making circles with numbers in them

[fredrump]

I know this must be very stupid to experienced users but I mainly use ACDSee as a database and not messing or editing with pictures. Can anybody give me a series of steps as to how I can place numbers on people in a group? I can just do the numbers as text but I'd like them in a circle.

[Greyfox]

I know this must be very stupid to experienced users but I mainly use ACDSee as a database and not messing or editing with pictures. Can anybody give me a series of steps as to how I can place numbers on people in a group? I can just do the numbers as text but I'd like them in a circle.

I'm not sure that I'm understanding exactly what you want to achieve, however if it is something similar to the example below then I offer this advice.



I originally looked at using this method quite some time ago to identify people in old scanned photos for genealogy projects, but to be honest abandoned it because of the issues I experienced.

My first approach was to simply open the image in Edit mode, add a blank layer, use the Ellipse tool to create a filled circle of the required size in the blank layer, duplicate that layer as many times as there were people in the image, then one at a time select each of those circle layers, position it at the required position and then add a number to it using the text tool. That was way too tedious to be convenient to use with lots of images to process.

My next approach was to create a "library" of individual "number in a circle" images on transparent backgrounds. For the rest of this description I will refer to a "number in a circle" image simply as a "number". I made all of these number images exactly same size and ppi, and because of the required transparency, saved individually as 32 bit color depth TIFF's.

To apply them to an image, the image was opened as the base layer in Edit mode. The "number" images were then added as individual image layers, then selected and moved to the appropriate position for each person. Whilst notionally that should have sped up the process, it introduced another issue.

The relative size of the "numbers" on the image will depend on the ppi of the image itself, so placing the same library "number" on two images that have different ppi's and the relative size of the "numbers" will be different, resulting in some cases with the "numbers" too small, and in other cases too large. Now each "number" can be resized (select its layer, then use the move tool to select the "number" and resize to taste by dragging the corner nodes. However for consistency I prefer all "numbers" in an image to be the same size and. that leads to the next issue.

Unfortunately ACDSee Ultimate Edit mode does not have a "Transform entry box" like Affinity Photo (that enables the accurate sizing of a selected object by keyboard entry), so to achieve consistent resizing by dragging corner nodes requires one to size one "number" visually as a reference, then set up vertical and horizontal guide lines, and then use those as a visual guide to do the manual re-sizing of the other numbers, and that means they all have to be resized before dragging to their final location.

Yet another issue is that the "numbers" can't always actually be placed at readable size without covering some relevant detail of the image.

But not only was the process of adding the "numbers" too tedious, the real decider for me, was that having put numbers on the image, one has to place a "caption" on the image to explain the numbers, and that being the case, it is so much easier to just apply the caption using the well known descriptive method.

[Regor250]

Option C, don't use ACDSee but use a proper Vector Editing software rather. When it comes to vector editing, ACDSee is very primitive. For a mere $35 you can get something like Xara Photo and Graphics Editor that will blow away, vector wise (combined with bitmap editing), anything you can possibly do with ACDSee. In other words, use the right tool for the right job. It's OK to do something like that occasionally in ACDSee through layer hacks, but really not the right tool.

[Greyfox]

Option C, don't use ACDSee but use a proper Vector Editing software.

True, having software that can handle both vectors and bit map or raster image editing is an option, and for some work vectors are virtually a must. I have the Serif trio, Affinity Photo, Affinity Design and Affinity Publisher which can pass files freely between them, but as I mentioned near the end of my post, for me, the use of numbers on the image and then having to add a legend to qualify them wasn't overly tidy or efficient.

My answer was to use an ACDSee recorded action to bulk add a caption bar to the bottom of the images (added below, rather than added over the image itself), and then a batch edit preset to add the caption text to the bar automatically from the ACDSee metadata "Caption". I don't have to worry about the numbers or the legend obscuring parts of the image, and for that sort of automation, ACDSee does a great job.

Incidentally I was only able to find subscription options for Xara Photo and Graphic Designer. $6.99 USD per month, single user, billed annually, or $9.99 USD per month, single user billed monthly, both excluding VAT..

[Regor250]

True,...

Incidentally I was only able to find subscription options for Xara Photo and Graphic Designer. $6.99 USD per month, single user, billed annually, or $9.99 USD per month, single user billed monthly, both excluding VAT..

Check out that link https://www.magix.com/index.php?id=2...hoC9ZkQAvD_BwE

[Greyfox]

Check out that link https://www.magix.com/index.php?id=2...hoC9ZkQAvD_BwE

Thanks, Seems I was looking at the current Photo & Graphic Designer+ 22.1 version direct from Xara. That apparently doesn't have an outright buy option.

[Regor250]

I don't like the Xara web base app, or the "+" model myself. Magix has taken over the distribution of the buy to own application, although it does have an annual maintenance plan, sort of, you can use the app minus online resources without the plan. I skipped the annual plan/upgrades for several years as I don't use any of the online resources, and unless you do, the upgrades are hardly worth it. The app has been around for several decades, hardly in needs of any improvements being extremely well designed and coded, and is very complete for what it does. That explains the new business models since I could happily use the 10yrs old version just the same; not a good money maker as upgrade revenues goes and Xara had to do something to keep the revenues coming in. Xara (which is what Photo and Graphics Designer used to be called before they integrated bitmap editing with vector editing, and THE original application upon which Xara built its success) maintains the Photo a Graphics Designer (PGD), sort of as it is in need of very little if any changes, but has been branching off to web graphics / page design as it's mainstream business for the reason stated. The integration of bitmaps into vector graphics is simply amazing. You can put a full resolution JPEG, shrink it to the size of less than a pixel within your vector image without loosing any information, and zoom back in to the full resolution at any time. Once you master the basics of it, it will amaze you with what you can do. For instance instead of using a mask, you can convert a bitmap to an editable vector shape, modify the shape as much as you want (erasing the image simply adds vector points to the shape, which you can move or delete), move, resize, edit, tile the bitmap image within the shape, add transparency, stretch the bitmap etc. I use it all the time for all sorts of applications and have been for decades and is an amazing companion app to ACDSEE.

[Greyfox]

Regor250

Thanks for the description. Out of interest I've downloaded a 30 day trial copy of Xara v19.

[Regor250]

You may want to check the Xara Zone site. Lots of tutorials https://www.xaraxone.com/uk/

[Mamiya2Nikon]

If I want to add a text overlay (just words)to an image, can I use ACDSee for that or do I have to use something like Xara or Canva?

[Regor250]

You can use the text tool in Edit Mode. Not too sophisticated but it does the job.

[Mamiya2Nikon]

Thank you!

[Greyfox]

If I want to add a text overlay (just words)to an image, can I use ACDSee for that or do I have to use something like Xara or Canva?

Or you can use the Batch Edit tool from Manage mode, and in that tool select Text Overlay. Quite a number of options and you can save as presets

[HeidiX]

Or you can use the Batch Edit tool from Manage mode, and in that tool select Text Overlay. Quite a number of options and you can save as presets

Whoa. I had no idea we could do that! Thanks Grayfox for that amazing tip!

[Framon]

I didn't know this trick. Thanks Greyfox. You are definitely irreplaceable on this forum....!