Page 336 - Xara Designer Pro X17

336 Photo Regions and Masks

Creating a Soft Mask

You can create soft masks by applying the TRANSPARENCY TOOL to your mask shapes on
the mask layer.

Having firstly created your mask shapes;
• Switch to the selector tool and open the Page & Layer Gallery
• Expand the page to view the layers and click on the Mask layer to make it active
• Click on the mask shape on the canvas and select the transparency tool
• Drag across the mask shape to create a linear graduated soft mask
It may be preferable to draw your mask shape using one of the drawing tools rather than
the MASK PAINTER TOOL. This is particularly useful when working with soft masks, where
you are applying different levels of transparency to the mask objects. With the mask tools
deselected, select the shape, and copy, or cut it. Now click on the MASK PAINTER TOOL
and use "Paste in Place" in order to paste the shape in exactly the same place it was
copied from.

Operations That Use A Mask

ClipView
You can clip your drawing or photo to be inside a selected shape.

1. Select one of the region tools from the PHOTO REGIONS AND MASKS TOOL flyout bar
and draw whatever shape you require.
2. Now select "ARRANGE" > "CLIPVIEW" (or press the key short cut "Q") and the drawing
will be clipped to the visible areas of the selection.

ClipViews are live and non-destructive in that the whole drawing is retained inside the
Clipview object. See Object Handling (on page 107) for more details.

Cut, Copy, Delete

These operations are useful when used with the PHOTO REGION TOOLS, to cut pieces from
photos, but you can use them on any objects.

1. Select one of the region tools from the PHOTO REGION AND MASK TOOLS flyout bar
and draw whatever mask shape you require.
2. Now select an option from the EDIT menu to perform a Cut/Copy/Delete operation.
3. The SELECTOR TOOL is automatically selected and the operation performed.