Portable Network Graphics export

PNG is a powerful modern lossless bitmap graphics format, which is not burdened by software patents and was designed with portability in mind. It is now accepted by most image processing software, and will hopefully replace GIF eventually.

Arabeske can export the image in its displayed state as a bitmap at any time: even blueprint and help mode allow it. However, PNG supports both paletted and true color images, so a short note about this can help.

• Arabeske can export either in paletted or in true color modes, depending on the use it guesses for the image.
• An image without bitmap textures is supposed to be used as a map providing an index value for each pixel. This is typically the case for POV-Ray material_maps, but other 3D software may use it. In this case, the image will be output in paletted mode, using the palette index assigned to each texture.
• An image using bitmap textures cannot be used with palette indices in mind. It will always be exported in true color mode.
• If antialiasing is set ot "on", the halftoning process makes the picture unsuitable for paletted output, and the export will be made in true color mode. In both "auto" and "off" antialiasing modes, the above principles remain unchanged.

To run it, select File -> Export -> PNG, then choose the filename. The default output file extension, if this feature is enabled, is ".png". Click Export. You are prompted for an optional scaling of the image:

If you select "Default", the image will be exported as_is. As it does not need any change to be preformed, the exporting process starts immediately and is rather fast.
Changing the scale does not allow you to change the image proportions, since doing so would break every rotation and most symmetries in the image. If you choose to resize the image, it needs to be re-rendered internally. The exporting process will only starts when the image is ready, which can take some time depending on the image complexity. The maximum image size is consistent with the PNG specification, ie. 16383x16383 pixels... provided your computer has enough memory to handle it!