Raster Effects' Transparency in Freehand MX

[netdiver webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi!

Playing around with the Freehand MX which I think is a great drawing app, I've discovered a strange behavior which I consider a bug at the moment.

First, create any simple object such as circle or rectangle with basic fill. Make sure it has no stroke. Clone or duplicate it and place them next to one other.

Apply the transparency to the first bject (Object -> Add Effect -> Transparency -> Basic Transparency) and set the effect's value at 100% (the object will became fully opaque).

Apply the Feather effect to the second object (Object -> Add Effect -> Transparency -> Feather) and set its Radius to the smallest value, and its Softness to zero.

Now if you look at these objects at 100% zoom you'll most likely see no differences between them. Now look closer at there adjucent edges at say 400% (or greater) zoom, you will see that their edges both blurred and look nearly identical to one other, although only one of the objects was assigned the Feather effect, so the other should keep its edge perfectly sharp.

The same result will be seen if you assign Gradient Mask instead of Basic Transparency.

It seems to me that if any kind of two raster transparencies is applied to an object, it also will hiddenly got a Feather effect assigned it. In other words, one can't assign a Raster Transparency to an object without assigning a Feather effect along with it.

I've browsed through the topics here but didn't find any mention of such behavior. Also I know about the Lens Transparency fill, but it could not replace the Raster Transparency effect in any case.

For now I create my illustrations in Xara X, and it perfectly works with transparencies. I'm currently considering a shift to the Freehand, partially because it works really good together with Fireworks (with few quirks though ;-) ). I usually strive to make my images look like photo rather then like a classical vector art. And I consider perfect transparency implementation is a must for such purpose.

[Judy Arndt]

No matter what settings you use for Raster Effects, FHMX will rasterize the
object. You're seeing anti-aliased edges, not Feather effect. The only way
to get sharper edges -- but still not vector sharp -- is to set Document
Settings > Raster Effects Settings to a higher PPI.

Judy Arndt

netdiver wrote:

> It seems to me that if any kind of two raster transparencies is applied to an
> object, it also will hiddenly got a Feather effect assigned it. In other
> words, one can't assign a Raster Transparency to an object without assigning a
> Feather effect along with it.

[netdiver webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Thanks Judy, you've pointed me to the right direction. Though as for me this way of dealing with the transparency looks wrong. After all I've used to think "Hey, it's vector art, it'll look the same no matter of it's size!" And suddenly I discover that if I initially sized it as a stamp I should not scale it up to street ad. Or I had to pay more attention to the word "raster" in the menu ;-)

Well then, I'll try to adapt to it.

BTW, having used various Xara's products from CorelXARA 1.5 back in 1997 to XaraX for the present, I've used to look at edges which as sharp as crystal at any zoom. It's ideal for technical illustrations, but sometimes makes it difficult to produce more live, natural look. At least it was difficult enough until objects in XaraX had got a Feather attribute.

Unfortunately the latest XaraX was out back in 2001, and though it already had got wide range of live gradient fills and transparencies and other powerfull features (including very fast screen redraws even for complex illustrations even at the highest screen settings with antialiasing), it seems to recieve now little or no attention from its creators just like Freehand seems.

Instead they target their efforts on the same market as MM does -- on the web-oriented software. It seems as if the general purpose vector illustration applications already achieved their perfection and thus require no more attention. Illustrator is still in the past century for me -- it takes tens more clicks and moves to make the same things which requires only a few with XaraX or Freehand -- as uncomfortable as if your hands were tied together.

Thanks again

No matter what settings you use for Raster Effects, FHMX will rasterize the
object. You're seeing anti-aliased edges, not Feather effect. The only way
to get sharper edges -- but still not vector sharp -- is to set Document
Settings > Raster Effects Settings to a higher PPI.

Judy Arndt

netdiver wrote:

> It seems to me that if any kind of two raster transparencies is applied to an
> object, it also will hiddenly got a Feather effect assigned it. In other
> words, one can't assign a Raster Transparency to an object without assigning a
> Feather effect along with it.