Antialias problem

[deadline_coma]

I am new to Xara Xtreme. I would like to make web graphics and I need sharp, crisp edges with no antialias on rectangular objects. I set the grid to 1 px so objects will snap and I check the Info Bar to make sure object dimensions are in whole pixels and no decimals. I also make sure the stroke is set to "none" and when I export to BMP (true color), I get antialiased edges on a rectangle.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

TIA

[Egg Bramhill]

Coma,

It's difficult to say what's causing this problem without the original xar file. I suspect you could be checking the width and height are integer numbers, but perhaps the x and y positions aren't. If you have several objects this x / y positioning can cause the antialiasing your experiencing. It might also be a problem with bmp exports. Not sure, but it's a file type I rarely use and it's no good for web graphics.

Perhaps you could attach the problem xar file so we can try to reproduce the fault.

[deadline_coma]

Thank you for your reply. I have attached some files. The file that produced the antialias problem is test4.xar. It has some other nonsense objects in it. The exported bmp is test4.bmp. I just tried another test today and when I delete all other objects except a white background rectangle and save it as fuzzytest.xar, then export as fuzzytest.bmp, the problem disappears.

For some resaon it was unable to tolerate the existence of the other objects in the composition.

BTW, I did check the x and y coordinates to make sure they were integer values as well.

[gwpriester]

First of all, some anti-aliasing is necessary to smooth round edges and to make text look sharper.

If you move the Set View Quality slider to Normal (or Window > Quality > Normal) and look at your image it will look rather ragged, especially text.

But as Egg has pointed out, because Xara does anti-alias, your image needs to be in even pixels and aligned on the page to an even pixel amount. This will eliminate the intermediate colored pixels that Xara adds when an image is not in even pixel amounts.

Gary

[Charles Moir]

Sometimes there are very slight rounding errors that cause even images that appear to be whole pixel, to be very, very slightly more than a pixel, and that's enough to create the extra pixel in the export.

However if you use the 'Minimise visible anti-aliasing' option in the Export dialog, it does just that and should move things to be on exact pixel boundaries. And trying this on your design I get pin-sharp, no anti-aliasing results either exporting the white background rectangle or just exporting the red top rectangle. So I think that's what you're after.

[Egg Bramhill]

Your problem is being created due to some of your shapes not being whole pixel demensions and positions. Whilst the two rectangluar shapes are whole values the other objects aren't.

So if you select all the shapes (apart from the 800 x 600 white rectangle in the back) you will see the decimal place values. On export to gif you will get the ghosting around the rectangle shapes you showed in your first post.

If you just select the 2 rectangular shapes and export to gif there will be no ghosting, just clean shapes.

One further tip is to export 'Minimise Visible Antialiasing' selected under the 'Bitmap Size' tab. (Charles beat me to this one!)

[gwpriester]

However if you use the 'Minimise visible anti-aliasing' option in the Export dialog, it does just that and should move things to be on exact pixel boundaries. And trying this on your design I get pin-sharp, no anti-aliasing results either exporting the white background rectangle or just exporting the red top rectangle. So I think that's what you're after.

Great tip.

Gary

[deadline_coma]

Thank you for all your replies. For the example in my original post, I did use the 'Minimise visible anti-aliasing' option in the Export dialog and the red rectangle's dimensions were in even pixels and aligned it to the page in even pixel amounts.

What I am trying to find out is whether or not I can use Xara to create an entire web page comprehensive - not just individual graphics - with some objects having antialiased edges and others with no antialias.

So do I understand this correctly? ... Is it is an "all or none" proposition? All the objects on the page must have integer values for their dimensions and position on the page for the lines and rectangles to appear with no antialias? In other words if just one object in the composition does not conform to this requirement then all the objects on the exported output will have antialiased edges. Is this correct?

TIA

[gwpriester]

I don't see why you cannot create comps for web pages in Xara. And I don't think you need to worry about positioning things. Is is just a comp and the results should be pretty darn close.

Work at 100% which is 1:1 at 96dpi (Windows screen resolution).

When you build your site in whatever website creation application you are using then you can be more precise in creating your individual components.

(I used to spend time when I was a kid with my grandmother who lived in Studio City. I lived on the other side of the hill).

Gary

[deadline_coma]

Thank you, Gary. It is a small world!

I am basically lazy ... I am used to comping up a web page in a drawing program - I've been using Canvas and Fireworks ... mostly Canvas. Then I export the comp to a Photoshop file (okay everyone else close your ears), then I slice it up and use the graphics straight from the PSD file.

I was intrigued by Xara ... I just thought I might use it the same way .. but hey, that's okay. I can still use it to make individual graphics.

BTW ... Fireworks is the only program that I know of that supports object level antialiasing ... I don't know why other programs don't do this. You can pick any object and give it a hard edge or a soft edge. This is perfect for web graphics that need a mix of hard and soft edges in the same graphic.