Perfect PNG output Photoline "Extension"

[Herbert123]

(for Windows users only - might work with Wine)

Photoline's web output is pretty good. PNG output is quite good as well, although PNG compression does support certain techniques which allow for much better compression and optimization. These more specialized options tend to be unsupported in image editors and/or force a the user to adapt to a more convoluted workflow.

I have been working out a way to optimize a lot of game character assets I created in Photoline. Saving as a layer works, but the way I setup the layer structure will not crop them for me. And I still need more control over the PNG output than which Photoline's web output allows for.

So, here is a really neat solution:
- download Color Quantizer http://x128.ho.ua/color-quantizer.html
No need for installation, just put it someplace on your hard drive.

- add CQ to your external programs. Make sure to set PNG as the intermediate exchange file format, and choose layer export.

- Add a shortcut key. I chose F10.

Now select the layer you would like to export, and presto: a perfect powerful PNG optimization export dialog, which feels as if it was part of Photoline all along. As opposed to Photoline's web export, you also gain options to trim and resize your asset. And it even offers more resampling algorithms than Photoline, as well as superior control over the PNG quality. Even a quality mask brush tool is available for those more difficult to optimize cases.

Perfect!