Author Topic: Keyboard nudge x 10 and pan last region (Read 19026 times)

DanielMa975 · « **on:** January 20, 2018, 06:52 PM »

I've been using HyperSnap for years but thought I'd check out ScreenshotCaptor. So far, I think it has a lot of nice features, but there are a couple things I miss from HyperSnap and can't figure out how to do:

For region captures, I'd like to be able to use Shift+Arrow to nudge 10 pixels at a time in each direction.
I'd like an option to have the "fixed size region" be the same size as my most recent region capture (in HyperSnap, this is called "pan last capture").

I also noticed a couple more minor things (on Windows 10):

The toolbar buttons in the built-in editor don't seem to resize based on the global scale setting in Windows Display Settings > Change the size of text, apps, and other items (they are super tiny w/ a 4K monitor).
The Preferences dialog can get buried behind other windows and doesn't reappear if you attempt to reopen it from the tray menu.

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2018, 08:19 PM »

Welcome, Daniel.

First let's start by saying that all of your requests are good ones. Some you can do already easily, some are on my todo list.

Let's take them in order:

1. For region captures, I'd like to be able to use Shift+Arrow to nudge 10 pixels at a time in each direction.

You can use shift, alt, ctrl combined with cursor keys to tweak the selected-region capture box once you start selecting a region in selected region capture mode. There is also an alternative "redbox" region selection mode that gives you a bit more options about resizing selected region capture though it takes a couple more clicks.

2. I'd like an option to have the "fixed size region" be the same size as my most recent region capture (in HyperSnap, this is called "pan last capture").

There is a hotkey for recapturing same exact region. And another hotkey for capturing a "Fixed size" region. I am int he process of adding a feature to let you easily cycle through your "favorite" capture region sizes once you have triggered a region capture.

The toolbar buttons in the built-in editor don't seem to resize based on the global scale setting in Windows Display Settings > Change the size of text, apps, and other items (they are super tiny w/ a 4K monitor).

This has been requested a couple of times laterly. I tried a 4k monitor and hated it so it's not a problem I have. But I did find a good solution to have larger toolbar icons and it should be in a new release very soon.

The Preferences dialog can get buried behind other windows and doesn't reappear if you attempt to reopen it from the tray menu.

That sounds like a bug, I will try to reproduce and fix.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2018, 08:49 PM »

Thanks for your speedy reply

You can use shift, alt, ctrl combined with cursor keys to tweak the selected-region capture box once you start selecting a region in selected region capture mode.

Hmm, I have tried this several times, and the modifier keys don't seem to do anything. No matter what I do, the cursor keys only move one pixel at a time. Is this a setting that has to be turned on? If not, something is not working properly for me.

Glad to hear two of the other items are in the works.

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2018, 09:19 PM »

Hmm, I have tried this several times, and the modifier keys don't seem to do anything. No matter what I do, the cursor keys only move one pixel at a time.

Yeah sorry I should have been clearer -- it's always one pixel at a time. The modifiers just control whether you are moving the top left or bottom right corner or both.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 22, 2018, 11:42 AM »

Ahh gotcha. So would you consider a feature that allows 10 pixels at a time?

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** January 22, 2018, 12:59 PM »

Sure, as long as we can find an unused modifier for it.. perhaps ctrl+shift+arrows..

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 22, 2018, 04:20 PM »

From what I can see, Shift+Arrow moves the whole rectangular selection, Alt+Arrow moves the top-left corner, and Arrow by itself moves the bottom-right corner. Ctrl+Arrow doesn't seem to do anything different than Arrow by itself. I'm guessing Ctrl+Arrow is for something I'm just not seeing, but if not, then Ctrl+Arrow would be a good choice for 10-pixel nudge. Otherwise, yes, Shift+Ctrl+Arrow would be sensible.

ETA: From the help, it sounds like Ctrl-Arrow is supposed to adjust the size of the selected area symmetrically, but this is not working for me.

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** January 22, 2018, 04:54 PM »

You are right, ctrl+arrow doesnt seem to do anything different from regular arrow. Shift+Arrow moves the whole box.
The other thing I may try to do is speed up the movement of cursor controls..

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** February 15, 2018, 05:54 PM »

I'm not saying I won't implement the 10 pixel nudge function, but I have a question -- is the need for an exact accurate 10 pixel nudge ability, or is the problem simply that the current keyboard adjustment is too slow?

I have uploaded a beta with accelerated keyboard nudging speed in region select mode, so now holding down a cursor key to nudge is now be dramatically faster and smoother than it was before, and it works with all of the modifiers (shift, alt).

Give it a try and let me know what you think:

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 15, 2018, 06:21 PM »

Speeding up is helpful, but not equivalent because 10-pixel nudge allow for "shrink-wrap selection" of irregular shapes. It's hard to explain without a video, but it basically allows you to find the extreme top edge, then move some multiple of 10 pixels away from that to find the extreme left edge (repeat with right and bottom edges). Without the 10 pixel nudge, this takes far too much counting.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** February 15, 2018, 06:44 PM »

What about a single keyboard shortcut that expanded capture box symmetrically by X pixels in one shot? Are you always wanting to expand the capture region by same amount?

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 15, 2018, 06:50 PM »

That might be helpful as well (for creating a margin around a selection) but I don't think it solves the same problem of shrink-wrapping.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 15, 2018, 06:54 PM »

Imagine trying to select the Modify icon without any missing or extra pixels on any edge.

mouser · « **Reply #13 on:** February 15, 2018, 07:00 PM »

I guess I am a bit confused.. I use the zoom overlay when I want to capture something to exact boundaries.. I use the mouse to get close and then nudge a couple of pixels to get it exact.

Is it that you are basically selecting one corner and then you know you need to go say 16 pixels right and down, and so you want to be able to go +10 and then +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 without having to do much eyeballing?

Can you try the new version and see if the acceleration helps? I can see why if you had to count out 16 (or 32) clicks exactly then it would be a pain to have to do it using sixteen +1 nudges..

It just seems to me that with the acceleration, zoom panel, and tooltip showing the capture size, it would be pretty efficient to get it approximately right and the tweak one or two pixels to get it exact, rather than counting out.

Related question: If the issue is getting exact SIZED captures of small things (rather than eyeballing with overlay window, etc), then perhaps you would benefit most from the feature I am about to add that lets you use 1-9 key to adjust capture region size to one of a set of user-configurable "favorite" sizes. Then you could set sizes of 16x16, 32x32, etc. and easily select them..

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 15, 2018, 07:09 PM »

I'll have to get back to you. I just boarded a plane

It's not a counting issue though. It's when the extreme edges of an object are not at the corners (like a diamond shape).

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** February 15, 2018, 07:28 PM »

I look forward to hearing more..

You've actually given me an idea as well.. I could add a hotkey feature that auto grows (or shrinks) the region border by detecting uniform background, much in the way a lasso function works..
You would select a region outside the image and it would contract the region walls as long as the background on each side continued to be uniform. That would let you capture small objects very precisely with little effort.
If it started by EXPANDING the region if borders didn't start out uniform, it could be used both in cases where you initially select a region larger than the object, or in cases where you selected some interior region including the object of interest.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 15, 2018, 07:35 PM »

Okay last post before I have to go into airplane mode. Magic wand feature would be terrific.

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** February 15, 2018, 08:27 PM »

Magic wand feature would be terrific.

Yeah but one thing I am keen to avoid is I don't want to implement things twice.. SC already has a magic wand selector in the main image editing mode, and I don't want to implement a second one.. It's tricky because this issue has come up before when talking about region select mode -- I use to recommend everyone just always capture full screen and then select and crop from the editor. But I have realized that region select mode is what people prefer, to select a small region from the start, rather than capture full screen and edit/crop/etc.

But I still need to avoid trying to make selection mode over feature filled to the point where it is competing with normal SC editing mode. So I'm not sure a full magic wand is called for, but maybe something simple and quick..

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 19, 2018, 08:20 PM »

I just tried out the magic wand in the editing mode, and it actually doesn't do what I want (at least not easily). I'm looking for a shrink-wrapped rectangular selection, not to select all pixels of a particular color. I can achieve the shrink-wrapped selection pretty well with the rectangular selection tool in the editing mode (thanks to being able to move the edges of the selection box after making an initial selection), but it would definitely be nice to have a one-click way to do this within the editing mode. Perhaps it could be called "shrink-wrap select".

As for the original request, the 10-pixels at a time would still be a nice convenience and help users who come from other tools that have the feature (like HyperSnap), but the editing mode somewhat compensates for not having it if people are willing to put in the effort to learn how to use it.

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** February 19, 2018, 08:27 PM »

I'm looking for a shrink-wrapped rectangular selection.

Please try the brand new "auto adjust region" option under the edit mode in the main sc editing window in the new beta and see how it works for you - it does what we are saying, shrink-wraps the current selection.

NOTE: this function is only implemented so far in the sc editor, NOT the region capture mode -- I understand you want it in the region capture mode.
So for you to use it you would just select a rough region when capturing, and then in the main editor do select-all then edit-> auto adjust.
But if it works well for you then I can maybe add it to the region capture mode itself.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 19, 2018, 08:48 PM »

I'll let you know when I get a chance to download and check it out. Sounds great, though. I don't mind it being in the editing mode.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 16, 2018, 05:16 PM »

@mouser,

I just downloaded the latest (4.29.0). Unfortunately, I'm having major issues with region select now:

It magnifies what's on the screen, which in itself could be helpful, but when I copy the image to the clipboard, it's still magnified, not normal sized. This is definitely not what I'd expect or what I want.
I don't seem to be able to use the cursor key nudge feature at all anymore. If I single press a cursor key, nothing happens. If I hold down a cursor key, it eventually starts moving then suddenly goes way too fast and flies past where I want it to be. I just want it to work the way I suggested. Press a cursor key and it moves one pixel. Press shift+cursor key and it moves 10 pixels. If I want to move any faster than 10 pixels at a time, I use the mouse.

For the moment, is there some setting I can adjust to allow it to return the previous behavior where there is no magnification and one press of a cursor key moves one pixel on the screen?

mouser · « **Reply #22 on:** April 16, 2018, 09:08 PM »

It magnifies what's on the screen

This is not being done on purpose. Can you go back to previous version and see if the magnification problem remains -- meaning it's due to some change in your system configuration.

DanielMa975 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 16, 2018, 09:15 PM »

Think I figured that part out. It's because my laptop is docked to two 4K monitors with the scale set to 175%.

The pixel nudge thing, however, doesn't seem to be related to that.

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** April 16, 2018, 09:28 PM »

Think I figured that part out. It's because my laptop is docked to two 4K monitors with the scale set to 175%.

SC should work fine on 4k monitors and monitors with non-100% dpi scaling, BUT there is a known issue that happens when you have monitors where one monitor has dpi scaling different than another (or may happen if you disconnect and reconnect such monitors). So it sounds like that might be your issue.

Regarding nudge -- let's deal with your request in a minute -- first tell me about this: "If I single press a cursor key, nothing happens." Can you confirm this? Testing here a single keypress always yields a single-pixel move.