Can't make text object background opaque; text "fades" over dark parts of images

[cathie28]

I've read everything & tried everything to get the background of a text object (text box) to be completely solid & block out all of the image or screen capture.  I've played w/ this a LOT & can't get it right.

Even if the transparency value = 255, & a bright color is selected for background, once edited image is saved, the text box background color is transparent / washed out, & the text (even bright red, bolded) is almost impossible to read over darker parts of a screen or image.  Like the part circled in red in attachment.  The area of an image doesn't have to be nearly black in order for the text to become unreadable.  I haven't seen these problems in other screen capture prgms or drawing prgms that allow a solid color background for text boxes.

This is a very common problem for me, entering text over screens or images where brightness of pic varies considerably from lightest to darkest area.  As long as the pic is all fairly light, added text comments are readable.  Any suggestions?

I also notice that as I'm entering the text, it's often quite "fuzzy" & sometimes part of letters are cut off -like at beginning of a line.  But, after saving the image & opening w/ a viewer, the text (other than above mentioned probs) is clean / even & not cut off at beginning of a line???

I tried uploading a small png file - doesn't seem to indicate / have an "add image" or "load image" button, once it's selected from my HDD.

[kunkel321]

Try changing the Blend Mode (bottom).
"Normal" should do the trick.

[kunkel321]

Actually I'm surprised Mouser doesn't already have a "Difference" blend mode.  It gives a "negative" effect, which allows you to make out the image, but ensures that the object contrasts with it.  See image that I edited in a high-end graphics app:

[mouser]

Kunkel beat me to it -- sounds like you need to adjust the blend mode.
I'll look into adding Difference.

[cathie28]

Thank you both, very much.  I don't have latest v3 installed, but Help file section on "Text Box Objects" doesn't show the option "blend mode."  See image of Help file.
Probably why I couldn't figure it out.  I knew there must be an easy answer.

** Other issue I mentioned - when typing in a text box, if screen size selected (at top, R of window) is Auto Fit, or 50% or apparently anything EXCEPT 100%, the text characters are partly cut off at line beginnings & characters are often unreadable, to the point I can't tell what I've typed.  Appear to be missing pixels.

Maybe that's unavoidable when screen is anything but 100% (w/ current coding for text box objects)?  Sure, users can set screen size at 100% while adding text boxes, but from a user's perspective, images don't get intermittent blurring / pixels missing when selecting Auto Fit or 50% size.  Not noticeably, anyway.

Is there another setting to fix the blurry text / characters cut off, when using reduced screen sizes?

[kunkel321]

Hmmm...   At first I thought it might be an affect of anti-alias vs non-anti-alias, but upon further examination, I'm not sure. 

It seems like There needs to be an option to increase the space between characters.  In the screen pic above, it's 11 point Arial font, and most of the characters are 6 pixels-wide, but SC is only allowing 5 pixels per character, so the right side of each is getting chopped off.  I'm not sure about the issue of the first letter missing....  I couldn't replicate that effect.

RE Help file:  I image Mouser will want to work out all the bugs and such before redoing the manual.  I did see in the "Current Changes" log where blending was introduced a couple months ago...

[kunkel321]

On the character-spacing thing; I see that Left, Right, and Center Justification all work as expected, but Full-Width Justification doesn't seem to 'stretch' the line as one might expect.  Maybe this is a related problem(?)

Cosmetic note for Mouser:  Looks like the three style buttons B I U might be overlapping their Label...

[mouser]

Note also that while editing the text, it is by default shown in a faster draft mode than when you finish and turn off object editing mode (by clicking the cursor with the Red O on the toolbar); it is only after turning off editing mode that you see what the text box is really going to look like.  That's done to improve the speed of editing -- but i may look into ways to improve this.

[kunkel321]

Ah yes, turning off object mode does help.  Still some letters being cut off.  For example capital "A" at 12 point Arial.
Also, I see that the 'Full Text Justification' does work, but you have to use it on a full paragraph box, not just a single line box.

[cathie28]

Hmmm...     (see attachment in previous post)  I'm not sure about the issue of the first letter missing....  I couldn't replicate that effect.

-kunkel321 (February 13, 2012, 11:24 AM)

Just to remind, the 1st character on a line being cut off - as in attached screen (using L justifications), only seems to happen when using screen size SMALLER than 100%.  Did you try it at 50% or autofit w/ left justification & font size of ~ 20?  In your screen from earlier reply, shows at 300+%.  Try it at 50% & see if cuts off 1st letters on each line.

I do understand about initial text box typing being in a faster draft mode, but for me, some of the type is almost unreadable as I'm typing (when using < 100% screen size).

[kunkel321]

I think I'm seeing the effect--though it's not as distinct as what you're seeing...

I think it's the same issue as in the above discussion.
Regarding the 'Auto fit,' that only seems to make a difference if you are editing a large image...  All it does (I think) is set whatever zoom level is needed for the image to fit in the SC work area.
In the picture, top is during editing and shows the glitch.  Bottom is "Object off" mode, and looks better.  I think the saved image file will always look like  the bottom one because SC has to "flatten" the image in order to save it to file.  

Also, it occurs to me that having a font below 10 or so is irrelevant, because that's too small so make out the text on any computer screen anyway...  (The above image uses 20)  Are you planning to print a manual?  Do a Powerpoint Presentation?

[cathie28]

No, not going to print a manual  - but yes, inserting images w/ text box comments into other documents is a definite use / possibility.  Many times, the text would be several lines - but not 20 lines.  If I only did a couple text boxes a month, wouldn't worry about it.  Maybe the font used makes a difference in how badly it's "fuzzed out" or cut off characters are during edit mode.  Though Arial True Type (used in my examples) is pretty standard, easy to read.

Biggest point is, I don't see these 2 issues in other prgms that allow text boxes w/ color backgrounds & allow selecting font type / size.  I really like the way SSC does a lot of things -better than many other prgms, like making editing added objects very easy.  But cutting off part / all of 1st character on every line & intermittent "missing" or almost unreadable letters while typing, aren't things I've experienced w/ other prgms.  Don't pretend to be a coder, but that suggests it's likely possible to correct these 2 issues to a large degree.

Could it be the WAY SSC handles reducing the size of text box & text if < 100% screen size is selected?  Yes, in some other prgms, if screen size (zoom) is reduced, the added text becomes fuzziER, but at say 50%, letters don't disappear or become unreadable.  So far, haven't seen any others that cut off any of the 1st letter on a line, no matter what the selected screen size.

Depending on WHICH letter, I often can't tell if I even typed the 1st letter - unless get out of edit mode.

[mouser]

Depending on WHICH letter, I often can't tell if I even typed the 1st letter - unless get out of edit mode.

yeah let me see what i can do about that.