User Selected Background Image

[Lin Evans]

A while back, I was creating a slideshow for a friend and I wanted to use my own JPG image for the background. The slideshow had about 160 photos of art work, and I wanted to use an image I had taken of white sand. I had enlarged the image considerably to get the appearance of "white stucco" and it made a nice background for the oil and acrylic paintings which were the subject of the show. I also wanted to apply my own PNG frame and set a common drop shadow for each slide.

In all, there were many steps because "I thought" that I had to insert my background photo on each slide then set the drop shadow and add my PNG frame, adjust it to fit the photo, etc. I made the suggestion to Igor that it would be helpful to be able, for example, to set a common size and color for a "border" and apply it universally, to be able to use a background jpg of user choice and apply it universally and to be able to universally apply a selected profile drop shadow across all photos by clicking an option.

Igor told me that it was possible to apply a user selected background image universally by choosing the "tiled image" then setting the numeric percentage to 100. I didn't know this and I'm pretty familiar with PTE's functions and options! After discussing this, Igor asked if there were a better English phrase to describe the function now called "tiled image" and I suggested "User selected image" as a replacement for tiled image. Igor suggested possibly using 100% as the default which is now 20%. I thought it would be reasonable to ask for user input about possibly changing the title from "Tiled image" to something else such as "User selected image."

My own experience tells me that a full sized jpg, png, bmp, etc., is more "commonly used" than a tiled image so that it would be more "intuitive" to use a term like "User selected image," but it thought it would be helpful to get input from the forum about this....

I think that the other issues such as universal drop shadow and universal color and pixel size for a border should go on the possible "to do" list for development. It takes a lot of time to type in the numbers for color (requires three entries) and pixel size for each individual image. I think there should, of course, remain an option to be able to vary this per image, but certainly it would be a huge time saver to be able to have universal values applied for all slides without the need to perform the task multiple times. Likewise for drop shadows.

Best regards,

Lin

[fh1805]

Lin,

Like you, if I am using my own background image it is generally a JPEG at full size. So I would certainly support a change to 100% size as the default size. However, we need to remember that anything that can be set in Project Options can then be made into a Template and used as our own personalized default template for all new projects. As for the name of this feature, why not simply "Background image"? And wouldn't the purpose of the 20% field be easier to understand if it was actually two fields: "Number of tiles across" and "Number of tiles down" that were both defaulted to 1 and greyed-out unless a "Tiled image" tick box/radio button was activated?

As for your borders, if you set the border on the first slide you add to the slide list, and then click on "Save and use by default" in the Properties tab of the O&A window, PTE will then apply the same border to every image you subsequently add to the Slide List or as a picture-in-picture object. Note: you must drop one slide only at first and get this set as you want it, then add the remainder.

I'm not aware that the drop shadow can be pre-defined for each slide. I think the tick/no tick for Drop Shadow should be a Project Option that can then be over-ridden at the individual object level when so desired.

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

Yes, it's true that we can make "templates" but for something as common as a background image one shouldn't need to do so. Also, not everyone "wants" to use the same settings for each slideshow. For example, when I make shows for clients, I may use anything from 4 megapixel to 1024x768 resolution and one of several aspect ratios depending on the type of material in the show. So creating multiple personal templates would probably be counter productive. The reason I posed the question is so perhaps we can give Igor some guidance on useful changes. Background image sounds reasonable as does User selected image. I'm not sure that "number of tiles across and number of tiles down might not be confusing to a new user. But that's why I believe we need to discuss it.

The border "Save and use by default" is a nice feature. Does it apply "only" to the individual show, or does creating the "Use by Default" apply it to future shows? If after doing this it is applied to future shows, that would not be a good thing, I think. Often I much prefer making my own frames (borders) and it would be a nice feature "for me" to be able to apply that frame automatically to each slide without adding the same PNG multiple times.

As for the drop shadow, right now there is no feature to define it for "all slides" but you can define a "preset" which can then be used each time without re-entering the multiple values. What I had in mind was being able to "choose" from a user created preset and have those values automatically applied to all slides in the show. Also another feature under consideration is keyframing for drop shadows. It would be very useful, especially for more sophisticated animations, if we could keyframe drop shadows on a single slide. For instance, as a slide is panned, the shadow may change greatly depending on the apparent source of light. We need a way to not only keyframe drop shadows, but also rotate them to mirror reality during motion. Of course we can approximate this using multiple slides, but that's a rather kludge work-around.

Best regards,

Lin

[Barry Beckham]

I agree with Lin.

I also like to create frames, edge effects, drop shadows and a myriad of other effects in my image editor. With the greatest respect for Igor, there is much greater control, variation and creativity open to us using Photoshop/Elements than there will ever be in PTE. The more image editing stuff that gets packed into PTE the more difficult it will become to use.

Its quite an important thing to be able to add a Png or a Jpeg image and have the opportunity to apply that Png/Jpeg to every image in the show in one go. However, we still need the flexibility to be able to remove that image from individual slides. Blank images are a good example.

I also agree that the tiled image option does need a better name. What about "Apply Background Image" then have the default value set at 100%. If possible could we see a small thumbnail size representation of what we have selected in a preview window, rather like the before and after view in Elements for example.

[nobeefstu]

My thoughts on the Background Options is to fully expand the feature to include a Background Slide or bottom layer for the slideshow. The Background Slide would be created in a O&A window just like the current Customize Window feature is produced and selected. The Background Slide would just be another selectable option in the current Background Options (Project Options and Customize Slide) which is enabled and disabled as desired.

To fully compliment the new Background Slide or bottom layer ... it would also be nice to implement a Top Slide or master top layer that is always playable ontop of the Main Slides at users selection.

In essence the Slideshow could have 3 available image/object layers ... Main Slides (current slides layer) , Background Slide (bottom layer), and Top Slide (top layer). Actually, this is not as complicated as it may sound since users already build their Slides and Customize Windows using the O&A. However, playback of all layers may prove to promote issues on weaker video cards.

Of course all of this is looking to the future and needs more planning ...

[Lin Evans]

Hi Barry,

That was what actually surprised me. We "can" add a png, jpg, bmp, etc., and have it apply to ever image in the show right now - I didn't know this because the function which allows it is called "Tiled image" and I never really fully investigated it - an oversight on my part. We simply choose "Tiled image" then change the numeric value to 100 (which represents percentage) and we have our choice of background image, or "slide" or whatever we wish to eventually call it universally applied on the lowest layer on all slides. The issue is what to call it since "Tiled image" seems, at least to me, to not be representative of what "most" will want to do with this feature. It's indeed not "tiled" when the value is set to 100%. I think Igor is considering a name change for this feature and a default of 100% rather than the present 20%

We can then use the "customize slide" feature to substitute any other background for any individual slides we want handled differently. So I guess, defacto, we have the ability to "remove" it from individual slides. At least "functionally" it is removed - at the program level I'm not certain what is happening...

Best regards,

Lin

I agree with Lin.

I also like to create frames, edge effects, drop shadows and a myriad of other effects in my image editor. With the greatest respect for Igor, there is much greater control, variation and creativity open to us using Photoshop/Elements than there will ever be in PTE. The more image editing stuff that gets packed into PTE the more difficult it will become to use.

Its quite an important thing to be able to add a Png or a Jpeg image and have the opportunity to apply that Png/Jpeg to every image in the show in one go. However, we still need the flexibility to be able to remove that image from individual slides. Blank images are a good example.

I also agree that the tiled image option does need a better name. What about "Apply Background Image" then have the default value set at 100%. If possible could we see a small thumbnail size representation of what we have selected in a preview window, rather like the before and after view in Elements for example.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Stu,

I guess we have the ability now to have a Background Slide on the bottom layer - it's the "Tiled image" set to 100%. The Top Slide or master top layer is an interesting possibility.

Best regards,

Lin

My thoughts on the Background Options is to fully expand the feature to include a Background Slide or bottom layer for the slideshow. The Background Slide would be created in a O&A window just like the current Customize Window feature is produced and selected. The Background Slide would just be another selectable option in the current Background Options (Project Options and Customize Slide) which is enabled and disabled as desired.

To fully compliment the new Background Slide or bottom layer ... it would also be nice to implement a Top Slide or master top layer that is always playable ontop of the Main Slides at users selection.

In essence the Slideshow could have 3 available image/object layers ... Main Slides (current slides layer) , Background Slide (bottom layer), and Top Slide (top layer). Actually, this is not as complicated as it may sound since users already build their Slides and Customize Windows using the O&A. However, playback of all layers may prove to promote issues on weaker video cards.

Of course all of this is looking to the future and needs more planning ...

[nobeefstu]

I guess we have the ability now to have a Background Slide on the bottom layer - it's the "Tiled image" set to 100%.

Yes, we already have a single Background Image that is set as the bottom layer. But we dont have a Background Slide that has a editor window that would add the Background Image and possiblity of additional objects and features. With the background editor window we could build/edit/visualize the entire background (bottom layer) with multiple objects to suit our needs. The background editor window would have the same features and functions like we already have in the Customize Windows feature (see attachment). The Background Slide would allow a combination of images/objects whereas as the current Background Image feature is limited to just a single image.

The Top Slide or master top layer is an interesting possibility.

We already have Copyright Logo image feature available that is used as the top layer. Now if we expand its features to include additional objects with a editor window ... we would have a so called Top Slide. The Top Slide editor window would allow us to build/edit/visualize the top layer with multiple images/objects to suit our needs.

So, we already have the 3 layers ... its just the current bottom layer and top layer only allows and displays a single image without any additional objects.