Scott -

Any update on when VSD 6.0 will be released? I can't wait to be able to use .png's on my sites.

Thanks

Same here! I have a variety of image authoring software that produces quality PNG images but can't use them on VSD!

you can use free online file conversion at www.zamzar.com. You can upload a file and convert it to almost anything you'd like. I use it to convert PNGs to GIFs to use in VSD.

Thank you,

OK,. here's a web nooby question...

Why is a png file superior to gif or jpg?

For .gif, I always thought it was a question of whether the owner of the format (is it a subsidiary of Unisys?) would eventually make infringement trouble for people using .gif images on the web. Beyond that, I believe that .png uses lossless compression to get smaller file sizes, as opposed to .jpg where the compression algorithm causes some quality loss. Both .png and .jpg make smaller file sizes than .gif, but only .gif has an animated version.

What we really need is universal support for .svg images! Right now it's very hit-or-miss because it's not in widespread enough use to be worth supporting. Pity. It's text-based and makes very efficient file sizes and is vector rather than raster so you get perfect curves and no anti-aliasing problems.

Just to add to what Spinny said,

JPEG is good for photos with many colors and shades because of it's small file size. Details can be a little fuzzy looking.

GIF is good for sharp-edged logos or images with 256 colors or less and images of text. It's often used when simple 1bit index transparency is needed. It's the only image format that supports animation.

8bit PNGs can be used anywhere gifs are used, except when the gifs are animated, and can even give smaller file sizes. IE6 works fine with 8bit PNGs having 1bit index transparency. However, if you use alpha transparency, IE6 will treat all partially transparent areas as though they are fully transparent.

24bit PNGs do a better job than JPEG of reproducing photos, but file sizes are too large for web use because it's not using lossy compression like JPEG.

32bit PNGs have 24bit color and 8bit alpha transparency for creating nice blends and shadows. The transparent areas appear solid in IE6 unless certain coding hacks are used.

Thanks to all.

Still looking for an ETA for VSD 6.0.

Last I heard it was due out by Christmas.

Thanks

does anyone else get the problem of VSD changing a transparent .gif background to black? Do I have to make the background of my image match the background of my site? seems so primitive...

Version 6 is now complete. Brooke is doing the last minute changes to the manual and we are going to start working on the tutorials. I hate to be quoted on an exact date, but we are pretty close.

What can we expect to find in this update?? Spell check I hope??
And the ability to create anchors??

You can make anchors in VSD now, though it might be considered a kludge. Just drop in a small HTML object where you want the anchor, and in the box use "invisible" code, like:



And then you can link anything else on the page to #top and jump right to where the invisible box is. Done.