Exporting a GIF

[BuddyB]

I love the accuracy XaraX applies to exported GIFs. My question is, can you export a graphic that has a dropshadow without taking the white drawing board (or paper) with it?

So far I've not figured out how. I even checked something that appeared to be transparency control, but it still takes the white background with it. And of course if you have a bg of another color, or pattern it wouldn't work too well.

Any thoughts on this appreciated.

Thanks,
BuddyB

[BuddyB]

I love the accuracy XaraX applies to exported GIFs. My question is, can you export a graphic that has a dropshadow without taking the white drawing board (or paper) with it?

So far I've not figured out how. I even checked something that appeared to be transparency control, but it still takes the white background with it. And of course if you have a bg of another color, or pattern it wouldn't work too well.

Any thoughts on this appreciated.

Thanks,
BuddyB

[\"W\"]

Hi BuddyB ... welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games...

Determine the color of your wepage background in RGB or Hex. Draw a rectangle around your object which has a dropshadow, in Xara, send the rectangle to the back (Ctrl-B) and fill it with the color of your webapge background. With the object on top of the proper colour, select only your drop shadowed object and export as transparent (or not, no difference).

IF, however, your background has a pattern to it. Import the bitmap pattern and click on your bitmap gallery. scroll down and click it once, then click the "background" button within the dialog to set your page background to that pattern. Then export as per above method, but use transparency to be safe. The shadow should blend into the page background nicely.

Hope that helps you, Wayne

[AjIsCoool]

Thanks ivca2 for this lovely tip, i always sufferd to bring a clean gif to my site, now i now the trick, is to bring in the original backround add to it my object then save as gif with transparecy set. But what a bout a resoultion issue, in Xara when you import a bitmap does it keep the original res. of it or i have to do some tweeking to it?

[Mick Robinson]

Remembering bitmap resolution on import...
Answer is it depends on the bitmap format. Some formats such as GIF don't have the concept of resolution - they display at screen resolution (96dpi).
Other formats such as JPEG have a physical size (for example 100x200 pixels) and a separate resolution (for example 192 dpi). Xara X imports these and displays them at their physical size (100x200 pixels).
A word of caution - many browsers display all bitmaps at screen resolution. So our example JPEG gets displayed at 200x400 pixels, 96 dpi.

[BuddyB]

..for the input Wayne. I should be able to handle that one.

Are there any caveats regarding the alignment of the placed graphic in regard to your page background. It seems I recall some difficulty in the past trying to match, say, a ribbed object background with the page background.

BuddyB

[\"W\"]

Your welcome BuddyB, glad we could help here.

You've raised an excellent question about dithering your shadow against a pattern where symmetry can be problematic. I can only tell you that for myself, it is trial and error and for the most part, and it depends on your background. The expample I post represents the scenario with an obvious patterned background.. The first set (on the left) is the result of straight export of shadowed object against the hatched background. The bottom shows our problem. Here's where trial and error comes in. You can try to nudge and place your object then export and preview in your page over and over until you get it all lined up properly, or you can dither your graphic to the "dominant" colour of your background (as in step 2), where the results are acceptable.

Keep in mind, if you get it all lined up perfectly the first time 'round, then browser resolution becomes your enemy. If you author for a specific browser resolution, it will be misaligned for the audience who's resolution is different. I say, take step 2 to be on the safe side.
Having said all this, I am certainly open to other suggestions. This is only my own workaround for this problem.

Wayne

[BuddyB]

..Wayne
That really puts it into perspective. My interest stems from the fact, if my memory serves me, I've been able to utilize dropshadow transparency in Photoshop (using the transparent background) and then export as a GIF without the surrounding white canvas. I'll have to go check that out.

Xara is so fast I can't believe it.

BuddyB