Cutting an object out of an imported picture (revisted)

[pjstock]

This question was handle a couple of years ago, but I cannot figure it out. (i promise, I am reading the How To PDF on Draw as fast as I can but there's a lot to learn there.)

A couple of years ago a professional designer did a booklet cover for me with the circular cutout over a semi-transparent rectangular image.

the original.png (23.7 KiB) Viewed 4690 times

I am trying to quickly recreate something similar in Draw. and I am stumped.

where I am stuck.png (124.01 KiB) Viewed 4690 times

In a thread a couple of years ago
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=43354
it was suggested selecting all the objects, then SHAPES > INTERSECT.
But I can't figure that out, or make it work the way I have things set up.

can anyone advise?

[acknak]

... it was suggested selecting all the objects, then SHAPES > INTERSECT.
...

As I recall, this was for "cutting out" a shaped region of an image. For example, to show only someone's face.

It seems what you want is to highlight one part of the image and partially cover the rest.

For that, I would just make a mask object that covers the image. The area fill can be made partially transparent, allowing the image to show through, but only partially.

For the highlighted part, just make a hole in the mask, where that part of the image will show through completely.

A sample Draw document is attached here also.

[pjstock]

Hmmm, very clever.

But I cannot seem to get the SUBTRACT to work.
when I highlight the green circle in your file and then MODIFY > SHAPES > subtract is greyed out.

Same when I try it on my own file.

I lay a rectangle over my photo.
I go 80% transparency on the rectangle

then I overlay a Circle on top of the rectangle.

But Subtract is not available.

[pjstock]

attached are screenshots of my file (the file is too big to attach as it is now)

But I am also wondering, why am I getting different options in the toolbar area when I select the circle vs. the rectangle object?

[acknak]

... I cannot seem to get the SUBTRACT to work.
when I highlight the green circle in your file and then MODIFY > SHAPES > subtract is greyed out.

You must have two objects selected to use Modify > Shapes > Subtract. The upper object (the oval) is subtracted from the lower (rectangle), leaving a rectangle with an oval hole in it.

... why am I getting different options in the toolbar area when I select the circle vs. the rectangle object?

It's hard to be sure from the screen captures but it looks like the rectangle is showing the image toolbar.

To do the subtraction and create the mask object, you have to have two shapes selected.

I'm not sure how the image would have got there.

[pjstock]

ahhh hah! got it. many thanks. (very cool tool.)
Selecting multiple objects in Ubunut/Linux seems a bit tricky. The hightlights don't seem to show the same as when you just hightlight a single object. But I'll keep fiddling.

question. How do I get the Transparency dropdown to show in the Line and Fill Toolbar (as it seems to do by default in my Picture toolbar.)

[RoryOF]

I'm not a Draw user, but I find that one can select multiple items by clicking on one, holding down the Shift key, then clicking on any other items required in the multiple selection.