graduated colour background

[edm3]

Hello,

Still a newbe here, but I'm thinking about updating my website in Xara DP6 (that I've had for a few weeks now). Anyway, I originally made the site in Dreamweaver a couple of years ago, and am thinking that I would like to keep it essentially the same, although I'd like to repair all the 'broken' bits, and make it generally a much nicer experience to navigate.

So what I'm trying to do is recreate the background that I currently have. In it there is a vertical gradient that has a kind of infinite horizontal size. I'm following the instructions on p 320 of the DP6 manual, and basically getting it to work - but the results are not as I'd like (smooth gradient). I've attached an image to help illustrate my issue.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ernest
Attachment 79199

[edm3]

Sorry for the double post - just wanted to add this image that is a bit more legible than the first one.

Learning

[gwpriester]

Create a tall thin rectangle let's say 20 pixels wide by as deep as any of your pages are likely to go (because when you reach the end of the tile it starts again. So let's say 20 pixels by 3000 pixels deep.

Create a bitmap copy. This automatically places a copy in the Bitmap Gallery.

Open the Bitmap Gallery, hold down the Ctrl key and drag and drop the tall thin background onto the pasteboard. This will create your graduated background.

[edm3]

Thanks for the info gwpriester. That does work better than my earlier attempt - which was only 2000x10px. Am I correct to assume that the taller the rectangle >3000px, the smoother the gradient will result? The reason I ask is because I'm still getting striation/banding across the gradient.

Thanks again.

[James Allen]

Hi edm3,

You're probably exporting at 16 colours instead of true colour. Also, you can check the 'interlaced' box.

[edm3]

Thanks James. Yeah, the first few tries were via default settings (actually exporting the .png, rather than making the copy - which I now understand). I just used the settings you show, and it looks good!
Thanks.

[cubswinn]

I'm having that problem with the "banding" gradient. The True Color and Interlaced options don't give a smooth result for me. Attached are 2 examples at 16 colors and true color.
true color
16 color

My purpose is to produce a 1px by 2000px background (jpg or png or whatever format is suggested) to be repeated vertically on a web page.
thanks as always for your help.

[cubswinn]

to answer my own question and for anyone else who may hav ethis issue. My banding problem was not in the export process, but in the creation of the fill itself. Fill Tiling must be set to "repeating" instead of "simple".