Biting the Bullet Challenge

[handrawn]

Have to say I don't know what it is supposed to do, I went no further as soon as I saw the document had mouse over / mouse off layers, assuming it is a web design thing

[Acorn]

? Huh?

My premise was only Xara has taken the effort to render vector objects in HTML as CSS and SVG objects. Other packages would generate PNG, JPEG or other bitmap format. I am stressing this as the Xara Desktop application (XDA) is striding ahead and leaving the Online Content Catalogue (OCC) components far behind (c.f., NavBars, anything that is simply grouped, lack of shared Filenames to name a few).

Have to say I don't know what it is supposed to do, I went no further as soon as I saw the document had mouse over / mouse off layers, assuming it is a web design thing

Yes it is a web sort of thing. I happen to choose a Web Design document for those who like to see things in bits rather than everything at once; I have an Instructions Layer and a Construction Layer too. I had intended to make it a Presentation but if all you do is open it to find what Layers to has, that would have been a wasted effort. Sorry, the last was a bit pointed but I hope i can let off some steam. I recall, in early TG days for me, everything I was was a fix in HTML as I kept overlooking PDF and pur graphical design; since then my blinkers have been removed and I have a better appreciate of others' positions.

I have tried to explain that if you produce a website with Xara Bullets or a Print document (glorified Vertical Supersite) with Xara Bullets then you end up with many, many images of exactly the same thing.
This drags the performance of the design down as it is rendering images and calling them up many times to download the same thing.

For a pure design document, you might think it doesn't matter. You change export at 600dpi and remove the jaggies that way.
No one wants to display low resolution images so when I zoom into one of my 32px bullets at 6400% magnification I take a bit of pleasure that it is rendering as crisply as I could make it.

I hope website designers see what I am aiming for.
I truly hope Xara gets it too - try using a Xara Bullet as a Bullet Point to see how wasteful it is. Xara, sadly, never engages in a meaningful debate.
At the same time, I am trying to extol the virtues of the XDA concept by driving it to the limit and find it is almost perfect already: XDA - good; OCC - bad; Update Service - ugly.

Acorn

[handrawn]

thanks for the explanation - i have a passing knowlege of HTML [no doubt well out of date] and I can manage a blog on wordpress as long as it does not need CSS...

I can see the point you are making...

[Acorn]

thanks for the explanation - i have a passing knowlege of HTML [no doubt well out of date] and I can manage a blog on wordpress as long as it does not need CSS...
I can see the point you are making...

...and my knowledge of PDF/EPS, in particular, is rather stale.

Acorn

[mwenz]

My premise was only Xara has taken the effort to render vector objects in HTML as CSS and SVG objects. Other packages would generate PNG, JPEG or other bitmap format.

Really? I would be surprised. SVG graphics with fallbacks are pretty common.

WYSIWYG Builder likely can.

[Acorn]

Really? I would be surprised. SVG graphics with fallbacks are pretty common.
WYSIWYG Builder likely can.

More than happy to be corrected here. i did mention Xara was moving (slowly0 towrds SVG but my point was few would render out in pure HTML.
The advantage is 10s of byytes for quite complex and colourful objects versus many kBs for an image that is of poorer rendition.

Thanks though.

Acorn

[mwenz]

More than happy to be corrected here. i did mention Xara was moving (slowly0 towrds SVG but my point was few would render out in pure HTML.
The advantage is 10s of byytes for quite complex and colourful objects versus many kBs for an image that is of poorer rendition.

Thanks though.

Acorn

We'll likely never know then...I'm completely out of webby stuff, even for playing. But if I were to do it today, I would use Pinegrow and build the pages (just like I used the now free MS Expression Web and/or DW).

I know the advantages of svg on the web. I'm happy that browsers have mostly caught up to using them...

[Acorn]

We'll likely never know then...I'm completely out of webby stuff, even for playing. But if I were to do it today, I would use Pinegrow and build the pages (just like I used the now free MS Expression Web and/or DW).

I know the advantages of svg on the web. I'm happy that browsers have mostly caught up to using them...

I have Pinegrow with WordPress and am tempted to jumping and including its new step frame utility using GreenSock. Far more powerful than Xara but you need to be on top of all of it; my XDAs are where i experiment and then usually deliver from but I have other beasties to work with as and where I need them.

Acorn

[Acorn]

Shadows are problematic from with an XDA as you end up with a graphic, mostly.

I know how to invoke shadows from applying CSS onto class names but I am trying to work my XDA capabilites to the max in this Challenge.

Here is how far I have managed:

Xara-Hollow Box Bullet with Shadow.xar
Just for handrawn - no MouseOff/MouseOver layers too.

Acorn

[handrawn]