Questions about converting into a png file
Well I already read a few things in the forum how to convert but still ahve a few questions.
So I have a dungeon Map 49 x 49 and I Want to convert it into a nice non pixlish clean png file.
I found out that I can do option settings but becouse converting always take ages I would like to go on a few of your experience settings.
Is the a option to the background instead of white in transparent? I like to put my building on top of a other map so it would be handy ;-)
I have a third party program to convert it later to jpeg but will do some work before.
How High should the Antialias are?
I convert my Map to png and got a 88MB File - which i can handle but I think I can go lower than that
Mainly I will use it later for Roll 20 but the the day might come where I want to print it also.
So any hints are welcome becouse its my first converting since ages.
Thnx
Comments
I dont use antialias when I save asca png file. I do export as a 2000 pixel file. It is never that big.
You didn't say what you already have it in, but IrfanView can be used to convert between formats.
Unfortunately, you can't make the background transparent, you'll have to do that in post-processing in another program. And if you plan to do that, your anti-alias should be off, since antialiasing is the sworn enemy of proper background removal. Also, antialiasing off will let the map export faster.
If you are going to convert it to a jpg anyway, you shouldn't worry about the file size of the png though, since that won't really matter in the end anyway. png's are always quite a bit larger than jpeg's.
I start with cc3+ fcw file convert it to png and than use Corel but I will try it with 2000pixels ;-)
Alright I will try this also
A barely related question. What does anti-aliasing do, and why is it important. I have never used for any of my maps. including the ones I print out and haven't had a problem to date, whereas when I have experimented, the file is so big as to cause the conversion to fail. So when should I use it, or just not bother?
@Quenten As I understand it...
The simple answer to that is that it smooths the jaggedness caused by everything being displayed as a mosaic of pixels or printer ink dots.
Here is the complicated answer:
Thanks for that Sue.
@Quenten You're welcome :)
It does relate to the thread more than you think, because it explains why AA shouldn't be used to export an image when you intend to remove the background in GIMP or PS. Using the colour picker to pick the background is complicated by the many different shades of variation around the edges as Remy pointed out above.
There is a way around it in GIMP, but it is a crude method and doesn't always work very well. I pick the background white with the selection colour picker, invert the selection, sharpen it, shrink it by 1 or maybe even 2 pixels, invert the selection again and then delete the background along with the fuzzy edge. It is much easier if the fuzzy edge created by AA doesn't exist in the first place.
Mmmhh I like the idea to do it that way - i mostly work with corel photo but seems like a good way to do it