1.0aa Bug Thread

[Klaus Nordby]

A mystifying problem with 1.0aa which is REALLY BAD - unless I'm missing something totally obvious - is that making transparent GIFs now is impossible!!! The background gets included in the bounding box! Can this really be??? Has anyone else checked this yet?


K

[Klaus Nordby]

A mystifying problem with 1.0aa which is REALLY BAD - unless I'm missing something totally obvious - is that making transparent GIFs now is impossible!!! The background gets included in the bounding box! Can this really be??? Has anyone else checked this yet?


K

[amoore]

You're absolutely right. Pngs aren't transparent either. Aaargh!

How fast can we get this fixed? For my purposes, XX is unusable if I can't export a transparent bitmap.

Allison

[jens g.r. benthien]

Klaus & Allison,

sorry, but you are wrong. I did run several tests. PNG does have transparency if you
01. select full color + alpha, plus transparent at options, or 256 or 16 colors plus transparent at options
02. for transparent gif's the same procedure applies: select transparent at options, and it will definitely work without a glitch

see sample gif

ciao,
jens

[amoore]

We're all half right.

If I create an image over no background and export it as a gif or a png, then, jens, you're correct.

OTOH, if I create a vector image over a background [as I've been doing routinely since X2] and export a selection, the background fills out the bounding box. That's behavior I expect from a jpg or a bmp, but not from a gif or a png.

Thus far, I've found no combination of color depth and transparency checkboxes that produces a transparent export under these circumstances. The checkbox says it's transparent and the browser preview says it's transparent, but the dialog preview shows that it isn't and the exported file most definitely isn't.

What I was doing when I so rashly installed v1.0aa was creating the text for a software demo I'm developing in another application. By setting up the text in Xara over a copy of the background bitmap used in the demo and exporting the selected text as a transparent gif or png, I get sharp, clear text that I've been unable to achieve any other way. Same goes for other objects. Unless it's a screen capture, chances are I've created or manipulated it in Xara and exported it for use elsewhere.

Allison

[This message was edited by Allison Moore on January 11, 2001 at 03:02 PM.]

[Klaus Nordby]

Sorry Jens, I never thought I'd have to say this, but here it goes: You are wrong and Allison is right. PNG transparency works fine, but GIF transparency does not: bounding box IS included. I, too, now have to revert to using CorelXARA 2 when I want transparent GIFs!

But that means of course that I was - unfortunately - right in the first place. Never thought I'd have to say that either. Weird ironies galore, eh!?

Mark Goodall & Co: We are in transparency-trouble!


K

[Luciano]

I tried to export as transparent gif and png a star, since sides with slopes tend to show the artefacts more easily.
I couldn't eliminate (as I did in xara2) the orange bar, and I found that the PNG when set to true colour + alpha caused dark pixels around the shape.
It seems xarax is antialiasing in this case against the grey background you have in the export window.
I hope you can see it in the enclosed picture.

ciao,
Luciano

[jens g.r. benthien]

Klaus & Allison,

indeed, you are right. Sorry for the misunderstanding on my end. Pls report this bug by sending a mail directly to markg@xara.com.

Thanks a lot.

jens

P.S.: you don't have to apologize for your critical comments - if I am wrong you have to be honest. Period :-)

[amoore]

Klaus

How did you get the png transparency to work?

jens

I emailed it in yesterday. Mark replied that they've fixed it internally and are preparing a download with a fix. There's no date for availability beyond a "maximum of a few weeks".

Allison

[Klaus Nordby]

The PNG just worked! I didn't do anything special.

I, too, got a mail from Mark about this, saying it had been fixed "internally" and that they would post it in a few weeks. Isn't that a bit long?

Mark also said they would now fix the always-disappearing customization!

It just occurred to me: Mark, I hope the above were not meant as confidential information?!


K