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Xara Xara Picture Editor
by Geetesh Bajaj,
May 12th 2006
See Also:
Xara X¹ PNG and Alpha Channel Export
for PowerPoint
Xara Xtreme Transparency Effects for PowerPoint
Xara Picture Editor is a small program that's bundled with the
Xara Xtreme software. Double-click any bitmap inside Xara Xtreme
to summon the Xara Picture Editor--alternatively, Xara Picture
Editor also works independently as a picture viewer and editor
on its own.
Once you install Xara Xtreme, Xara Picture Editor will take over
the default file association of all your bitmap formats--I wish
it asked the user before doing that. Yet, for most users Xara Picture
Editor is a great alternative to the built-in Picture Viewer that
comes as part of Windows XP.
Xara Picture Editor provides the basic, most commonly required
photo features like quick preview, resize, straighten, crop, and
enhance pictures. It also works with photo plug-ins,
removes red eye and applies 3D bump maps.
To launch Xara Picture Editor, go
to your Windows Start menu and choose All Programs | Xara | XPE.
This opens the Xara Picture Editor
interface
shown in
the screenshot
below.
Figure 1: The Xara Picture Editor interface
As you can see, the Xara Picture Editor interface is very simple
and almost mimics the Windows Picture Viewer interface. But that's
where the similarity ends--Xara Picture Editor offers a range of
picture viewing and editing facilities through
live interactive
tools which are at the bottom of the interface as in separate icons
(see Figure 2)
Figure 2: All the Xara Picture Editor tools
Here's a list of all the tools, as referenced to the numbers found
in Figure 2.
- These set of tools are for opening (Ctrl+o) and saving
(Ctrl+S) images.
- This set of navigation buttons is for viewing
previous (left arrow on the keyboard) or next (right arrow on
the keyboard)
picture file
in the same folder from where the current image is opened. If Xara
Picture Editor is being used from within Xara Xtreme,
these controls wont be activated.
- These set of tools control the zooming options
for viewing the image. The three tools
are for BestFit (Ctrl+B), Actual Size
(Ctrl+A), and Zoom (Alt+Z). The last tool in this set brings
up a small dialog box that has a live zoom slider (see Figure
3).
- This set of tools includes three tools - the leftmost and rightmost
tools rotates the image by 90 degrees clockwise and counter clockwise.
The middle tool opens another dialog box where by using the
slider or by entering a numeric angle, the image can be rotated.
- This is the Enhance tool (Ctrl+E) that brings up the Auto Enhance
and manual enhance options. While Auto Enhance does an automatic, intelligent
enhance, the manual option allows control to alter
the brightness, contrast, color saturation, or sharpness of the
photos by dragging the appropriate slider. The Compare button
reverts
back to un-enhanced original picture.
- This is the plug-in tool that allows you to use installed
Photoshop compatible plug-in effects on the image. A few plug-ins
are bundled within the program--more can be installed.
- This tool allows you to crop an image,
set the height and the width for cropping, and move the mouse
pointer to
the approximate
top
left
of the area you wish to crop. Click the left mouse button and drag
down to the right to create a crop rectangle and crop the
image.
- Red eye is a common problem caused by camera
flashes. Xara Picture Editor provides an intuitive way to tackle
this issue--just click in the center
of the eye pupil and drag outwards until you are done.
- The 3D
BumpMap tool can create an interesting textured, 3D light surface
to the photos.
- The Delete tool is used for deleting the image.
- The Send to Windows Picture Viewer lets you send the open image
to the Windows Picture Viewer.
- The Edits
tool provides a complete list of edits you've
done on an image so far. It also lets you to alter the settings
of
edits
by
selecting it from the list
and by clicking 'Edit' button or remove the edit entirely, by
clicking 'Remove' button. It's a great way to undo.
- The last tool brings up the Xara Picture Editor
help screen.
You can find more about Xara Picture Editor on the Xara web site...
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