Clumsily cloning

**HarryPutnam** · 26 January 2011, 04:57 PM

I'm just starting to use the many tools available in Xara Designer pro. I'm assembling a photo album and trying to do many of the chores I would have formerly done in Photoshop, now in Xara.

I'm not catching on how to use the cloning tool with any finesse. There seems no clear way to end a given cloned area and jump to another area also needing some cloning.

How to regain the pencil?

The workflow, it seems, runs like this:

I draw around an effected area then `click drag' appropriate areas to use as source, then hit enter to completed the clone, but then have no way to get back the pencil to draw a new area somewhere else, short of going to the arrow tool then back to clone tool, and even then not always being able to get the pencil, but instead it is still expecting me to drag an area to complete the last clone... or so it seems to this noob.

The clone tool icon provides no keyboard shortcut so I guess that means there isn't one. Requiring one to then press `v' for the arrow tool then mouse back to the clone tool icon. And as mentioned above, that doesn't always bring up the pencil.

I suspect there is a smoother way to work with the cloning tool, something along the line of Photoshop where you `alt click' to load a source area and then apply where you please with a second plain click. The second click plays the role of pencil and the first `alt click' plays the role of `click drag' So in effect the processes are the reverse of each other comparing Photoshop to Xara.

The difference I see is PS provides a handy way to keep moving along with little or no mousing needed.

What I'm not finding in Xara, out of shear clumsiness I'm sure, is the handy way to do the same process over again on a new area. Where in Photoshop one `alt clicks' a new source area and applies with plain click as often and as many times as needed, in a direct work flow.

Under the help menu are the `movies' and in the `photo' section is one about cloning but it does not show the kind intricate jumping from one blemish to another that one encounters in old pictures that have had coffee, gravy, soup, tea, milk and water spilled on them over the last 25 yrs. Or might have been scraped, hammered twisted and burnt.... ok ok , a bit exaggerated perhaps...

I'm thinking there is some smooth workflow to be had in Xara too.

Looking back over that statement above I see it is hopelessly muddled but not sure how to make it clearer.... hopefully someone accustomed to the kind of cloning required to repair old photos in Xara will recognized the problem and be able to coach me a little.

**HarryPutnam** · 26 January 2011, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by HarryPutnam

I'm just starting to use the many tools available in Xara Designer pro. I'm assembling a photo album and trying to do many of the chores I would have formerly done in Photoshop, now in Xara.

I'm not catching on how to use the cloning tool with any finesse. There seems no clear way to end a given cloned area and jump to another area also needing some cloning.

[...] blah blah blah on and on....

I swear to god I'm going to quick posting immediately everything that raises to the top of my pea brain.

I found a you tube video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrH0vzaXiWE

I see now how to move along nicely. Its done by clicking off the work area and pencil is back... now to get after it...

**amoore** · 26 January 2011, 05:18 PM

Hi Harry

Apparently you got it sorted while I was posting, but here's what I said:

I don't use Photoshop, so I don't know if its cloning is similar to what I've used in other pixel editors. If it is, then there's a big difference between the way cloning works in a pixel editor such as Photoshop, and XDP6, which is a vector app. In a pixel editor, you're actually copying and pasting selected pixels. In XDP, the Cloning Tool is a specialized clipview which overlays one part of the photo on another.

You're right that using the Cloning Tool in XDP6 can be fiddly. OTOH, it has allowed me to clean up parts of photos that pixel cloning didn't do so well on. Offhand, I'd say "use the tool that best suits the situation".

BTW, even though there's no default hotkey for the Cloning Tool, you can assign one. Utilities | Customize key shortcuts | All | Clone Tool.

**HarryPutnam** · 26 January 2011, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by amoore

Hi Harry

I don't use Photoshop, so I don't know if its cloning is similar to what I've used in other pixel editors. If it is, then there's a big difference between the way cloning works in a pixel editor such as Photoshop, and XDP6, which is a vector app. In a pixel editor, you're actually copying and pasting selected pixels. In XDP, the Cloning Tool is a specialized clipview which overlays one part of the photo on another.

[...]

BTW, even though there's no default hotkey for the Cloning Tool, you can assign one. Utilities | Customize key shortcuts | All | Clone Tool.

Great tip, that bit about setting shortcuts.

As I begin to understand the usage of the clone tool, things have smoothed out considerably very quickly.

I see what you mean about the difference between Xara and Photoshop, I see possibilities with the Xara cloning tool that exceed the capablilities of cloning in PS in certain ways. I like the ability of what seems like scrolling around the image for matching but clean source material...