Photo flip

Hi Guys and Gals, been away for some time in annoying you with what are usually silly nigley problems. My previous problem of failure of Xara was all down to my computer performance and thanks to those who pointed it out especially Egg.

Now with windows 10 64 bit and 8Gb ram all of my previous problems have faded away.

To date I am having trouble with the treatment of pictures opened in Xara with the handles in that I cannot seem to use the flip facility in Xara to act with a photo whereas before (handles)you could. Am I missing something (if past history is anything to go by-yes)?

Ken

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Originally Posted by mentorman

Hi Guys and Gals, been away for some time in annoying you with what are usually silly nigley problems. My previous problem of failure of Xara was all down to my computer performance and thanks to those who pointed it out especially Egg.
Now with windows 10 64 bit and 8Gb ram all of my previous problems have faded away.
To date I am having trouble with the treatment of pictures opened in Xara with the handles in that I cannot seem to use the flip facility in Xara to act with a photo whereas before (handles)you could. Am I missing something (if past history is anything to go by-yes)?
Ken

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Ken, check if you have Smart transform enabled. You cannot flip with dragging the black controls. The Flip horizontally / Flip vertically buttons should still work.

You can override "Smart Transform" by holding down the Alt key before any other action.

@Xara - Smart Transform is not needed for images so remove it. If you want Smart Transform actions, the switch to the Photo Tool provides the Smart Transform features.

Acorn

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Ken, check if you have Smart transform enabled. You cannot flip with dragging the black controls. The Flip horizontally / Flip vertically buttons should still work.

You can override "Smart Transform" by holding down the Alt key before any other action.

@Xara - Smart Transform is not needed for images so remove it. If you want Smart Transform actions, the switch to the Photo Tool provides the Smart Transform features.

Acorn

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Hi Acorn see you are on the rescue ball as usual. Thanks. Only problem being I have no idea about smart transform and a search around my xara reveals nothing relating. Obviously I am looking in the wrong place or missed the relevant menu entry so must throw myself on your mercy for some more basic info, Oh mighty one! All of my images open with the handles to rotate and the size control in bottom right of picture. The old black handles seem to have disappeared. Help me in my stupidity please.

ken

Hi Acorn, did a google search and found it. It is all under the aspect ratio icon which switches it on or off. Thanks for your time. Pity Xara help isn't as good as google search =D>

Ken

Glad you managed to find the option! we do have an article here on this, could improve it I guess:

https://help.xara.com/article/207-ho...-xara-designer

@acorn sigh Smart transform has nothing to do with image flipping. I know you hate it but you can't blame it for everything.

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

@acorn sigh Smart transform has nothing to do with image flipping. I know you hate it but you can't blame it for everything.

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Rob, sigh back.

Image flipping can be done two ways. (1) With the Flip icons that I mentioned. (2) With the central black control points, drag any beyond the opposite one and the image flips. With Smart Transform selected, it most certainly doesn't. If you hold down the Alt key with ST on, it flips.

Sigh.
Acorn

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Rob, sigh back.

Image flipping can be done two ways. (1) With the Flip icons that I mentioned. (2) With the central black control points, drag any beyond the opposite one and the image flips. With Smart Transform selected, it most certainly doesn't. If you hold down the Alt key with ST on, it flips.

Sigh.
Acorn

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If you use the handles then you can't maintain the maintain the aspect ratio / size which is why we have the buttons on the toolbar. It makes no sense to flip an object with the handles.

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

If you use the handles then you can't maintain the maintain the aspect ratio / size which is why we have the buttons on the toolbar. It makes no sense to flip an object with the handles.

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It does when you are being creative and don't have a UI stopping you.

There used to be a very simple flow around manipulation. One could create a shape, image or text, rotate, stretch, flip, skew, all without recourse to the toolbar to toggle state or change to the Photo or Smart Shape tool.
A case in point is the water reflection of a shape: clone and drag downward to flip. Both shapes align along the horizontal; the flip and distortion is planned. Using the flipper icons, one has to pick the reflection origin point, hold down the Alt key if ST is on or toggle ST off and then distort.

Dynamic and not stuttering.
Acorn

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

... It makes no sense to flip an object with the handles.

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Only in most instances ... Even so, why would any creative graphic design program deliberately prevent you from doing it.

Sorry Rob, I have to throw my 2 cents in here too. I used to deform text using the beloved method for posters, ads and social media posts. I tend to drift towards another software package as a default for those tasks now.

In fact that's a good point to bring up. Xara used to be the Swiss Army Knife, but now I think about it, I do seem to be firing up other software more than I used to.

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

If you use the handles then you can't maintain the maintain the aspect ratio / size which is why we have the buttons on the toolbar. It makes no sense to flip an object with the handles.

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Ermmm... Did I miss anything? I'm used to flip objects by dragging central handles with Ctrl (aspect ratio maintained) or Shift+Ctrl (then the object is flipped "in place"), I almost never use the flip buttons on the toolbar.

Still works for me Morris. Designer Pro X-16. And I just learned something new. I have used Xara since 1996 and never knew about the Ctrl Shift flip in place trick.

And it works with and without Smart Transform.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Still works for me Morris. Designer Pro X-16. And I just learned something new. I have used Xara since 1996 and never knew about the Ctrl Shift flip in place trick.

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Yeah, I know it works. That's why I was suprised by Rob's statement that I quoted - as if he did not know the Ctrl-flip "trick" (for maintaining aspect ratio of the flipped object).

I too use CTRL drag to FLIP and RESIZE in one motion. Rarely do I use the FLIP buttons ... I have to specifically think about them, and that's normally only when cloning and mirroring.

I think this is because it is a very old behavior before it was "improved" :)

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Originally Posted by morris

Ermmm... Did I miss anything? I'm used to flip objects by dragging central handles with Ctrl (aspect ratio maintained) or Shift+Ctrl (then the object is flipped "in place"), I almost never use the flip buttons on the toolbar.

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Ctrl+Shift is also essential for integer scaling H, V & diagonally.

Few look at the Status Line and check out what it offers in the way of meta-key manipulation.
Some are very powerful.

Acorn

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

If you use the handles then you can't maintain the maintain the aspect ratio / size which is why we have the buttons on the toolbar. It makes no sense to flip an object with the handles.

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Rob this just has to be 'the corporate line' right.. you cannot really believe it yourself ? not maintaining aspect ratio makes no sense ? :-O

What that says is if you go on a holiday it makes no sense to go your own way when you get there rather than stick only with the tour operator's scheduled tours :eek:

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Originally Posted by acorn

Few look at the Status Line and check out what it offers in the way of meta-key manipulation

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very true :(

I have only use the buttons on the tool bar. I never new about the using the selector handles. It just goes to show that Xara has a lot of different ways to do the same job. Unfortunately some of them appear to be older methods that people forget about and it takes someone to remind everybody about a feature.

Ray

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Originally Posted by handrawn

Rob this just has to be 'the corporate line' right.. you cannot really believe it yourself ? not maintaining aspect ratio makes no sense ? :-O

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This is in context with flipping images / objects. I have yet to see anyone not want to maintain aspect ratio when flipping. I'm not saying there aren't those who do, I'm just saying it's more edge case than the norm.

what about dragging down a clone to make a shadow below ?

personally I think such operations are very much the norm... but then again, I may not be normal :D

So do I ... I use it regularly, for shadows and reflections.