goddi

Dave, No, I don't want any background image; only the primary image will show. But, I am getting the feeling that the Style's aperature dim3ensions will not be adjustable, since you say you will 'define' the dimensions. Will the Style be adjustable for use on images that will not be exactly the same? Gary Gary

OOpppsss... Didn't notice that. I don't have 'light'. Maybe go to his site and do their 'Try It'. And see if you get the same problem to whether it does it outside of PTE. Just guessing. http://www.fonts.com/font/microsoft-corporation/calibri/light Gary

Greetings, I have Calibri and tried the font in my PTE v. 8.0.6. I am using Windows 8. I also can not reproduce the problem. See attached. Gary

Dave, Yes, this does relate to my original idea. In my original post, I have a picture of a boat. Let's say this image has the raw borders resulting from scanning a slide, similar to my recent posting. Actually, with the Mask, I'd probably need only the inside (or window or hole) adjustments, so the image would be in the center. Then I could adjust the 'Mask (Rectangle)' object or 'frame'. I hope this is making sense. See attached images... Gary ADDED LATER: I now just noticed that I can not add a border (Adjust image and border) around the 'Mask (Rectangle)'. It can only be added around the image (with the raw edges). Seems I am back to using just the 'Adjust image and border' to be able to accomplish both effects.

Dave, Yes, I understand that I can copy the Mask from slide a to slide b and then change the image. Though I'd rather place all the images into the slide list first, this method is workable for when I don't have to do it to a large amount of images. Hmmmm... a Style? Now you have me really going to the edge!!! I will give that a try. I am attaching an image that was scanned from a slide with the raw edges that need to be covered with a Mask. Much appreciated. Thanks...Gary

Yes, Dave, I have been to that page...many times. One thing that kept bugging me is that I did not want the 'rounded' corners when I selected the rectangle mask. It seemed that when I moved it to 100%, the mask disappeared. But now I see that the mask does remain and I can get the sharp edges. And I am now making simple masks that seem to do what I want. But...the difficulty is to copy and paste a mask from one slide to the other. For example, if I have already have the images in the show and later want to add the same mask to each of the images, it is not simple. I have to delete the image, paste the mask, and then re-add the image to the mask. This might seem strange but I had a show with images that had been scanned and all the images had these soft and rounded or black borders that you get when scanning slides. So I first wanted to make the show with the original scanned slide images. Then I wanted to get rid of the soft, rounded edges. So putting a rectangle with a hole in the middle (that had handles) would have been very simple, especially if you had a few hundred slides in the show. I can see how to do it with masks...but not as easily, in this situation. Doing a mask after having added the images, requires the removal of the image and doing the mask and then re-adding the image. At least this how I see it so far. But I am making progress. It seems that you have to create the mask first. Then add the image to the 'Mask Container' and then adjust the 'Mask (Rectangle)'. Thanks.... Gary

Lin, Great idea. Gary

Greetings Jt, Perhaps I am not seeing the forest for the trees. But all I initially wanted was a window inside the current rectangle that would have some handles to manipulate it. Handles on the outside and handles on the inside. If that could be done, sure why not do it for elliptics, etc....if it can be done. That is all I was asking. Most of the responses have been, "learn masks." I have tried to understand how to manipulate Dave's Project 1_1.pte example. But there are 4 objects to work with. I feel like I am trying to open a combination lock that I don't have the combination to. Ok, that is my problem but I am just trying to find if such a rectangle with a window can be programmed in PTE. If it can't, case closed. Thanks for the invitation to Munich. Maybe I'll keep trying to work on Dave's example, for now.... Thanks... Gary

Lin, I appreciate your explanation and understand about using higher res images for deep zooms. Thanks. My original question had to do with the final size of an MP4 file. When the MP4 file that was created using much smaller resized images came out to be a larger sized file then the OOC files, it made me wonder. So apparently the PTE's processing of the smaller sized images (from Faststone's resizing) actually increased the size of each of these smaller images. To me, that was strange but that seems the way it happens. Dave, I wish I could see a difference between the Low vs the High quality MP4 output. Peter, Originally, my efforts to create relatively smaller sized slideshows was not to burden the Beechbrook hosting site. Some even complained that they would not even attempt to download shows greater than a certain size. But, also, when I put them on a thumbdrive to carry around to show at friends homes, I'd rather just carry one thumbdrive. Recently, my wife wanted all of my shows (exe's and MP4's) to be put on her 64Gb thumbdrive. They all did not fit. So if I can make a slideshow as a smaller sized file, and not see any difference in quality, why not? Sure disk space is cheap, but there has to be some attention to conserve space. I just had to replace one of my three 500 Gb drives in my PC that I used for mostly images and slideshows with a 2 Tb drive. I hope I don't have to replace that one too soon. Gary

Lin, This has been a very interesting lesson for me. If I understand this right, and reducing the file size is the goal, resizing/reducing the images will help make the exe file size to be a smaller. But this does not necessarily work for making MP4s. So if I am trying to make my exe and MP4 files to be small in size, I should make one version with resized files for exes and then make another without resized files (original size) for making MP4s? Gary

Jt... Masks may be a way to create an 'object with a window' but, for me at least, I don't think you can add the word 'easy' to the application of masks. Not sure why I can't grasp their use, but I'd just rather not use them. They really seem too complicated. The way I look at it is, if you can make a rectangle object, why not be able to make a rectangle object with an adjustable hole? There might be good and valid reasons for not being able to do it but that is all I was asking for. Dave's post #5 does show how to do it with masks but much too difficult to deal with. I'd like something simple. Gary

Greetings Jt, Ok, now I am confused. You said " PTE was fed with your originals (high resolution images)....the large images had to be resized to the height of 1080 in order to do video encoding." So if images of 3008x2000 are used, PTE resizes them down to 'a height of 1080'? They why are we putting in large sized images to account for heavy zooms and pans to reduce pixelation? Not sure if I understand your point. But, then a light bulb just went off in my head. When making an MP4, I select 'HD 1929x1080', so that is where PTE is resizing the images (?). OK. So what happens to the images that were 3008x2000? They too get resized and you lose the larger file needed for the heavy panning or zooming? So to get a smaller MP4 file, I need to lower my 90% quality that I used when resizing the original images in Faststone and hope the quality does not suffer. I wonder if Igor can tell us what '%' his algorithm his process uses? Thanks... Gary

Dave, Yes, your post #14 example looks like what I would like to have, a rectangle with a window that has outer and inner dimensions that are independently variable. Peter, When I make a Suggestion, it can be for an improvement in something that I understand how to do, but perhaps can be made more intuitive or functional. But there are also Suggestions that I have not found a way to do accomplish. If someone can tell me how to do it, then, I think, it is not a workaround. It is just that I just did not know how to do it. But when someone can do it, but it is not eventually obvious or intuitive, then I might classify it as a workaround. I do appreciate you guys coming up with ways to do it, though it might not be an obvious way. This shows me that, perhaps, we do need a better solution. I don't think I was 'testing the waters'. It really was a serious suggestion to solve a problem that I was having with PTE. I am no programmer, but I don't think it would be a difficult task to create a rectangle with a window that has outer and inner dimensions that are independently variable. I wish I had thought of those words, from Dave, to describe what I was looking for. Thanks all for your input. I hope Igor can come up with something. Gary

Lin, Yes...for both (your example and the existing 'Add Rectangle') you get the 'Properties, Common and Animation' tabs. But the Properties Tab that shows with your example is a bit different (with Fill Mode and Colors) than what you get with the existing 'Add Rectangle'. Yes, you can change color in 'Adjust image and border', but why not make 'Add Rectangle with a Window' consistent with what you see with the already available 'Add Rectangle'. Right??? Gary Added Later: After working with your example, I understand it more. I copied the transparent.png file into one of my shows and played around with it. Works pretty well. I see you Enabled Borders to make it function. Now if Igor can incorporated something like this into the O&A, it would be very useful. Thanks... Gary

Lin, Yes, it works now. Thanks. It is close to what I am looking for, but not quite. When I hold the shift key and drag a border, such as the top border, the top border moves down, but the bottom one moves too. It would be better if only the border that is selected to move actually moves. I realize that that it is adjusting the size of the other side to match the adjusting side's size. Also, to add flexibility to it, it would be nice to have handle on the inside edges, too, so it could be used also as a 'frame', being able to adjust the outside and inside edges. Thanks for the file. Getting close to what I am looking for. Why can't this type of Rectangle be added to the O&A menu? I think it would be very useful. Also, your example acts more like what is in the 'Adjust Image and Border' menu. I think it should be more like 'Add Rectangle' so you have the 'Properties, Common and Animation' tabs. Gary

Lin, Check your link. I could not get it to work. Gary

Greetings Jean-Cyprien, I understand what the Adjust Image and Borders will do. But it does not accomplish what I would like to have. Here is one example where I could use it. I took a bunch of hand-held images of a boat going through the locks at the Panama Canal. I carefully did my best to register them in a sequence in PTE so that it looked like a timed sequence. But, in the registration process, I had to do a slight rotation or slight pan to the left or to the right for each image to be pretty close to where it looked OK. I also had all the the "Percent of the slide to show main images" set at about 85%. So as the sequence played, the images would move about a bit, due to the registration process. If I could place a 'Rectangle with a Window' around this sequence of images, it would hide this movement. And having handles on the inside and outside, I could fine-tune the 'frame'. Other uses for a 'Rectangle with a Window' would be when you use the "Percent of the slide to show main images". You would have the ability to easily crop the images by just covering the images with the 'Rectangle with a Window'. Also, if you had an image that you had to rotate a bit to make it level, and it was zoomed in, the Rectangle with a Window' could be placed over it to hid the rotation. Gary

Dave, That sort of emulates what the result might be, but it is way too complicated (for me) and not as easily adjustable. Why not have a simple rectangle that has an opening, where all the edges are adjustable? Why go through all the steps to do a Mask when it really is not needed? Thanks for the example. Gary

Lin, Yes, I know you can do it as you stated. But, I want the 'Rectangle with a Window' to be able to cover the image that is added. I want to be able to bring the 'Rectangle with a Window' to the front so that I can position it in any way that I need, sort of as a frame. This would give you a fully adjustable 'frame' to an image. Your method just puts the image on top of a rectangle. Gary

Greetings, I would like to have a 'Rectangle with a Window' object added to the O&A menu items. I'd like this object to have handles, not only on the outside, but also on the inside window so that the inside and outside edges are fully adjustable, and this window can be colored and have its Order changeable. I added a crude example in an attachment. The red window represents the 'Rectangle with a Window' with handles. I am sure this can be created in Photoshop, etc., but I think it would be very useful to have it built-in to the O&A menu with its full adjustabililty within PTE. Gary

Dave and Lin, No, I did not mean to say that ooc jpg images are not compressed. I was not sure what you were meaning. But I am resizing (and compressing) the original ooc jpgs even further, so I don't see how they would make a larger MP4 file. I just don't see the logic. Dave, I also just ran the show (after reducing it down by eliminating images and music files) using Low Quality and High Quality. The LQ's size is 425 Mbs while the HQ is 1,023 Mbs. So since I don't see any difference in quality, I don't see much reason for creating such large (HQ) files. Maybe it makes a difference on a huge TV screen? Gary

Greetings, Maybe I am not understanding some of the replies. They don't seem to be addressing the actual steps I took. Lin said "Compression level differences when you resized the files may have played a role. For example, if the original files were compressed at the equivalent of Photoshop level 8 and you resized and used a slightly smaller compression level such as 10 it could easily make the difference." Lin, The original files were not 'compressed'. They were out of the camera images. These original images were resized at 90% (Faststone). Wouldn't going from 8 to 10 be upsizing? The file became larger, not smaller, with the resizing. Dave said: "I would not really consider using the Low Quality preset - ever. It might be interesting to save the same show at a lower resolution and a Higher (Highest) quality preset? The file size would (should) go down but the quality "might" be better than the Low Quality (High Res) preset - on your TV??... P.S. With that many slides, another way of drastically reducing MP4 file size would be to knock 0.5 - 1.0 second off each slide's duration?" Dave, My main purpose in choosing Low Quality vs. High Quality is to keep the file size down. I can not see a difference between them. I have since reworked the show and knocked of about 10 minutes of slides and music, so the file is much smaller now. But I always thought and think I saw the MP4 file reduced in size when I used smaller sized images. Jt said: "In one case, the images were resized by PTE, while in the other case the images were resized by an external image editor or image viewer. Hence, the video encoder was fed by two totally different streams of images." Jt, I am not sure what you mean by the 'images were resized by PTE, while in the other case....'. For each time the MP4 file was created by PTE, they were feed the same images. Only set was larger than the other. So PTE did the same process on the same type, but smaller files. Tom said: "Interesting question. Not sure if there is a definitive answer as to why the file sizes are smaller when resized automatically." Tom, I don't understand when you say 'resized automatically'. They were resized using Faststone. I am going to do a few more test to see what's what. Maybe it was just a fluke. Thanks all, Gary

Lin, I can understand that if you choose different parameters (HD, bitrate, FPS, etc.), the file size will be different. However, both files were created exactly the same way using PTE's 'HD (1920x1080), low quality'. The only difference was the size of the original 328 files which were 3008x2000. And actually, when I batched resized, they were resized at 1920 on the long side so the aspect ratio was still 1.5 (1920x1277). There was not other changes to the show. Still don't understand how can reducing the files' size actually increase the MP4 file size, when all other parameters remained the same? Gary

Greetings, I have a question about the size of MP4 files. I originally created a slideshow with about 328 images. This show was created using the original out-of-the-camera sized images that were about 2,500 Kb each. The size of the slideshow's MP4 file was 519,785 Kb. I then batched resized all the images down to 1920x1080, 90%, so each image averaged about 500 Kb. While I expected the files size to be reduced (as the exe files was), but it did not. It actually increased to 535,155 Kb. See attached. So I am curious why the resizing of the files would actually increase the MP4 file's size, as opposed to decreasing it. Just curious, Gary

Dave, I have a suggestion for some info that should be added to the Online Help for inputting adjusts to Canvas Size. I just had to go through changing the Canvas Size on in a slide show with over 300 images. I had to do this one by one. At first, I made the inputs to Canvas Size by typing in numbers and then retyping until I found the right adjustment number for each of the 4 sides of each image. This drove me a bit crazy. Then I found that if I just put the cursor in each side's input (left, right, top, bottom),I can use the Up and Down arrow keys to make the adjustments faster. Then I found out that I can also use the PgUp and PgDown to jump 10 pixels at a time to make the adjustments even faster. I had to do about 150 images before I discovered this faster way of inputting changes to Canvas Size. So I think it would be a help to add the fact that you can use the Up and Down arrow keys and the PgUp and PgDown keys to facilitate changes in Canvas Size. I see that this also works for the Animation tab. Gary