Exporting Graphics To a File

Many ETBX output panels can be saved as graphic files for use in other programs.

Saving An Image To A File

To open the Save Image File window, choose the File -> Export -> Images menu item.

The Output group contains controls for specifying the output format. Depending on the image format you choose, you may need to configure some export options as part of the process. Details on supported graphic formats and their associated export options are provided in the next section.

The File group lets you specify the output file. Enter a valid path and file name or click the Browse button to set the file save location.

Click the Save button to create the animation and store it in the specified file.

Supported File Formats

ETBX graphics can be saved in most common image formats, including those listed below. Some of the image formats offer additional options that let you configure the saved image.

• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) - A popular image format that can be used to save images with up to 16.7 million colors. JPEG images can be compressed into a very small file size. However JPEG compression is lossy, which means that you lose some of the detail of your image when you save it to JPEG format. ETBX lets you adjust the compression level to balance the trade-off between the file size and the image quality. Move the Image Quality slider to the desired value between 0 (low quality, high compression) and 100 (high quality, less compression).
• PNG (Portable Network Graphic) - A relatively new image format that was designed to replace the antiquated GIF format and, to some extent, the TIFF format. The PNG format can be used to save images with any number of colors and utilizes a lossless compression scheme - meaning no image data is lost when saving the compressed image. It is a universal format that is recognized by the World Wide Web consortium and supported by modern web browsers. Note however that because PNG it is a newer format, earlier web browsers may not recognize a PNG file.
• TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) - A leading commercial and professional image standard. The strength of TIFF is that it can support any range of image resolution, size, and color depth and different compression techniques. The TIFF format is very flexible and very complex, so uncompressed TIFF files can be very large. To reduce the file size, ETBX supports a simple run-length compression technique documented in Section 9 of the TIFF 6.0 Specification. The compression is lossless, meaning there is no quality loss when the image is compressed. Select the Compressed box in the Output group to enable run-length compression.
• GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) - A common image format for the Web. GIF's have the advantage of usually being very small in size. Unlike JPEG's, GIF's use lossless compression, which means they make the file size small without losing or blurring any of the image itself. The GIF file format cannot save images with more than 256 colors. ETBX will reduce the number of colors in an output file to the value selected in the Maximum Colors drop-down list.
• BMP (Windows Bitmap)- A proprietary graphic format for the Windows operating system. The BMP format can be used to store images with up to 16.7 million colors. ETBX does not compress BMP images and the resulting image files can be quite large.