Copying and pasting image with shadow?

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:33 pm

Hi, I've been trying to copy and paste a very large round cornered box (1200 x 1600 px) which has a shadow, but when I use CTRL-C and CTRL-SHIFT-V to paste it as a new image, it loses its shadow. I am using the Standard Selection Tool to select the entire box with enough space around it to accommodate the shadow, (about 7px on each side), and I use this because I can't physically display the entire box on screen, so can't use Faststone Capture to take a grab of the entire thing.
I've tried it with the box selected, and with the box unselected, I've tried changing the box using Convert Object Type, From Text/Path to Image, and that's made no difference.
Is this normal behaviour, and is there a way around it?

Currently I am having to draw two hairline boxes around the round cornered box, and then use FastStone Capture to manually select the top box, which contains the top half of the round cornered box, and ditto with the lower half, then paste the two parts back into yet another window, line them up so they look like one box again, and save that as my .png file. Not the most efficient way of doing things, I'm sure you'll agree!

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:52 pm

I found a way around it, but it's less than satisfactory.
I used the Standard Selection Tool, copied and shift-pasted it to a new window. I then put the shadow back on, then expanded the canvas to actually include the shadow!
Not the best method, a lot slower than if the cut and paste had taken the shadow with it, I'm sure I'm missing something, because I'm sure in the past I've cut and pasted items with shadows and the shadows have gone along with no problems.

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:15 pm

I've just tried creating a new box, and this time it copied and pasted it with the shadow! Most odd!
I was then able to just save it straight to .PNG in ten seconds.
Does anybody know why it wasn't copying the shadow the first time? Is there some setting I adjusted without noticing?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:42 pm

Which guess of mine do you want to hear first?

I would have just copied the object and added a shadow to my liking in the new image.

Was that original image in PI? Maybe your shadow was on a different layer. The copy command only applies to the active layer/object.

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:07 am

Hi, yes the original box was created in PI. I just wondered why sometimes it doesn't copy the shadow, and sometimes it does.
Adding the shadow took MUCH longer than if it had just copied the shadow for me - as I explained above, I had to resize the canvas manually.

Can you elaborate a bit about the shadow being on a different layer? I simply drew a box, and then added a shadow to it - are they normally on different layers? If so, how do I select both?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:37 am

They are not normally but you can split the shadow from the object. The shadow will thus become a separate object/layer. To select different layers/objects together you best use the Layer Manager (it's easier to select your object there than on a crowded canvas where objects may overlap). You click the different objects while holding the "Ctrl" key down.

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:20 pm

Many thanks Heinz, I will try that.