The Ultimate Xara Picture Holder

[Acorn]

The site here, http://acorn.xara.hosting/Jarring/, is a demonstration of how the Xara Desktop applications (XDA) handle images.

It is a moderate to complex analysis.
Basically, drop an image onto a design and the XDA automatically "optimises" it ==> instead use the Blank Photo template and the original dimensions are retained. Copy and Paste this into your design.
Drag this image onto your page and the XDA creates a nominal 500px box showing the image ==> check the dpi and if far greater than 96 dpi, you will see a fuzzy outcome.
The XDA may have Retina set ==> images are four times the resolution and your output has image filename suffixed with @2.

Sadly, XDA has introduced the concept of an Image Filename:

You can now control the filename with which any image is published in a website or web document, which can help SEO and your position in image search. Select the object and open Utilities > Web Properties > Image tab. In the Image section of the dialog you can set the preferred filename to be used. If the filename is not unique within the current website/document, Designer will append a number to the name to make it unique.

Sad, because the scaling of an image is deemed to be "unique" ==> every non-"unique" image then needs to be generated, adding to the size of the web assets.

My approach uses Placeholder code of form <img src="index_htm_files/<uniqueImageFileName>.jpg" width="100%" height="100%" /> ==> the source (src) can be anything on the Internet as well.

The demonstration allows you to greatly increase the width of the browser to see the JPEG artefacts ==> the Xara approach creates many unnecessary "unique" images with lossy rendering depending on the presented image size.
My approach uses the one image, suitably scaled ==> the last page is 100 images for the price of one.

In your browser, pick any image, right-click and select View Image in a new Tab ==> you can then change the zoom and gauge the clarity.
I would focus on the jars' bases.

Here is the design file:
The Ultimate Xara Picture Holder.xar (1,642kB).

Acorn

[gwpriester]

Not sure if I follow but the size of the image when you drag and drop it into Designer Pro X is determined by the setting for Resize large imported photos down to: in Page Options > View.

If I drag and drop an image that is 2044 x 2906 px into XDPX, it comes in at full resolution but the physical size is determined by my Resize large imported images. In New > Blank Photo the image comes in at actual pixels at 1:1. If I open a new website and drag and drop the photo it comes in at 1350 x 1920 px or 66%

[Acorn]

Not sure if I follow but the size of the image when you drag and drop it into Designer Pro X is determined by the setting for Resize large imported photos down to: in Page Options > View.

If I drag and drop an image that is 2044 x 2906 px into XDPX, it comes in at full resolution but the physical size is determined by my Resize large imported images. In New > Blank Photo the image comes in at actual pixels at 1:1. If I open a new website and drag and drop the photo it comes in at 1350 x 1920 px or 66%

The Resize... down to is 500px default, I believe. New > Blank Photo bypasses anything the XDA might has as a setting.

Nanny Xara:

Optimization on import

When importing high resolution photos (anything above 1920 pixels either wide or high) into a web document, Xara Designer Pro+ automatically resizes the photo down to HD screen size without asking you if you want to import a lower resolution version. For a web document, even at the reduced size, there should be more than enough resolution in your photos for high quality results on your website, so it's rarely necessary to import digital camera images at full resolution for web use.

Acorn

[letsgofishing]

@Acorn
Thanks for your work - I do a lot of photographic sites so this could be very useful.

[Know1]

I'll have to spend some more time to understand all the fancy things you've done with the link codes. This goes further than just wanting to import at a higher resolution. I did have a site where duplicate images where a problem, so thanks for documenting all of this for us.

Is the only reason you use Blank photo to get the full image imported at 96dpi? My settings for regular documents is to not use "Resize large imported photos down to ..." so I think I can use a regular document and then try to understand the rest.

[Acorn]

Is the only reason you use Blank photo to get the full image imported at 96dpi? My settings for regular documents is to not use "Resize large imported photos down to ..." so I think I can use a regular document and then try to understand the rest.

It is. I usually have a separate Images folder so Xara need never know what is being used. I then have total control.

Acorn