Does any other program (windows or linux) do screenshot annotationefficiently?

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:53:20 -0400 Tony Cooper wrote:

Q1: When you text, must you draw a bounding box first?
No, in Photoshop and Elements.

Good! Efficiency & ease of use is what I'd expect if I paid
for these programs.

Q2: When you draw arrows, do you only need to draw the beginning
and end points, and can you subsequently modify the curve?

No, in Photoshop and Elements. You have a wide choice of arrows
(straight, curved, curve direction, barb style, etc), dashed lines and
such. An arrow is like a type character and can be set to size,
position, shape, and color. And, it can be rotated.

Hmm... I'm going to presume that means the arrows have an ease
of use that is expected, even though I'm not sure how they work
if you can't set the starting and ending points easily, and then
subsequently modify the curve to flow around obstacles.

Q3: When you draw an open circle, is the task as efficient
as simply sweeping out the desired area?
Yes,

Good. Of the three critical annotation tasks, this was the one
that is most often in most programs - but it's on the short list
because some freeware (e.g., Gimp) can't do it easily, even though
the task is considered a basic one in screenshot annotation.

I thank you for the answers for Photoshop and Elements.
I'm a bit confused about the arrow answer - but I presume from
your tone that the arrows are easy & intuitive.

It turns out that the arrows are the HARDEST feature to find
in freeware! That, and simple texting without drawing bounding boxes
(although all freeware does texting but not few freeware does arrowing).

If I had to pick the ONE critical task, it's ease of arrowing that
distinguishes one package from another - therefore it's good to know
that Elements and Photoshop apparently do arrows easily and efficiently.

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:53:20 -0400 Tony Cooper wrote:
What you are using is a nice little program, but it's not a new
religion or a cure for cancer.

I heartily agree.

In fact, I hate some things about Paint.NET on Windows, such as the
fact it is slow as a dog (compared to, say, Irfanview); but, man,
does it do arrows well!

I'll be the arrowing on Paint.NET is (almost?) as good as what you
said Elements and Photoshop has. And, the texting is a simple click
and type (which is the way it should be).

Unfortunately, on Linux, it's bothersome that the best I can find,
Kolourpaint, doesn't really do arrows at all (you have to manually draw
them and you can't easily reshape them and it's nearly impossible to dash
them and you have to manually draw the arrow points, etc.).

Plus, you have to draw bounding boxes before you can text in Kolourpaint.

So, I never said they were the cure for cancer - but - they're free - and,
they're the best I can find for the task of annotating screenshots. If
someone suggests better freeware - I'd be ecstatic to test it out.

I'm not interested in converting you to an Adobe product, and I'm
certainly not interested in stepping back to a minor program.

This thread originally did not have alt.graphics.photoshop on it; that
newsgroup was added to get the answer of how efficiently payware programs
handled the three critical tasks:
a) Texting by simply typing
b) Arrowing by simply choosing the points
c) Circling by simply sweeping the area

Of course, there are other tasks (but most freeware does them well already):
d) Cropping (especially limiting the cropping to a given ratio, such as 4:3)
e) Saving as another format (especially with vectors, layers & transparency)
f) Creating collages (mixing photos together as a single composition)

Most people don't buy a program to annotate screen shots. That's one
use, but we buy programs to do that and many other things.

I agree the professionals have harder goals. For example, one thing I've
found hard to find in freeware is a good "magic wand" such that you can
cut a person out of one photo and insert into another background photo.

But you don't have that tougher problem set with screenshot annotations.

On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:31:54 +0200 Rikishi42 wrote:

I find that Irfanview does those tasks rather wall,
actually. What do you find wrong with it ?

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear that Irfanview is a great program.

Irfanview is the best freeware out there for some thing:
- It's fast -- really really fast!
- It crops efficiently -- almost perfectly (it just needs ratioing)
- It converts to most other formats nicely
- It gives Windows users batch rotation & resizing & renaming
etc.

But, if you've ever used Irfanviews' "Paint Dialog" to edit out
your name and other information from a screenshot, you'll want to
pull your hair out in frustration (as compared to, say, the ease
of performing those same tasks in Linux Kolourpaint).

And, if you've ever tried to draw arrows in Irfanview, for screenshot
annotation, you're crazy (once you see how well Windows Paint.NET does
arrows).

And, IIRC, Irfanview requires you to have to draw a bounding box just
to type simple text (although, if Irfanview did arrowing and editing
better, I'd probably settle for the way it does text as I already
settled for the bounding-box method on Linux 'cuz I can't find any
freeware on Linux that does texting efficiently).

On 2013-04-21 20:43:56 -0700, "Danny D." said:

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:53:20 -0400 Tony Cooper wrote:

Q1: When you text, must you draw a bounding box first?
No, in Photoshop and Elements.

Good! Efficiency & ease of use is what I'd expect if I paid
for these programs.

Q2: When you draw arrows, do you only need to draw the beginning
and end points, and can you subsequently modify the curve?

No, in Photoshop and Elements. You have a wide choice of arrows
(straight, curved, curve direction, barb style, etc), dashed lines and
such. An arrow is like a type character and can be set to size,
position, shape, and color. And, it can be rotated.

Hmm... I'm going to presume that means the arrows have an ease
of use that is expected, even though I'm not sure how they work
if you can't set the starting and ending points easily, and then
subsequently modify the curve to flow around obstacles.

Q3: When you draw an open circle, is the task as efficient
as simply sweeping out the desired area?
Yes,

Good. Of the three critical annotation tasks, this was the one
that is most often in most programs - but it's on the short list
because some freeware (e.g., Gimp) can't do it easily, even though
the task is considered a basic one in screenshot annotation.

I thank you for the answers for Photoshop and Elements.
I'm a bit confused about the arrow answer - but I presume from
your tone that the arrows are easy & intuitive.

It turns out that the arrows are the HARDEST feature to find
in freeware! That, and simple texting without drawing bounding boxes
(although all freeware does texting but not few freeware does arrowing).

If I had to pick the ONE critical task, it's ease of arrowing that
distinguishes one package from another - therefore it's good to know
that Elements and Photoshop apparently do arrows easily and efficiently.

As far as a technically free (it is part of the Mac OS bundle)
application I use for simple annotation, including arrows, is "Preview".
So I can do stuff like this.
http://db.tt/TvLjnQMr

--
Regards,

Savageduck

In article 2013042121394580278-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom,
Savageduck wrote:

As far as a technically free (it is part of the Mac OS bundle)
application I use for simple annotation, including arrows, is "Preview".
So I can do stuff like this.
http://db.tt/TvLjnQMr

preview does what he needs but he doesn't have a mac.

Danny D. wrote:
Q: Does any other freeware program do screenshot annotation efficiently?

While almost all programs perform almost all tasks, the three
critical screenshot annotation tasks that are often implemented
inefficiently a

Try googling

screenshot annotation

if that's what you want, rather than "proving" that image
editors aren't screenshot annotators.

BugBear

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:39:45 -0700 Savageduck wrote:

As far as a technically free (it is part of the Mac OS bundle)
application I use for simple annotation, including arrows, is "Preview".
So I can do stuff like this.
http://db.tt/TvLjnQMr

I was on Linux when I saw this, so, I had the best of the worst
for arrows - but sometimes it's nice to have curved arrows as
shown here for your photo.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/.../12755909.jpeg

Does this Macintosh application curve them?

NOTE: The Windows Paint.NET arrows are vastly superior to what I drew
just now with Kolourpaint on Linux - but the point is the same.

On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:23:32 -0400 nospam wrote:

preview does what he needs but he doesn't have a mac.

This is the USENET, so, we have all types - therefore, it's nice
to answer the questions for all three major platforms:

Best freeware arrows on Windows: Paint.NET (far better than all the others)
Best freeware arrows on Linux: Kolourpaint (just so so ... nothing special)
Best freeware arrows on Mac: Preview? (but does it text & circle?)

Arrows are very important when screenshot anontating because you
may wish to flow around objects in a graceful way that follows
the inherent curves of the screenshot.

On 2013-04-22 08:26:04 -0700, "Danny D." said:

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:39:45 -0700 Savageduck wrote:

As far as a technically free (it is part of the Mac OS bundle)
application I use for simple annotation, including arrows, is "Preview".
So I can do stuff like this.
http://db.tt/TvLjnQMr

I was on Linux when I saw this, so, I had the best of the worst
for arrows - but sometimes it's nice to have curved arrows as
shown here for your photo.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/.../12755909.jpeg

Does this Macintosh application curve them?

No. It is only intended for making on the fly simple annotations.

With Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, where you have several ways of
going about dealing with this sort of thing using text layers and
vector graphics all sorts of stuff is possible. Unfortunately you are
only seeking free solutions in the Linux World, so there is little
point in going further. However, it might be worthwhile for you to
check "Inkscape".
http://inkscape.org/

NOTE: The Windows Paint.NET arrows are vastly superior to what I drew
just now with Kolourpaint on Linux - but the point is the same.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:57:33 +0100 bugbear wrote:

Try googling screenshot annotation
if that's what you want, rather than "proving" that image
editors aren't screenshot annotators.

Interesting point, especially when it comes to freeware.

Since you're experienced with freeware, you're aware that the goal
is to have as few programs as possible that get the job done.

The main job for screenshot editors, is, basically, the following
[ ] Crop (preferably with an option for standard aspect ratios such as 4:3)
[ ] Read & convert to/from desired formats (certainly jpg, gif, & png)
[ ] Cut & paste & move objects on the screen (layers & transparency are helpful)
[ ] Annotate text (with standard font, color, & transparency options)
[ ] Circle objects (again, with standard color, thickness, & shape options)
[ ] Point to objects (this is the hardest of all features to find in freeware)

Since most image editors handle most of those tasks, my point is
contrary to yours, in that I feel image editors can certainly perform
screenshot annotations.

However, the hardest feature to find in freeware image editors is
the "arrowing" feature. In fact, on Linux, I still have never found
an image editor that handles arrows anywhere near as well as Paint.NET
does on Windows.

And, on Windows, no other image editor handles arrows as well as
Paint.NET does. Why not? I'm not sure - but kudos to whomever it is
that wrote Paint.NET as only they understood arrows.

I'm told, from the professional folks on a.g.p that Photoshop and
Elements handle arrows well, so, again, we have the case that image
editors can certainly perform screenshot annotation tasks.

I will take a look at the screenshot annotators for Linux, but, from
a quick scan, most seem to concentrate on the image-capture task, which
is so trivial to accomplish at a single keyclick on all operating
systems that I have to wonder why they promote the capture task so
much. But I'll take a look & report back, just in case there's a good
one out there on Linux just waiting to be discovered.