Image and text skewing / distorting megathread

[Egg Bramhill]

I totally agree with Jagga's reply above.

Here's an example of whats broken now in 15 for absolutely no good reason. I'm aware Flash is now defunct but it is still useful to have to create avi's or to overlay in movie maker software (As used very effectively by John Brown [Browj2]).

Basically the left and right curtains are bitmaps, named left & right.
In the next frame the bitmap is resized in the horizontal plane.
The morph makes for a good opening/closing effect.

This is not possible to achieve in 15.



Attached stage.xar created in 11
Attached stage15.xar created in 15

[handrawn]

nice one egg - not what you expect by 'tumblers' on the stage [viewing the stage15 xar in preview in ver 12] - a good example of compound objects being broken

[gwpriester]

For what it is worth, please try to be respectful and positive in your posts. And Rob-Xar is our friend and have been very helpful and prompt in addressing member problems what we moderators can't answer. So be nice to Rob. He is our friend. Beat up on me if you have to.

[handrawn]

you've a difficult job Rob, you do it well, we love you, you know that

and remember folks - we all, well those of us who read announcements, have Matt Bolton's email and an open invitation ...

[Acorn]

@Rob-Xar

Text
Xara appears to have created a Text Entity that is "designed" to fits into an HTML environment.
I can create a text block but consequently all I can now do is change the box's dimensions. If I group Text with anything, Text behaves as if ungrouped.

I can add a shadow and it still exports as Text as you have added CSS3 style (e.g., box-shadow: 5px 5px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.25) ; ).
If I skew it or rotate it I get an image as the export.
It is possibly very messy to apply, but not impossible, the CSS3 transform: matrix to text elements to provide scale (stretch and squish), rotate and skew and keep the output as Text.

I understand that, in accommodating differing line spacings, you chose to export text lines as discrete collections of SPANs.
Perhaps, readdressing this very early design decision might call for a better CSS3 consolidation for Text handling.
Removing SPANs would also partially allow the delivery of adaptive websites, without the use of Variants.

This all fails, however, if I add a width: I get a thin Text with no edging; I do not get an image. Perhaps you should instead apply a Contour? (But speed it up somewhat).
Not WYSIWYG as promised by you. Now stroking is not implemented in all browsers (webkit - Safari/Chrome) but it can be simulated with shadows, which you already have.
https://css-tricks.com/examples/TextStroke/.

My universe of discourse: Text Effects.xar.

Images
I have no comment to make around images other than all other professional products allow distortion.
This is the designer's choice.

I do, however, object to the artificial renaming of images to an incrementing collection of numbers that bear no resemblance to the original filename.
I would be happy to accept the original filename appended with its matrix transform values.
I accept this is problematic for live copies and other photographic filters and effects but one has to make a start.

To flip the Thread on its head, can Xara provide examples of current fails that are forcing it to make these changes?

Acorn

[handrawn]

bitmap textures - love 'em, they are so much more soft and cuddly than hard nose glossy vector.... ok hard nose is good too in it's place... anyway, here's an example for making an overlay..

again it is a simple illustration..



texture squishing.xar

[handrawn]

ok the project is live and ongoing but I got permission to do this

here is a path - a road of sorts wending it's way through a retro-psycho seashore in the air reminiscent of some age old progressive rock band album sleeve.... maybe



I created this in Xara using mehdi vibrations and wave live effects and some careful putting together of both vector and bitmap - its a complex object

but it needs to be squished, because it needs to be seen in various different aspects eg:



oh look - a seahorse... maybe

or:



bit more work and some wings could be a stork... maybe

the point is, whilst working on this I need to squish the complex group, so I can see what still needs work for it's specific manifestation in the animation.. no good squishing a bitmap copy - I need a clone of the object so once squished I can work on it directly.. this is a whole world away from putting up photos in HTML

Rob I'm sorry, I can't post a xar of this - you know how it is... but I hope it helps