Back when I hand coded my pages I would apply images as background images. I like this as it makes the page clean when viewing as the user cant arbitrarily select the image thus highlighting the area. I see how to apply an image as a background image and set it’s tiling but I am having the following two issues when uploaded to the web. These issues are not present in the Freeway testing environment nor have these issues been present on past sites that I have hand coded.
01 - Identical image on two different pages blinks or glitches upon page load. This happens no matter where I am using background images, page, item or such. Usually when I have done this in the past and use a background image for a page background or logo element there is no noticeable flashing or glitches when clicking through pages.
02 - I noticed that you can select the source AI file and while that is great for editing purposes, Freeway seems to only export create the final image for the resources folder as a jpeg. This causes graphic images to look blotchy rather than a nice clean gif.
01 - Identical image on two different pages blinks or glitches upon
page load. This happens no matter where I am using background
images, page, item or such. Usually when I have done this in the
past and use a background image for a page background or logo
element there is no noticeable flashing or glitches when clicking
through pages.
02 - I noticed that you can select the source AI file and while that
is great for editing purposes, Freeway seems to only export create
the final image for the resources folder as a jpeg. This causes
graphic images to look blotchy rather than a nice clean gif.
I can’t answer 01 - that sounds like an image loading issue demanding
more technical knowledge than I possess.
For 02, you can publish your AI image as JPEG, GIF or PNG. Click on
the image and go to the Inspector, which will show ‘Graphic Item’ at
the top. Click on the third tab from the left (looks like a mini web
page) and select the option you want - GIF in your case. (Tip - if you
want good transparency use Type: PNG - Color: Milllons)
Yes it needs to either be prepared for the web in an editor or Freeway can actually place the Adobe file so you can update easily and Freeway does the final optimization and formating. In my case with question #2 Freeway wants to make a AI logo graphic into a jpeg and it is looking blotchy
01 - Identical image on two different pages blinks or glitches upon page load. This happens no matter where I am using background images, page, item or such. Usually when I have done this in the past and use a background image for a page background or logo element there is no noticeable flashing or glitches when clicking through pages.
02 - I noticed that you can select the source AI file and while that is great for editing purposes, Freeway seems to only export create the final image for the resources folder as a jpeg. This causes graphic images to look blotchy rather than a nice clean gif.
Hi are there any web guru’s out there that can address my original post. I would really like to know what is going on here.
Also I have noticed that the flashing, blinking, glitches issue with the images goes away after the pages have been up on the server for about 30 minutes or so. Please note I had reset safari, cleared history, cash and such and this had no affect.
01 This could be a server caching issue and image size may also be
relevant. But I’m no guru!
02 Does it make a difference if you export your image from AI as a GIF
before bringing it into Freeway? Or have you tried increasing the
quality of your JPEG output in the Inspector ( or globally in
Document Setup - Graphics).
Colin
On 9 May 2009, at 02:36, TeamSDA wrote:
01 - Identical image on two different pages blinks or glitches upon
page load. This happens no matter where I am using background
images, page, item or such. Usually when I have done this in the
past and use a background image for a page background or logo
element there is no noticeable flashing or glitches when clicking
through pages.
02 - I noticed that you can select the source AI file and while
that is great for editing purposes, Freeway seems to only export
create the final image for the resources folder as a jpeg. This
causes graphic images to look blotchy rather than a nice clean gif.
Hi are there any web guru’s out there that can address my original
post. I would really like to know what is going on here.
Also I have noticed that the flashing, blinking, glitches issue with
the images goes away after the pages have been up on the server for
about 30 minutes or so. Please note I had reset safari, cleared
history, cash and such and this had no affect.
Can we see the page/site in question? Maybe people will be able to see it and figure it out if it’s right in front of them. I know I’m going to take a look at it when I see it and see if I can nail it down for you.
Hi Dave,
Freeway can’t process backgrounds like images to the best of my knowledge.
I think the other backgrounds you created before were standard photoshop jpegs?
Maybe you are trying now another photoshop format? and leaving freeway to process this like it can with any image. Freeway can’t format backgrounds.
If you are using photoshop…? Then backgrounds must be saved in " Save for Web Format" This only applies to backgrounds and not images in Freeway.
All the best.
I believe that Freeway 5 added the ability to process non-web-format
background image formats if they were chosen. This was done as a sort
of “rescue” for someone making a mistake, not as a preferred way to
build sites.
But there are no controls for this, not even in the Inspector, so you
have to live with Freeway’s “best guess” as to the output format. For
an image that has more than 256 colors (8 bit color), that will always
be JPEG at whatever you have set for the default “quality” setting in
the Document Setup dialog. I don’t think Illustrator is able to save a
document with anything near 256 colors. Even a black and white image
is either RGB (24 bit) or CMYK (32 bit) format on the inside.
Walter
On May 9, 2009, at 11:58 AM, Pete wrote:
Freeway can’t process backgrounds like images to the best of my
knowledge.
Thank you for your input. ColinJA, it turns out that you may just be a guru after all. After some more testing it looks like it is in fact “Server Side Caching”. As for issue #2, well that is still open.
Issue #2 - What I am wanting Freeway to be able to do is select either my source photoshop or AI file as the source background image and export it in the appropriate web format, i.e. jpeg or gif. The AI experiment kind of works, I can see the image in the freeway working environment and it does export it but it is exported as a jpeg not a gif which is what a simple graphic should be. The photoshop experiment does not produce an image in the Freeway environment but does make a jpeg in the resource folder, its size is huge and it does not show up on the site when previewed. If this is not available in Freeway 5 thats OK, but it would be a really cool feature as AI and Photoshop are much better tools for creating complex graphics and images and I really like applying them to my site as background images. Looks like for now I will have to export from AI and photoshop pre optimized.
Exporting from AI or Photoshop are the preferred methods of working,
they give you the most control over export format and size (very
important). In the case where you are not seeing your background, what
resolution is the image in question? If it’s high-res, then you might
be seeing the image, but only one tiny corner of it, since it’s
probably the size of a basketball court at 72ppi.
Walter
On May 11, 2009, at 1:37 PM, TeamSDA wrote:
Looks like for now I will have to export from AI and photoshop pre
optimized.
The size might only be the size of a pickle ball court but still huge.
It appears that Freeway will not format AI and Photoshop when applied as background images in the same manner as when imported to a graphic box. Would be a helpful feature for the future.
But if you have Illustrator or Photoshop then you will get a great exported file direct from them - at the size you want - easily - without having to worry about what FW may or may not do to it.
Now in a blue-sky “future-feature” mode, I could imagine being able to
select the background image of the page, drag it to where I want its
origin to be, grab a corner and scale it, etc. And in that mode, you
could also set the export format and other options, just like any
other non-pass-through image. I think this would be extremely cool and
appealing to the designers. Having to guess in Photoshop or another
app how something will look when it’s in the page is an extra step in
an app that takes so many pains to remove those steps elsewhere.
Walter
On May 11, 2009, at 4:37 PM, DeltaDave wrote:
But if you have Illustrator or Photoshop then you will get a great
exported file direct from them - at the size you want - easily -
without having to worry about what FW may or may not do to it.