Drawing a rectangle

Xara has three shape creation tools that all work pretty much the same: the Rectangle,
Ellipse, and QuickShape Tool. In this section we'll look at the Rectangle Tool but keep in
mind that you can use the same steps with the Ellipse and QuickShape Tool.

To draw a rectangle, select the Rectangle Tool from the main toolbar on the left side of
the screen (it's the rectangle icon), (or press Shift F3) click once on the page and drag.
When you release the mouse button, the rectangle will be created. By default, Xara applies
a black outline and a solid black fill as shown above. You can drag in any direction.

To draw a perfect square (or circle if you are using the Ellipse Tool), Click on the page, hold
down the Ctrl key, and drag. The rectangle or ellipse will be constrained to a square or
circle.
The size of the rectangle appears on the Infobar as you draw your rectangle. But drawing a
rectangle or ellipse to an exact size is not always easy. Here is a quick way to draw to an
exact dimension. After you create your rectangle (or ellipse) you will see a Width and
Height text entry box on the Infobar (highlighted here in yellow). Just enter the desired
width in the top box and the desired height in the lower box and press Enter to apply the
change.

When you select the Rectangle, Ellipse, or QuickShape Tool, you will see several icons on
the Infobar including 2 circles and a square with arrows. These icons determine how the
shape will be drawn. The default is Bounds Creation which creates the shape extending from
where you first clicked on the page. Radius Creation creates the shape and rotates the
shape as you are drawing it, from the center of the shape. Diameter Creation, creates and
rotates the shape from the corner where you clicked on the page.
To draw a rectangle with rounded corners, draw your rectangle, then press the Curved
Corners icon on the Infobar.

To adjust the roundness of the corners, drag any of the inside control points with the
Rectangle Tool cursor. You can also select Curvature from the drop down list on the
Infobar, enter a numerical value, and press Enter to apply the change.

NOTE: If you resize the rectangle after you have drawn it, and apply Curved Corners, the
corners will probably not be perfectly round any more. This happens because you have
changed the original proportion of the rectangle. The way to get around this is to resize
your rectangle to the desired size, then draw a new rectangle using the old one as a model.
Now when you apply Curved Corners, the corners will be round. Delete the old rectangle.

Making a selection
To select, move, and rotate objects, you use the Selector Tool (the arrow pointer at the
top of the Main Tool Bar). You can also press F2 (Function key 2) to select the Selector
Tool.

To select an object, such as the yellow square shown above, select the Selector Tool and
click on the object. A series of small black boxes will appear to indicate the object has been
selected. These boxes are called Bounding Boxes or Resizing Handles and can be used to
resize the selected object or objects. We'll look at resizing on the next page.

TIP: You can switch between the current selected tool and the last used tool by pressing
the Space Bar on your keyboard. This works will all tools except the Text Tool.

If you need to select multiple objects, such as the three shapes shown above, hold down the
Shift key and click on each object with the Selector Tool. When all objects are selected,
you can release the Shift key.
Another way to select multiple objects is to click the Selector Tool on the page, then drag
a selection marquee rectangle around all the objects.

NOTE: All objects to be selected must be inside the selection rectangle for them to be
selected. This is different from Adobe Illustrator where you can just select part of an
object to select the entire object.

TIP: To deselect part of a selection, press the Shift key and click the object to be
deselected. You can also add to a selection by pressing the Shift key and selecting the
additional object or objects.

To move an object, or a selection of objects, click and drag the objects to the desired
location.
You can drag an object, or selection of objects, and drop a duplicate by pressing the right
mouse button before you release the left mouse button.

To free rotate a selected object or objects, click once to select and click a second time to
enable Rotate/Skew mode. The bounding box handles change to rotation/skew arrow
handles. The corner arrows are used to rotate the object while the straight arrows are
used to skew the selection. Drag the corner handles to rotate, drag the center arrow
handles to skew. When you are finished rotating or skewing the selection, click on the page
to deselect. You can also press the Esc key to deselect. You can also enter a specific angle
on the Angle of Selection or Skew Angle of Selection text entry boxes (highlighted in
yellow) and press Enter to apply the change.

The cross hairs in the center of object in rotation/skew mode is called the Center of
Rotation. You can drag this bulls eye to any place from which you want the object to rotate.
For example, if you drag the Center of Rotation to one of the tips of the star, then the star
will rotate around that tip.
TIP: You can rotate or skew a duplicate by pressing the right mouse button before you
release the left mouse button, after you have made the rotation or skewing change.

Scaling a selection

In this section we'll look at scaling a selected object or objects.

When an object is selected, 8 small black squares appear around the selection. These
squares are called the Bounding Box and the individual squares are called Resizing Handles.
If you drag any of the four corner resizing handles, you can resize the selected object in
the same proportions. In other words the aspect ratio will remain the same. A square will
still be a square when you finish resizing it.

If you drag the center resizing handles, you can scale just the height or width.
Hold down the Shift key to resize the selected object from the center.

Hold down the Ctrl key and the object will snap to multiples of the object's size. For
example, a 1 inch square will snap to 2 inches and 3 inches and multiples of 1 inch as you
resize it.
There is a more precise method of resizing an object using the Height and Width text
entry boxes on the Infobar (shown in yellow). You can enter a value in the W or H or % text
entry boxes and press Enter to apply the changes.

The tiny black padlock icon (Lock Aspect Ratio) determines if the scaling is proportional or
non-proportional. If you want to change the size of a selected object proportionally, the
lock icon should be in the down position. In this mode, if your object is 2 x 4 units and you
enter 4 in in the W box and press enter, the object will scale to 4 x 8 units.

If you want to scale the height and width independently, disable the Lock Aspect Ratio icon.
Now if you enter W 4 and H 6, the object will scale to that size. You can also scale using the
% text entry boxes.

Drawing with a freehand tool

Xara offers three different drawing tools: The Freehand and Brush Tool, the Shape
Editor Tool, and the Pen Tool. In this section we'll look at the Freehand and Brush Tool,
Xara's most intuitive drawing tool. In the next page, we'll explore the Shape Editor Tool.

Xara's Pen Tool is similar to Adobe Illustrator's Pen Tool and is used for creating Bezier
curves and lines. Most Xara users just use the more intuitive Freehand and Brush and
Shape Editor Tools.
To draw freehand lines, select the Freehand and Brush Tool, or press F3, and start
drawing on the page.

The Smoothness slider, just above the Selector Tool, automatically smoothes the line as
you draw. By default it is set to 50%. Lower settings add more control points and produce a
more accurate line while higher settings reduce the number of control points and produce a
smoother, simplified line. As long as you have not switched to another tool, and your line is
still selected, you can adjust the Smoothness slider and see the effect it has on the line.
Once you switch to another tool, however, this capability is disabled.
In Xara, only a closed path can be filled. There are exceptions to this but for the sake of
this illustration, we'll stick to this assumption. To create a closed path, the last control
point has to be placed on top of the first control point. In the example above, the line was
started and ended at the top of the shape . When the cursor appears over the first control
point (the spot where the line began) a + appears to indicate the path is about to be closed.
When the path is closed, the default fill, black, is applied. Closed paths may be filled with
any of Xara's numerous fill types.

The Freehand and Brush Tool can also be used to apply an "Existing Brush" or an "Existing
Stroke Shape" to a path. The two examples at the bottom of the illustration above
demonstrate this. When the Freehand and Brush Tool is selected, two drop down lists
appear on the Infobar (seen on the top left of the Infobar above). The first drop down list,
Select an Existing Brush, contains a selection of predefined brushes, which you can apply to
a path or any shape with an outline. The second drop down list, shown above, is the Select an
Existing Stroke Shape list and contains a selection of stroke shapes. Both brushes and
stroke shapes change with the line Width. Experiment with different line widths
In addition, you can create your own custom brushes but this is not something we will cover
in this section. Refer to Brushes > Creating Custom Brushes in the Xara Help menu (F1).

Drawing with the shape editor tool+ path commands

Xara's Shape Editor Tool is a multifunctional tool used for both creating lines and shapes
and for editing these lines and shapes.

To draw a series of connected straight line segments, select the Shape Editor Tool or
press F4. Click the Make Line icon on the Infobar (shown above) (or press L ) . Click on the
page where you want to begin and then click the end point of the first line. The line will
appear with the second click. You can continue to add line segments by continuing to click on
the page. To end the line press the Esc key or select another tool.

Xara makes it easy to turn these straight lines into elegant curves. With the lines and the
Shape Editor Tool still selected, just drag the line segments with the Shape Editor Tool
into curves. The lines become elastic like rubber bands making it easy to achieve soft
curves.
If you select the Make Curve icon (or press C) the line segments become curves as you click
control points on the page. This is not as intuitive as the straight line method, but once
mastered, it is a very quick way to draw shapes with smooth curves. To create a closed path,
click the last control point on top or the first. Or, select either the first or last control
point and press Enter to automatically create a straight line connecting to the two points.

Each control point, whether created with the Shape Editor Tool or the Freehand and
Brush Tool can be modified to be a Cusp or a Smooth join. A Cusp Join comes to a point
while a Smooth Join is rounded. You can toggle between one join and the other by selecting
a control point or points with the Shape Editor Tool then pressing z or s. If you select two
points of a curve and press the Make Line icon or key in i the curve will become a straight
line.

If you click on a curve control point, a lever-like line appears with small red squares on
either end. This is a Bezier Curve control handle and is used to edit the curve. Each red box
can be dragged to alter the shape of the curve and is the best method to fine tune a curve
once the curve has been created.

When a control point or points have been selected, three additional icons are enabled on the
Infobar. Reverse Paths reverses the direction of the line or path as you can see with the
arrowhead line. Delete Points deletes a selected point or points. Break at Points breaks the
line or path at the selected point into two lines or paths.

Bonus Section - Path Commands

Xara has path combining operations that are common to most drawing programs. There are
two of these operations: Join Shapes and Combine Shapes. Combine Shapes has 4 separate
operations.

Join Shapes (Arrange menu), creates an single shape with transparent areas where the
shapes overlap as you can see with the yellow rectangle which is behind the joined shapes.
The joined shape takes on the attributes of the top most shape, in this case, the red circle.
The first of the Combine Shapes commands (Arrange menu) is Combine Shapes... Add
Shapes. This command creates a single combined shape and as with all Xara's path
operations, takes on the properties of the top most object, in this case, the solid green fill.

The second command is Combine Shapes... Subtract Shapes. This operation removes the
top shape from where it overlaps the bottom shape. The top shape disappears after the
Subtract Shapes operation has been performed.
Intersect Shapes creates a shape of the overlapping area and the two selected shapes
disappear after the operation. Combine Shapes... Intersect Shapes is a good method of
masking a photo or other image inside another shape. For example, if you place a star, or
text selection over a photo and use Intersect Shapes , the photo will be masked into the
shape of the star or the text.

The final operation is Combine Shapes... Slice Shapes. The area where the top shape
overlaps the bottom shape becomes a new shape while the bottom shape remains but is now
two separate shapes. The top most shape disappears.
You can also use a line or path to Slice an object or in the example above a group of objects.
The line or path disappears and leaves a group of four objects. Ungroup the objects and
apply color or a fill.