Quote Originally Posted by siran View Post
Gary, for tracing you can:
make your bitmap black
clone it
make the clone white
you can shift the outline outwards by applying a blur to the black and inwards with a bitmap feather to the white bitmap.

Hi Siran—

Yes, you can do what you describe, but it's a very intricate workaround for not having this feature, can't you agree?

I already know how to (laboriously) create a vector outline of opaque areas using Xara:

• You auto-trace the thing, or for cleaner results you use Vecctor Magic, ungroup all the shapes and then select them all, and use the Add Boolean command under the Arrange menu.

• Alternatively, you can step outside of Xara and Use Photoshop to Ctrl+click the PNG layer to clip the document to thew outskirts of the opaque areas, then use the Paths command to trace arond the loaded selection. This, admittedly, isn't as good as using an Auto-trace, and this is why I could use this as a feature. I'd use to to draw over the bitmap, perhaps to add a logo, and then ClipView the bitmap and the design within a newly-created shape that accurately describes the non-transparency areas in the bitmap.

Stepping back? Keeping the user in a specific program—and this is what Charles wants—means keeping the user satisfied with the features so they don't have to use Photoshop as part of the workflow.

The more people who stay in Xara are more likely to become part of the user base and continue to buy Xara, and not explore other programs so the $ or £) stay at Xara.

It makes good economic/marketing sense, and whatever the new, requested feature is, makes the program more of a "solve-all" one that the user can spend all day in.

My Best,

Gary