Re: text clarity?

Fireworks does a nice job as do most Macromedia applications.  However the
learning curve is always beyond rocket scientists and discouraging.  Unless
you've worked with a variety of programs and are familiar with the various
formats, you can experience problems and becine dusciyraged after converting
to Bitmap format.  Converting from high resolution to low and from vector to
bitmap 24 bit to 8 bit has dramatic impact.

My partner is the tech guy.  He was developing a site for a customer.
Usually, he takes care of the CGI, Java and language based taks.  He used
Fireworks to do a button bar that was segmented, intorducing java and
converted from vector to gif.  The transition was quite different than the
original product in vector format :-)  You can expect this because the
resolution is different and in the case of conversion to gif format,
gradients are lost unless you convert to a gif format that displays them
properly.  The bar which originally looked like silk, became speckeled and
changed colour.  As it should, given the convertion.

A standard, uniform gif will not recognize blends or gradients and replaces
them with lines of color.  So saving a photo or graphic with gradient fills
and blends as a standard or uniform gif is a mistake.  The best way to do
things is to create the basic design in vector format.  In Corel Draw,
Illustrator, Photo Paint or Photoshop in vector format at high resolution.
Do not add shadows, effects or any other plug-in effects.  Save your basic
graphic as a vector in the program you are using and put it aside!!!  Now
experiment and when you are finished convert it to a format that is
compatible with the net (jpeg-gif) You can use the original to do pamphlets
and print at high resolution and the other will grace the web page.

Vector graphics such as Corel .cdr and .ppt are entirely different than
bitmaps.  They are high resolution, object oriented graphics that can be
stretched, combined, overlayed and changed at will.  You can resize or
stretch a Vector graphic and lose absolutely nothing in the process.  This
is not the case with a Bitmap image.  Every time you attemp to enlarge a
bitmap image trhough resize, you rlose clarity and integrity.  Try reducing
a gif without converting it first, back to a 24 bit rgb format!  You will
double or triple the load time of your graphic.  Surprize!!  And it's
smaller in size but double the load time!!!

Lessons to be learned dude!

Rob Mellor
Millenium Studios

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Williams <Peter.Williams(at)hendersons.com.au>
To: hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org <hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org>
Date: Friday, November 27, 1998 4:44 PM
Subject: RE: text clarity?


>It could well be true.
>For example Macromedia Fireworks is a 'paint'
>program, however it saves text as re-editable
>vector style objects, and effects applied to
>the text change dynamically when the text is edited.
>
>I guess they are sort of hybrid programs.
>
>This always editable feature is only present in
>the native (*.png) file format though. Once you
>export to gif, etc the 'vectorness' is lost.
>
>I would imagine that the latest Photopaint is
>arranged in the same way. Once someone has
>made this a standard feature it becomes an essential
>for any others to have too, esp. for web work where
>so many graphics are simply text.
>
>
>Peter Williams
>LAN Support/Webmaster
>williams(at)hendersons.com.au
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org]On
>> Behalf Of Keith
>> Cc: hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org
>> Subject: Re: text clarity?
>>
>> Just wanted to clear up something Rob.  It is true that Corel PhotoPaint
>> creates its own cpt file that will allow re-editing of individual
>> objects at
>> a later date.  From what I understand (and correct me if I am wrong),
>> PhotoPaint is a raster-based program, meaning that it cannot save
anything
>> in a vector based format.  Corel Xara, on the other hand IS a vector
based
>> program.
>
>
>

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