manual-en

To draw freehand lines that are automatically part of the bitmap and not editable, select the ‘Retouching Adding lines’ icon from the toolbar on the left side of the screen, or select ‘Retouching: Adding lines’ from the Drawing Tools menu. Select the line thickness you would like to use prior to starting to draw by using the slider next to the properties toolbar. You can use Shift+scroll wheel for more convenient size adjustment while drawing in the design. In the properties toolbar or context menu, you can choose between a round or a square pen or eraser shape by selecting ‘Apply circular tip’ or ‘Apply square tip’. You can also choose to draw straight or curved lines by choosing ‘Use straight lines’ or ‘Free style (follow the mouse)’.

You can now use the mouse to draw in the design area. Anything you draw with this tool will automatically be part of the bitmap and will not be editable unless you select an area containing your drawing and convert it to a figure or use the ‘Detect shape’ feature to create an editable object from a freehand closed shape. The retouching mode will continue until you select another mode or drawing tool, or until you press the escape key on the keyboard.

To erase lines in the bitmap, select the ‘Retouching: Erase’ icon from the tool bar on the left side of the screen, or select ‘Retouching: Erase’ from the Drawing Tools menu. The eraser width and shape can be adjusted in the same way as the line thickness of the pen, as well as using straight or curved lines and a circular or square eraser.

Begin erasing by dragging the mouse over the lines you would like to erase. The retouching mode will continue until you select another mode or drawing tool, or until you press the escape key on the keyboard. You can only erase any lines fused to the bitmap. Therefore, if you wish to erase a part of a blue object or inserted image, you will first need to fuse them with the bitmap. You can read more in the manual section Working with fused bitmaps.

The ‘Detect Shape’ tool, as the name suggests, detects the shape of an area within the elements in the design. Select the ‘Detect shape’ tool from the left vertical toolbar, then click in the centre of the area in the design that you wish to edit. A red dotted line will indicate the contours of the detection.

In some cases, the shape detection might need some fine-tuning to get the exact shape you need. You can use the purple markers to adjust the anchor points of the shape, or click on one of the line segments to add another anchor point.

In other cases, the detection may not be successful because the area is not fully enclosed by lines or other parts of the design. Small gaps cause other areas to be linked to the area you wish to detect.

You can compensate for small gaps by choosing ‘Change shape detection criteria’ from the toolbar or context menu. In the dialog that opens, you can readjust the levels for gap reduction. A higher will result in less gaps in the shape detection; however the detected shape will also have slightly more spacing around it.

You can apply shape detection to coloured images as well. In the detection criteria, you can adjust the range of colours that will be included in the shape around the detection position.

The detection criteria dialog contains a preview of the detected area, in which white signifies which area is part of the selection. Once you have adjusted the criteria, click ‘Re-execute detection’ to improve the detected shape.

When you are satisfied with the detected shape, you can add several properties to it, such as textures or an outline around the shape, just like any of the other (blue) objects.

See: Editing object properties.

After choosing ‘Select area’ from the drawing tools icon bar or Drawing tools menu, move the mouse into the drawing area and click to set the first position of the first corner. Next, move the cursor and click a second time to complete the selection. Alternatively, you can also click and hold for the first position, then move the cursor and release at the second position.

A dotted rectangle will indicate which area is selected. This selection can be adjusted by dragging the purple markers around the selection. To reposition the selection, move the cursor over the rectangle, then click and hold to drag the selection to another position.

Alternatively, you can select ‘Size and position’ from the properties toolbar or context menu to adjust the selection.

A number of small icons along the edges of the selection give quick access to a few functions for editing the selected area.

Mirroring horizontally flips the selected image left to right, like turning a page in a book. Mirroring vertically flips the image upside down, like turning a page in a wall calendar.

Rotation and mirroring the area can be performed by simply clicking on the corresponding icons. The large red is used to move the selected area of the bitmap, whereas the blue marker allows you to move all objects and text labels that are (partially) within the selection.

The right vertical toolbar will show the full list of options for manipulating the selected section of the design.

To isolate the contents of the selected area from the rest of the design, select ‘Crop Area’. Only the content will remain as the design, as the area outside the selection will be removed.

Select ‘Paint Area White’  to fill the selected part of the bitmap with white. Any objects in the selection will not be affected and have to be fused first to make them white. You can either fuse all objects within the selection by selecting ‘Fuse the selected objects with the bitmap’, or fuse objects individually by selecting and then fusing them.

The selected area of the bitmap can be resized and moved by choosing ‘Convert to figure’. The purple markers around this figure can be used to resize the selection.

You can also choose ‘Save as figure (file)’ to save the figure to reuse it in other designs.

The selected content can be processed using the range of filters. These have the same functionality as the list of filters in the Filters menu, but will only be applied to the selection instead of the entire design.

See also Filters; editing an imported image (.jpg, .png, …)

The function ‘Selected strips’ can be used to remove the selected vertical or horizontal area, or to add this amount of white space to the design. To use this tool, activate ‘Select area’, then ‘Insert or remove space’.

A crosshair cursor will appear when you move the mouse to the drawing area. By clicking once, the first outline of the selection is positioned, as indicated by the dotted green lines. Next, move the mouse horizontally or vertically and click a second time to complete the selection of the strip. Once again, you can also click and drag, then release at the second position to define the selection.

The width of the horizontal or vertical selection can be adjusted by dragging the purple marker on the green dotted lines.

A preview when hovering over the green plus sign will display the addition, whereas hovering over the red minus sign shows the design with the deleted area. Simply clicking on either sign will confirm the action.