[Pro] Background Image, Workaround for Poor Quality

Freeway
1

I’ve not used Freeway’s built-in compression tools very much since Freeway 3, and one reason is that Bilinear interpolation just does NOT look good at all. Photoshop’s Bicubic (Smoother, Sharper, any flavor) is a giant LEAP above Bilinear. As such, I prepare all my pics in Photoshop, and then bring them into FW as pass-thru images. But I can’t do that for Background Images. Perhaps you folks can help me find a workaround…

I have a layered HTML box in Freeway, into which I’ve imported a “High resolution” Background Image (144ppi). Please note that I need to make the pic a “Background Image” because I also use the CSS3 Rounded Corners action on that box, and I cannot find any other way to ensure the corners of my pic (same size as the HTML box) also gets its corners rounded.

The problem is that when I use a “high resolution” image as an HTML boxes’ Background Image, Freeway uses that horrible Bilinear interpolation to generate a low-resolution copy from the 144ppi original. Don’t get me wrong… the concept is GREAT. I love it that Freeway automatically kicks at a low-rez copy along side the 144ppi original and codes it up for me. But I hate the quality of the Freeway-generated low-rez pic.

Can someone please tell me how I can fix this?

I want to either eliminate the Freeway-generated low-rez pic entirely so the browser will then resize the 144ppi pic, or better, swap out the Freeway-generated pic with a pristine Photoshop generated low-rez pic of my own.

I look forward to your kind replies.

Thank you,

James Wages

P.S. If you don’t know what I am talking about, do this:

  1. New document.
  2. Sketch a layered HTML box and keep it selected.
  3. Inspector > Item Appearance Settings TAB > Background > Image > selected your 144ppi image
  4. Ensure “high-resolution” is ticked.
  5. Ensure Pass-through" is ticked.
  6. View in Freeway or in-browser and note the edges are a bit jagged compared with smooth edges you’d see from a Photoshop-generated (bi-cubic interpolated) down-sized pic.

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2

Pass-through images should be ‘untouched’ by Freeway.

Can we see the page?

David

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3

But a Background Image applied to an HTML box is technically NOT a pass-through in terms of what Freeway GENERATES from your original 144ppi image. In other words, when you apply a 144ppi hi-resolution image as a Background Image to an HTML box, that 144ppi image is Pass-Through, yes. But the point I am making is that Freeway then GENERATES a separate 72ppi (low resolution) image from your 144ppi image, and that 72ppi image is jaggy due to Bilinear interpolation.

If you don’t believe me, just follow the 6 steps I provided at the end of my opening post.

Thanks!

James Wages

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