Xara X Alpha Channel Transparency - Brush Strokes - Contours

Another much requested feature for Xara X was Alpha Channel transparency.

Xara X can create a PNG file format with Alpha Transparency both when you export to the PNG file format and when you Create a Bitmap Copy (Arrange menu).

The two images shown here demonstrate this. The image on the left has a 24-bit color depth and shows a white background. The image on the right has Alpha Channel transparency applied and the background color is now transparent. This is useful for placing one bitmap image over another. Photoshop users will be happy to know that the alpha channels import into Photoshop beautifully.

The new Create a Brush feature is similar to the image sprayer tool found in many applications. You can select a preset brush shape from a drop down list or create one of your own from either a vector or bitmap object. (Vector shapes seem to work better).

You can either draw free- hand with the brush or apply it to a path as I have done to the X outline. You can control the size, rotation, spacing, fill properties, and more, creating some intriguing results. When used with a pressure-sensitive tablet you can vary the thick and thin aspects of the brush size.

Some of you might remember my example of a chrome pretzel which was created using two new features: multicolor fountain fills, and blend along a path.

Recycling the same path upon which the blend was placed, I created a small chrome salt crystal, which I made into a Brush and applied to the path.

Couldn't you do this as a blend? you ask. You could. And by using the new Profile settings, you could vary the space between the crystals.

But the beauty of the Edit Stroke controls is you can offset the brush shape (the chrome salt crystals) so the crystals fall on, or on either side of, the path. And, you can make this placement random, so with one or two tweaks of the controls, the crystals appear to be randomly placed on the chrome pretzel. Pretty tasty, huh?

To see step-by-step how the pretzel was created, visit the August Xara X Tutorial.

Not all pretzels are created equal. CorelDRAW has had the ability to blend along a path for some time, but notice the difference in the quality of the anti-aliasing. Blending on a path is new for Xara X. Both blends use the exact same path, and fountain-filled circles and both use the exact same number of blend steps, but Xara's superior anti-aliasing engine (the best in the industry in my opinion) is clearly superior.

The Contour Tool works in the same interactive way as the Bevel Tool. Select an object, then select the Contour Tool. The control handle arrows appear. Dragging away from the shape adds contours to the outside, while dragging towards the center contours to the inside.

All these tools have additional settings on the Infobar such as distance between lines, number of steps, Rainbow and Alt Rainbow, and Profiles which I will cover later.