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Thread: Basic help.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    1

    Default Basic help.

    Recently converted from Photoshop because lol poverty, and decided to dive in and see if I could do the basic things here that I used to do in that program. I almost instantly hit a brick wall, though I'm going to assume it's just my unfamiliarity with the program. Also, I'm "self-taught" so I'm just an idiot pressing buttons and don't know the proper terms for anything.

    What I want to do seems super simple: Make a selection. That's it. In Photoshop I would go to the Pen tool, make my little outline using curves and such, and then right-click to "make selection" or "convert to selection." Anything I had outlined on that layer would then become selected, and I could invert my selection and erase backgrounds. I can see how to create masks and erase backgrounds, but it's all freehand brushes. I'm using a cartoon-style image, so I have solid lines I could easily follow with a pen tool to remove the background that I don't want, and it would be a much cleaner process than doing it all by hand.

    I tried looking up selections in the manual, but I think it must be called something different, because it basically just explained moving and rotating the image. I also tried the "Shape Tool" which looks like the correct tool, but all I could get it to do was draw lines, and after I had drawn too many it would break into a few dozen little red points and I couldn't see the line I was even drawing anymore. Even if I made a basic shape, it still just created that shape with no way to actually select what was within the boundaries of the shape.

    Needless to say, I'm lost and I haven't even left the starting gate.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    SW England
    Posts
    18,448

    Default Re: Basic help.

    raina, welcome to TalkGraphics.

    Down the left edge is a Toolbar.
    The main Tools that actually create an object include: Freehand and Brush, Straight Line, Shape and Shape Painter tools; Rectangle, Ellipse and QuickShape tools; Text tool.
    Images are dropped onto the page or picked from the gallery.

    Any objects are then selectable by the use of the Selector tool with a click on the object or or a drag across several. The use of meta-keys is indicated in the status line.

    What you are then left with are object manipulator tools that work on the selection.

    When I started I wasn't even facing the right way.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Harwich, Essex, England
    Posts
    22,090

    Default Re: Basic help.

    Welcome Raina,

    Here's 3 methods, there are more

    Egg

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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Sunshine Coast BC, Canada. In a beautiful part of BC's temperate rainforest
    Posts
    9,864

    Default Re: Basic help.

    As you are coming from photoshop I am guessing you are trying to make a pixel selection. As Xara products are vector illustration programs that have other capabilities the main tools are vector based. But a pixel selection can be made and it's very easy to remove items from their backgrounds of photos and raster(pixel based illustrations) In this video I demonstrated how to use the magic lasso tool to remove items from the background of a photo and then convert them to vector objects. It should help with the basics of the magic lasso tool. NOTE: the magic lasso only works on photos and raster images (Pixel based images) not vector objects

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Placitas, New Mexico, USA
    Posts
    41,650

    Default Re: Basic help.

    Welcome to TalkGraphics Raina

    Xara is basically a vector drawing program. Photoshop is a bitmap editing and creation program. Xara can so most of what Photoshop can and then some but it does it in a different manner as Acorn, Egg, and Frances have pointed out.

 

 

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