Although all types of rendered objects – rectangles, ellipses, polygons, curves, modified images, and even titles – end up as image files, there are key differences in the reasons and strategies for the way SiteSpinner™ handles these objects.
The re-render operation applies primarily to HTML output. SVG can perform many of these operations directly on shapes, vector drawings, or the original images.
Render, in this context, means to create a representation of an object in the form of a bitmapped image. Technically re-render is used when the object is already in the form of an image but is rendered again to show changes. Render and re-render are used somewhat interchangeably here, and both mean creating a new image from the original object.
For example, taking an object, say a title or a rectangle, and turning it into a bitmapped image that can be displayed on a web page is rendering it.
Another example would be taking an existing image that has been modified (say stretched) and turning it into a bitmapped image that shows the modifications. That would be re-rendering it.
But in both cases we can say the object is re-rendered as a new image. Whenever you re-render an object, you are creating an image file for that object when you publish your project. This file will then be a required part of your uploaded site.
If these were not re-rendered, that would mean leaving the object as it is. So the title would be left as text. The image would be left as it was, and the browser would be asked to stretch it. Simple rectangles with flat shading can be rendered by the finished HTML code and don't produce an image file. However, rectangles with complex shading (e.g., a gradient fill) will be rendered as an image file.
By default, all rendered objects will be rendered in the .PNG format. That’s because the PNG format produces the highest quality graphic images with full color and no loss of quality do to compression. For more information, see Image Target Formats.
However, each image format has its own strengths and weaknesses. The optimal choice of format depends on the characteristics of the specific image. You can change the re-rendering file format, either for individual rendered objects or globally to affect all rendered objects, to PNG 8, JPG, GIF, or BMP format. The reasons you might change re-rendering file formats could include any of the following:
You are concerned about the overall size of the project, and you know that some file formats compress the image data better than others.
You are concerned that certain file formats won’t handle certain effects, such as transparency, as well as you would like.
You are concerned that an image or drawing will suffer quality loss if re-rendered in a certain file format.
To change the re-rendering format for an individual object, use the Geometry Editor dialog box. To change the re-rendering format for all rendered objects in the project, use the Project Target Options dialog box.
Re-rendering settings for individual rendered objects take priority over global re-rendering settings. That is, you can set a global re-rendering format for the entire project but then use different settings for individual objects.
When working with a group object, if you select the re-render option on the Object Tab of the Quick Properties Editor dialog box, the group will be rendered as a single image composed of all the objects it contains. If you de-select the re-render option, then each object in the group will be rendered independently (as images, text, etc.).
Only animated GIFs default to re-render off, because re-rendering an animated GIF will disable the animation.