Xara Newbie mat question

[designer69]

using photo and graphic designer, I watched the utube mat procedure videos over and over and somehow it went by too fast or something, I can't seem to cut out the area I matted. Using the linked curves I outline an area completely on a photo which is on a lower layer. What exactly do I do next to keep only the area of the photo on the lower layer, without the background around it? This should probably be self evident, but apparently I smoked too much you know what in college.

Thanks

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics

The mat shape you create should be a closed shape. The last point you add should be added on top of the first point and the outline will be filled with a solid color (black by default) which indicated that the shape is closed.

Position the mat shape over the photo.

Hold down the Shift key to select multiple objects and click on the photo and then then mat.

From the Arrange menu, select Combine Shapes > Intersect Shapes. The keyboard shortcut for this operation is Ctrl + 3.

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Gary,

Re: "...click on the photo and then the mat."

It doesn't matter which one he clicks first does it? It's whichever is on the higher layer that determines the "intersector", right?

Peace

James

[gwpriester]

Correct. As long as both are selected.

[designer69]

Thank you. But when I made sure the shape was closed, the character of the outline did change indicating it was closed, yet no black appeared. Clicking with the selection arrow only makes sizing options with those corner marks appear around the selected area.
Why didn't the black appear? Its just transparent. I can see right through into the selected area.. The rest is pink. Maybe I cut the area of the pink out accidentally? do you have any idea why it didn't turn black?

Thanks

[amoore]

Hi designer69 and welcome

It sounds like you drew your shape on a Mask layer. On the Mask layer, you can press Ctrl+C to copy. You'll get a dialog prompting you to choose whether to copy the objects you see in the transparent area of the mask or copy the mask shape itself. If you choose Copy Objects, you can paste the cutout shape into a new page or a new file. To paste it into the same page, press Ctrl+M to turn off the mask, then Ctrl+V to paste.

Allison

[wizard509]

Sometimes a break in the line can be difficult to find. Try selecting part of your line and changing the line color to see if the entire line changes or just part of it. Or zoom in real close to the line so you can see a node clearly then follow the line around and hopefully you will see the break. You can also select a node then using the TAB key watch as the nodes are selected in turn, this may give you a clue. Or sometimes it is just start over and make sure the line always stays selected. when you get back to the start you should see a + indicating that the line will be closed and a closed shape with a fill will result. If you get back to the start and can see your starting line but you don't see a node to connect to then somewhere along the line you have started a new line, in which case you can undo till you see all the nodes again and click on that end node and continue on to the start node.