Hi
I know there are a few older threads about this issue but I’m still struggling.
I have an ongoing issue with imported graphics anti-aliasing. Importing a gif or png from Illustrator produces an unusable image-main problem is ragged white pixelation along edges, even when I create a jpeg with the background set in Illustrator to match the web page colour (not ideal) the output from FW cannot compare with the crisp image from Dreamweaver (sigh). I have tried all the menu options in FW relating to Graphic Output, millions of colours etc… nothing I do seems to give a quality image. Other photo images imported are fine, I have mootools slideshows, accordion menus with images, all fine. But anything reliant on a transparent background looks dreadful. Anyone any ideas please? (I can post an example if needed)
Martin
Sometime around 5/10/09 (at 07:07 -0400) Martin Bullivant said:
Importing a gif or png from Illustrator produces an unusable
image-main problem is ragged white pixelation along edges
First question: have you tried importing a native Illustrator file
instead of an exported item? Or perhaps a PDF exported from
Illustrator?
Second question: have you tried setting the antialias colour to match
whatever colour sits behind the graphic in your layout?
Third question: have you tried using PNG set to millions of colours
(as Freeway’s output, NOT as the input image format)? This assumes
that you’re importing something with transparency already in place,
so see my first question.
Keith
yes to each question-although the white pixelation has gone, and there is considerable improvement in the image as a whole, its relative-it is not acceptable quality-still looks blurred but the big issue is that the colours are dead and so lacking life that the text is close to illegible.
Heather-seems native illustrator file format is the most promising way forward but I’m not out of the woods yet.
Thanks for your help-this is terribly frustrating-I will have to return to Dreamweaver if I can’t sort this-surely this can’t be the quality that Freeway produces? I haven’t had this issue with other graphics in FW but there is no way I could ever show this to a client.
Mrtin, I’ve never had any great problems with Freeway’s graphic output
maybe if you posted a link for us to have a look at we can see for
ourselves what may be the problem.
On 5 Oct 2009, at 13:23, Martin Bullivant wrote:
Heather-seems native illustrator file format is the most promising
way forward but I’m not out of the woods yet.
Thanks for your help-this is terribly frustrating-I will have to
return to Dreamweaver if I can’t sort this-surely this can’t be the
quality that Freeway produces? I haven’t had this issue with other
graphics in FW but there is no way I could ever show this to a client.
OK-I seem to be getting somewhere. I have returned to using a png file and for a reason I have yet to find the browser display is much better-still a little more ‘staircased’ than I would like on the leading edges of text but at least I know it can be done. Now I need to chase down what’s different.
This has been very odd indeed-it feels like firing a sequence of different image formats through has somehow cleared the problem-yes I know how illogical that sounds. Now, even with anti-aliasing off the issue has not returned… seems it had a ‘funny five-minutes’- one of those mysterious things computers aren’t supposed to be able to do.
There can be colour shifts or logos not appearing as you intended if
you have the wrong settings.
For example, in illustrator make sure you have your document colour
mode set to RGB.
Then make sure you have the colours in your logo are RGB ones, not
CMYK or PANTONE.
Once the logo is imported into FW it should appear correctly – mine do.
Nathan Garner
Creative Director
Austin Wells Design Limited
One Elmgate Drive - Littledown - Bournemouth BH7 7EF
t 01202 301271 e email@hidden w http://www.austinwellsdesign.co.uk
Member of NAPP
On 5 Oct 2009, at 13:39, Trevor Reaveley wrote:
Mrtin, I’ve never had any great problems with Freeway’s graphic
output - maybe if you posted a link for us to have a look at we can
see for ourselves what may be the problem.
On 5 Oct 2009, at 13:23, Martin Bullivant wrote:
Heather-seems native illustrator file format is the most promising
way forward but I’m not out of the woods yet.
Thanks for your help-this is terribly frustrating-I will have to
return to Dreamweaver if I can’t sort this-surely this can’t be the
quality that Freeway produces? I haven’t had this issue with other
graphics in FW but there is no way I could ever show this to a
client.
Sometime around 5/10/09 (at 08:45 -0400) Martin Bullivant said:
Now, even with anti-aliasing off the issue has not returned…
seems it had a ‘funny five-minutes’- one of those mysterious things
computers aren’t supposed to be able to do.
I know the feeling - but do remember that computers don’t have bad
hair days.
If you want to craft the graphic outside of Freeway, scale it to the
desired pixel size in Illustrator or Photoshop. From there you can
either keep it in the native Illustrator or Photoshop format or
output it in something more general (TIFF, PDF, EPS) or web-specific
(GIF, JPEG, PNG).
If you make the thing at the size you need then there will be no
scaling required and you’ll get the very best out of it in the final
output.
But remember that things like visible aliasing on GIF edges is really
brought about by an inappropriate blend/antialias colour being used.
That could be caused within Freeway if that’s where the GIF is beign
created, or it could be within the image already if you’re bringing
in a ready-made GIF.
Rule of thumb for Freeway work: don’t use web-ready graphic formats
for the images you import. Use non-lossy formats such as PSD, TIFF or
Illustrator instead. At some point you can explore the world of
pass-through graphics, but make sure you are absolutely up on the
normal methods first.
k
Oh - one final parting thought… could the problem be from your
browser caching an older copy of the graphic, so that it shows one
that’s not necessarily quite the right size for the space in the web
page? That can cause all sorts of pixellation and edge nastiness.
Hello Keith
I originally received an eps file from another studio and opened it in illustrator cs4. Output has been gif, png, jpeg, pdf and also native illustrator.
If i import the native the Illustrator format, set the display as a gif and set anti aliasing to auto, and resample the image I have good edge smoothing but dull colours. If I import a gif and resample/play with the aliasing I get much better colour but a staircase effect. Jpegs always look grotesque.
Both images on that page are in the wrong format. If you want
transparency with anti-aliasing then use PNG with Millions of colours
(equivalent to a 24bit PNG in Photoshop). If there is no transparency,
or just one transparent colour (no semi transparent anti-aliasing)
then use GIFs. If you have a photograph then use JPEG.
Joe
On 5 Oct 2009, at 15:32, Martin Bullivant wrote:
Hello Keith
I originally received an eps file from another studio and opened it
in illustrator cs4. Output has been gif, png, jpeg, pdf and also
native illustrator.
If i import the native the Illustrator format, set the display as a
gif and set anti aliasing to auto, and resample the image I have
good edge smoothing but dull colours. If I import a gif and resample/
play with the aliasing I get much better colour but a staircase
effect. Jpegs always look grotesque.
Was it you I had a long phone conversation with a couple of weeks back when I called Softpress?
Taken your advice and it now looks fine.
Thank you very much indeed.
I am a painter by profession, so my understanding of colour, design, composition and layout outstrip my understanding of technical matters. I thought it couldn’t be the software…
The most error prone component in any computer configuration sits with his fingers on the keyboard…
My sincere thanks to everyone who has helped me today.
I have been using ‘save for web’ in illustrator or photoshop? This seemed the correct route for saving images in JPG,GIF or PNG.? But it did create the problems described above. Just tried it with direct import from Illustrator and so much better. Thanks.
Are there situations when using ‘save for web’ would be advisable or should I just not bother with this option?
Richard
Please see Joe Billings’ advice above-it has solved the issue for me. I would also appreciate guidance on when to use/not use the ‘save for web’ option and it seems to do the opposite of what is wanted.
Richard
Please see Joe Billings’ advice above-it has solved the issue for
me. I would also appreciate guidance on when to use/not use the
‘save for web’ option and it seems to do the opposite of what is
wanted.
The best way that I’ve found of avoiding ragged edges and/or fuzziness is to use QuickDraw GX graphics created in LightningDraw. Of course, you might not have this program, or a pre-Intel Mac to run it (LightningDraw runs in Classic), but for a clean look, with the exception of Flash, nothing comes close. Illustrator files and PDFs can be imported into Freeway, but FW converts the vector shapes to bitmaps, creating the fuzziness.
In Freeway, LightningDraw QDGX files are still vector. They can be scaled, skewed and mirrored, but can’t be edited. The different versions (link below) were scaled in Freeway which published separate bitmaps for each version. The linked image is a screengrab taken from Safari. In LightningDraw, Freeway and Safari, the image looks identical.
