New user needs a little help

I want to superimpose a bitmap picture onto a photo of a laptop screen. To do this I need to change the perspective of the picture so it "fits" the laptop screen. I have discovered how to scale the picture and rotate it so it is approximately in the correct plane, but I cannot find a way of distorting the perspective of the photo so it matches the perspective of the photo of the laptop screen. Is it possible to distort a bitmap picture by dragging the corners or edges? Sorry, I don't know all the correct technical terms to describe this – I hope I have managed to make it clear. Any help much appreciated.

Hi Jamie - and welcome

A nice easy one... use the Mould Tool. Click on the photo and then Shift+F6 - or click on the 4th tool button up.

Hi,
Okay, it was easy - and thanks for the help - even I have managed to do it! Is there anyway of distorting the bitmap without the image disintigrating! After I made it fit the laptop screen the picture wasn't recognisable!

As with most things in Xara, there will be lots of ways of doing it.

This is the way I've always used - it's not very friendly and the mould loses its editability (something I really dislike), so keep a copy of the original mould before you try this:

• Mould your bitmap as you need it
• Enlarge the mould, say to 3 or 5 times the size you need it
• Make a bitmap copy of your mould (that is CTRL+SHIFT+C, or Arrange -> Create bitmap copy, or right click and select Create bitmap copy)
• Resize the bitmap back down to your required size
• Delete the original mould (or move it out of the way)

Your resized bitmap copy of the moulded bitmap (long winded I know) will look like my first attachment, but when you export it, it'll look like the second. I know Xara is supposed to work and export as you see/expect it, but this seems to be one area where it doesn't.

Thanks Daniel, that is absolutley brilliant!