Editing image externally, saving in XDP, and reopening it results degradation. Fix?

Hello,

I'd appreciate your help. I’m using XDP 16.2.1. As shown in this screencast (http://bit.ly/31On7Sf), Editing an image externally in Photoshop and saving it in XDP seems fine initially. However, when I reopen the .XAR file, the image is fully degraded. How to avoid it?


Thanks for the assistance,
Carlos

How are you exporting the image into Photoshop? And at what resolution?

How are you saving the image after you edit (file format) and what size?

When you import the image back into Xara was is the DPI (with the image selected the DPI will show in the status bar.

Thanks for the reply!

"How are you exporting the image into Photoshop? And at what resolution?"
=> I'm simply using the defaults of XDP "Options>Photo Editing>Edit bitmaps with this program>Bitmap transfer = Always use PNG".

"How are you saving the image after you edit (file format) and what size?"
=> Again, I'm using Xara's Bitmap transfer round trip. In Photoshop I save the edition and the image is updated into Xara directly.

"When you import the image back into Xara was is the DPI (with the image selected the DPI will show in the status bar."
=> The DPI is the very same (146dpi) in the original and the edited image returned from Photoshop to Xara.

Further information: I just noticed the issue happens only with "web page" type, either with templates or new documents.
If I round trip edit a raster image directly or edit it from a regular print page, there is no issue at all. So it sounds the problem isn't in Photoshop, but with Xara's "web page" document.

Ah, OK then this sounds like a compression issue.

Does the image look OK on the screen but not in a web document?

I've just tried with a round-trip using Affinity Photo for HSL > Invert Hue with a web page and get horrendous pixelation.
In saving, closing and re-opening the web document, the Bitmap gallery image size dropped form 7MB to 70kB!

I changes the same document type to Print, and repeated the above and the quality and change were retained.

If I change back to web and save and re-open, the pixelation impacts all prior edited images (with a vengeance).
No recover is possible.

Definitely one for the Dear Xara... forum.

Acorn

Within the same session, the image seems ok on the screen. But when I close/reopen the document, the image becomes degraded.
I`ve attached the same image inserted into a Web and a Print document, edited externally, and after having closed/reopened Xara:

Attachment 125429

Ouch! That is terrible. I will move this thread again to Dear Xara.

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you save the image as TIFF or PSD in Photoshop and then import it?

I can't replicate that at all. It works fine for me in both document and web pages.

a) gwpriester: "Just out of curiosity, what happens if you save the image as TIFF or PSD in Photoshop and then import it?"
=> I launched the image from Xara into Photoshop, edited it, then I explored two possibilities: (1) complete the round trip; (2) Export the image from Photoshop (TIFF, PNG) then imported into Xara manually (same web document), saving it and reopening.
The round trip image got degraded. The other one is fine.
The issue sounds attached to Xara's round trip process.

b) Egg: "I can't replicate that at all. It works fine for me in both document and web pages."
=> I noticed Egg used Affinity, then I thought on using other external tool than Photoshop as well.
I edited the image using Photoscape, then completed the round trip into Xara. There was no degradation at all.
The issue sounds attached to Xara's round trip process specifically with Photoshop.

By chance does anyone know if something can be tweaked in Photoshop to try overcoming this issue?
Or does it sound really a bug, because the issue happens just with Xara's web documents (everything works as expected with print or photo documents)?

@cadudesun, you may have missed I used Affinity and got the same failing.

@Egg, perhaps you are using a different Xara version? Try with closing your Xara application as well as the image will still be in your cached memory.
I started again and closed and re-opened Xara without saving the page with the changed image and that too pixelated.

Acorn

Spot on Acorn. If I close Xara completely & reopen & reload I get a crap image!

Okay, looked further into this as when I retried to open the earlier xar file with the tigers and that opened with no degradation ??? Go figure.

So tried again with a new spanners file but this time Import at 96dpi set in Options. Same work through, closed Xara and reopened the file. This time no degradation ???? Something very odd going on.

Just reporting that the problem continues after the latest XDP update (v. 16.3.0)