Image Filters - line, arrow, paint ...

mrag

Posts: 270
Registered: 26-Jul-2003

Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Aug 11, 21:13

While an "improved" crop tool is still at the top of my list (hint below):
http://jalbum.net/forum/thread.jspa?threadID=37858&start=15&tstart=0

I would like something to draw an "arrow" which would be handy if you had added text and wanted to point out what the text might be referring to. If I couldn't have the arrow, I'd consider a "line" drawing tool or a "paint brush" so I could draw my own arrows

In theory, the paint brush might also act like a highlighter.

___________________
Right now I can utilize the "open with" tool to, say use Irfanview to add lines or arrows to my original. After saving in Irfanview, the jAlbum edit window will even pick up the newly changed original and immediately show it. The changes though will NOT show on the thumbnail (explore view). Might there be a "refresh" option there?

But what if I did not want to mark up the original, I only want to mark up the "slide" image I am seeing in edit view. There is no 'right click' ability now in edit mode. Might there be to perhaps only open that future 'slide' image in Irfanview. Maybe even also add a "copy" or duplicate function-say I wanted to compare a regular image to one getting a Sepia treatment and I wanted both images in my finished album, but did not want to copy the original, rename it and reposition it when starting the album. Or maybe I only realized it after starting the album.

And for what it's worth, Irfanview has lousy arrows.

mrag

Posts: 270
Registered: 26-Jul-2003

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 6 Jun 13, 02:26

in response to: mrag

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These ideas have been around for quite a while and I believe "accepted" and "approved" for implementation. And to these I would add the background color chooser for widgets. Also previously discussed and accepted as worthwhile. Right now the widget background is basically black. It would be nice to be able to select white (or maybe even transparent) ON THE jAlbum WIDGETS tab instead of having to do it in the skin.

To summarize:
1) improved crop tool (details noted above)
2) arrow, line drawing added to image tools (vastly improves jAlbum's communication capabilities)
3) widget background (big leap aesthetically)

RobM

Posts: 3,932
Registered: 4-Aug-2006

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 6 Jun 13, 23:52

in response to: mrag

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Can you remind me why you think the Widget tab is the better place for changing the widget's background colour? Black, White or Transparent is such a limited set, and having it built into the skin's theme seems to me the better way to go.

mrag

Posts: 270
Registered: 26-Jul-2003

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 7 Jun 13, 06:49

in response to: RobM

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RobM wrote:
Can you remind me why you think the Widget tab is the better place for changing the widget's background colour?

Because there are 100+ skins that might need changing versus one change to the widget tab? And that assumes no style sheet changes are needed.

RobM

Posts: 3,932
Registered: 4-Aug-2006

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 7 Jun 13, 18:39

in response to: mrag

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mrag wrote:
Because there are 100+ skins that might need changing versus one change to the widget tab? And that assumes no style sheet changes are needed.

I guess though that there is little demand from most users and many skin developers, based on the number of requests posted for alternative widget colouring. Since this is a 'design' aspect of the produced web pages, I think it would be better as a skin setting. Also, changing the background colour may necessitate that the foreground colour is changed, and that might result in hard to read text.

If such a feature is added to the widget tab then it would make it confusing for users of (the few) skins that already offer such a feature.

mrag

Posts: 270
Registered: 26-Jul-2003

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Jun 13, 00:24

in response to: RobM

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In my dream world, my first choice is the ability to draw an arrow and maybe a balloon area for a comment. jAlbum could be a great educational tool-"picture worth a 1000 words" and picture with properly pointed arrow worth 2000. This is followed by my 'cropping' which is probably even more worthy than an arrow given the different cameras and ratios they now can shoot at (16:9, 4:3, etc). Think of a wedding and 100 people with 150 cameras AND 100 cell phones and you get photos from all of them. What final size slides you want in your album?

The widget color thing would be last on my list, but my feeling is you do better asking for a lot and then be grateful when you get something. But I was trying to keep that strategy from David so he wouldn't catch on to my plan

Here is the code Shuffle uses in index.htt to have a 'white' widget bar with its "light" style (Shuffle only has two styles, 'light' and 'dark.')

<%-- used to create a WHITE widget bar instead of default black IF widgets selected at all --%>
<ja:if test="<%= "dark.css".equals(style) %>">
<script type="text/javascript">
_jaWidgetBarColor = "black";
</script>
</ja:if>
<ja:else>
<script type="text/javascript">
_jaWidgetBarColor = "white";
</script>
</ja:else>

I'm certainly open to changing that code to whatever you recommend to meet the same needs. Thanks.

RobM

Posts: 3,932
Registered: 4-Aug-2006

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Jun 13, 02:19

in response to: mrag

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Be careful what you wish for

For the widget code I use a checkbox (customWidget) in the UI to select custom or standard widget design. Then in the .htt pages (a reduced and slightly modified, as I use a custom variable for rootPath), just before the widget code.

<ja:if test="${customWidget}">
  <ja:switch test="${style}">
    <ja:case value="transparent.css">
	<%
	  customWidgetBarColor = "_jaWidgetBarColor = \"white\";";
	  customWidgetStyle = "_jaWidgetStyle = \"" + rootPath + "/res/custom_widgets/widgets-transparent.css\";";
	%>
    </ja:case>
    <ja:default>
      <%
	customWidgetBarColor = "";
	customWidgetStyle = "";
      %>
    </ja:default>
  </ja:switch>
</ja:if>

you can see that this loads a 'customWidgetStyle' CSS file for the selected 'Style'.
That style file contains all the code, a bit long to repeat here, but it is in the Notables skin with comments!. An example of the effect is here

jimberry

Posts: 512
Registered: 30-Aug-2004

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Jun 13, 04:50

in response to: mrag

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mrag wrote:
In my dream world, my first choice is the ability to draw an arrow and maybe a balloon area for a comment.

That should really be doable with the Text filter, if only it would accept the WingDings3 font (see image below)
If you could persuade David to modify the text filter to accept the WebDings family of fonts, that should achieve most of your dream.
In the meantime, if you change your default image editor from Irfanview to LibreOffice Draw (or one of its competitors), you could easily "draw an arrow and maybe a balloon area" on your original, as in this image

davidekholm

Posts: 3,679
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Jun 13, 18:11

in response to: jimberry

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I hope I can clone myself

. I'd really like to implement these things, but isn't there some daring developer out there that wishes to give it a shot? The source code for all jAlbum image tools and filters is open.

mrag

Posts: 270
Registered: 26-Jul-2003

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Jun 13, 20:55

in response to: jimberry

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What I really want to know is if that is a photo of you (Jim) sitting on the stool with the bird?

Actually I can draw arrows (and cloud comments albeit a tad more difficult) using Irfanview now. It's just an added step in the process. Irfanview's big advantage-it starts FAST. At one point I thought we could have multiple instances of "Open with" when it was only a JAEXT file. Now it is incorporated with the main program. Does anyone know how to have multiple versions so one could in theory choose say Irfanview for something quick and LibreOffice for the more "detailed?" The multi browser preview is easy to set up that way, just don't know about this one.

If anyone out there cares to offer an opinion on the value of having a line, arrow tool, colored widgets, etc, now would be an excellent and opportune time to speak up!

davidekholm

Posts: 3,679
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 8 Jun 13, 22:54

in response to: mrag

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OpenWith.jaext (6.8 KB)

mrag wrote:
Actually I can draw arrows (and cloud comments albeit a tad more difficult) using Irfanview now. It's just an added step in the process. Irfanview's big advantage-it starts FAST. At one point I thought we could have multiple instances of "Open with" when it was only a JAEXT file. Now it is incorporated with the main program. Does anyone know how to have multiple versions so one could in theory choose say Irfanview for something quick and LibreOffice for the more "detailed?" The multi browser preview is easy to set up that way, just don't know about this one.

Good idea! I've modified OpenWith.jaext (attached) so you can simply make a copy of it. Each copy will now install itself as an "Open with" entry that you can configure to what program you prefer.

jimberry

Posts: 512
Registered: 30-Aug-2004

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 12 Jun 13, 05:56

in response to: mrag

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mrag wrote:
What I really want to know is if that is a photo of you (Jim) sitting on the stool with the bird?
If anyone out there cares to offer an opinion on the value of having a line, arrow tool, colored widgets, etc, now would be an excellent and opportune time to speak up!

I have just uploaded an album at http://jimberry.jalbum.net/speechbubbles/index.html which uses the jAlbum "Text" image tool to place arrows on the image to identify what the text is referring to. The arrows used are available as "special characters" in most word processors and although they may not be directly available from the text box, you can copy and paste from a text document.

While specific "line", "arrow" and "text balloon" tools would be an advantage, I suspect that it will be a long time before "some daring developer" shows up to implement them, and this seems an easy workaround.

Edited by: jimberry on 7 Aug 2022, 09:27
corrected link to speechbubbles album

davidekholm

Posts: 3,679
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 12 Jun 13, 17:52

in response to: jimberry

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Thanks for the hint!

jimberry

Posts: 512
Registered: 30-Aug-2004

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 12 Jun 13, 19:30

in response to: davidekholm

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I am not sure whether this is a limitation of Java, but neither the classic Text filter nor the Image edit Text filter will recognise any of the dingbats ttf fonts. If there was a way to enable these fonts, then "Text Balloons" would also become available without having to write a new filter.

RobM

Posts: 3,932
Registered: 4-Aug-2006

Re: Image Filters - line, arrow, paint brush tool
Posted: 13 Jun 13, 01:19

in response to: jimberry

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arrows.png (299.3 KB)

jimberry wrote:
I am not sure whether this is a limitation of Java, but neither the classic Text filter nor the Image edit Text filter will recognise any of the dingbats ttf fonts.

It is not a limitation of Java as I can see Zapf Dingbats in the list of fonts in the image edit Text Filter (Mac OS X). To enter arrows and other unicode characters though, you just open the 'Character Viewer' and double click the character you want and it appears at the insertion point, see screen grab example.

For OS X users who don't know how to open the Character Viewer go to System Preferences, Keyboard and tick "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar". Then go to the Menu Bar and click on the new menu item and select "Show Character Viewer".