How to create a backgound-independent transition?

I've been trying to create a fade-style edge transition that works regardless of the background the object is placed on. I've tried the blend tool and the shadow tool.

The blend tool gave a good result on a colored background, but it was terrible when the object is moved over anything lighter. The shadow tool was better at handling differences, but I can't find a way to make the shadow the proper color. I need the object's color to just edge-fade into whatever background it is on.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Ctrl click on the shadow and then edit the color.

The reason the shadow works is it is a transparent bitmap and so it darkens the area below it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Ctrl click on the shadow and then edit the color.

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Thanks for your response.

Well, that's certainly closer ... but the shadow algorithm must apply some of its own color offsets. In RGB, I couldn't match very well. In CMYK, I can get closer ... but not exact. The color picker tool seems useless for setting shadow fill color to match the object. My current result has a purplish cast to it that I can't eliminate. Yet, I can easily change to a bluish, reddish, or greenish cast.

Any suggestions? Or is this a case of 99% match is a good as it gets?

Have you tried just feathering the edge, Contours?

No. But I just did ... and it works perfectly. When the object spans both light and dark background objects, the effect is even better than with shadows.

I now see that I just got onto the wrong track with what I was trying (and was getting closer and closer), so I didn't go back and look for the obvious better way.

Thanks very much.

Heh - there are so many ways to do things in Xara that it’s a little like a maze of corridors in a castle; very easy to go in one door, then another, and then forget about others, and I do it all the time myself. :)

A handy lesson. Thanks for the xar file too, James

Jim