Photo & Graphic Designer 10: Exporting individual objects/groups

[rmfrance]

Greetings all,

I set about producing what I thought was a simple task: a set of individual star (or in my case 'heart') rating web graphics. Like this



Having generated a master heart icon (filled outline + highlight and shadow layers), I copied this to a new document, scaled it and duplicated the resulting mini-sized hearts into a line of five. Since my ratings are out of a possible five hearts, once everything was precisely positioned I then copied the line/group to create a duplicate below the first one. I then grey-filled the last heart in the second line group, and worked my way down until I had fine lines, each with an extra grey heart, like this:



So far, so good.

I then wanted to export each line of grouped objects as an individual graphic, so selected the line, Right-Clicked and exported, which resulted in the whole page being exported. Hmmm...

Next, I Right-Clicked a line and this time copied it onto a new document page - this behaved as expected, copying just the one line I'd selected. Why not for the Export?

Bottom Line: I can't see how to export just a single object, or crop the page/document to exclude unwanted areas from the exported graphic.

In Corel Draw MANY years ago I was able to simply marque-select an object and export it - why not in up-to-date Xara? It's also frustrating not being able to find help on this topic, hence my post here. This is turning out to be a steep learning-curve! :0(

All suggestions very welcome.

[mwenz]

Make sure that you are choosing Selected in the export dialog. Ain't no different than CorelDraw.

[Rik]

I'm sure Mike is referring to the option I've highlighted in the attached image.

So, when exporting, just make sure that 'Selection' is selected.
This setting should then remain set, unless you change it!

[rmfrance]

Thanks guys. However...

I was puzzled as to why I hadn't seen this dialogue panel. The answer seems to be that I want to save as an .svg file but this format doesn't include the Export Options dialogue.

So far, then, I'm still searching for an answer to the problem. Any further ideas from experienced user, please?

I've just check the .ai format export, and this too lacks the Export Options.

[angelize]

File > export brings up the export file dialogue. choose Scalable Vector Graphics(svg) from the file type dropdown and type in the name in the file name box. the more letters you type the less choices you will have pop up. once you find the file you want to save over select it and click save and a box will pop up asking if you want to replace it Click OK

I have just checked and you should have that option in Photo and Graphics Designer

[mwenz]

I am assuming that your Xara application has a photo type document? XDP does. Copy one of the object sets to a new photo type document. Then export.

[rmfrance]

It's entirely vector - no bitmaps.

Angelize: Yes, I can export as you say, but the only option I get for vector formats - .svg, .ai - relates to clipping paths for bitmaps or to overwrite an existing file, as you describe (or use a new name, of course). Either way it will export the whole file, not merely the object I've selected.

The search continues... :0)

[mwenz]

I know it is vector. If you have File , New, Blank Photo, start a new document using it. Copy one line of your symbols to it. Now export to svg.

[rmfrance]

I know it is vector. If you have File , New, Blank Photo, start a new document using it. Copy one line of your symbols to it. Now export to svg.

Okay, I'll try it - thanks for your help.

[mwenz]

One main difference is there is no "document size." It's whatever is there and SVG, AI, EPS, etc., all export at the extents for width/height. Which also means if you need padding around an object, just create a rectangle of the dimensions you need. No fill, no outline. Send that to the back and export.

This is how I export SVG files for web use all the time.

Mike