Working with RAW files

[richy]

Hi,

This is more of a query than a problem. I am using Xara Web Designer 7 and I wondered what would happen if I dragged an image straight from my camera (Pentax K-x) onto a web page.

The image was a RAW file which can have file extensions of either .dng or .pef and in this case was a .dng file 10Mb in size. I dragged it onto the web page and expected the warning box to appear telling me this was a large file and do I want to optimise it, etc. It didn't appear and no it has not been disabled. After a second or two the image appeared on the web page and obviously at a huge size of 4309 x 2868. The Bitmap Gallery agrees with the size but says it is now 35 Mb !

After resizing it to 600 x 400 I then previewed it in I.E.9 and looked at it's properties which said it was now 372082 bytes (363 kilobytes) and was now a .png file

The same thing happened when I used a .pef file

What surprised me was, when zooming in at 400% in I.E. the image was as good as the picture in the camera, no loss of pixels or anything which is something I have been trying to achieve in Photoshop with cropping, resizing and un-sharpen mask.

My queries-
Is this an acceptable way of placing images on to a web page?
Does WD7 convert to a .dng file as soon as it is placed on a web page?
Is the image property correct in I.E.?
Why does the Bitmap Gallery say it is 35MB?
Why is the image so good when viewed in preview?

I hope replies for all these are not too much to ask.

[handrawn]

the bitmap gallery is telling you the uncompressed size - the amount of memory that is being used for it - 10MB is the size on disk

[richy]

Thanks for that bit of info but would still like to know answers to the rest of queries, especially if dragging raw files in is acceptable.

[handrawn]

well yes and if I knew the answers I would have given them - but I don't use web designer, or RAW files for that matter

someone else will sort the rest out hopefully..

[angelize]

Xara will as you have discovered open many Raw file formats and yes you will get the huge hi res image that your camera produced. The one drawback that I can see would be loading times for your site. It would probably take a few mins for someone with a slower connection to load your site with such large images, especially if you have many of them.