One of Xara's most powerful tools, and one which sets it apart from every other application, is the Transparency Tool (F6). When Xara was introduced and demonstrated at the CorelWorld Conference in Dallas over 10 years ago  (Corel marketed Xara for a few years until Xara Ltd. took control of the product back), the Transparency Tool blew everyone away. All of the attendees at the conference could not wait to get their hands on this incredible new product. While at this time CorelDRAW 6 had some flat transparency abilities, it had absolutely nothing that could compare with Xara's gradient transparencies. Corel quickly copied Xara's best features, including gradient transparency. But they have never matched the ease of use or Xara's exceptional anti-aliased display which makes the gradient transparency so smooth.

So your editor thought it might be nice to cover the Transparency Tool in depth for some of the newer users who may not have discovered the power, depth, and beauty of this unique tool.

Select any of Xara's tools and the context-sensitive Infobar at the top of the screen changes to present a series of options available for the selected tool. (Another feature Corel was quick to "borrow" in CorelDRAW 7).

When you select the Transparency Tool (F6) these are the Infobar options.

• a. Transparency Shape: These include flat, gradient, bitmap and fractal options.
• b. Transparency Type: Such as Mix, Stained Glass, and Bleach
• c. Transparency Tiling: Includes the option to repeat the transparency
• d. Bitmap Name: A drop down list of available bitmaps that can be applied as Bitmap Transparency
• d. Profile: See Workbook 47 for a discussion of Profiles
• e. Selected Fill Handle: Identifies (albeit subtly) the start or end of the fill. The fact that I never realized this display also exists on the Fill Tool attests to just how subtle it is.
• f. Transparency Slider: Allows the percentage of transparency to be edited either by moving the slider, or by entering a specific amount in the text entry box the pressing Enter to apply the change.

Shown above are the Transparency Shapes. Flat applies an overall transparency to the selection. Linear, Circular, Elliptical, Conical, Diamond, Three and Four Point are all gradient transparencies. Bitmap applies a selected bitmap image transparently, and Fractal Clouds and Fractal Plasma are two transparencies that uses fractals to shape the transparency.

Shown here are the Transparency Types which include:

• Mix: Blends the transparent object to the background.
• Stained Glass: Subtractive transparency. Treats white as invisible. Makes colors beneath the transparency darker while retaining the hue.
• Bleach: Additive transparency. Treats Black as invisible and makes things generally lighter. A good use for Bleach is to place a clone of a dark photo over the original and apply bleach to make the dark photo lighter.
• Contrast: Uses shades of black to increase or decrease the contrast of the object below the transparency. White produces the highest amount of contrast (usually way too much) while black creates 0% contrast.
• Saturation: Similar to Contrast but increases and decreases the saturation of colors by using various shades of black (grayscale).
• Darken: Effects the color's darker value settings.
• Lighten: Makes the colors lighter but also reduces the color's saturation.
• Brightness: Lightens and darkens the object beneath the transparency according to the amount of lightness and darkness in the transparent object.
• Luminosity: Controls the grayscale element of the colors. This is similar to the Value control in the HSV color model.
• Hue: Tints the underlying color with the transparent color. Similar to the Hue slider in the HSV color model.

Transparency Tiling has two settings, Simple and Repeating. In a Simple, Linear Transparency, the transparency is gradual and consistent from the start point to the end point. Repeating causes the transparency to repeat at least once depending on the length of the fill path arrow.

Bitmap Name is a drop down list of available bitmaps which can be applied as a transparency shape (when the Bitmap Transparency Shape option is selected). Any bitmap in the Bitmap Gallery is available.

Profiles (Covered in Workbook 47) effect the distribution of the transparency and change the weight with which the transparency is applied.

The Transparency slider adjusts the amount of transparency for a selection or selected control handle. The grayed out box to the left of the slider, shows (if you look real carefully) whether the start or end control handle is selected.

There are two ways to use the slider. Drag the handle to the desired value, or key in a number in the text entry box and press Enter.

For a detailed description of the Transparency Tool (and all other tools and functions) press F1 with the tool in question selected. Xara not only has a context-sensitive Infobar, it also has context-sensitive Help.

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