Page 420 - Xara Designer Pro X17

420 Eraser tool

Eraser tool

Using the Eraser Tool

The ERASER TOOL is used to erase parts of anything from photos to vector shapes. It
provides a ‘hard erase’ which will permanently ‘cut’ shapes and photos, or it can be used
with a ‘soft’ setting that is non-destructive and produces soft edges. There’s also a
powerful facility for intelligently erasing the background from a photo, which makes it
easy to cut objects out of a photo where there is a good contrast between foreground
and background.

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The InfoBar for this tool provides controls over NIB SIZE, the ROUNDNESS, NIB ANGLE and the
SOFTNESS, as well as a smoothness control which adjusts how accurately the nib follows your
mouse movement (this is exactly like the FREEHAND tool smoothness control).

Nib size

Control the nib size by dragging the slider. Use the Size button to control whether the nib
size zooms in when you zoom into the page or stays the same size. If you keep the nib
size the same then it effectively becomes smaller relative to the objects on the page
allowing you to erase smaller details.

You can also conveniently adjust the nib size by holding down the Alt key and using the
mouse wheel.

Erasing backgrounds

This feature is particularly good for removing or changing the background behind
complex shapes such as fur, hair, trees etc, that would be tedious, or impossible to mask