Slicing images

[Big Frank]

Having spent the best part of three hours trying to reproduce in Xara what I am able to do in Photoshop in about 3 seconds, and not succeeding, I am now frustrated, exhausted and not a little bit pi**ed off with Xara for being so crap at it.

I'm talking about slicing a design into perfectly formed images so that they will fit into a pre-existing templating system.

I have a Photoshop template set up to do this and have used this same template to slice images for a specific cms for years. I have a faint recollection of having tried to do it in Xara years ago and I couldn't remember why I went back to Photoshop. I use Xara to create the design, but I export it as a bitmap and open it in Photoshop to slice it. But since this is the only thing I now use Photoshop for, I thought I might as well set up the template in Xara and get it to do this for me as well. Well, now I know why I went back to Photoshop.

Xara is simply crap at slicing images.

It puts pixels in where none exist and it removes pixels where they need to remain. I'm not a noob, I've been at this software for many years, so I know all about whole numbers and whole pixel sizes and nudge values etc etc etc. In Xara slicing images is not an exact science whereas in Photoshop (a bitmap editor, of course), it is. You want a slice at 10, 82? You get a slice at 10, 82. In Xara you pray for 10, 82 and you get 10, 83 when on the screen it is clearly 10, 82. Absolutely infuriating.

There, I've said my piece and I'm opening Photoshop very much against my will but because I have a deadline and I've just wasted 3 hours.



There is of course the possibility that I am simply stupid and have missed something critical, and it's a possibility I'm leaving open until proven otherwise.

[steve.ledger]

I have never, not once exported an image in slices and I have never not once understood the poorly written help file section on 'Image Slicing', it messes with my head.

[gwpriester]

I seem to remember doing it for a tutorial. As yes, here it is http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook33/page_5.htm

This was done some time ago but it should still be current as I do not think this function has changed.

[Big Frank]

I have done it in Photoshop and, as expected, it just works.

I guess the function was put in there back in the day when Xara started doing web output and web images were regularly sliced for table layouts but, frankly, I don't know how anybody managed.
It's a nightmare function that never worked properly back then and still doesn't now. I followed your steps, Gary, to the letter (before you posted the workbook obviously) but the results were wrong every time.

I could go into exactly what went wrong with my attempt today but it just angers me so I'll move on, life's too short.

[gwpriester]

Sometimes it's a case of the right tool for the job.

[Big Frank]

This is the problem I have with my somewhat OCD personality. I soooooo wanted to be able to do it in Xara and dispense with Photoshop. I spent about 10 times the time I should have in trying to get the result I wanted and still failed, all the time, of course, getting more and more frustrated and angry.

I suspect the help file section is so poorly written because the person whose task it was to write it realised this feature was so flawed from the start and you know how it is, you can Baffle Brains with Bull***t.

[StevenWWinters]

Xara is simply crap at slicing images.

I tend to agree and it seems like one of those basic things that should just work.

I know you wanted to slice and export using the built-in function and I'm not familiar with how you do it in Photoshop, but would the following work for you, in Xara?

To simplify, set Units = Pixels, Grid Major Spacing = 10 px, Number of Subdivisions = 1, Snap to Grid = On, and align your objects to slice on pixel boundaries. (as you mentioned) Guides set on pixel boundaries might work equally well.

Draw borderless rectangles sized as you wish over the area you want to slice in a matrix fashion, each rectangle touching the neighbor on pixel boundaries (snap to grid and magic snap make it easy).

Make each rectangle a different color to simplify viewing your splice arrangement. (optional)

Select each rectangle, one at a time and perform the following:

- Put to back (CTRL + B)
- Make bitmap copy (CTRL + SHIFT + C)
- Drag the copy out of the way and align each copy to re-assemble off to the side. (optional)
- Select the copy and Export (and optionally delete the copy if no longer needed)

Took me only a couple of minutes to create a 9 slice image, on first attempt.

Now if only Xara had macro repeat this could be even quicker!

[mwenz]

The way I have done it the few times I had to in XDP, is in a photo document, draw straight lines for where it needs sliced, slice the image, name each slice and hit the slice export. Works every time.

Still prefer PS' method.

[StevenWWinters]

Still prefer PS' method.

How does PS do it?

[mwenz]

Just google slicing in photoshop. Plenty of examples/screen shots.

I have my laptop with me and my desktop has PS else I would take a screen shot.