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;))
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I won't bother posting mine, it's just a speech balloon with "Good morning, John!" written on it in Comic Sans. Cheers me up though.
Why not post it? This thread is just about having a bit of fun. I'm not worried about flat or fancy, 3d or 2d, or anything else. A slpash screen that makes you smile or brightens your day is great. you don't have to share the BMP if you don't want, you can just post a regular image if you like.
jwhitham that's OK, if it cheers you up that's the important thing. Mine wasn't anything special, I just liked it.
I’ve done a little reading/research, and discovered some things about the BMP file format that might be of interest on this thread.
First, I used Photoshop to create a 32-bit BMP. And no, Xara would not load it as the splash screen. But I did learn from the failed attempt.
Xara Designer interprets all alpha channel information when you import a PSD or a TIFF as transparency information. So what’s the diff’ between a PNG with transparency, and a TIFF that is interpreted as having transparency? A PNG is bound by its construction—its definition for as far as I can tell— to be interpreted by most programs as a “single layer RGB channel file with transparency. That is to say that there isn’t any alpha channel to guide Xara to understand where there is transparency.
Attachment 97188
On the other hand, a TIFF file can have about 32 alpha channels, I think, and in Photoshop at least, you can use an alpha channel to declare where transparency is by the brightness of areas in the alpha channel, or you can use alpha channel info for bump mapping, or displacement mapping…an alpha channel is just an extra set of instructions that maps the color information pixel for pixel.
Technically, and XRGB image is an image that just has an additional channel of (grayscale) visual information, and you see in Photoshop that you have no option if you want to export a BMP with an additional channel: it has to be written XRGB. Which is sort of useless for splash screens because Xara I’m fairly certain by now has no way to know that it should use the extra info as transparency information.
I did find a free program called Pixelformer, and it was happy to write a 32-bit BMP with an explicit alpha channel, attached. It does nothing as Splashscreen.bmp in the way of transparent regions, but interestingly, Photoshop will open it and show you it has an alpha channel.
Attachment 97189
TIFF, PSD=alpha channel which Xara sees as info about what areas are transparent.
BMP=can hold an alpha channel, but so far only Photoshop will show it and by default will not show transparency around the non-transparent pixels. You have to load the channel as a selection and then copy or cut it to a new layer.
It’s odd, isn’t it, that the programmers are still with BMP as part of the program? Microsoft has moved almost all of their bitmap stuff (icons, splash screens) to PNG years ago. This is not a criticism: I think it’s interesting that some programmers tap into relatively unknown capabilities with file formats. I thought for ages that AVI video couldn’t hold an alpha channel (for green screening and compositing 2 or more videos, like we do with layers), but Adobe After Effects and a few others in the suite will read and write an AVI with an alpha channel. Which means I’m not bound to working with QuickTime if I need to do composite work.
My Best,
Gary
Decided to have a bit more of a play.
Gary: that was interesting about how different formats can support transparency.
RiK: I like that one, flat icons but yet the image has depth :)
patience grasshopper
Here's a minimalist oen I just whipped up.
http://i.imgur.com/Ek6SDHG.png
It was a bmp when I uploaded it but Imgur seems to have converted it.
here's my totally overkill version
Attachment 97320
here's the bmp for those interested
Attachment 97319
Hey Bones - It's bit a while. That design is rather subdued for you. You have not mellowed have you? ;))
This was an idea when Designer Pro 6 was replaced with 7.
Frank are you on the bottom picture personally? Great pic
Frank I was wondering that too. I thought it was you because I went to your web site and saw the same picture. But I won't tell anyone. :D
Thank goodness I didn't see that last post or I would know it was Frank too...:-)
I won't tell either.
Hey, Frank...Here's the lady. Still adding to this. Probably never finish.
damn she's one good looking mademoiselle :D
I just wanted to see a picture of my wife whenever I opened Designer:Attachment 97540
That's a nice shot and composition, Inspector.
Most times I can get a similar effect by looking up from my laptop!
This might be better served in a new thread about what we are pleading to see in version 10, but for now:
one of the things a splash screen is supposed to do is "entertain" us while a program loads. Now, some applications don't even have a splash screen, such as Luxology modo, and I think it might be because the darned thing loads too fast to bother with a screen!
Thinking again about making a "proud" splash screen for Xara, and one that is extensible and can be modified to show the current program and the family line, I came up with this. I think that ALL CAPS is a punk way to tell use what the program is, and moreover, why not use a Roman font for the title? San Serif is SO "been there, typed that". And a nod to minimiro's illustration of the technical pens in the Xtreme 5 splashscreen!
The other thing I'd like to address is to have Xara's options available before you enter the program. CorelDRAW and Photoshop have had "back doors" for years for resetting stuff before the program actually appears onscreen. And there is such a wide range of Xara designer needs for specific options, including registry items (such as keeping the darned Pen tool on the Toolbar from session to session!). So you Ctrl+click or whatever, and you can load a saved layout, or whatever.
Attachment 97867
My Best,
Gary
That is a mighty good looking splash screen Gare. I for one would like to see a splash screen like that.
I'll post a generic (non version specific) one as a BMP tomorrow, Larry. I think I still owe you a custom Victorian frame, don't I?
Where is this summer going????
-g
Gary: I have no idea what I would do if this came out as a splashscreen on Version 10?!
Attachment 97886
From when I found out that you can make your own, then I think I've done that in version 7, 8 and 9.
But, if yours came out as the splashscreen for Version 10, then I think I would feel extremely challenged.
i think you may have stepped into a little problem here
those pretty little pens are actually sitting on mr scribblewotshisname
when he wakes up hes going to be might mad
time for a sharp exit...
Here's a generic version of the splashscreen, no options button, no version number.
Where I wanted to go if in the world of Fantasy this design was ever chosen (!) would be to alternate the front pen to reflect the program; four pens, four programs to the best of my knowledge.
I'm not 100% happy with taking the version number out because the text doesn't stack perfectly, so I've included in the Zip file the art only if you want to design your own logo for a splashscreen. I burned out the lower right so your registration number should show up as expected, and I did these guys as PNGs to not lose quality as JPEG file format can do if you save once or more times.
And I could care less about reading the PANTONE litany, but I guess a gradient from grey to black at right could be a workaround.
Attachment 97902
My Best,
Gary
Larry, Rik—
My intention was borne out of an artistic need to make the very first thing a new or previous user sees is class, excitement, attention to detail, something that provokes the rightful expectation you’re going to have fun using this program! Painter, before Corel Corp. acquired it, used to have really beautiful splash screens, with an alpha channel that supported odd-shaped elements on top of the desktop as it loaded.
I didn’t post this to challenge anyone, really. I did something called “doing my best”, which I wish was an approach and an attitude that I could kindle more often.
I see absolutely no reason not to seize an opportunity to perform some advertising with the screen as Xara loads. That, or just don’t use a splash screen, but please don’t settle for “bland”, something guaranteed to be understood by the Lowest Common Denominator across language platforms. Here in the USA, we’ve had our share of “anti-intellectual pundits” telling our people to vote for religious values, not to believe science, to vote for the party and not the person, and just plain dumb stuff that is meant to appeal to…well, dumb people, I guess. They get to vote, too!
However, please, Dear Xara, don’t promote mediocrity with a splash screen. I’ve read support for my desire for something handsome on load time, and I’ve read more than one “chill out, it’s just a splash screen” here. Yeah, there might be more important things to consider in the future of Xara, however, I’m waiting for Xara to load right now, the splash screen is a turn-off, and it took me less than an hour to try to improve upon it. “Dismissiveness” strikes me as a call for mediocrity, “oh, why do you care?” Isn’t it enough that more than one fellow member thinks attention to detail in an art program is important?
It reminds me of the stunningly stillborn response by the White House several years ago to a positively groundbreaking cultural event. In late 2008, Condoleezza Rice downplayed the New York Philharmonic playing in Pyongyang, by saying, “At the end of the day, it’s just a concert.”, even though just about every other musician and politician was quoted as saying it was a “very big deal” for cultural and political reasons.
Yeah. And at the end of the day, a Mercedes is just a car, and Dom Perignon is just a beverage?
Hey, then go to WalMart for your 50th anniversary celebration and buy some Great Value™ champagne!
I understand that to be “cool” on tg, it’s very easy to take an opposing view, even though the view has little substance.
I think we can always do better.
—Gary
I understand that to be “cool” on tg, it’s very easy to take an opposing view, even though the view has little substance.
Gary, you are welcome to take the opposing view - we love you for it.
Turnabout is fair play, eh, Paul? ;)
Actually, if you post first, isn't yours the original view, and the second poster is the opposing one? Or are both views opposing ones?
(imagine a row of smileys here)
My tirade was directed at no one specifically, and for that reason (and not to be anti-social/rude/ a jerk) I'm not lecturing to anyone specifically, and although I doubt "we love you for it", I do appreciate and mention it when a member has extended themselves far above the "I like it"-click to post another empty post thing.
You and I had a disagreement over what I meant to state as someone's lazy thinking a while back, and my remark was interpreted as calling an individual lazy.
I'm very unsettled by mediocrity masquerading as—and being heralded as "good", or even "adequate"—these days when it's easier than ever to express one's creativity. It's absolutely mind-boggling what calculations a software program can do for you, once you've fed it the instructions you desire. And yet I see people desiring the thinking process to be simpler, pretend it looks like more while doing even less, and we as a consequence, see a hum-drum photo made marginally more interesting by clicking Apply with a photo filter. We've never come so close to Auto-Art and Auto-Thinking as in the Digital Age, Paul.
Here's the blandest, least inspired collection of dreck I've seen in a long while, falsely labeled as "Inspiring Logos for your Delight" here at WebDesignLedger Talk about emtpy calories! This aggregation inspired me to immediately click other links in my browser, and that's all.
My Best,
Gary
blandest, least inspired collection of dreck I've seen in a long while
Yeah, but what do you really think?
Some seem pretty bland, but others..
I still like to have room for alternative views, even when they aren't to my taste.
Your forthrightness lifts the forum from the bland, that's for sure.
The Conservatives in our country use this methodology for determining what is the Truth and what is Good and Right, Paul:
You buy as much media as your Big Business buddies give you the money to buy.
Then if you say the same thing—regardless of what it is—over and over again, and loudly enough, it becomes the Standard, the Truth, as it were.
Or weren't. :)
I think both the "who is to say?" Vague-ism, and the "I'm an authority on this" Pompous-ism are extreme positions to take on anything.
I think I return a volley with an equal and opposite volley far too often on this forum, I'm not being moderate (as in "Moderator") and I will not beg the excuse that it's out of Passion, because that's rationalizing, another step toward Indifference and Capitulation over Clarity.
My excuse is that it's because I'm not a good Moderator!
There. I feel much better having said that now.
-g
Time to hit the Rum, I think.
..well almost. Too much thinking going on.