Gaussian Blur Question

[ssg_7]

There is most likely a simple answer for this but I have not figured out how to get the desired end result. When applying the Gaussian blur effect, I find that doing this always adds additional width or height to my object which makes the graphic larger than the desired size. To be more specific, I have a rectangle that is 640px by 100px and I want to add an element on top of that is 640px by 4px. I add the Gaussian blur effect to the 640px by 4px object so that my rectangle appears to have depth and my overall graphic is not flat. The problem comes when I export the both elements because the Gaussian blur has now increased the width of my graphic to be larger then desired. Is there a why to add the Gaussian blur effect without increasing the width of my graphic? The final result is a graphic width of 656px. I have attached the xar file as well. Oh, I am using DP7.

gaussian-blur.xar

Thanks in advance for the help.

Steve

[ssg_7]

Sorry for the typos... Steve

[gwpriester]

See if you can live with the Blur/Sharpen setting. Photo Tools > Enhance. You can achieve a very good blur effect with this setting, plus you can manually change the setting so you can go higher than -100%

[Rik]

My thinking was that blurring the image would undoubtedly make the image larger.
You could always use clipview and this should solve the problem.

[ssg_7]

I must be missing something. DP7 does not allow me to use the Photo Tools > Enhance feature to blur the rectangle. I created a bitmap copy to see if that would work but I still can't blur the bitmap. I know your are a Xara master... sorry if I am making a simple task difficult.

[ssg_7]

Thanks Rik! Clipview works great!! I will be using this tool a lot going forward.

Gary, I would still like to know how to use the Photo Tool > Enhance to blur Xara graphics. Please let me know when you have time.

Thanks to both of you for the quick reply.

Steve

[Rik]

ssg_7: May I please ask if you know about 'Clipview'?

Use a rectangle of the size of the big image to over come the problem of the image getting bigger.

I've looked at your .xar file and I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the part you've applied the blur to?

[ssg_7]

Rik, before your reply I was not using clipview. I was adding the Gaussian blur effect to the 4px height rectangle to add depth to my graphic. The goal is to add a shadow effect to the graphic using this technique because the shadow tool does not allow me to add a really dark shadow. Again, I want to add depth to my graphic. If there is a better way to do this please share it.

Thanks,
Steve

[Big Frank]

set the shadow tool transparency all the way to the left and you have solid black

[ssg_7]

That works but using the shadow tool increases the width of the graphic also. I will stick with clipview. It does not give me exactly what I want but it's as close as I can get for now. Thanks