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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Richfield, MN
    Posts
    36

    Default New to this

    As an aspiring website builder, it was suggested that I invest into a graphics program. They said Xara was the best, and so I invested. While I learn how to use this powerful program, I have two questions in the meantime - things I want to learn how to do first -

    1 - How to take a pic with a white background, and make it transparent.

    2 - How to take that pic with the transparent background, and enable a shadow around the pic itself, not the entire square frame.

    Please advise. Many thanks for showing the new guy some kindness.

    Rob S.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Placitas, New Mexico, USA
    Posts
    41,486

    Default Re: New to this

    Welcome to TalkGraphics

    It depends on the background. If the background is a solid color, white for example, you might be able to use Mehdi Eraser Classic. With the photo selected, click the Live Effects Tool (the electric plug) and click New on the Infobar, then scroll down to Mehdi > Mehdi Eraser Classic.

    The attached screen photo shows the white selected which will be removed when you press OK.

    You may need to experiment with the Tolerance setting to get the best results.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Richfield, MN
    Posts
    36

    Default Re: New to this

    Extremely useful. Thank you much. The only thing is with this particular pic (the HTML5 logo) the "5" itself is white as well as the area surrounding the orange shield, and so when I clicked on the white to be "erased" it chose the white 5" a well. Not the biggest of deals but is there a way to fill in pixle by pixle the color of choosing - including white?

    Thanks again. How many more questions do I get to ask?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Sunshine Coast BC, Canada. In a beautiful part of BC's temperate rainforest
    Posts
    9,864

    Default Re: New to this

    Hello IeMS, Welcome to Talkgraphics!

    If the photo you want to knock out of the background is not too complicated you can use the shape tool and trace around it to create a shape over top of the portion you want to keep, select both the photo and the shape and hit ctrl+3 on your keyboard to intersect. To give it a shadow you can either use the shadow tool and use the shadow controls on the infobar to adjust your shadow blur, transparency etc. or when you make the shape to knock out the shadow copy it to the clipboard and paste that copy in after intersecting, offset it, and send it to the back. What this will do is give you a vector shape that you can manipulate with the shape tool, stretch, skew, apply transparencies to etc in different ways that you can't do with the shape tool.

    You can ask as many questions as you like
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    My current Xara software: Designer Pro 365 12.6

    Good Morning Sunshine.ca | Good Morning Sunshine Online(a weekly humorous publication created with XDP and exported as a web document) | Angelize Online resource shop | My Video Tutorials | My DropBox |
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Richfield, MN
    Posts
    36

    Default Re: New to this

    Still learning the terminology with this program. My immediate goal is to figure out how to make white background of a pic transparent without making the white text transparent also - such as with the HTML5 logo.

    How do I make the white background clear and keep the white text solid white?

    Thank you for your time.

    PS. Is there any place on here to get feedback on a website not made in Xara? Just curious.

  6. #6

    Default Re: New to this

    Quote Originally Posted by IeMS View Post
    Still learning the terminology with this program. My immediate goal is to figure out how to make white background of a pic transparent without making the white text transparent also - such as with the HTML5 logo.
    Many simple drawings and logos are best created by hand using the vector tools available in Xara P&GD7, the HTML5 logo is a perfect example of one that should take no more than 15 minutes by a complete novice.
    Rather than using bitmap plugins and faffing around placing white shapes behind the white areas you wanted to retain, just lock the bitmap then use the Shape Tool to trace it by hand.

    You'll find plenty of tutorials at the XaraXone, both Xara user forums, YouTube and the Xara help file itself regarding use of the shape tool.

    The beauty of creating your own vector drawing is it is resolution independent meaning it can be resized smaller or larger without any loss of quality.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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