Before covering how to annotate images, it is important to know the concept of image canvas and virtual canvas. Application has two canvases, one is Image Canvas and the other is Virtual Canvas. In the following, these concepts are covered.
In the above picture, Region within orange border that has the image is Image Canvas and region outside orange border till blue border is Virtual Canvas. This virtual canvas does not have any real boundary. Annotations can be added anywhere on the display space in Draw mode.
In the above picture, Annotations are created both on image and virtual canvases. There are two ways of exporting this picture to clipboard. One is to flatten the annotations on image and copy image to clipboard and the second is to flatten all annotations on the virtual canvas and copy it to clipboard.
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| Copy Image to Clipboard | Copy canvas to Clipboard |
In the following, annotations are covered in detailed.
Annotations
Annotations helps to draw text and various shapes on the captured image. These annotations help to enhance the image content. For example, a part of the image can be boxed in a rectangle with a text description. Annotations are objects maintained separately from the main image. These objects can be manipulated and changed as required. Annotations can also be flattened onto image by pressing them onto the image. This will convert annotations to be part of the image. When images are exported, annotations are flattened by default resulting in an image with all annotations included.
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Draw toolbox contains groups of shapes. In order to see full list of all shapes in a group, click on the small arrow on the left side to open the associated shape list. See below for text shape expansion:
Button Icon | Name | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cursor | Selects one or multiple objects, to move or resize the object. Cursor is selected to escape out from any current annotation selection. This is also useful for selecting any annotation and changing properties or moving/scaling it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Text | Adds any text annotation on the image and canvas area. Text can be edited in all text annotations by double clicking on the shape. Context menu changes when the text is in edit mode as shown below. Press Escape to come out of the edit mode.
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| Arrow | Draws arrow on the image/canvas. All arrows are multi-instance types. Multiple arrows can be drawn with a selection.
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| Freehand Lines | Allows drawing freehand lines on an image. If the smart pencil option is enabled, application tries to convert drawn shapes into geometric shapes. For example, if a triangle shape is drawn with a pencil tool, application will convert into Triangle shape with sharp edges as shown on the right hand side below.
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 | Geometric Shapes | Allows drawing different geometric shapes on the image.
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| Highlight | Highlights a region on image. Highlight color can be selected from top toolbar or from the properties. See an example below with three different highlight colors.
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| Blur Rectangle | Blurs a portion of image. This is annotation and can be moved and resized as required. see an example below with number plate and headlights blurred.
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 | Eraser | Erases a part of the image with white color. Width of the eraser can be selected from the outline width in the top tool bar.
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 | Sticky Note | Adds a sticky note annotation. This annotation is usually used to include a note on the image outside the image to provide comments.
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 | Counter Rectangle | Adds continuous numbering on the image/canvas. Option to reset the numbering is also available in the properties panel. Counter Circle: Adds a non-editable circular counter. Counter Rectangle: Adds an editable rectangular counter that has options like cut, copy and paste on right click.
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| Embed Image | Embeds an image in an annotation from a selected image file. Annotation can be resized as required. In the following, there are four embedded images on the screen. They can be resized and moved around.
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| Timestamp | Timestamp, Rubber stamp and Link annotations are grouped together. All these annotations are single instance annotations.
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| Clipart/Images | Displays a list of defined web URLs. Click on the links to open images in a browser. Drag and drop Clip art/Images from browser to the canvas. These images will be converted into embedded image annotations. They can also be dropped on toolbar to import and open as a new image in a tab.
Note that not all images available online can be dragged and dropped onto the application. Some images are disabled by authors for downloading. If the image is too large to convert into annotation, a warning message will be displayed. If the image is larger than 250KB, it is better to open it in a new tab by dragging and dropping onto the toolbar. Application will ask for confirmation for downloading the image and display it in a tab. Once confirmed, it will download the image from web and import it into application opening in a new tab. Some images are copyrighted and need to be verified for compatibility before downloading. Default links can be changed and additional links can be added to this list using User preferences→Clip Art tab as shown below:
Url links can be re-ordered by moving them up or down as required. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Vector Icons | Adds a selected vector icon on image and canvas. Recently selected icons along with a set of predefined icons are presented in a popup for the selection. These are font icons. In order to change the color of an icon, font color needs to be changed. It acts as foreground color for icons. Outline and fill color are same as other shapes.
Any icon can be selected and dropped on canvas. Icons can be duplicated using 'Control + D'. Most recently used icon will show-up on toolbox for selection. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vector Icon browser | A large collection of vector icons, more than 5000, are displayed in an Icon browser. Icons can be copied or dragged and dropped to the image/canvas. MahApps Pack Icon browser is embedded into the application. Various types of icons are displayed in tabs. Free text search can also help to identify relevant icon. Icon browser is shown below:
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Shape Properties and Conversions
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Annotations can be ordered using the toolbar annotations order combo-box as shown below:
 |  | Bring Front:Moves selected annotations to front. |
 | Bring Forward: Moves selected annotations on top of other annotations. | |
 | Send Back: Moves selected annotations back. | |
 | Send Backward: Moves selected annotations last of other annotations. | |
 | (Un)Group: (Un)Groups selected annotations on canvas. | |
 | Group All: Groups all annotations on canvas. |
Align Annotations
Aligns multiple annotations in user selected format.
 | Align Left: Aligns selected annotations to left. |
 | Align Top: Aligns selected annotations to top. |
 | Align Right: Aligns selected annotations to right. |
 | Align Bottom: Aligns selected annotations to bottom. |
 | Align Horizontal Center: Aligns selected annotations at center horizontally. |
 | Align Vertical Center: Aligns selected annotations at center vertically. |
 | Distribute Horizontally: Annotations will be distributed horizontally. |
 | Distribute Vertically: Annotations will be distributed vertically. |
Flattening Annotations(
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Annotations are dynamic. They can be added, removed and changed as required. Sometimes, annotations need to be flattened and merged with the image. This is helpful for image operations on the annotations. There are three ways of flattening annotations. This can be accomplished using icon button,, in the top toolbar or from the context menu in the image display area.
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