Page 484 - Xara Web Designer Premium

484 Importing and Exporting

Preview Controls
These buttons alter the preview of the images, but do not affect the exported file:

• ZOOM TOOL: Click on a preview to zoom in. Shift-click to zoom out. Drag
over an area of the preview to zoom into that area.

• PUSH TOOL: Lets you drag the image around in the preview window.

• ZOOM TO FIT: Scales the preview image to fit the window.

• ZOOM TO 100%: Scales the image to full-size (100%).

• ZOOM TO RESOLUTION OF IMAGE (1:1): Has no effect for GIFs. Scales the
image so one pixel in the bitmap is one pixel on screen. This is useful for
previewing detail in the bitmap.

The following tool is only relevant to files using less than 256 colors (but you will see the
result when you have the PALETTE OPTIONS tab selected):

COLOR SELECTOR: Moving the pointer over the image highlights the color under
the pointer. Click to select that color in the palette. You can then use PALETTE
OPTIONS buttons (described below) to alter that color.

PREVIEW: The preview button is available on all tabs of this dialog. It updates the preview
windows to reflect any changes you have made to the export options.
Palette Options tab

This tab allows you to alter the color settings of your exported image.

Dithering & Palette
The DITHERING and PALETTE options only apply when you export with 256 color or less,
and affect how the image is displayed and its color palette. It is recommended to always
use an OPTIMIZED PALETTE. Set DITHER to none, which produces smaller files but may be
banded, or ERROR DIFFUSION, which creates higher quality results, but larger files.

Color Depth
Choose the number of colors your bitmap requires. The more colors, the larger the file
(usually), and the higher the quality. The TRUE COLOR option supports up to 16 millions
colors. TRUE COLOR + ALPHA includes semi-transparent features such as soft shadows
and transparency. For applications that support alpha-channel PNG files this is the
recommended format.

If you choose 256 colors of less, you have the option to use simple transparency (Wine
glass icon-see below). This doesn't support semi-transparent pixels, only "on/off" fully
opaque or fully transparency pixels, and so can produce jagged edges.