Poor image quality when used as shape fill

Oct 01, 2014

Hello,

I'm having trouble with images used asfill within a smartshapesuffering a noticeableloss in quality.

I've attached a test file showing the image inserted into a slide (no issues, displays as intended) then the same image used as a background within a smartshape (very lossy with some colour substitution).

My publishing settings areset to standard and I'm using SL1 (Update 6)

Any help would be great!

Cheers,

Mark

7 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your .story file here - and I see the differences you're mentioning (although now my eyes hurt from that image!) and I'm curious if you could share the actual png file that you're adding in as well? I actually see a bit of a change even prior to publishing, when just viewing it in preview.

Also, have you tried to change some of the publish settings for images?

Mark Lester

Hi Ashley,

lol yes I agree completely, these background images are intended to be40%transparent in the finishedproduct with white smart-shaped content overlayed which hopefully wont have the same effect on the learners eyes

Attached is the image which comes in Red, Blue, Purple and Green variants with the same issue occurring when inserted as a smartshape background.

Mypublishing settings are set to: Custom

Video quality = 5
Audiobitrate = 48kbps

Image quality = 90%

I've previously tried setting the image quality to 100% to see if that was the issue but the problem still occured.

Out of curiosity does Storyline applythe above compression settings toitems when added to Storyfile oronly when published?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing the image file here. I was testing this with SL1 Update 6 and SL2 - I'm seeing a normal image in both while viewing the slide itself and previewing - as opposed to your original file where I saw some degradation in the preview as well. You mentioned a "smart shape" - are you setting this shape up initially in Powerpoint or within Storyline? I was using one of the standard Storyline shapes. Attached is the version I set up in SL1 Update 6. Can you take a look at this one and let me know how it looks for you - or if you had set up your shape fill in another way?

As far as the compression settings, they'll occur during publish - so there shouldn't have been a difference within Preview as I saw on your file.

Please let us know once you're able to check into those.

Mark Lester

Hi Ashley, thanks very much for looking into this.

To answer your question, all shapes were created in Storyline, the term "Shartshape" is just an oldCaptivate-ism that's stayed with me

Given that you were able to use the image as a background without any degradation I thought I'd ask some of my colleagues to do the same test to potentially narrow it down to my copy of Storyline and we inadvertently found a sufficient solution.

The issue only occurs when we fill the shape via the program ribbon (i.e. "Select Shape"/Format/Shape fill/Picture) - See Slide 3

When we right clicked the image and selected (Format Shape/Fill/Picture or Texture fill/File) it displays and previews as intended. - See Slide 4

So we've got a sufficient work-around for now but I'm curious to see if you set the image as shape fill via the program ribbon or the right click menu?

Cheers,

Mark

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Mark,

I'm glad you found a workaround that would work - and I believe that's how I had inserted the picture as well - which may be why I didn't see it. I also wanted to let you know I tested out your newest file in Storyline 2 as well and didn't see a change in the image - which I suspect as Storyline 2 I know handles images a bit better than SL1.

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