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Author Topic: Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations  (Read 3854 times)

Renegade

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Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations
« on: October 05, 2012, 03:47 PM »
Ok, I know this will be a bit of an esoteric request, but just hear me out. I know it has broader applications than the initial description...

I often simply take screenshots of interesting things I see for future reference. e.g. I'm out of time, or want to do something later.

I also take screenshots of payment screens as a backup of the receipt page. (Obviously not with the credit card info though.)

It would be useful to have a "Grab & Annotate" feature (from a shortcut) where after the capture, a small dialog lets the user type a note about the capture, and then that text is saved into the metadata for the file.

Some creativity would be needed to decide on how to store the data in the image, but it's doable. e.g. MakerNote or UserComment EXIF data. (UserComment would be far better, I'd think.)

The most obvious problem is a reader (which would be relatively simple to do inside of SSC), as many imaging applications simply read from strictly defined specs, and neglect extended specs, and especially MakerNote, which is a complete disaster thanks to the various manufacturers all using proprietary binary data with no published specifications for it.

Personally, I'm a big fan of XML for "proprietary data formats" (because it's still basically human readable), but pure text would also work. (I'd choose XML as later on it can be changed very easily with additions or extensions.) Also, XML would allow using a rich text input for formatted text in HTML or whatever. (I'd run with HTML as it's easy and truckloads of existing code out there to do it both well and quickly.)

The idea is kind of like steganography, but just not "hidden".

I have no idea if that's something that fits in with your ideas or direction for SSC.
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mouser

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Re: Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2012, 04:05 PM »
SC already has a memo feature for every image, its the text area at the bottom of the image.. that text is saved in metat data of image.

So what you are asking for is 95% done already.

Renegade

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Re: Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2012, 04:34 PM »
Oh! When was that added?

Anyways, that's just what I need. Hadn't noticed it before. Guess there's a good reason why I'm wearing glasses now. :P :D
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mouser

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Re: Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2012, 04:39 PM »
day 1.

cranioscopical

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Re: Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2012, 06:17 PM »
day 1.
If you'd been a little more efficient and incorporated the feature sooner this kind of problem wouldn't have arisen.

mouser

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Re: Perhaps an Esoteric Feature Request - Annotations
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2012, 06:20 PM »