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BOILERPLATE: As always, we will be using Pixels as our units of measure. Right click on the screen and select Page Options... from the pop up menu. In the Units tabbed section, select Pixels for the Units and 0-255 for the Color Units. In the Grid and Ruler tabbed section set the Major Spacing to 100pix (key it in exactly like this please) and the Number of Subdivisions to 10. Press OK to close the dialog and apply the changes. To see a tutorial on Xara Basics visit Workbook 20. NOTE: You will notice from time to time I apply arbitrary colors to objects. I do this to make the objects easier to see. If I do not specify a fill for an object, you do not have to apply a fill or outline color. When I show an ellipse or rectangle that has just been created, that has no fill, it is because I have set the fill to none before I exported the illustration. By default, all ellipses, rectangles and Quick Shapes have a black outline and a black fill. There is nothing wrong with your copy of Xara. Naming Conventions. I use bold face to indicate the names of tools, galleries, keyboard shortcuts, and dialogs. Items such as unnamed icons and drop down lists, which have names when you let your cursor rest over them for a moment, are displayed in italics. The Infobar is the context sensitive menu at the top of the screen and changes to reflect the options for the selected tool. Some of the tool icons have changed in Xara X1, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new. New Users? I have created some quick start mini-tutorials to get you though the basics. Workbook 20, Workbook 30, and Workbook 31 cover the main things you need to know to get started. While you should be able to create all the steps in previous versions of Xara, some of the tool icons have changed, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new. |
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Different hues in the HSV Color Editor editing mode work well for different things. There are Hues that work well for gold and copper and chrome for example. Hue 165 (Spring Green Cyan) has the perfect range of saturation and values to create green glass. I have used this range of colors for this month's tutorial but I have translated the colors into their RGB values for your convenience.
Drag a vertical and a horizontal guideline from the screen rulers onto the page (press Ctrl L to display rulers). Select the Rectangle Tool (keyboard shortcut Shift F3). Hold down the Shift key and click the cursor at the intersection of the 2 guides and drag outward to create a rectangle 400 pixels by 250 pixels. (The Shift key draws the rectangle from the center outwards). TIP: As you draw the rectangle you can see the size on the Width and Height text entry boxes at the top of the page. When you are close to the actual size, you can stop drawing and enter the appropriate sizes in the text entry boxes and then press Enter to apply the changes. Using the Ellipse Tool (Shift F4), and this time holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys to constrain the ellipse to a circle and to draw the circle from the center outwards, create a 300 pixel circle from the intersection of the 2 guidelines. Select both shapes (hold down the Shift key and use the Selector Tool - the arrow pointer to select multiple objects). From the Arrange menu, select Combine Shapes > Add Shapes or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl 1. This combines the 2 shapes into one.
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