Replace Multiple Photos Xara

[Daniel]

As I understood it, you'd have a page like this, filled with bitmaps arranged in the correct locations so that you can export/print them, and you'd like to be able to use the same layout/placement for different labels (which means just using different bitmaps)...

As that page layout is just a bunch of bitmaps in the right places (and the guides or other elements that you have), all you need to do is replace them with new bitmaps: I've drawn my three labels as vectors, I've created a bitmap copy of each one (at 600dpi), and therefore I have each of the three bitmaps in the Bitmap Gallery. I laid out the document above with the chicken label, and I have two others:

So to replace the chicken label with one of the other two, I just need to select all of the chicken bitmaps on the page (and don't have them grouped), and then from the Bitmap Gallery, right click on the new bitmap to use and select "Apply as fill"...

That immediately gives

Isn't that what you wanted to be able to do? It seems pretty simple.

[Acorn]

@Daniel, I believe @callereight's important issue is lining up his cutline shapes to all exactly overlay the repeated, replaced image.

Acorn

[Daniel]

@Daniel, I believe @callereight's important issue is lining up his cutline shapes to all exactly overlay the repeated, replaced image.

I guess we'll find out when they're back, but "I thought I could make one cutline and simply replace the art with the replace photo option in Xara, but this seems to only work with one image at a time rather than selecting everything and replace all the photos"... they're right, there is the ability to replace a photo more than one at a time so in those cases where "there is an order for 15 different labels of the same size", having the guides and layout done the first time over the first photo/bitmap, it's simple to replace the first label's bitmap with the second.

Applying a bitmap as a fill to grouped objects doesn't work (at least, not in a way that I've ever been able to find useful in 25 years) but having them ungrouped does.

[Acorn]

Applying a bitmap as a fill to grouped objects doesn't work (at least, not in a way that I've ever been able to find useful in 25 years) but having them ungrouped does.

Daniel, agreed.

To achieve that you need to Soft-Group all the images on one layer.
If you group them your Fill action is applied to the whole Group as one shape and not individually for each photo.

On another layer, Group or Soft-Group the Cutline.

The two are independent of each other so they can be moved around on purpose, or more likely by accident.

To get round this, you need to have included an extra registration pair, off-page.
Use this to realign misapplied nudges.

In this case, you can make the registration cutline translucent as a final positioning check.
If you have Live Copy, I would use this for the Cutlines. Even more fine tuning.

As I mentioned above, I believe the Fill approach is flawed as you are stuck with an image. yes, it can be composed from a Bitmap Copy of overlaid material but it is not flexible in use.
The use of the Placeholder instead is way more flexible. You Group all components that make up the final image and ensure is it is rendered as a single image.

Acorn

[callereight]

Thank you so much this method work great for me as is way faster than how i was doing it. @Daniel

P.S We happen to share the same name haha

[callereight]

I will try your method using the place holders images and the code, as it seems to be more flexible as you said. I just need to figure out how to use code in Xara now. Thank you so much for your help and insight. @Acorn