The frustration of coloring in Xara

[Toonicorn]

Dear Xara,

I do like your software for vector drawing...but coloring inside those vectors is a PAIN (at least to me). PLEASE try to come up with a way that, when we group lines together (as I do for individual brush strokes that make up a drawing), the lines will be JOINED so that I can use the paint bucket to color without the paint spilling outside the lines. Right now I have to use PS for coloring - it recognizes grouped lines if they're touching each other. But PS has its own issues - it'll put a little white seam between the color and the Xara lines, so that I have to go back in and fix it. Grrr! Thanks for reading.

[handrawn]

trouble is TC, xara does not have a paint bucket tool [depite it's icon looking like one]- all you can do is fill an existing shape [or recolour a line] - separate lines that touch do not define a shape in xara, they are objects in their own right

you can get round this - I covered it in a previous thread, but PS is actually easier if you do not need pure vector

Do you get the white 'seams' if you disable the bucket anti-aliasing when you fill ? You might also need to tweak the threshold setting...

[Acorn]

For what it's worth.

• Select all your Lines that need a Fill.
• Clone them.
• Join Shapes.
• Add a 1px Outer Contour with a Mitre join.
• Click Inset Path (Shape of Lines).
• Cover this 'Shape of Lines' with a Box of the required Colour.
• Select this and the 'Shape of Lines'.
• Combine Shapes > Intersect All Shapes.
• Discard the outer offcut.
• Fit inner shape to original Lines.

Acorn

[handrawn]

never done it that way rather than the 'break shapes' route - mind you when I learnt to do it, the 'intersect all shapes' function had not been added to the program

interesting - and when I tried it that way I got a very slight gap

I did make sure the rectangle did not have an outline, maybe did something else wrong....

[Acorn]

At worst, i can just about see a sub-sub-pixel gap.
My 'fix' is just to add a thin Line, 10mp, of the same colour
I also placed my end-shape under the Lines.

Adding an outer Contour is increasing the area covered by the Lines so technically there ought not be a gap.
You can test this by choosing a smaller Contour Width (CW). I used 1px CW with a 1px Line. The method would still work with a 0.1px CW.

Acorn

[handrawn]

method works ok I like it

for static work at 50% reduction doubt would see it at all - animation not so good as such things can compound and become visible at zoom

asking for help sorting out bitmap tracing and coloring in xara was more or less the very first thing i did on TG; break shapes is in my blood it would just come more natural to me to convert cloned lines to shapes, then combine shapes, then break....

[handrawn]

followup:

having tried break shapes way [ and for the record the combine shapes in question is 'add shapes'] still get a sub-sub pixel gap but only on the right hand side !.... hummm

be a function of the high zoom and the way the program handles the specific curvatures I would think.... oh for a CRT and spherical pixels

[Jeffdoute]

[Toonicorn]

trouble is TC, xara does not have a paint bucket tool [depite it's icon looking like one]- all you can do is fill an existing shape [or recolour a line] - separate lines that touch do not define a shape in xara, they are objects in their own right

you can get round this - I covered it in a previous thread, but PS is actually easier if you do not need pure vector

Do you get the white 'seams' if you disable the bucket anti-aliasing when you fill ? You might also need to tweak the threshold setting...

Hmmm...I'll have to try that, handrawn. Thanks!

[Egg Bramhill]

Here's ivan louette's idea worth trying Toonicorn. Attached xar file to experiment with:

Filling Unclosed Shapes