Lectora 18 creating extra images for each styled image?
June 9, 2020 12:00 AM
While using the Style Tab in Lectora v18 to add visual features to an image I was puzzled to learn that upon Publish, Lectora creates an image file for each of the styled (same) images. I ended up with multiple image files created for every variation of 'styled' image (single source).
So, Lectora doesn't attribute a CSS style but rather used the Style term to collect information in the authoring environment to render extra images? Am I missing something?
For example, a landscape image to look like a photo may have a 10px grey border, a 345 degree rotation, and an offset diagonal bottom-right shadow (50% transparency , 8px blur and 8px distance). Doing this via the Lectora ribbon (Style tab) will create extra image files for each, and these images have a border added as part of the new image... or, by adding the following CSS class we will have the same outcome but not add new image files to the Published image folder:
.photo {
border: 10px solid #eef1f3;
-webkit-box-shadow: 8px 8px 8px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
-moz-box-shadow: 8px 8px 8px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
box-shadow: 8px 8px 8px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
-ms-transform: rotate(345deg); /* IE 9 */
transform: rotate(345deg);
}undefined
Moreover, the PNG Lectora created was 78 kb versus the 36 kb original JPG styles by the CSS class (which can be referenced multiple times even it I have the rotation and/or shadow different in 100 pages, I can even add radius corners if I want to).
Can anyone shed some light as to why Lectora 18 is doing it this way?
-Darrell
Discussion (9)
Might I suggest posting this as a suggestion in the Lectora Suggestions forum? I suspect the CTO will be more likely to see it there, and having talked to John several times, I'm pretty sure he'll agree that your suggestion to use CSS instead of saving multiple (mostly unused) versions of each image is a good one.
Thanks Carl, I think I may do that. I'm relatively new to using the latest copy (Lectora 18, my version for years has been Lectora 11) and was not sure if I others knew of a reason it may have been built this way. There's quite a few new things I'm trying to wrap my head around ;)
In fact i encountered similar stuff quite often when diving somewhat deeper into the published HTML of Lectora, both Online as Desktop. They should start fresh with modern code, modern libraries and rethink the complete workflow of Lectora. Slide based courses are not of this time anymore. SPA or OPA, at least some mobile first approach might be better.
Thats the problem. Overhere in Europe Lectora has lost its edge over especially Articulate. At our company we both use Articulate360 and Lectora Online now... for especially complexer stuff i do prefer Lectora, but most designers / developers i know find it too complex...and thus jump ship for Articulate. Especially Rise360 is good. With Storyline blocks you can get more complex stuff done...it is far from perfect... no support for Javascript and CSS in Rise360..but for the majority of elearning developers its enough. They can create basic courses and when more complex things are needed, they ask me.
If Elearning brothers want to get some foothold back in Europe...Lectora needs a major overhaul to compete with Rise360.
Math, agreed. I think eLearning Brothers needs a product with the capabilities of, say, Articulate Rise. That is, something to quickly generate basic eLearning that automatically works on a wide range of devices without requiring lots of manual fiddling on every ... single ... page.
Thanks for all the comments. I haven't looked deeply into this, but, rotation and shadowing do not seem to create new instances of the image. I did see that adding a border does. Please understand we have gone to great lengths to support all browsers, only recently dropping IE 8 (within the last year). So sometimes this support requires creative solutions. With 20 years of legacy and hundreds of thousands of authors over the years sometimes a creative approach is necessary to keep things working for everyone.
We always appreciate your input and will take it under advisement for the future of Lectora.
@Joe Wieloch:
Please understand we have gone to great lengths to support all browsers, only recently dropping IE 8 (within the last year). So sometimes this support requires creative solutions. With 20 years of legacy and hundreds of thousands of authors over the years sometimes a creative approach is necessary to keep things working for everyone.
I hesitated to post this, because it sounds too critical, but I think this is important.
You have posted that eLearning Brothers prioritizes legacy customers over potential current and new ones. You are implying that transparent support for currently-in-demand environments like phones is not a priority over continuing to support obsolete web browsers.
I personally believe it's a mistake for you to favor IE over iPhone.
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