Web site design using Xara LX 0.7 stable

**secundar** · 20 September 2006, 02:06 PM

Hello fellow web designers. I've just started using Xara LX as a design tool for web site interfaces and there's one aspect I am stuck on.

Aliasing and smoothing are mucking up my 1px borders and lines and so forth. Is there a way to keep lines crisp and sharp (not smoothed or anti-aliased) while exporting to PNG?

Any other tips for web designers using Xara LX?

My background has been about 6 years using Illustrator for my interfaces. Photoshop was used before that. Ubuntu LTS 6.06. Also have some Inkscape experience.

**Egg Bramhill** · 20 September 2006, 02:25 PM

Hi secundar,

One thing you might try is to select the "Minimise visible anti-aliasing" tick box under the Bitmap Size tab in the Export Bitmap dialogue window. (I use Windows Extreme so I'm not sure LX has this feature yet)

Presumably you already have these 1 pix lines at complete integer units?

**secundar** · 20 September 2006, 02:41 PM

Hi Egg,

Yeah, I tried the minimize antialiasing bit... I went another route until the bugs get worked out because I noticed this strange behavior: My 1px lines are actually 1.3px and the coords were off the chart (see attachment). When I converted the line to a shape the width was 1.3 and the coordinates appeared normal (unlike the screenshot.)

Until I figure it out, or until it's fixed I can simply convert the lines to shapes and nudge their location and width.

**secundar** · 20 September 2006, 02:50 PM

OK, I didn't do any math but I played with the line width and found that 0.75 pt retained it's sharpness when exported to a bitmap.

**jedfrechette** · 20 September 2006, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by secundar

...the coords were off the chart (see attachment)...

This is a known bug. http://bugzilla.xara.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1193

**remi** · 20 September 2006, 04:30 PM

You'll also find great input, if you use the Search function of this forum:

Regards,
Remi

**secundar** · 20 September 2006, 06:33 PM

Yes, I should have been more thorough in my searching. I had only tried the terms "web design" and didn't see much. Consider myself spanked.

Thanks for the links, I had just been wondering about image "export size" differences.

**Egg Bramhill** · 20 September 2006, 06:57 PM

Secundar,

One thing to bear in mind is Xtremes strange way of giving sizes. This has always struck me as strange behaviour.

The size and position of a shape is reported differently dependant on wether the "Scale Line Widths" option is selected. I've never been convinced of a good reason for this.

If it's selected it gives the internal shape size plus the line width. (simarly for position)

If it's unselected it gives only the internal shapes size & position regardless of stroke weight.