When creating a sprite in Snap I have to shrink it because it is too large upon being imported onto the stage. The problem is that when it is shrunk it begins to deteriorate in terms of its quality and quickly becomes a pixelated mess that can no longer be read. Is there any way to shrink the sprite so that it retains its sharpness?
if your costume is an svg file you can scale it losslessly.
If you have to start with a bitmap format such as .png or .jpeg, you might try doing the shrinking ahead of time, in a professional graphics program such as Photoshop or the Gimp, rather than in Snap!. Those programs will let you tweak a bunch of options about what algorithm to use, and some will look better than others.
For what its worth – I would just like to add that I have noticed (some) relatively poor image scaling in SNAP as it can often go a bit ‘soft’ - so I do try to avoid any import of low quality images (particularly ‘web’ based images) and use the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) which is already built into SNAP! Rather than try to draw them in SNAP! – which is far from ideal on the quality front. I use an external graphics editor called INKSCAPE - which will both ‘import’ and ‘export’ in the SVG format which SNAP can import very easily as a ‘Drag and drop’. I also have found the ‘png’ format is better suited to a lot of SNAP! Which is the second best option. You can then export both direct from INKSCAPE to SNAP and Vice -Versa (all the SNAP! Costumes for example) are better when working in VECTOR graphic (SVG) formats. I use LINUX myself but there is a Mac and Windows version for those interested in importing Vector Graphics into SNAP!
Hope this helps somewhat! I use this solution all the time due to that very issue. I also tend to import (PNG) at a larger size then ‘scale’ down image using using ‘set size’ to (say) 50% and use that.
Inkscape can be found online here: https://inkscape.org/
Pip
Thanks. I like Inkscape, too. Someday we're going to replace all the bitmap costumes... but don't hold your breath.
On a slightly different note, how does drag and drop actually work? I can't figure out how to trigger it. The right click menu is normal, so I usually just use import with a png or svg.
Are you asking, how does the browser know what to do with a file you've dragged onto the window? I have no idea, except that you must have to register file types when you load the page because as soon as you're hovering over the browser window the file icon gets that little + sign over it (in MacOS anyway).
I'm asking how to do it. Do I run firefox https://snap.berkeley.edu/snap/snap.html -g ?
I'm sorry, I'm still not understanding what you're asking. The answer to the question you seem to be asking is "you move the mouse over the thing you want to drag and drop, hold down the button, move the mouse over the Snap! window, and let go" but I'm sure you know that already.