Page 333 - Xara Designer Pro X17

Photo Regions and Masks 333

Photo Regions and Masks

Masks vs Photo Regions

A mask is used to protect part of a photo from a photo operation. For example when
using the CONTENT-AWARE SCALE/ZOOM (on page 404) tool to stretch or zoom a photo,
you often want to ‘protect’ part of the photo to stop it being distorted by the operation.
You use a mask to mark that area of protection.
Conversely the Photo Region tools are used to select areas of a photo upon which you
wish to perform a photo operation. This might involve a Photo enhance operation to
brighten or tweak the color of a particular area of a photo, or you might want to just
perform a simple crop, or cut and paste part of a photo.

Regions and masks are actually interchangeable and the difference between them is
only really one of presentation. A region identifies the part of a photo you want to operate
on, while a mask works the other way around and identifies part of an image you don’t
want to operate on (the masked area is protected from the operation). And in fact if you
have drawn a region using a region tool and you switch to the mask painter tool, the
region becomes a mask. And similarly if you start with a mask and switch to a region tool,
the mask becomes a region.

Masks have the advantage of being able to show levels of ‘softness’ whereas regions are
indicated only by a hard outline. So if, for example, you use the Feather Tool (on page
91) on a region, you won’t see any change to the region as you apply the feathering. But
when you use that feathered region to enhance your photo, you’ll see that the enhanced
area is indeed feathered. If you use a mask instead, the pink fill of the mask shape will
show the feathering.

Creating Regions and Masks

To create a photo region use the REGION PAINTER TOOL, MAGNETIC LASSO (on page 362)
or RECTANGLE REGION TOOL from the PHOTO REGIONS AND MASK TOOLS flyout bar to draw
round the area on which you wish to perform an operation. The selected area will be
outlined with a dashed 'marching ants' effect.

To create a mask choose the MASK PAINTER TOOL from the PHOTO REGIONS AND MASK
TOOLS flyout bar and use it to draw a pink mask over your photo on the parts of it you
want to protect.

The masked areas are shown with a pink fill and have a dashed 'marching ants' effect
around the outside. Any part of the objects covered by the pink area will be protected
when performing a mask compatible operation.