to the upper left corner of the page, select the upper left little square in the Set Origin Position box and then change your size the small photo will end up in the upper left of your page. Hope this is what you are after.

Don

Looks like Egg beat me by 8 minutes.

[diniel]

Thanks guys - you know what - I've used Xara every working day for seven years and I've never even noticed the Set Origin buttons. Perfect, I knew there'd be a way - thanks for pointing it out http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

(I'll change the default handler for JPEGs to XPE once it is released fully, but for now, the WinXP handler is best for me most of the time, everything else stays on Send To. I already have two 17" LCD flatpanels side by side at 1280x1024, I think I might struggle to justify anything bigger http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif)

[Meia]

Ditto! I've been using this for so long and always import huge photos and have the same problem. I never knew this was available. I learn all the time around here - cool!

Thanks from me too -
Meia

[Albacore]

Why not set your cameras to a lower resolution and get smaller pictures if they are only for the web?

[diniel]

I use the camera on its highest resolution to capture more detail: at big sizes it's possible to crop out a lot of the picture and still end up with a 640x480 shot, perhaps of just the top corner of the original shot, and it is still usable on the web.

The other reason is that if pictures are big, they can be scaled down, but if they're small, they can't be scaled up - so when one needs printing, the resolution is still available.