Help changing only width or height of an image?

[handrawn]

No need to be sassy either.

I use and interface with a whole raft of software Rob - no release is ever perfect, but rarely do I see software releases so rough around the edges as I do with Xara time and time again

I'll remind you that I joined TG as many did in order to help others; I respected what the program and the company was then, which was why I did that; I still respect what the program was, but the company seems to have morphed, and with it the product, into something I have difficulty now relating to

of course it is possible you meant sassy as in 'confident or showing confidence' in which case, thank you for that

@ iamtheblues Bob, I updated my aging corel painter to ver 2015 when the particle brushes were introduced back in 2014, I could not believe how wonderful they were at the time; they still are... just updated painter to 2019 - xara-wise I could do everything in ver 11; version 12 and 15.1 are slightly better, but I could happily live with 11.......

[Chris M]

I've not been here long enough to know where Rob-Xar sits at the Xara table, so please don't take this comment literally if you aren't in a position to make decisions.

Twice in this thread Rob has referred to the original method as 'legacy'. In the software world legacy doesn't mean older, it means discarded. Was this just a figure of speech, or has Xara decided that deforming photos and text is off the table for good? The term 'non destructive' I always took as meaning the original would not be altered in any way. To claim distorting within the program itself is destructive doesn't make sense. If that were true, then simply changing the colour would be classed as destructive.

Memories of Clippy spring to mind.

[gwpriester]

Moved this slug fest, er, discussion to Dear Xara.

You only need to press the selection bounds key and uncheck the smart transform once, and then now all your objects behave like the old method of simply dragging a handle to stretch. Xara's default stance is to treat images and objects in a non destructive manner by cropping (which can be uncropped), and stretch being a more deliberate action. Again you can change the default behaviour with 2 clicks, which I know, is a lot of steps for this "ritual".

Makes sense to me.

And Chris M, I just checked my copy of WD15 and un-checking Smart Transform and Lock Aspect Ratio, and selecting Show Bounding Box Handles does NOT work for resizing a bitmap non-proportionally.

[handrawn]

lots of things can make sense, even some that are perverse in nature

i am not a fan of the sort of design that is the equivalent of painting-by-numbers which is where i perceive xara's current focus to be - sure it can look great but really it is just post-processing asset in the same way you might post-process a photo; creative therefore in a sense only...

[Rob-Xar]

I've not been here long enough to know where Rob-Xar sits at the Xara table, so please don't take this comment literally if you aren't in a position to make decisions.

Twice in this thread Rob has referred to the original method as 'legacy'. In the software world legacy doesn't mean older, it means discarded. Was this just a figure of speech, or has Xara decided that deforming photos and text is off the table for good? The term 'non destructive' I always took as meaning the original would not be altered in any way. To claim distorting within the program itself is destructive doesn't make sense. If that were true, then simply changing the colour would be classed as destructive.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to correct you here on a couple of terms.

1) Legacy doesn't mean discarded. If it was discarded, it wouldn't be within Xara. It hasn't been completely replaced either, there are still many areas of the program that use the old handles and in this context we still update them. Moving forward however, we are working on the smartshape handles for everyday use in Xara.

2) Deforming photos and text is not off the table and for the foreseeable future it's not.

3) You have a copy of the photo in the bitmap gallery that you can import, however in your example changing the colour is non destructive as you can easily remove the colour. If you distort the image, we don't have an ability to undo that and return the image to the original aspect ratio (other than through the action undo, which is unfeasible if the image has been extensively worked on after distorting).

"I've not been here long enough to know where Rob-Xar sits at the Xara table, so please don't take this comment literally if you aren't in a position to make decisions."

No idea what you mean by this. Are you asking whether I'm important enough to comment or otherwise don't bother replying?

[wizard509]

Thank you fir all your help Rob, it's much appreciated.

[Chris M]

No idea what you mean by this. Are you asking whether I'm important enough to comment or otherwise don't bother replying?

I sorry if this question was taken out of context. I was asking what role you have in the Xara corporation, whether your connection between company and public is PR or development. I don't even know if you are employed by Xara, an ex employee with a strong interest in helping the public understand the working etc, etc. I genuinely don't know. My interest was further piqued by the fact a few members give the impression (as it seems to me) that you have significant sway with blunt statements like 'you should do this, or remove that and you are doing so-and-so as if you can make these things happen, indicating a rather high position in decision making. Once again, I apologise if the way I asked gave some form of offence, I assure you, it wasn't meant to.

Apology, and hopefully sorted, part behind us. My initial reason for asking about your official ties to Xara was how much knowledge you may have of the inner workings, ie: is the now infamous Smart Transform going to replace the original handles, run along side of, morph together etc? Again, the term 'Legacy' in the software context means outdated and no longer in development. A legacy item may still be functional, but it's at end of life and I was asking if you knew if that was the case here; hence my asking for clarification as to whether it was a figure of speech.

My analogy to destructive may seem a little naïve, but again it was genuine. If I distort a picture and change my mind I simply drag the original back onto the workspace because the original isn't affected by Xara. This is what I believed was meant by non destructive. I used the changing of colour as an example as what I perceive to be the same as I would not try to correct a series of colour changes, I would simply bash delete and drag the original back into workspace and start again. I was being genuinely curious with this too. I didn't see how, not just you personally, but anyone, would class distortion as destructive, not a criticism, a genuine question.

All perfectly innocent questions. I may be naïve on the workings, but isn't that part of the learning curve? Just for full disclosure - I don't have a huge problem with the Smart Transform other than the lack of snapping when resizing, which I have mentioned, not demanded or whinged about, elsewhere. True, it would be nice to be able to (simply) turn it off, but I have used it on numerous occasions without issue.

Can we shake hands and give manly nods to each other now please?

[ss-kalm]

The clue's in the title ...



Rob is probably the Xara employee with the most obvious presence on the forum, and as such seems to get dumped on more than most. It's a good job he's doesn't take this personally.

Thanks once again for your participation Rob.

[Chris M]

Yes, saw the technical support heading, but it doesn't explain how far Rob can go. As an example, I am an independent technician. When I worked for a company I was labelled level 3 and had access to company kept private emails and passwords. Level 2 and 1 did not. It seemed natural to me to ask where on the table Rob sat because it affects the type of question.

I'm genuinely interested in why there's such a bee in the bonnet over the Smart Transform as I've not used the software long enough to have formed bone deep habits. This curiosity led me to finding out that XDP and XWD handle the situation differently and reported what I found to see if it helped all the information that was flying around. Naturally I followed the thread.
Rob then used the term 'Legacy' which made me wonder if he knew the direction the software was heading at a high level, or as I stated, was it just a figure of speech (as my 'position at the table' is).

Back on topic. I also don't understand whether Gary is agreeing or disagreeing with me in regards to XDP and WDP, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask!

And Chris M, I just checked my copy of WD15 and un-checking Smart Transform and Lock Aspect Ratio, and selecting Show Bounding Box Handles does NOT work for resizing a bitmap non-proportionally.

[handrawn]

legacy can mean depricated... [not the same as discarded]... but it can also mean 'the old way of doing things' and in many instances the old way and the new way can procede together...

can I just also say that Rob is a very very helpful guy

I had a slug-fest discussion with another member here about non-desructive editing which I personally find a nusience because of the way in which it still interferes with the work-flow I established before it arrived [long time ago], and which interference gradually becomes more pervasive

he could not understand my point of view [going so far as to suggest i was using the program only as a toy ] - however I can understand how useful it is to those who work in such a way, but I just don't need to