Hi everyone! I’m new to this forum, but I’m not new to Xara Web Designer. I started using it in 2014 for our boutique hotel website (it took me about four months to learn WDP10 from scratch, get the website designed, and get it on-line). I’ve revised our site every year and a half or so. And now is the time to start again 😉.

I’m looking to understand how the websites produced by Xara are handled by web browsers.

Xara generates HTML5 code that produces many of the basic shapes, like rectangles, rounded rectangles, certain shadows, gradients, and transparencies, etc., directly from the code. At the same time, Xara generates graphic versions (e.g., png and jpeg) of the same objects that are stored in the index_htm_files folder. If I am not mistaken, these are specifically for Internet Explorer browsers from 8 and earlier, which cannot produce the shapes from code and must insert the graphic image, obviously requiring a great deal of bandwidth to download. You can see in the code how Xara directs the browser to the appropriate method in the <!--[if lt IE 9]> and <!--[if gte IE 9]> pairings.

My question is, if someone happens to know: In the case of a modern browser, like Chrome or even IE10, that generate the shapes via code, are the graphic versions of the objects downloaded onto the user’s computer, even if they will not be utilized in generating the page? Or are those image files accessed only when specifically directed by the code (e.g., if lt IE9)?

I appreciate any input.