The Xara Xone Workbook
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Bitmap Line Art and Transparency

I scanned a black and white illustration of a duck and ducklings from a book of public domain clip art. The bitmap is black and white. If you do not have access to a scanner or clip art, download this image from your Internet browser (Right click on the image and select Save image as...) and crop the image in Xara to just the black and white art. Arrange > Create a Bitmap Copy of the cropped bitmap.

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

Create a rectangle the exact size of the black and white bitmap image. Apply a Linear fill with the Alt Rainbow Color Option. Make both the starting and ending color yellow.

 

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

With the ducks image on top (Ctrl f to bring to front), select the image with the Transparency Tool, and apply a Flat, Brightness transparency. This maintains the opacity of the white and lets the color show through the black.

 

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

Select the bitmap, left click on the black color square in the on-screen palette. Right click on the white color. This creates a negative version. Now apply a Flat, Stained Glass transparency. Again, the color shows through.

 

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

If you apply a Flat, Bleach transparency, the white becomes opaque (no transparency) and the black becomes transparent letting most of the background fill show through behind the white line art image.

 

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

In this example I right clicked on a pink color to make the bitmap pink and black. The Linear fill was also modified to pale blue and green. A Flat, Saturation transparency created this interesting effect.

 

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

Changing the bitmap to white on red produces this effect when you apply Stained Glass transparency.

 

Bitmap Line Art and Transparency - Xara Xone Workbook step-by-step tutorial

Finally, the colors on the bitmap were reversed to red on white. A Flat, Bleach 30% transparency produced this effect.

Experiment and see what kinds of cool effects you can come up with using different bitmap color combinations, transparency types, and fills.

TIP: To get back to the original colors (black on white in this case) right and left click on the cross hatched square to the left of the screen palette which sets the line and fill colors to none.

 

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