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.
There are two types of annotations. Single instance annotations and multi-instance annotations. Single instance annotations can be placed on image one at a time. Each time, corresponding annotation need to be selected for placing it on the screen. In the case of multi-instance annotation, multiple instances of annotation can be drawn onto image with one annotation shape selection. Any annotation selection can be cancelled by pressing escape. In the following annotation toolbox is detailed followed by examples for each of the annotations.
Toggle the button to switch between Draw (5) and Image mode (6) on right hand side of the editor. Draw mode has tools to annotate the image. These annotations include Text, Arrows, Lines, Counters and various shapes. When an annotation is selected, all edit handlers show up on the shape. These edit handlers include resize, move and rotate handlers. In addition, some shapes allow reshaping individual point positions on the shape. In the following, a multi-line shape is presented with all mouse handlers.
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
Shape properties can be opened by right clicking on the selected shape. It will open a context menu as presented below for the textbox shape:
Context menu options include 'Change Shape To','Properties', 'Bring Forward' and 'Send Backward'. 'Change shape to' option is available when it is possible to convert a shape into another shape. In the above example, textbox can be converted into Message Callout. If Properties menu option is selected, application opens a corresponding properties window next to the shape. Properties window is presented below for textbox. Shape properties consists of Style, Text, Effects, Size and Preset properties.
Style properties include Outline, Fill and Arrow properties. Text properties include text, font, text styles and alignment properties.Effects cover the shadow and shadow colors. Size tab enables to change the size, location, rotation angle properties. Finally, Presets tab helps to set border, fill and text colors by selecting a preset color combination. Color combinations are carefully selected in presets for best compatibility.
If a particular set of properties are appealing, they can be set as default. Next time, same shape is used, saved defaults are applied.
Bring forward and Send backward options help to move the shape up or down in the order of layout.