Page 416 - Xara Designer Pro X17

416 The Photo Tools

Optimizing images
Xara Designer Pro X will always stitch photos at the full resolution, even if you reduce the
size of the image on the page. This is often a desirable thing since it produces the
maximum quality, highest resolution results. But it does mean that the stitching process
can take a few minutes. So sometimes you may prefer to reduce the resolution of the
images before you stitch them together, especially if you only require a medium
resolution final result, perhaps for the web.

To reduce the resolution of any image, reduce its size on the page to the required size
and then use the "UTILITIES" > "OPTIMIZE PHOTO" option. Note that the panorama stitcher
works better with higher resolution images (it's easier for it to find matching points on the
photos).

When you get the stitched image back, this is stored as a PNG image in Xara Designer
Pro X. This is the highest quality, but takes a lot of memory and file space, especially if
it's a high-resolution panorama. (The BITMAP GALLERY will show you how much).
Therefore you can usually benefit from reducing the resolution of the final image and
converting it to a JPEG instead. Again use the "UTILITIES" > "OPTIMIZE PHOTO" option for
this.
Notes:
• The panorama stitcher expects the images to be the same resolution and size.
• Try to avoid taking pictures with moving objects in. These can confuse the system
since the same object might appear in different places, or not at all.
• Try to keep the horizon at the same approximate position on each photo

Hint: By taking photos in a portrait orientation, you can get maximum vertical coverage.

Perspective Correction Tool

This tool is available on the Photo Tool fly-out. It's designed to be a simple one-
click way to automatically correct common perspective effects.