bug in dia (windows 2000, dia Version 0.9)

[siemsen <siemsen ossi fho-emden de>]

Hello,
dia is a wonderful idea. I like it.

When working with dia unter Windows 2000, I found what seemed
to be a bug. The problem is missing "transparency in images". I send
you an example enclosed, consisting of
1. the .dia file to verify (mydia.dia)
2. a screendump of that .dia file (visible_in_dia.jpg)
3. a screendump of what that .dia file produced when exported as png
   (after_dia_as_png.jpg)

What's wrong: if you insert an image to dia and that image is
a text with transparent background (produced for example by the
gimp; that image is controlled by PaintShopPro7 and is OK),
in the dia window, the image_text is transparent (OK, look
at 1. and the screenshot 2.). Then export that dia-source
to a .png or .eps-image (or .jpg or ..., I tried some formats).
Then the image_text is _not_ transparent (not OK; I checked it
with some different programs like PaintShopPro and The Gimp)
(while the normal written text in dia is transparent (OK)).

Imported transparent image-text to dia will be exported non-
transparent. In dia itself, it remains transparent even stored
as a .dia file and re-read.

Possible solution:
There is a frame for background in dia, which is fixed to white.
It should be possible to have the option "transparent". Then
transparent images could be exported without artificial white
background. And we could underlay to text different colors
in the background to emphasize parts of the text.

Thanks for dia!
Yours
Karl Hayo Siemsen

after_dia_as_png.jpg

mydia,dia

visible_in_dia.jpg