Image and text skewing / distorting megathread

**ss-kalm** · 23 July 2018, 07:35 PM

Ii can't see any problems ... Not only that, the pictures you have posted exhibit what I would expect when skewed in both directions.

**rpc9943** · 23 July 2018, 07:37 PM

Try it on your own, it is when you are moving it, you can see the image is not pinned to the shape, it flops and changes, maybe this was a bad example to use. Really, try it on your own to see the image rotate and flop around, not standard.

**rpc9943** · 23 July 2018, 07:40 PM

Ok here is an example not cutting out the shape. As you can see it is not preserving the image as it should. It even goes so far as to chop out the image as its skewing!

Click image for larger version.

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**ss-kalm** · 23 July 2018, 07:41 PM

I did ... I didn't have any issues.

Do you have SMART TRANSFORM turned off? Right click the lock icon and ensure the Smart Transform is unchecked.

**rpc9943** · 23 July 2018, 07:43 PM

AHA that's the problem. It was not unchecked. What is so smart about that transform mode haha

either way you saved me a lot of frustration as I do rapid graphics all day with this software at work.

Thanks again!

**ss-kalm** · 23 July 2018, 07:46 PM

I find it's much better PERMANENTLY turned off.

Since I found out you could disable it, I never had issues.

**Bob Sommerville** · 01 August 2018, 03:20 AM

Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean, this change was to prevent the distortion of images and text - vector shapes remain unaffected. This change doesn't have anything to do with the auto-fit feature which would never squish anything in the first place.

I am, a bit late to this forum and the annoyance of the anti-squishing matters

I regularly used the ability in previous versions to squish photo images. I fact I reinstalled an older version because of the frustrations with the new feature. ( ...and disappointingly Xara would not re-register my legitimate formerly registered version just a couple of versions old.....however)

I work a lot with maps and diagrams and satellite/aerial images plus geophysical, geological imagery. Often I need to slightly alter the image dimensions or aspect ratio to fit formal topographic grids which are not rectilinear...I might cut a very narrow triangular slit and slightly rotate the image to fit roads tracks and other features. It was so quick to do...not so now as the dimension might move incrementally and unnoticed - often having to revert and start the process again I also design 3d (visually not geometrically) topographic block models, often squeezing environment images to replicate actual surfaces and textures. Text could be stretched and manipulated to follow landforms, perspective and other elements needing adjustment. The mould tools are too course to utilise in some instances. I also do many corporate graphics which may require data graphs from other sources (scans and jpgs) which I might resize to fit screen templates. Flow charts - some in 3D -may require special textural applications all of which were intuitive and easy to adjust.

Regardless of the reasons I cannot believe the justification behind the change. I have used Xara since the first version and it's flexibility and intuitiveness was always a pleasure to work with compared to competitors. The adoption of the great drawing tools to the task in almost any area was relatively simple and the results and reliabilty were great....again all intuitive The implementation in XDPro itself is clumsy....not smart, ugly and it creates errors of scale without being noticed at times. It is not intuitive or efficient with this tool. AS far as the "home user" comments I have difficulty explaining how to change an image.

There is much that could be refined in Xara however as a working professional it still is more productive than other programs I also use alongside. However the photo handling process is just dumb and ill considered. I have associates who have expressed the same. I do not want to particularly flame Xara, as i remains a very good, highly productive tool, however would you please give us an option to revert to the previous photo handling implementation.

Thanks

Bob Sommerville

**Egg Bramhill** · 01 August 2018, 08:02 AM

..... however would you please give us an option to revert to the previous photo handling implementation.

Bob, this has already been done, at least in v15 (I believe v12 likewise). Right click over the lock aspect ratio and ensure Smart Transform is unchecked.

**handrawn** · 01 August 2018, 08:08 AM

you need to update v15 to ver 15.1 - ver 15.1 took so long to arrive that some may have to renew licence to get it; that was the final straw that convinced me that the 365 model is all about the company's convenience and s***f the user

ver 12 does not have the issue

**David.P** · 22 November 2018, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Bob, this has already been done, at least in v15 (I believe v12 likewise). Right click over the lock aspect ratio and ensure Smart Transform is unchecked.

Hi all, now that I have successfully managed to switch Smart Transform off, I can't seem to switch it on again.

I have checked both "Aspect Ratio" and "Smart Transform", but the Smart Transform handles still do not appear when an object is selected?

Please help

Edit, never mind I found it, I had to additionally deselect the handles: