The Color Select/Erase Tool
If I had a dollar for every person who asked, how do I get rid of the background behind a bitmap image, I could have retired many years ago. Until nowXara Designer Pro X is the newer version of Xara Designer Pro 7, a product we have reviewed in the past. This new version has many enhancements and features added since the last version. There are new Photo features, Design & Usability enhancements, Web features, etc. Xara Designer Pro X is ideal for both print and the web related designing.
the answer has been to either draw a vector masking shape around the image to be retained and to use Intersect Shapes, or Apply Clip View to add a vector mask, or to use Mehdi Eraser Classic in the Live Effects Tool.Well now there is an easier way. And a much more powerful way because you can not only drop out any background color, you can drop out a bunch of colors and they don’t even have to be related in hue.In the simplest example, we have a two color logo on a white background. Select the Photo Tool >Color Erase Tool, and click on the white background. A Color Marker appears which is a black circle with four resizing arrows. This color marker selects the color or colors you wish to erase or select. You have a choice of backgrounds as shown in the drop down list to reveal the amount of color erased. You can increase or decrease the Color Tolerance and Fade slider setting to expand or limit the range of colors.If your bitmap has a colored background or in the case of the example shown above left, a mottled background, you may need more than one Color Marker. I used three markers and added a drop shadow to show how effectively the mottled background has been removed. (A Color Marker is added every time you click a color. Markers can be edited separately and can be deleted.)The Color Select/Erase Tool can select a color or a range of colors as well as erase, hence the name of the tool. You can for example select the quail logo and press Make Soft Mask. This creates a mask that masks everything except the selection: the logo.In the example above, I Color Selected just the quail logo, created a Soft Mask, and used another all new addition to the Photo Tool fly out, Set Photo Hue to create a range of colored duplicates. You can modify the color (Hue) of a photo or bitmap graphic such as the logo bitmap by dragging the Hueslider through the color spectrum. The Hue Strength slider as shown is all the way to the right or 100% saturation. In addition, you can use any of the Photo Tool >Enhance settings to modify the color which is how I achieved the muted gray green image on the right.The Color Select/Erase Tool works best when you have good color contrast such as the bright pink flowers shown above left and the medium deep green foliage behind. The Color Marker samples the pixels and averages the pixels to arrive at the overall color. The two examples shown on the left are a close up of the pink flower and you can see that the pink is actually made up of many different colored pixels that when viewed as a photo blend together. When you expand the size of the Color Marker circle, you average more color variations into your selection.More Photo Tool Stuff
The Panorama Tool Now supports up to 8 images instead of the previous maximum of 6.Photo Replacement is now “smarter”. In previous versions, if you had three instances of the same photo on the page, and if you dropped a new photo onto one of those three duplicate images, all three would change to the new image. Now this only happens if the duplicate photos are part of a soft group.This is not a new feature but I just have to mention it in case some of you reading this review are not familiar with Magic Erase. Several versions ago, a Clone Tool was added to the Photo Tool fly out that lets you draw an area, then clone a section of the photo you are editing into this area. Well, in Designer Pro 7, and Photo & Graphic Designer 7, Magic Erase was added. You draw a freehand area and press Magic Erase and the selection is erased. If you are not happy with the results, keep pressing the Magic Erase button and with each press a slightly different result occurs. And this is a non-destructive effect, actually a separate, deletable object, unless you select Flatten Photo Group from the Arrange menu.In version 8, however, there is a significant improvement to the Clone Tool as well as the Magic Erase feature. The Clone Tool has been improved so it now uses current result photo as the source, instead of the original photo (for manual and Magic Erase clone objects). This makes it more WYSIWYG in that when you’re cloning or copying (or Magix erasing) an area then it uses the current visible edited picture as the source, and not the unedited original image as previous versions did.Clipart, Widgets, Buttons, Banners and Bullets, Templates Galore, Everything But the Kitchen Sink!
I could (and often do) spend hours looking at all the really excellent clip art that is included in Xara Designer Pro X and Xara Photo & Graphic Designer MX 2013. There is something for everybody here and you can use the clip art and templates for printed documents or websites or presentations, you name it. There are more Widgets like the Cloud Zoom displaying the cactus than you can shake a stick at, though why anybody would shake a stick at a Widget, especially an expandable one, is beyond me.Decisions, Decisions
With so many new and improved features, I’m surprised you have not already downloaded your Free trial copy. The only real question is, do you need Xara Designer Pro X, with all the bells and all the whistles, plus a bit more, or can you get by with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer MX 2013? It’s a hard decision to be sure. Both contain excellent tools for creating illustrations, printed documents, editing photos, creating website graphics and creating sophisticated websites and presentations. If you consider yourself design challenged, not to worry, there are enough pre-designed objects and professionally designed templates (that you can use off the peg or modify to your heart’s content), that you will look like a professional with major design school education at that!Gary W. Priester First Published in The Xara Xone-->The Image Editor has freehand drawing and erasing tools that all work in the same way. You select the tool and, if necessary, select foreground and background colors and size and shape options. You then move the pointer to the image and click or drag to draw and erase.
Drawing Tools
You can select drawing tools from either the Image Editor toolbar or the Image menu. When you select the Eraser tool, Brush tool, or Airbrush tool, the option selector displays that tool's options.
Tip
Tool tips appear when you hover your cursor over the buttons on the Image Editor toolbar. These tips will help you identify the specific buttons mentioned here.
To select and use a drawing tool from the Image Editor toolbar
Select a button on the Image Editor toolbar.
The Eraser tool paints over the image with the current background color when you press the left mouse button.
Tip
Instead of using the Eraser tool, you may find it more convenient to draw in the background color with one of the drawing tools.
The Pencil tool draws freehand in a constant width of one pixel.
The Brush tool has various shapes and sizes.
The Airbrush tool randomly distributes color pixels around the center of the brush.
If necessary, select colors and a brush:
In the Colors palette, select the left mouse button to select a foreground color or the right mouse button to select a background color.
In the Options selector, select a shape representing the brush you want to use.
Point to the place on the image where you want to start drawing or painting. The pointer changes shape according to the tool you selected.
Press the left mouse button (for the foreground color) or the right mouse button (for the background color), and hold it down as you draw.
To select and use a drawing tool from the Image menu
Go to menu Image > Tools.
On the cascading submenu, choose the tool you wish to use.
Lines or Closed Figures
The Image Editor tools for drawing lines and closed figures all work in the same way: you place the insertion point at one point and drag to another. For lines, these points are the endpoints. For closed figures, these points are opposite corners of a rectangle bounding the figure.
Lines are drawn in a width determined by the current brush selection, and framed figures are drawn in a width determined by the current width selection. Lines and all figures, both framed and filled, are drawn in the current foreground color if you press the left mouse button, or in the current background color if you press the right mouse button.
To draw a line
Use the Image Editor toolbar or go to menu Image> Tools and choose the Line tool.
If necessary, select colors and a brush:
In the Colors palette, select the left mouse button to select a foreground color or the right mouse button to select a background color.
In the Options selector, select a shape representing the brush you want to use.
Place the pointer at the line's starting point.
Drag to the line's endpoint.
To draw a closed figure
Use the Image Editor toolbar or go to menu Image > Tools and select a Closed-Figure Drawing tool.
The Closed-Figure Drawing tools create figures as indicated on their respective buttons.
If necessary, select colors and a line width.
Move the pointer to one corner of the rectangular area in which you want to draw the figure.
Drag the pointer to the diagonally opposite corner.
![Xara Designer Color Eraser Tool Xara Designer Color Eraser Tool](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QVv7WAFeRwI/maxresdefault.jpg)
Custom Brushes
A custom brush is a rectangular portion of an image that you pick up and use like one of the Image Editor's ready-made brushes. All operations you can perform on a selection, you can perform on a custom brush as well.
To create a custom brush from a portion of an image
Select the part of the image that you want to use for a brush.
Hold the Shift key down, choose in the selection and drag it across the image, or go to menu Image > Use Selection as Brush.
Your selection becomes a custom brush that distributes the colors in the selection across the image. Copies of the selection are left along the dragging path. The more slowly you drag, the more copies are made.
Note
Selecting the Use a Selection as Brush without first selecting a portion of the image will use the whole image as a brush. The result of using a custom brush will also depend on whether you've selected an Opaque or Transparent background.
Pixels in a custom brush that match the current background color are normally transparent: they don't paint over the existing image. You can change this behavior so that background-color pixels paint over the existing image.
You can use the custom brush like a stamp or a stencil to create different special effects.
To draw custom brush shapes in the background color
Select an opaque or transparent background.
Set the background color to the color in which you want to draw.
Position the custom brush where you want to draw.
Select the right mouse button. Any opaque regions of the custom brush are drawn in the background color.
To double or halve the custom brush size
Press the Plus Sign (+) key to double the brush size, or the Minus Sign (-) key to halve it.
To cancel the custom brush
Press Esc or choose another drawing tool.
Requirements
None
See also
Image Editor for Icons
How to: Create an Icon or Other Image
How to: Edit an Image
How to: Work with Color
Accelerator Keys