I don't particularly use CTA, but when you export from Drawplus, do you Export as an Image or Use Dynamic output?
You can export at any time by using Export as Image or Dynamic Preview; the former lets you compare export settings, the latter allows editing during preview—great for pixel-accurate editing of your intended output!Excerpt from DrawPlusX5 Help on Exporting:Export settings
To optimize your use of the Image Export or Dynamic Preview, here’s a rundown of some of the terminology used and some suggested guidelines (focused on the JPG, PNG, WDP, and SMF formats).
Bit Depth: Bit depth relates to the number of colors in an exported bitmap image. In general, images with higher bit depth take up more disk space. Choose the bit depth that corresponds to the number of colors in the exported image. 32-bit and 24-bit settings preserve full color; 32-bit includes 8 extra bits for an alpha (transparency) channel and is equivalent to choosing 24-bit with Transparency switched on. 8-bit (256 colors) is the only available setting for animations, and the maximum supported by the .GIF format. For pictures, 4-bit (16-color) and 1-bit (2-color) exports are also possible.
Palette: A color palette is a table of color values that gets stored with any image having 8 bits (256 colors) or less. If you're exporting at 8 bits (256 colors) or less:
The default Optimized setting lets the DrawPlus export filter determine the best colors to apply. This generally results in smooth color gradations and quite acceptable appearance when viewed on a High Color (16-bit) or better color display.
Choose Web-safe to reduce the colors to only those found in the 216-color palette used by web browsers on limited-color systems. This will ensure that an image you place on a web page won't change its appearance when viewed on such systems.
Dithering: Dithering comes into play with images being reduced to 8 bits (256 colors) or less. It's a method of approximating colors outside the actual image palette—for example, by alternating pixels of red and blue from within the palette to produce the visual impression of a purple color that's not in the palette.
While dithering can degrade solid-color areas, with shadows or transparency effects it's usually more important to preserve subtle gradations of color. Choose Ordered for a more regular dot pattern, or Error diffusion which tends to average away the patterns adaptively for a more natural result.
To minimize file size, or if you happen to have an image with few colors, you can set dithering to None—and the export filter will pick "nearest-match" color values from the palette being applied. You may see some color shifting, but the solid color areas will be preserved.
Transparency.
GIF files support single-level (on/off) transparency, such that if you check Transparency and export as a .GIF, any "checkerboard" regions of your graphic (those with no pixels or 0% opacity) will turn into transparent regions in the GIF; all other regions will become opaque. When exporting as a full-color PNG (32 bit), full gradations of transparency in your original design are preserved. DrawPlus also provides Dithering options (for GIFs and 8-bit-or-less PNGs) which are similar to, but separate from, those for image colors. Dithering in regions of partial transparency causes certain pixels to drop out in a patterned way. These tiny dropouts allow underlying colors to show through, achieving smoother blends in these regions despite the limitation of single-level transparency.
The .PNG format, like .GIF, is "lossless," but offers improved transparency support using up to 254 levels of partial transparency for "alpha blending" effects. 32-bit PNGs use 8 bits as an "alpha channel" that directs pixels in the foreground image to merge with those in a background image. This seamless anti-aliasing creates the illusion of smooth curves by varying pixel colors—for rounded images that look good against any background, not just against a specific color. Because it's lossless and full color, it's also an excellent storage format for work-in-progress. To preserve gradations of transparency in your original design, check Transparency and export as a .PNG.
The Microsoft HD Photo format supports partial transparency for "alpha blending" effects. If you select the Transparency check box, any fully or partially transparent regions will be maintained in the exported image. If you don't select this option, these areas will display as the background color.
(GIF only) Check Interlaced to use an image format that will display "progressively" in a browser: first a low-quality image will display, followed by an improved image as the complete GIF is loaded.
Check Super Sample to export drawings at superior quality by smoothing the transition between pixels. Leave unchecked for faster export while maintaining high quality.
(JPG and Microsoft HD Photo only) Quality: You can set the export quality level using a slider. The highest-quality setting uses least compression, with no loss of image quality, but produces the largest file size. The lowest-quality setting applies maximum compression for smallest size, but yields rather poor quality.
(Microsoft HD Photo only) Color subsampling: This is a compression option that affects the color resolution/detail in the exported image. 4:4:4 (default) uses the least compression with no loss of color; 4:2:2 color sampling is widely used and also considered very high quality. With the exception of 4:0:0 (which discards all color info, making an image monochrome), all of these options generally result in very little appreciable loss in detail for many images, but can reduce file size appreciably.
Adjusting color subsampling is only effective when compression is used, i.e. when the Quality setting is below 100%.
(Microsoft HD Photo only) Tiles: These settings allow your users to load and view your image in a more flexible and efficient manner. Provided the application the user opens the exported image in implements this technology, viewers can preview a small sub area of a very large file without having to download the entire file first, saving memory and processing time.
(Microsoft HD Photo only) Trimmed flexbits: Flexbits record the ‘high frequency’ (detailed) elements of an image. For example, if your image includes a highly detailed area that shows very clearly defined grains of sand, you would probably want to use all of the flexbits, and not lose any detail. If, however, your image consists of more low frequency details, such as a close-up of a face where the changes in detail are very gradual over large areas, you could probably get away with trimming many of the flexbits, saving significant file space.
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