Name Gallery should include No Fill as a Used Colour

Dear Xara...

There are a number of issues around Xara functionality with shapes that have No Fill Colour:

1. Currently, Named Colours cannot have a No Fill applied.
2. A No Fill node applied to a Fill Tool handle shows White in the design page so it is not WYSIWYG.
3. For Xara Pro+ & XDPX, any Shape with No Fill applied can never be found as a Used colour.

#1 could impact #3.

Bug#004: #2 is a UI fail. #1/3 are Feature Requests.

Acorn

point 3

you know, I don't look at it that way - when you remove the colour from the object then it changes state; what it's colour was before it was removed is not an attribute that is taken forward, it is lost

that seems logical to me.. I mean this happens with non named colours as well... and if you want xara to keep a log of the attribute history of each object where do you stop... that could be problematical

point 1

well they can, but then they cease to be a named colour object - see above

point 2

ok see that... but not sure it would be a priority for me ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

point 3
you know, I don't look at it that way - when you remove the colour from the object then it changes state; what it's colour was before it was removed is not an attribute that is taken forward, it is lost
that seems logical to me.. I mean this happens with non named colours as well... and if you want xara to keep a log of the attribute history of each object where do you stop... that could be problematical

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handrawn, I am not asking for a history just the mechanism to apply No Fill to a shape and to be able to find that shape through the Name gallery.
No Fill should be considered a colour of Transparency in the same way a Transparency of 100% is applied.

The attributes of a shape should not be spread all over the application in differing styles and formats so one is left guessing.

Acorn

thanks for the clarification

no colour should indeed be an attribute in tha same way as transparency is; in fact to most of us at least there is no difference between '100% transparency' and 'no colour'... agreed

zero is a mathematical quantity and all that....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

no colour should indeed be an attribute in tha same way as transparency is; in fact to most of us at least there is no difference between '100% transparency' and 'no colour'... agreed

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Almost handrawn, 100% Transparency, sadly, impacts the Line opacity at the same time.

Acorn

it does ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

it does ?

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Yes

Attachment 129825

You cannot make the bottom set without a cheat.

Acorn

xar file ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

xar file ?

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I was holding it back to allow people time to work out what I did.

As ever, I hit another Xara Bug in the process.

Acorn

ok but it did not answer my question - if I apply transparency it does not affect the outline -is that not what you meant? not possible to tell from a screen shot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

ok but it did not answer my question - if I apply transparency it does not affect the outline -is that not what you meant? not possible to tell from a screen shot

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In the screenshot, I applied 90% to 10% Transparency and the Line faded at the same rate.
On the bottom set I did something to ensure the Line did not fade when these same transparencies were applied.
Equally, I can set any transparency for the Line that I choose, regardless of the transparency of the Fill.
It is this disconnect that Xara cannot achieve.

Acorn

ah - is this beacuse you are grouping - one of xara's little unannounced gotchas [sorry rob] is the removal in pro+ [maybe earlier I am not sure] of the utilities menu > options > general tab 'make groups be transparent as a whole' option -still possible to switch with regedit - i tend to work with this off; default appears to be on

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

ah - is this beacuse you are grouping - one of xara's little unannounced gotchas [sorry rob] is the removal in pro+ [maybe earlier I am not sure] of the utilities menu > options > general tab 'make groups be transparent as a whole' option -still possible to switch with regedit - i tend to work with this off; default appears to be on

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handrawn, I am not using groups at all.

Thank you, I have discovered something that I should have known.
If you switch to the Transparency Tool and click-drag a selected object, you get a Linear Fill at 100% and the object's Line is unaffected.
If you change that Transparency to Flat, you get 50% for both Fill and Line and they are now locked in step even when you change the transparency type again.
When Flat you can dial the transparency to anything and when you switch away the Line retains that setting, but importantly the 0-100% range of the new transparency type is centred around the underlying Flat value.

To reset the Line to fully opaque, go Flat 0%.

I opened up v10 and played with the Option you mentioned.
There are a few occasions that I might have a need so I'll keep v10 or play with the Registry.

I do use Grouping with Transparencies: I apply a transparency then group the object to itself and apply another transparency.
With different profiles, you can achieve some powerful effects.

Attachment 129838

The red is the background so inside the shape those bits are fully transparent.

Quite a digression from the need to nail No Fill as a colour.

Acorn

:) discovery is what it's all about

after post I looked at the registry for pro+, but didn't see what I remembered; maybe it has gone there too, maybe I am mis-remembering - either way it is minus for renewing my pro+ sub

still a bit confused about your post #7, but I'll look further into it...