replace photo question on adjusting aspect ratio

[narlee]

When I replace a photo (right-click, select "replace photo"), the new photo automatically gets cropped in Xara's process of fitting it in to the existing "frame" if you will. I am trying to figure out how to "fit" that picture in to the "frame" without cropping it or losing the new photo's aspect ratio. That would require the new photo's canvas to be adjusted. That is, adding visible (white) canvas background to fill the existing "frame's" aspect ratio.

[gwpriester]

What I do is select the photo that is going to be replaced and using the Fill Tool, I change the fill to Flat.

Then I drag the photo, holding down the Shift key, and drag it onto the solid filled rectangle. The photo will retain its aspect ratio.

[narlee]

Tried that, but it crops the new photo when I do it.

[angelize]

Instead of replacing the photo try this first change the fill of the existing photo to flat as per Gary's instructions, drag the new photo into your document and drop it on the page or pasteboard. This should import the photo with out replacing any photos. you can now resize it with the selector tool (make sure the lock aspect ratio is enabled if you wish to keep the photo's aspect ratio)once you have the new photo resized and placed into the page you can delete the black shape that was the original photo.

[steve.ledger]

Tried that, but it crops the new photo when I do it.

Gary's method works fine (he's been doing this stuff for millennia...) but if you are not replacing with a photo of a similar aspect ratio, Xara will clip (it doesn't crop) the photo to fill. Xara can't anticipate what you want to happen, it only does what it is programmed to do - it certainly has no idea that you want to shrink a new photo to fit a rectangle of a different aspect ratio than the new image and add white to the areas that don't fill the frame. So in these cases you will need to do this manually using the fill tool control handles while holding CTRL to constrain.

[narlee]

Thanks Guys, that gives me a good sense of the parameters.

Cheers,
Geof