Slide-show text overlay distracting

[geoff.crabb@ntlworld.com]

I am surprised that no-one has commented on the text overlay in the slide show obstructing part of the picture, or being unreadable against the image. I know it can be toggled off, but that rather defeats the object of having it. I use it to display Attributes, usually a title and a description.

In Imatch 3 the text was below the edge of the picture, where it was against a black background, so legible, and not detracting from the picture (or distracting). I would like it to be possible to move the text overlay off the image in Imatch 5. There is usually some "black bar" space available, or the image can be shrunk slightly. Failing this a corner of the image would be preferable to the centre.

Any support?

[Mario]

The Text "under" the image you mention was in the IMatch 3 slide show., The slide show in IMatch 5 has the same feature and text positioning.

The text overlay in the viewer is fixed to the upper-right corner in order not to interfere with the other overlays you can display.
Since this placement is unchanged since the initial release of IMatch 5 over two years ago, I guess that the way it is placed and it works is OK for most users.
While it is displayed it does not interfere much with the underlying image, and when you want to read the text, you move the mouse into the area covered by the overlay to make it opaque.

Usually you don't need to read that much in the Viewer - in this feature the image and culling are the main features.
You can see the same info displayed in the Viewer text overlay in the normal file window (File Window Tip, Metadata Panel, Keyword Panel, ...) and you can see the image at the same time in the Quick View Panel.

As always, I'm open to suggestions from users. If you want o change how the text overlay works, let us know.

[geoff.crabb@ntlworld.com]

Mario,

Thank you for your rapid reply. It was actually the slide-show which I was commenting on, not the Viewer.

In the Imatch 3 slide-show, I was able to display four lines of text in the black space below the image, to the left of the toolbar (whether or not the toolbar was displayed). The image was offset upwards on the screen, which maximised the black space at the bottom. This space was maintained whatever the aspect ratio of the image and whether portrait or landscape (as long as the view was not toggled to full-screen, when only the image displayed). Portrait example attached.

In Imatch 5 the slide-show images, in full-screen or maximised windowed mode, are scaled to fit whichever screen dimension limits them first, which may or may not leave a black space in the other dimension. In windowed (restored-down) mode the window is sized to fit the image exactly and cannot be re-sized by the user, so the text always fully overlays the image. Portrait example attached.

I have now found that with my 16:9 images I can just fit two lines of (Tahoma 14pt) text into the black space, either at the top or the bottom of the screen (the image is centred vertically rather than offset upwards to leave more space as in IM3 - example attached. Unfortunately I have indadvertantly cropped the black space at the top, which was the same width as the one at the bottom). Portrait and narrower aspect ratio images always reach the bottom of the screen, so centred text fully overlays the image, where it both obscures part of the image, and is sometimes illegible due to insufficient contrast. there is the option to make the text background more opaque, but this just obscures even more of the image.

I think that this could be solved by always leaving a small amount of black space below the image, as in Imatch 3. Perhaps this could be an option in one of the "Scale mode", or the "Text position and style" drop-downs.

[Mario]

Did you try to just make the text box higher and set it to 255 (100%) visibility?
It will overlay the image but you can fit any amount of text and also make it perfectly readable.

[geoff.crabb@ntlworld.com]

Mario,

Yes I have tried all the settings. What you suggest of course allows more room for text, but it also completely obscures part of the image, which I consider undesirable in a slide show who's object is to display the images.

I liked the way you did this in Imatch 3 better. I accept that this is at worst a minor consideration. I understand that if few users have commented on this it is not likely to be given a high priority.

Geoff