How do you make icons like the icons on this BB?

Hi ya folks.

I have Xara 2.0.

Just wondering how one makes smilie icons like the ones on this bulletin board? When I try to make them, they appear "fuzzy" because of the excellent antialiasing of Xara.

Is it simply reducing the antialiasing slider bar?

Thanks for any tips.

Errol [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Keohi Web Design
"Make Waves on the Web" (TM)

Hi ya folks.

I have Xara 2.0.

Just wondering how one makes smilie icons like the ones on this bulletin board? When I try to make them, they appear "fuzzy" because of the excellent antialiasing of Xara.

Is it simply reducing the antialiasing slider bar?

Thanks for any tips.

Errol [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Keohi Web Design
"Make Waves on the Web" (TM)

Erol

Reducing Xara's quality to 'Normal' will prevent Xara from anti-aliasing, as you suggest. Another approach, which gives an effect somewhere between anti-aliased and not, is to use anti-aliasing but apply an 'Unsharp Mask' filter before the final export, to sharpen up the edges. To use my freeware unsharp mask (attached below) you have to create a 24-bit bitmap copy on the page first, apply the filter, then export that at whatever reduced colour depth suits. You'll find further instructions about plug-in filters in the Shareware Xone.

Regards - Sean

Hi Sean,

Thanks for the plug-in.

I installed in the Xara 2 directory.

I created a sample 24bit bitmap. I click on filter plug-ins...

now I'm lost. How do I apply your filter from xara.

I went to the shareware page but couldn't find your unsharp filter there.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Errol

Keohi Web Design
"Make Waves on the Web" (TM)

Errol

My unsharp mask is in a beta phase so doesn't have any documentation and isn't in the Shareware Xone, however below is an extract from the documentation that accompanies a number of my other filters:

<font color="#000080">Installation consists of placing the filter files (name.8bf) in your plug-ins directory. At the time of writing, CorelXARA doesn't automatically create such a directory when it is installed, so you may have to create one yourself. To get Xara to recognise the directory, select the Utilities > Options > Plug-ins tab and add your chosen folder. The filter will be available in the Plug-ins > Sedsoft menu as soon as you click OK or when you next start Xara if you are using an existing plug-in directory.

To acknowledge and use these filters, Xara also requires the file MSVCRT10.DLL to be present in your Windows\System directory and it is likely that it is already there. If it isn't, it should be available from the same place you downloaded the filters.

To uninstall a filter, simply delete the appropriate file.</font>

I've now created a new beta (attached below) which may give better results by virtue of being adjustable. The previous betas had a fixed, general purpose setting which I found to be excessive on some of the icons I tried. Although adjustable, the default setting of the latest filter is the same as the previous ones and is suitable for sharpening up scans, resampled images and larger anti-aliased bitmaps.

Regards - Sean