[MacosNerd]

I have the new iWeb and I'm building a site, pretty nice additions from the prior version but it does seem a little more dumbed down.

I'm trying to adjust a picture's size that I added to a page. This is generally not too difficult, grab a corner, or a side and drag, but I don't want to constrain the proportions for this particular image. In the prior version I could make the change in the inspector, now the inspector seems devoid of the image specifics.

Am I missing something, doing something wrong or is this "feature" truly missing. I'll probably have to use photoshop to generate the picture to the right size I want but it would have been easier to do it in iweb.

[besson3c]

In general it is a bad idea to resize an image by constraining it via HTML code, as a lot of distortion occurs this way. You are definitely better off using Photoshop, unless image quality is totally irrelevant to you.

[adamfishercox]

This is in iWeb. It re-saves the picture in the new size, not using HTML tags to resize.

[TETENAL]

Your not using HTML code when using iWeb. You are defining the layout of the web page to be and it's then iWeb's job to create the code and the resources at the right size and resolution (as well as rotation if any).

In iWeb 1.1.2 (0-whatever that was) you can turn proportional resizing on and off in the Metrics Inspector (turn on the Inspector and click the ruler). I doubt that is gone in the new version.

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

In general it is a bad idea to resize an image by constraining it via HTML code, as a lot of distortion occurs this way. You are definitely better off using Photoshop, unless image quality is totally irrelevant to you.

True enough and I agree with you, in fact I generally do resize my images in photoshop before putting building them in a web page. I'm doing some proof of concept work and I'd like to do some quick and dirty mock ups before deciding that its what I want.

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

In iWeb 1.1.2 (0-whatever that was) you can turn proportional resizing on and off in the Metrics Inspector (turn on the Inspector and click the ruler). I doubt that is gone in the new version.

It appears to be gone. I'm going to fire up my laptop which still has the old version of iweb. I'll take some screen shots and post them here.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by MacosNerd 

True enough and I agree with you, in fact I generally do resize my images in photoshop before putting building them in a web page. I'm doing some proof of concept work and I'd like to do some quick and dirty mock ups before deciding that its what I want.

Honestly, it is much better to come up with mockups using only Photoshop. All all of these iWeb tweaks do is create and/or manipulate HTML code many times over, and iWeb code sucks ass as it is.

Besides, you should find it much faster to focus on your design using an actual graphic design app, leaving the technicalities of actually coding/laying out your site aside for the time being.

[MacosNerd]

Oops you were right its under the metric ruler area. I was using the graphic area trying to figure it out. DOPEY ME.

[adamfishercox]

No, Besson. You're wrong. While iWeb code for the most part does suck, there is NO HEML RESIZING INVOLVED. It resizes your images to how you want them when you publish. Otherwise, iWeb site's images would looks like crap, and they don't.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

No, Besson. You're wrong. While iWeb code for the most part does suck, there is NO HEML RESIZING INVOLVED. It resizes your images to how you want them when you publish. Otherwise, iWeb site's images would looks like crap, and they don't.

Fair enough. But if it creates new images on the fly and you are using a lossy format, wouldn't the compression distort the image? Or, does iWeb use a lossless format as a temporary working format before saving the final files in the desired format?

[adamfishercox]

Honestly, I don't know. But from my own experience, it took some 3000 pixel wide images and resized them to 800x600 with no visible loss (see http://freewebs.com/adamfishercox/)

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

No, Besson. You're wrong. While iWeb code for the most part does suck, there is NO HEML RESIZING INVOLVED. It resizes your images to how you want them when you publish. Otherwise, iWeb site's images would looks like crap, and they don't.

You're right but I think Besson's approach is correct (scary I'm agreeing with you). I think in the long run its best to have all of your images resized to what you want and not leave it up to the iweb (or any other web building app). I have more control in how it will look like and so the end result is exactly what I want.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Fair enough. But if it creates new images on the fly and you are using a lossy format, wouldn't the compression distort the image? Or, does iWeb use a lossless format as a temporary working format before saving the final files in the desired format?

iWeb resizing the image doesn't "distort" it any more than Photoshop resizing the image.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

iWeb resizing the image doesn't "distort" it any more than Photoshop resizing the image.

But if iWeb is using Webkit to display live previews of your page, it has to be saving/creating .png, .gif, or .jpg files, right? Otherwise, how could it produce an accurate page rendering unless Webkit somehow supported these placeholder iWeb objects?

Or, is iWeb more like Imageready - simply something that will slice up a graphic file and attempt to create a page from these files, while your working canvas is not a live preview generated by the browser rendering engine?

[MacosNerd]

It saves a lot stuff as PNG, I think the early versions of iWeb saved everything as PNG so much so that it made any website dog slow. They've improved the performance since those early days and to be honest I really don't care how apple does it. Its nice that it works the way it does for quick mock ups but I generally resize everything in photoshop as I mentioned.

[besson3c]

Yeah, PNG is what I was thinking too... PNG files in the working copy, and JPG or PNG in the exported copy.

Not only can large images make a site slow, but a hornet's nest of nested tables and other pointless tags can too...

[MacosNerd]

Have you looked at the published html code, its a mess, I love what iweb can do and the power it provides with such simplicity but the stuff behind it makes me cringe.

[adamfishercox]

Just don't look

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

Just don't look

I don't

What I like about iweb is you get to create some very nice websites extremely easily. Except for the early versions which tended to produce some slow sites it works flawlessly. As ugly as the coding behind the scenes is, the sites look good and are generally pretty quick.