Cutting an image with Xara

Cutting an image version: 1.2 (16-Jan-1999) author: John Bokma
This tutorial consist of three parts. The first part describes how to cut an image from a scanned photo. The second part shows how to add a soft shadow to such an image. I used a different image because the shadow effect with this one is more impressive. The third part shows how to create a banner (or button) with such an image. Cutting the image The photo (scanned at 150 dpi) in this section is of my cat Frodo in the snow. Use a rectangle to cut away the unwanted pieces. Draw a rectangle without a fill color. Select the photo and the rectangle and use Combine Shapes, Slice (cut) shapes to cut out the rectangle. Select the part you don't want and delete it. See figure 1.
Figure 1. Part of the foto with Frodo on it.
Select the freehand tool (F3) and move the pen to the top of the image. When a tilde (~) appears to the left of the pen, start tracing the outline of the image from top to bottom. Release the mouse button when the tilde reappears. A part of the image disappears. See figure 2.
Figure 2. Right part cut away (raw).
You can use the points and the control points to change the cutting curve. So nothing is lost! You can use the pen tool to add extra points. Another method to cut away a part is by drawing a curve and use Combine Shapes, Slice (cut) shapes as described above. Remember to start and end the line outside the bounding box of the photo otherwise the photo and line can not be combined. The bounding box is what shows up when you select the image with the Selector tool. Use a thin line (0.25 pt) with a contrasting line color. The advantage of this method is that you can edit the line before the cutting. Cut away all the undesired parts of the image. See figure 3.
Figure 3. The image after some editing.
Adding a soft shadow to an image The photo (scanned at 150 dpi) in this section is of my cat Femke in the snow. After cutting the image make a copy. Flat fill it with dark grey (20, 20, 20). Use the freehand tool to draw a smaller version of the shadow inside the dark grey shape. Set the line color of the small shape to none and the fill color to black. Most of the time it is easier to draw the shape with the freehand tool instead of making a copy of the dark grey shape and resize it.
Figure 4. Femke and her shadow (step 1).
Use the blend tool to blend the dark grey shape with the black shape. Change the number of steps to create a smooth blend (for example 20 steps). Make the shadow transparent (for example 93%) with the transparency tool.
Figure 5. Femke and her shadow (step 2).
Select the shadow and use the mould tool (default perspective) to give the shadow a perspective. Move the shadow to the back (Ctrl+B) and combine the shadow and the image. This takes some editing of the mould to obtain the desired effect. Take care to give the shadow globally the same direction as in the original photo.
Figure 6. Femke and her shadow (finished).
Creating a banner Create a background for the banner. I used a fractal fill to create the clouds and a fractal fill to create the beach. I cut the top part of the beach away with the freehand tool (see "Cutting the image").
Figure 6. Visit my Cat (step 1).
If you want to use an image as a background cut out the part you want with a filled rectangle of the desired size with line color set to none. You can manually enter the width and height of the rectangle. Use Combine Shapes, Slice (cut) shapes to cut out the background. Give the banner a 3D look as described in not on line yet. I used the following values: top filled with black, 94% mixed transparency right filled with black, 84% mixed transparency bottom filled with black, 74% mixed transparency left filled with white, 50% bleach transparency And for the highlight lines: color white, 0.5pt, 62% bleach transparancy. The result is shown in figure 7.
Figure 7. Visit my Cat (step 2).
Finally, add some text.
Figure 8. Visit my Cat (finished).
I cut the text "Visit my Cat" in two with a vertical line between my and Cat. This way some extra depth is added by moving "Visit my" behind the body of the cat. I used a mould to create the shadow on the beach.
Xarials - the Xara Tutorials

Cutting an image

Cutting the image

Adding a soft shadow to an image

Creating a banner