Page 362 - Xara Designer Pro X17

362 Photo Handling

Magnetic Lasso

The Magnetic Lasso allows you to semi-automatically trace around objects in a photo to
create a region. Once the region has been created you can copy or cut the object out, or
apply an effect, or enhance the region.
Find the tool on the Photo Regions and Mask Tools (on page 334) flyout.

The tool is on by default - but you can toggle the auto-trace properties on or off using the
toggle button on the InfoBar or by pressing T on your keyboard. Click the ? button next to
the MAGNETIC LASSO toggle to bring up a step by step guide.

Magnetic Lasso InfoBar

Smoothing
Invert/clear outline
Show/hide outlines (Ctrl + H)
Toggle Lasso on/off (T)
Help guide

Tracing

To start - trace a dotted line around the edge of an object in your photo.
There are two ways to do this - Click and drag around the edge. Start on the edge you
want to follow. As you drag around the item you’ll see the dotted outline snapping to any
nearby edge. You can press Shift to erase back along the path if things go wrong.
Additionally pressing the space-bar will ‘anchor a point’ at the current pen position.
Pressing T while dragging this way will toggle the magnetic snap off or on.

Alternatively - click on the edge - then click again a short distance further along, to trace
the edge between the two click points. Continue clicking around the edge to trace around
the object.

If at any point the dotted line misses the edge you wanted to follow, hit Backspace or
Undo (Ctrl+Z) to undo the last click point. Then zoom in and click closer to the last point,
on the edge you want the trace to follow. You will need to move in smaller steps along
any parts of the edge that are less clearly defined, but where the edge is clear against
the background you can move along the edge in much bigger steps.