PainShop Pro Scripting - PSPX scripting

Author

PSPX scripting

Comcast Newsgroups

2006-05-26, 7:27 pm

Trev & Howard,

Thanks for your quick reply. I will try what you mention Trev and hope
Corel will listen to you Howard, I don't think they are very attentive to
users needs......Ralph

Howard Dickson

2006-05-26, 11:37 pm

Comcast Newsgroups wrote:
> Trev & Howard,
>
> Thanks for your quick reply. I will try what you mention Trev and hope
> Corel will listen to you Howard, I don't think they are very attentive to
> users needs......Ralph
>
>
Folks,

There is a couple of text problems here with PSPX that will need to be
addressed by Corel.

1) As explained earlier, with the introduction in PSPX of 'Units' choice
in the Text tools menubar, the user can select Pixels or Points. If
Pixels is selected, and the user has sized his text with the correct
text pixel size for his/her image, when recorded as a script, the
'Pointsize' value saved in the Text section of the script, is that of
the equivalent 'Points' value (ie 72 in pixels becomes a value of 26).
The only problem is, that when that script is run, the text size isn't
displayed as Points, but is displayed in Pixels, but at the reduced
recorded value. This clearly has to be corrected. If a new option has
been created (in this case a choice of Pixels or Points from the Text
menubar) then that option should appear as a recordable value in the
Text section of a script. Therefore PSPX recorded scripts should have an
extra line added to text sections with a value which shows what Text
'Unit' was active at the time. The recorded Pointsize would then be
saved according to what uUnit was active... and more importantly, when
the script is run, this would determine what Text Unit and Pointsize
would be displayed.

Resizing an image to a resolution of 72 DPI overcomes the script
recording issue as Pixel/point size is the same at that resolution, but
as a photographer I refuse to write that into my scripts as a solution
as I would not want in any way to degrade my (or anyone elses)image
quality. If anything I'd resize all images to 300 DPI and work out what
the text size should be based on a 300/72 calculation.

2) The other worrying factor is that sometimes a script with a text
element displays at a much greater size than expected. In recent weeks
I've had a couple of my script users who have reported this to me. Most
of my PSPX scripts are derived from PSP9 developed scripts with some
minor tweaking to ensure the work correctly with the slightly different
PSPX Python conventions. I should say that 99% of the time my scripts
work absolutely fine on my PSPX version 10.03, and when I've tried my
scripts they appeared to work as expected. However I did notice a couple
of times that text appeared large, and I had eramarked them for further
investigation to possible re-write the scripts... but on future uses,
the problem had somehow disappeared.

Last week I received a sample from someone trying to run my 35mmNeg
script where the text went off the image it was so big. I tried it on my
machine, and it did the same thing!. I then spent a fair bit of the day
working out how to auto resize the text dependant on an images DPI
resolution. Later that day, I tried again with my original script, and
this time it work as expected with the correct text size. As far as I'm
aware, I hadn't changed any system settings or preferences, as I had
only been working on the script with Notepad. Weird non? Perhaps I had
inadvertently tweaked something, I thought.

As of this morning PSPX was working correctly on all my scripts. I
however got a trojan into my system from a file I received from a
friend(?)... thanks!.. and had to eventually set my XP system back to a
Restore point a couple of days ago... and guess what? Yep... the PSPX
text on all my scripts is now displaying large again! So it does look
like there is a registry setting which is affecting this issue.

I'll be playing with it over the weekend, trying to return it to normal
text size again, through Preference/Settings tweaks.

THIS IS CLEARLY CRAZY!!!

Yes I can rewrite scripts to some new values as a workaround, but the
basic engine is flawed, and should be fixed. The same scripts work
perfectly with PSP9 and have only been slightly tweaked for PSPX use...
the Text sections have not been touched at all. When I've got a final
handle on what I perceive to be the problem (although it's looking at
the moment like some shoddy coding) I'll report it to C@rel with a
request to place some importance on a quick fix.

Comments welcome.

Now I remember why I stick to PSP9... this PSPX nonsense is just not
worth the effort! Unfortunately, folk out there want PSPX scripts... Sheesh!

I'm going for a lie down in a darkened room!

Rgds,
Howard
--

---oooOOOooo---

Sheilsoft
ComputerSystems

www.sheilsoft.com

---oooOOOooo---

JoeB

2006-05-26, 11:37 pm

Howard Dickson <howard@REMOVEsheilsoft.com> wrote in
news:4477964e_1@cnews:

> Comcast Newsgroups wrote:
and[color=darkred]
very[color=darkred]
> Folks,
>
> There is a couple of text problems here with PSPX that will
need to be
> addressed by Corel.
>
> 1) As explained earlier, with the introduction in PSPX of
'Units'
> choice in the Text tools menubar, the user can select Pixels or
> Points. If Pixels is selected, and the user has sized his text
with
> the correct text pixel size for his/her image, when recorded as
a
> script, the 'Pointsize' value saved in the Text section of the
script,
> is that of the equivalent 'Points' value (ie 72 in pixels
becomes a
> value of 26). The only problem is, that when that script is
run, the
> text size isn't displayed as Points, but is displayed in
Pixels, but
> at the reduced recorded value. This clearly has to be
corrected. If a
> new option has been created (in this case a choice of Pixels or
Points
> from the Text menubar) then that option should appear as a
recordable
> value in the Text section of a script. Therefore PSPX recorded
scripts
> should have an extra line added to text sections with a value
which
> shows what Text 'Unit' was active at the time. The recorded
Pointsize
> would then be saved according to what uUnit was active... and
more
> importantly, when the script is run, this would determine what
Text
> Unit and Pointsize would be displayed.
>
> Resizing an image to a resolution of 72 DPI overcomes the
script
> recording issue as Pixel/point size is the same at that
resolution,
> but as a photographer I refuse to write that into my scripts as
a
> solution as I would not want in any way to degrade my (or
anyone
> elses)image quality. If anything I'd resize all images to 300
DPI and
> work out what the text size should be based on a 300/72
calculation.
>
> 2) The other worrying factor is that sometimes a script with a
text
> element displays at a much greater size than expected. In
recent weeks
> I've had a couple of my script users who have reported this to
me.
> Most of my PSPX scripts are derived from PSP9 developed scripts
with
> some minor tweaking to ensure the work correctly with the
slightly
> different PSPX Python conventions. I should say that 99% of the
time
> my scripts work absolutely fine on my PSPX version 10.03, and
when
> I've tried my scripts they appeared to work as expected.
However I did
> notice a couple of times that text appeared large, and I had
eramarked
> them for further investigation to possible re-write the
scripts... but
> on future uses, the problem had somehow disappeared.
>
> Last week I received a sample from someone trying to run my
35mmNeg
> script where the text went off the image it was so big. I tried
it on
> my machine, and it did the same thing!. I then spent a fair bit
of the
> day working out how to auto resize the text dependant on an
images DPI
> resolution. Later that day, I tried again with my original
script, and
> this time it work as expected with the correct text size. As
far as
> I'm aware, I hadn't changed any system settings or preferences,
as I
> had only been working on the script with Notepad. Weird non?
Perhaps I
> had inadvertently tweaked something, I thought.
>
> As of this morning PSPX was working correctly on all my
scripts. I
> however got a trojan into my system from a file I received from
a
> friend(?)... thanks!.. and had to eventually set my XP system
back to
> a Restore point a couple of days ago... and guess what? Yep...
the
> PSPX text on all my scripts is now displaying large again! So
it does
> look like there is a registry setting which is affecting this
issue.
>
> I'll be playing with it over the weekend, trying to return it
to
> normal text size again, through Preference/Settings tweaks.
>
> THIS IS CLEARLY CRAZY!!!
>
> Yes I can rewrite scripts to some new values as a workaround,
but the
> basic engine is flawed, and should be fixed. The same scripts
work
> perfectly with PSP9 and have only been slightly tweaked for
PSPX
> use... the Text sections have not been touched at all. When
I've got a
> final handle on what I perceive to be the problem (although
it's
> looking at the moment like some shoddy coding) I'll report it
to C@rel
> with a request to place some importance on a quick fix.
>
> Comments welcome.
>
> Now I remember why I stick to PSP9... this PSPX nonsense is
just not
> worth the effort! Unfortunately, folk out there want PSPX
scripts...
> Sheesh!
>
> I'm going for a lie down in a darkened room!
>
> Rgds,
> Howard

And so you should - along with a nice brandy! You've done yeoman
investigative work and can only thank you for your efforts.
Hopefully most users are still in v.9 mode and won't be afflicted
with the v.X bug. (And I guess I was wrong and Trev correct -
the 72ppi thing works).

I'm not all that confident, however, that Corel will be willing
to correct what they corrupted with v.X. Hope I'm not being too
pessimistic.

Regards,

JoeB

Joske

2006-05-27, 7:08 pm

JoeB wrote:
> Howard Dickson wrote

[color=darkred]
> And so you should - along with a nice brandy! You've done yeoman
> investigative work and can only thank you for your efforts.
> Hopefully most users are still in v.9 mode and won't be afflicted
> with the v.X bug. (And I guess I was wrong and Trev correct -
> the 72ppi thing works).

> I'm not all that confident, however, that Corel will be willing
> to correct what they corrupted with v.X. Hope I'm not being too
> pessimistic.

No, you're not :-) It took me a while to remember that this was by
design: add 1/3 of the font size if you're going to add text in the
same size one of our (Howard's and our Calendar scripts) generated.
It was a display decision.

(Howard, you asked for input, hope you read Jos' observations)

Joske
--
http://members.home.nl/j.a.c.backer/

Spandex Rutabaga

2006-05-27, 7:08 pm

Howard Dickson wrote:

A few thoughtlets below.

> 1) As explained earlier, with the introduction in PSPX of 'Units' choice
> in the Text tools menubar, the user can select Pixels or Points. If
> Pixels is selected, and the user has sized his text with the correct
> text pixel size for his/her image, when recorded as a script, the
> 'Pointsize' value saved in the Text section of the script, is that of
> the equivalent 'Points' value (ie 72 in pixels becomes a value of 26).
> The only problem is, that when that script is run, the text size isn't
> displayed as Points, but is displayed in Pixels, but at the reduced
> recorded value. This clearly has to be corrected. If a new option has
> been created (in this case a choice of Pixels or Points from the Text
> menubar) then that option should appear as a recordable value in the
> Text section of a script. Therefore PSPX recorded scripts should have an
> extra line added to text sections with a value which shows what Text
> 'Unit' was active at the time. The recorded Pointsize would then be
> saved according to what uUnit was active... and more importantly, when
> the script is run, this would determine what Text Unit and Pointsize
> would be displayed.

Have you checked whether this 'Unit' parameter perhaps exists but
its use is simply undocumented? It could exist even if it is not
recorded as it should be.

> Resizing an image to a resolution of 72 DPI overcomes the script
> recording issue as Pixel/point size is the same at that resolution, but
> as a photographer I refuse to write that into my scripts as a solution
> as I would not want in any way to degrade my (or anyone elses)image
> quality. If anything I'd resize all images to 300 DPI and work out what
> the text size should be based on a 300/72 calculation.

I don't see how any degradation is involved at all. The size in
pixels of text is connected to the point size of the text via an
arbitrary conversion factor called resolution. If you do Image >
Resize with Resample Using *unchecked* you can specify a new
resolution value and not affect the image pixels in any way. The
size of the image in pixels doesn't change. Only the conversion
factor and the resultant inch size changes. You can get the current
resolution from Image Info, set what you need to get the right text
size, and set back to the saved original value, all without ever
resampling the image.

> 2) The other worrying factor is that sometimes a script with a text
> element displays at a much greater size than expected. In recent weeks
> I've had a couple of my script users who have reported this to me. Most
> of my PSPX scripts are derived from PSP9 developed scripts with some
> minor tweaking to ensure the work correctly with the slightly different
> PSPX Python conventions. I should say that 99% of the time my scripts
> work absolutely fine on my PSPX version 10.03, and when I've tried my
> scripts they appeared to work as expected. However I did notice a couple
> of times that text appeared large, and I had eramarked them for further
> investigation to possible re-write the scripts... but on future uses,
> the problem had somehow disappeared.

A complete guess here. Have you checked what physical units are
used on their systems based on the regional settings, i.e. inches
or cm? This might be relevant. Confusion caused by the resolution
in PNG files being metric (and also in BMP files I think) might
be another problem. Look to see if the text is 2.54 or 25.4 times
bigger than it ought to be for instance. If GIF files are involved,
they don't store resolution at all, so the default resolution might
be being picked up in an unexpected way.

> Last week I received a sample from someone trying to run my 35mmNeg
> script where the text went off the image it was so big. I tried it on my
> machine, and it did the same thing!. I then spent a fair bit of the day
> working out how to auto resize the text dependant on an images DPI
> resolution. Later that day, I tried again with my original script, and
> this time it work as expected with the correct text size. As far as I'm
> aware, I hadn't changed any system settings or preferences, as I had
> only been working on the script with Notepad. Weird non? Perhaps I had
> inadvertently tweaked something, I thought.

You might look for a program called RegSnap. It allows you to capture
your Windows registry. Then you can do something (e.g. run a PSP
command and close PSP to force a registry update) and run the program
again. With two snapshots of the registry RegSnap lets you do a
diff on the values so you can see what actually changed. (There will
be all sorts of changes just from Windows doing its thing but you
should be able to spot key changes relevant to PSP. It's laborious
but you can pin down what really changes.) Starting with a fresh
install of PSP X might be best for this.

> THIS IS CLEARLY CRAZY!!!
>
> Yes I can rewrite scripts to some new values as a workaround, but the
> basic engine is flawed, and should be fixed.

Yes, of course. This is most likely the result of someone not very
familiar with PSP trying to create a featurette quickly, coupled with
shoddy qua lity as surance. I'm sure it is extremely frustrating. I
doubt anything will change before version PSP hex B though. I suppose
we can guess it will appear in August, give or take a month or so.

Howard Dickson

2006-05-27, 7:08 pm

Folks,

OK... here's the deal with 'fixing' PSPX to display text as it does in
PSP9... as I see it. :)

I've been looking for a simple, but effective way to workaround this
issue, so I can simply add a bit of code into my existing PSP9 developed
scripts, so they'll run properly in PSPX, with correctly sized text.

As mentioned before, text displays correctly at 72ppi, but you can't
write a generic script expecting this resolution. Most of my scripts are
written with the digital photographer in mind, whose image's resolution
can range usually from 100-300ppi. One way is of course to Resize the
image, maintaining its dimensions, but downsizing the resolution to
72ppi. I guess, as a purist, I really don't want to muck about with an
image's resolution, just to get my script to work. The solution I wanted
was to be able to extract the active images resolution, find out how
that equates to 72ppi, and make a corrective 'tweak' to the font Pointsize.

So this is the method I am going to use in the INIT section of my PSPX
scripts which have some Text element to them...

# ----------

Info = App.Do( Environment, 'ReturnImageInfo' )

imgpix = Info['PixelsPerUnit']
factor = 72/imgpix

# ----------

If I have therefore written a script in PSP9 and have decided that the
font Pointsize should be, say, 48... all I do when converting the script
for PSPX use is to add the code (above) to the top of the script, then
where the Pointsize value goes, I put... 48 *factor.

This takes into account the active image's resolution, and makes a
corresponding adjustment to the font size.

Actually, I usually use a variable for the Pointsize instead of a
number, which usually calculates the text size from the image's Width,
but the solution would be the same (multiplying the variable by factor).

I think it will be the neatest solution all round, with only 3 lines of
code to be added, plus the 'factor' multiplier to be inserted for each
text entry.

Hope this helps.

I'll be updating all my text based PSPX scripts over the next day or
two, and sending out corrected script collections to current users.

BTW I'll be passing on the other request to fix the Text 'Units' script
recording bug, and giving their coders a virual smack on the hands for
such shoddy work! :)

Rgds,
Howard
--

---oooOOOooo---

Sheilsoft
ComputerSystems

www.sheilsoft.com

---oooOOOooo---

Comcast Newsgroups

2006-05-27, 7:08 pm

Thanks Howard, appreciate all your hard work. I'll wait for those fixes, no
hurry.....Thanks again.....Ralph

"Howard Dickson" <howard@REMOVEsheilsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4478c991$1_2@cnews...
> Folks,
>
> OK... here's the deal with 'fixing' PSPX to display text as it does in
> PSP9... as I see it. :)
>
> I've been looking for a simple, but effective way to workaround this
> issue, so I can simply add a bit of code into my existing PSP9 developed
> scripts, so they'll run properly in PSPX, with correctly sized text.
>
> As mentioned before, text displays correctly at 72ppi, but you can't write
> a generic script expecting this resolution. Most of my scripts are written
> with the digital photographer in mind, whose image's resolution can range
> usually from 100-300ppi. One way is of course to Resize the image,
> maintaining its dimensions, but downsizing the resolution to 72ppi. I
> guess, as a purist, I really don't want to muck about with an image's
> resolution, just to get my script to work. The solution I wanted was to be
> able to extract the active images resolution, find out how that equates to
> 72ppi, and make a corrective 'tweak' to the font Pointsize.
>
> So this is the method I am going to use in the INIT section of my PSPX
> scripts which have some Text element to them...
>
> # ----------
>
> Info = App.Do( Environment, 'ReturnImageInfo' )
>
> imgpix = Info['PixelsPerUnit']
> factor = 72/imgpix
>
> # ----------
>
> If I have therefore written a script in PSP9 and have decided that the
> font Pointsize should be, say, 48... all I do when converting the script
> for PSPX use is to add the code (above) to the top of the script, then
> where the Pointsize value goes, I put... 48 *factor.
>
> This takes into account the active image's resolution, and makes a
> corresponding adjustment to the font size.
>
> Actually, I usually use a variable for the Pointsize instead of a number,
> which usually calculates the text size from the image's Width, but the
> solution would be the same (multiplying the variable by factor).
>
> I think it will be the neatest solution all round, with only 3 lines of
> code to be added, plus the 'factor' multiplier to be inserted for each
> text entry.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> I'll be updating all my text based PSPX scripts over the next day or two,
> and sending out corrected script collections to current users.
>
>
>
>
> BTW I'll be passing on the other request to fix the Text 'Units' script
> recording bug, and giving their coders a virual smack on the hands for
> such shoddy work! :)
>
> Rgds,
> Howard
> --
>
> ---oooOOOooo---
>
> Sheilsoft
> ComputerSystems
>
> www.sheilsoft.com
>
> ---oooOOOooo---