Blurry images in Storyline 360 November 2021

I am suffering too.  I am utterly tired of how terrible Storyline can be when it comes to rendering high quality images.  Maybe back in 2012 it wasn't so pertinent, but here we are, on the cusp of 2022, when even 4k is yesterdays news, and Articulate refuse to acknowledge the problem.

I have submitted a feature request (and everyone else should do the same) that Articulate stop focusing on adding new features to Storyline, but instead, devote their resources to getting the basics right.  Images should not be blurry.  Period.  The Zoom function should use the native resolution of the image, and not just magnify the screen render.  We should be able to screen record a full 4k monitor.

I am so tired of this.  Articulate... PLEASE do something about this.  This is not right. 

Here's a link to a similar thread from 3 years ago. During the discussion, it was suggested by Articulate that the issues stemmed from us users not adhering to 'best practice', which is, quite frankly, bizarre.

I mean, 2 years AFTER the initial posting, Articulate jump in with the amazing announcement: "Fixed: Arrows and dashed lines were blurry when previewed or published."

Let that sink in.

We, the users of Storyline, have been creating workarounds and hacks to get something as simple as an arrow or dashed line to view pin-sharp, and kind of forced it into our workflow. Unless the client didn't mind (or notice) the blurriness.

It took untold years and innumerable complaints to get something as simple as non-blurry arrows to be presented to us like it was some kind of damned achievement level unlocked.

This is all really basic stuff. I mean, REALLY REALLY basic stuff - MS Painter level stuff. How can you trumpet 360 panoramic interactivity when one cannot make a simple mask within Storyline?

Why herald a 'feature', such as Importing SVGs as an image file, when its functionality is different to any other image instance, with regards Points 6 and 7 mentioned by Matt above?

After importing even a simple, single colour icon, one cannot alter the transparency of the SVG, to use, as, say, a watermark, in a course. It's nonsense. One cannot even use the old PNG trick of importing the icon as a white line SVG and select Format > Recolour. 

The previously trumpeted 'feature' of being able to Import SVGs From Powerpoint, which allowed SO MUCH AWESOME flexibility, despite being a technical process, was actually a much better solution than what is now offered, and even that methodology has now been broken. Instead of importing as shapes, the SVG is now an awkward uneditable, un-tweakable, fully-opaque image.

The ability to do basic stuff WITHIN a software programme is kind of the point of most software programmes I use. Not many ask the user to use another, possibly more highly specialised third-party product to do basic stuff like creating bespoke shapes (c'mon, why can't we combine, break apart, tweak any shape combo within Storyline itself?), Masks (seriously, it's almost 2022 now!), import and/or store bespoke gradients, the ability to specify corner roundness/bezel values of ANY corner, (and not have to rely on flipping, inverting and rotating a shape to get the desired result thereby rendering all the internal geometry of the shape out of whack)...

There are so many basic features being asked for, including getting features that are actually in Storyline to work (Hello Format Picture > Picture > Blend > Mode... I mean, seriously WT-ACTUAL-F is it there for? It does not work, never has and shows such sloppy attention to detail, UX and interface design, and what Articulate really think of its user base).

Launching SVG Direct Import as a major achievement and to have the reality of it be so utterly disappointing and fundamentally broken clearly illustrates that Articulate is simply relying on loyalty (and fear of the unknown) to maintain revenues without addressing some nearly decade-old issues that are so blatantly, inanely, absurdly rudimentary to functionality is beyond depressing. It's despairing. It shows such a lack of vision, such a lack of understanding of who uses this software and what it is there for, and such a lack of respect to these same users who for years have been pleading to "get things fixed first, new features later".

Also, anytime something new is announced, something old gets broken, such as the annoying glitch whereby if one clicks on VIEW > SLIDE MASTER and then VIEW > FEEDBACK MASTER the screen jumps to the SLIDE VIEW.

Sloppy.

What I would like to see is just some transparency from Articulate.  Honestly, I would admire them if they came out and said, 'yes, we know there's a problem', and then provide us with a timeline to fix it.  If it's 6 months, a year, two years, well fine... I'll work around these bugs, or just use other tools in the meantime.  

Over to you Articulate.

I logged on with hopes of reading some good news, but to no avail. I’ve been asking this question for way too long with no answers.  I had to sell my company on SL and have been using it for the past 5-6 years. And now I’m still trying to convince them to keep it because of cost. AND in addition, my credibility is being questioned because “my work” looks so blurry.  That’s not cool at all! 

I have resorted to skipping the interactive aspect and have gone to videos in our LMS. And get this, I’m using PPT to produce the step by step videos because the images remain crystal clear. 

Cmon Articulate, this is basic stuff. Perhaps give the folks at Microsoft a ring  for some tips?  🤷🏽‍♂️ HELP, I’m barely hanging on here. 

Deleted a post kind of critical of something Michael said: "there is some resizing going on which isn’t ideal for image formats that do not scale well like SVGs, EMFs, or WMFs"

After re-reading that line a few times I realised he was saying "like" to mean "as well as"...

Apologies.

I also misinterpreted the "like"!

Hi Mark. I took the liberty of peeking into your file and checking things out. I completely understand your frustration because I can find no reason why it displays blurry upon preview or publishing.

One caveat; I notice a lot of folks do this so it's not pointed at you - PNGs are only necessary to use whenever your bitmap image has a transparent section. If it doesn't then a JPEG is the optimum file format. The reason is that PNGs tend to be far larger in 'size' than JPEGS.

Which brings me to JPEG image compression.

Generally, the more compression applied to a JPEG upon export the more degradation there is in the image (blurriness, pixelisation, artefacts, etc). I have uploaded a version of your file to Review with 4 buttons that show whatever differences there are between the formats and compression.

Weirdly, there is little or no difference in the visual result between your original PNG (2048x1536px which scales down to 720x540px in the SL360 file), a straightforward high quality (zero compression) JPEG and a resized JPEG (720x540px import - actual size).

The only noticeable difference is in the third option which was the original size JPEG compressed to Very Low Quality (10) and the result is predictably bad. 

But what is concerning is that this deliberately bad image is not really that far off from the other 3. So yeah, conclusive proof that I have no idea what is happening to your image. there is no reason, AFAICS, for the quality to publish so poorly.

Not sure if this helps at all.

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/e203cc0d-6e22-4864-95f4-d0b4a3866d2b/review

I always thought that the blend modes were broken, however what I think they are doing isn't what I expected them to do.

You have to choose a colour, and they behave similar to the same options in photoshop if you had a layer of solid colour (the colour you selected) over the top of your image.

Although not 100% identical to the photoshop output they are analogous. Just not what I expected them to do I expected the image would be blended with whatever was below.

Hi, everyone.

I want to reiterate what Michael mentioned a few days ago: this is not the expected behavior, and we are actively investigating the issue.

Based on the support cases received through this thread, there are multiple scenarios discussed here (SVGs, screenshots from third-party apps, images created in Photoshop, etc.), which might require different fixes. 

If you haven’t yet, we encourage you to submit a sample project where you’re experiencing the loss of quality in images to our support team, so it can help us in our investigation. 

We’ll keep everyone posted as we know more.

And I was trying not to be witty.....