PNG with transparent background and shadow .. no longer handled correctly

[zawadil]

Hi Acorn,

I have opened a new thread, as I´m now sure that this is a XARA bug and the title of my last thread is missleading for this issue.
By the way, nothing changes if I change the picture properties from "automatic´ to ´PNG lossless with the current v23 version.

I upload a reduced test_xara_x_v19.xar which I created with v19 and it works as it should and as it has done all years long.
For comparison reasons I also add my former version, created with v23 too.

Kind regards
Erwin

P.S.: If you think, that it is necessary to open an official XARA support ticket, to get the attention of the XARA engineering team to fix it, please let me know.

[Chris M]

I can confirm Erwin's findings.

Wall shadow also shadows the image frame, even when set to PNG. Floor and glow work as expected.

[Acorn]

zawadil, you can remove this artefact by ensuring the shadow is not rendered as SVG - untick Shapes as SVG.
This is not a solution, just an observation.

I agree that this is a Xara Bug as the image is still being rendered as a JPG.
Xara 'improved' shadows @ Version 21.7 (17 Feb 2022):

Wall Shadows as SVG
Wall Shadows created with the Shadow Tool will now export as SVG instead of as images. Wall shadow is by far the most commonly used type of shadow. Floor shadows and Glow shadows will continue to export as images, due to a lack of direct support for these shadow types in SVG.

Clearly, not properly tested as we are ending up with a box-shadow effect rather than a drop-shadow. That's why remove SVG resets things.

In my demo file: CSS SVG FAILS Wall Shadows.xar
Top Left - Xara Wall Shadow - toggle Shapes as SVG to see the Preview toggle between box and drop shadows.
Top Right - Cloning image into Shape with a Feather and Soft-grouping.
Bottom Left - CSS with a box-shadow parameter. Uses name htmlclass="blur".
Bottom Right - CSS filer with a drop-shadow function. Uses name htmlclass="drop".

My preference is Bottom Right as I can apply the ClassName to lots of objects and tweak the shadow appearance in one place.

@zawail, yes please raise with Xara directly. Include this Thread's link.

Acorn

[zawadil]

Hi Acorn,
I left a message with the support form on the Xara website.

In the meantime, I have checked several menus, but cannot find the right one, where I can "untick Shapes as SVG".
Please give me further hint.

Kind regards
Erwin

[zawadil]

Hi Acorn,
already found it under "Website Misc properties"
THX !
Erwin

[Acorn]

Hi Acorn,
already found it under "Website Misc properties"
THX !
Erwin

Erwin, sorry I left you to search...

Acorn

[MB365]

Thanks for providing the information. Captured and improvement coming in a future release.

[Acorn]

Eight weeks on.
I have had to resort to another fudge.

Clone the image.
Set it back and change to Flat Fill.
Change its colour.
Add a Feather.
Soft-group.

---

Xara has used a box-shadow property. The box-shadow property creates a rectangular shadow behind an element's entire box.
Xara should have used the filter: drop-shadow() function.

I created a cut-out PNG and a wall shadow and extracted the box-shadow property values.
I then removed the shadow and added the CSS for the box-shadow property back:
<style>
#charm {
box-shadow: -172px 66px 11px rgba(255,130,0,0.25);
}
</style>
This replicated the current Xara FAIL.

I reworked the CSS to suit the drop-shadow filter function:
<style>
#xyz {
filter: drop-shadow(-172px 66px 11px rgba(255,130,0,0.25));
}
</style>
Works as expected.

@Xara - please put this required fix to the top of your pile as you have missed it off v23.8 out today.

Acorn