Monthly Archive for: "July, 2018"

In the Positioning function window, there are several options that enable changing the text’s size, its rotation, changing its scale and setting opacity. See the image below.

With Shadow function you can design a shadow surrounding the text, its color, radius and offset. See the image below.

When you enable the Effect field, you can set the Blur Radius, that is shadow’s range around the text’s contour.

• Blur Offset – allows you to offset the shadow in relation to the text on the screen.
• Blur Color – when you click the color preview icon, the color window, as described above, will appear and you will be able to set the desired color of the shadow there.

Thanks to the Color function, you can design the text’s filling, including the selection of a fill color or a fill pattern. See the image below.

After opening the drop-down list of Style options, you have the following possibilities: (image below)

• No brush – the text will be filled with transparency, only the text’s contour will be visible on screen.
• Solid – transfers you to the color wheel to adjust the text’s color, it is done in the same way as described above, when adjusting the text’s contour color – Outline (see the image below – arrows indicate the possibility to operate using the cursor)
• Pattern – after opening the drop-down list, select the interesting filling pattern. After selecting the pattern, you can choose the color with the color wheel.
• Gradient – when you choose a Gradient filling style, a window appears, as shown on next page.

In the case of Gradient, the texts’ filling will be of a gradient type selected at the bottom of the window.

Highlight it with a cursor and click on the select icon.
In the Preview window you can see how the gradient will be applied to your text. You can change the proportions of selected areas of your gradient with triangular markers. The markers are positioned at the colors’ transitions. The color set with a specific marker will be visible in the Color preview window, when you select the marker with a cursor.

Outline function allows you to edit captions’ contours.
Due to the changing screen background during the broadcast, the entirely monochromatic captions may disappear at certain moments, when the background color is the same as the text’s. For this reason, borders are added to the text with a color contrasting with the caption’s filling. The most commonly used version are white letters with a black outline, and this option is set as a default when creating texts.
The Outline function enables using different kinds of Pen Styles, that is texts’ borders.
We can choose: No Pen – captions will have no contour, or one of the following options: Solid Line, Dash Line, Dot Line, Dash-Dot Line and Dash-Dot-Dot Line.

Width is a next useful option. When you change its value, the width of text’s contour changes. See the image below.

Width is a next useful option. When you change its value, the width of text’s contour changes. See the image below.

Possibility of setting yet another option – Join Style allows you to change the shape of texts’ contour. See the image below.

The captions can be more rounded (Round, Bevel) or rather sharp (Miter, SVG Miter). Value of the miter limit can be a be adjusted, if your font and its contour requires so. You can also set the color of the text’s contour (border).
The color wheel shown in the picture below is based on the RGB model (Red, Green, Blue) extended with transparency and also Hue, Saturation, Value, and Alfa channel (which is transparency).

Texts’ color can be set using the sliders located on the right side of the screen:

• Hue – the hue parameter corresponds to the colors on the edge of the color wheel, starting from 0 (red), through 120 (green) and 240 (blue) to 360 (red). By changing the slider’s value, the position of an indicator line on the wheel is changed.
• Saturation – the value of saturation parameter ranges from 0 (white) to 255 (100% full saturation), by changing its value with a slider, a circle’s position along one of the square’s sides changes.
• Value – the brightness parameter encompasses the range from 0 (black) to 255 (100% bright color of a given hue and saturation), by changing its value with the slider, the circle’s position along one of the square’s sides changes.
• Transparency is set with an Alfa slider – the transparency parameter ranges from 0 (fully transparent, invisible border) to 255 (100% full visibility).You can also use the cursor to set all the above values (except the Alpha channel). The cursor has to catch on the line indicator pointed with a lower white arrow in the picture below.

Changing the position of the line indicator on the wheel allows you to set the color by changing the Hue parameter.

If the cursor is caught on the circle indicated by an upper white arrow, you can move it inside the square. This allows you to change all the other parameters apart from the Alfa.
The current color will be visible in the middle of the white circle.

Properties – after selecting an item (picture, frame, rectangle, text) on the working area, it allows you to modify its properties.

Here, we will discuss in detail the properties of individual items that can be placed into the working area – on the example of Text item. Other items (Frame, Rectangle, and Picture) have the same number or a smaller one of properties.

After opening Text Properties window, in the upper left corner you can find five main functions to choose from allowing you to edit captions: Text, Outline, Color, Shadow and Positioning.

In the image below you can see an open window of text item properties with the Text function. In the highlighted box there is a place to enter caption’s text that is to appear on screen.
The text can also be entered without opening this window, that is directly on screen with a keyboard, after clicking the left mouse button once on the caption’s text .
You can also open the object’s options window with a double-click of the left mouse button and enter the caption’s text in the edit box. The text’s size and font are set by default.

Another way to edit the text is to enable the Vertical option. Selecting this option will result in text’s rotation by 90 degrees. See the image below.

In this window, you can also set the text’s Row Spacing and Column Spacing. The values of both functions are set by default to 1.00.

• New – create a new virtustill file of the text panel
• New from Image – to create a new text panel a background of which is loaded from an image file.
• Load – load an existing virtustill file
• Close – close the currently opened file with a possibility to save changes
• Save – save changes to the current project in the virtustill file
• Save As – save the project file under a different name
• Export – allows you to save the project as an image in PNG file with ransparency (alpha channel) preserved.
• Go to Startup – quit the editor

• Undo – Deletes the last change in the editor
• Redo – Reverses the Undo command
• Copy – Copies the last selected item (text, picture, frame, rectangle)
• Paste – Pastes the previously selected item
• Add – Enables inserting objects (picture, frame, rectangle, text) into the working area. For quick access this function is also available in the form of icons on the vertical toolbar. See the next image.
• Remove – deletes the selected item

The View option allows you to enable showing the column of color editor or contour editor view at right side of the screen. See the image below – as indicated with a red line.

The menu option Object allows you to determine the order in which objects are visible, in case they overlap.

For example, if you want to put a caption on a colored bar (rectangle), you have to move the text to the top, otherwise it will not be visible, as the bar will cover the text.

In this window, you can set all the parameters of the font being used, such as Font type and Size, Font Style (Demi Bold, Bold, Demi Bold Italic and others), Effects (Strikeout, Underline) and you can also select the Writing System. The changes will be visible in the Sample preview window in the lower right corner.

The Scene Menu option has three sub-options: Properties, Scale and Preview.

Properties – this option allows you to change the parameters of the scene’s background (Grid). You can change the applied grid’s size, as well as the two colors of chessboard squares. See the image below.

Scale – this option allows you to set the background’s scale. You can set the scale ranging from the lowest value of 10% to the highest at 1,000%. The image below shows the scale of 10%.

Preview – this option enables the preview of an entire screen during the detailed editing. This way you can check the layout of all the elements. See the image below.

The Configuration option has two sub-options: Language and Configuration.
The Language sub-the option allows you to change the language of the Still Editor program.
See the image below.

The General Configuration sub-option allows you to enable/disable the rendering. By default, the rendering functions are enabled. This allows you to create objects, like texts, in high resolution (quality).
Disabling the rendering option allows you to increase the speed of editing the texts in Still Editor, but at the expense of their quality.

Here, you can scan the QR code to open the Reckeen website. When you click on the About the program icon, the End-User License Agreement (EULA) appears in the window, along with a number of the current software version and the card’s serial number at the bottom.

On the application screen you can see a characteristic grid in the background. It indicates an alpha channel, that is transparency.
Everything that will be placed on the working area, for example a text, an picture, a frame, or a rectangle, will be visible on a transparent background. The working area is of the same size and proportions as the production screen. This means the text’s position and size corresponds to the real view on the screen later.

On the application screen, the following can be distinguished:

1. Menu bar,
2. Horizontal toolbar,
3. Vertical toolbar,
4. Working area (image below)

Still Editor module is launched from the start screen. First, choose the appropriate resolution from the drop-down menu, then click on the Start editor button. The image system of your choice should match the system of Production module that will be launched later on.
If, for example, the signal format from your camera is 1080p60 (which corresponds with a resolution of 1920×1080), it is recommended to open the editor in the same resolution.

At the Still Editor module startup, you can also load a previously saved file by selecting it from the drop down menu after clicking on the Load Still icon (a list of recently opened files will be displayed) or by searching your hard drive by clicking on the icon with three dots.

Still Editor – is an additional module for creating text panels, complementary to the Production module. It allows you to create aesthetic and impressive compositions in the form of graphic files with texts, e.g. news tickers. The text panels created in this manner can be used during the program broadcast, for example on the DSK layer. They may contain images created in any kind of graphics program (like a logo) and texts.

It is possible to set all the essential elements of texts: content, type, size, and font attributes. Additionally, you can set the caption’s scale and position, choose a color or add a contour and a shadow. Text panels created with STILL EDITOR have a very significant advantage over the graphics prepared in other graphic programs. You can modify their content in real-time during the production stage (in the Production module). It allows you to use them as templates of, for example, news tickers, where you can quickly and easily enter a new content without changing the graphic elements.
After creating the text panel’s project, you can save it as a virtustill file or export it as a PNG file.