Background pasteboard color

[Bdkr]

In earlier Xara opening or importing a graphic to work on always came up with a grey background/pastboard surround. Xara Xtreme 5 however frequently displays a black surround. I prefer the grey but see no way to change it. Is it possible to do so and if so how?
Bob Decker

[Soquili]

Hi Bob, I'm not following you. Can you explain step by step and are you using the Xara Xtreme 5 standard or the Xara Xtreme 5 Pro version?

I have both versions but do not notice anything different from older and newer versions when importing an image.

[handrawn]

Hi Bill

did ver 5 have the 'blank photo' document type - that's what this sounds like to me, and it happens automatically if you open a jpg file

[Soquili]

Hi Steve, yes ver 5 has the 'blank photo' document type.

I see, I had never used File > Open for anything other than a .xar or .web file type. Opening a jpg does make a 'blank photo' document with the resulting dark paste board.

Any image file type I either drag and drop from Windows Explorer or use the File > Import feature.

I also never use the 'blank photo' document type.

[handrawn]

it will also happen if you drag a bitmap onto the title bar of the program window, or onto the blank workspace [not onto an open document]

[Soquili]

I think I will see what happens if I delete the 'blank photo' template.

[Soquili]

Removing the blank photo.xar from the templates folder makes Xara Xtreme 5 work the same as Xara Xtreme 3.2.4. No Blank Photo document type to open so no dark pasteboard.

[Soquili]

Bob you can rename or move the Blank photo.xar file from the templates/ENG folder.

C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Xtreme 5\Templates\ENG

[handrawn]

thanks for that Bill

and when you've done this, the dragging I mentioned results in a xar file with the bitmap name rather than opening the bitmap itself, as well

[handrawn]

Bill - point to check - it appears that 'Blank Photo' will reappear in the list of available templates, but the behaviour remains changed....