How can i add a black stroke line and shadow to items? and other ?s

[EddieM]

Hi am a PS user but i am working with a lot of EPS files and was thinking about buying xara for this use but i am having a hard time finding a way to edit the items like i do in PS.

How can i add a stroke line to the outside of a item and then add a shadow behind that. I see i can add a stroke by using the shadow tool but can not control the thickness of it but then i can not add a second shadow to make the real shadow behind the images that has the stroke line around it?

Any way to do this i do this effect on most everything i do for text and for many eps objects..

Also i created a box as a background and i can not find a way to load a image or texture in the box.

Dose xara support PS brushes i have tons of them?

more ? when creating a new page i see no way to set the page size i am making signs and would like to set the size for each size i do like.
12x12, 6x14, 5x22 10x24, 24x36 and so on?

And when i drag in a large jpg image 4000x4000 it loads in very small why is it not letting me use it as a full size for a background i am afraid i do not know as i up size it what the 100% size of the image would be i do not like going past its original size as it dose not print as well then.


Much better then using PS for the EPS files and i can break them apart - in PS i had to cut each part out if i could just to be able to change its color different from others.

Trying to work with EPS files and clip art and jpg images and texture photos to create full color signs for wide format color printing

Thanks

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics

I will answer a few of your questions and let the other members answer some of the others (I have a very short attention span )

Create a shape. With no outline. Clone the shape (Edit > Clone) and add the stroke to the cloned shape with no fill. Convert the line to shape (Arrange > Convert Line to Shape). Now you have two objects, the shape, and the stroked outline shape. Do with these as you will.

Xara does not support Photoshop brushes.

When you bring a photo into Xara it is generally reduced to something like 500-800pix. But the image is still the same size. It is just reduced in physical size. The pixel size at 96dpi (Windows resolution) is still the same size. You can resize the image as you like but there are some limitations as to how large the image can actually be. The sizes you mention are well within the limitations.

[EddieM]

ok how do i add the stroke to the cloned shape with no fill i can not seem to do that?

[handrawn]

the utilities menu options\page tab will let you set a page size and set your units on the units tab [yours are inches I presume]

use the fill tool to fill your box with a loaded image - need to select 'bitmap' as the type - or you can shift-drag with the mouse straight from the bitmap gallery

[handrawn]

... sorry you will need to untick 'all pages in document the same' on the page tab too, if you want different sizes in the one document

... use the box 'set line width' on the bar at the top of the workspace to add an outline

[gwpriester]

ok how do i add the stroke to the cloned shape with no fill i can not seem to do that?

There is a small cross hatched box to the left of the screen palette. Click on that square and select Clear Fill Color.

Conversely, click on any color and you can add a Fill or Outline color. You can edit this rather limited palette of colors in the Color Editor (click the little color wheel icon next to the cross hatched box or press Ctrl e).

You have to realize that Photoshop is a bitmap/pixel editing program and Xara is a vector drawing application. Both programs have crossover features but the approach to each is very different.

[wizard509]

i created a box as a background and i can not find a way to load a image or texture in the box.

I hope this isn't too confusing. Due to upload size limitations and my desire to make this legible I couldn't add any additional information. But I hope this helps anyway.

[zaphodeist]

@Eddie - In Larry's image, see that box above that currently says none? With the object selected, use the dropdown menu to chose a line width. Is that what you're after?