applying a gradient fill to a photo [bitmap]

[handrawn]

can you do it - yes, with certain reservations

a photo in xara is actually a bitmap filled shape, so if you just try applying another fill, eg linear, it will replace the bitmap completely

so what you need to do is draw a rectangle over the photo - apply the fill you want to the rectangle - and then give it a transparency of type hue

now come the reservations - hue transparency has no affect on black/white/grey-tones, so you may not end up with an even fill as you can see from the example

you may wish to contone the bitmap first... the underlying color will still affect the fill to some extent... as can be seen from the green band in the examples..

the chosen fill ramp gives a rather nice effect on the original I think, but is a bit extreme on the contones...

so something to experiment with...

[I find it useful for adding gradient color to raster line art, sometimes quicker than going into a bitmap editor and painting on color whilst preserving transparency...]