Suggested Enhancements to the Text Generator Module

[deleted]

Hi NCH

Proposed enhancments to the text generation window.

Currently VP will generate Text with the usual Font type and size / Bold/Italic/Underline/ Text colour/ Background colour/ Outline colour with an amount slider/ Basic Position and Scrolling options..
However I think an addition could be made to enhance text even more.......

Although there is a shadow option, this is rather primitive just being a narrow linein grey and only in one position. This could be developed I'm sure, into something much more useful...

It should be possible to place the shadow in four positions Top/Bottom/Left/Right and in the colour of choice and with an adjustable spacing from the text producing a shadow depth.

There should be a basic Simple shadow that is not attached to the letters the shadow depth slider enabling the shadow to be spaced in its selected position at a variable distance behind the text.

There should be a Block Shadow with the same adjustable parameters but the shadow is attached to the text.

There should also be controls to produce a Soft shadow. This variation would have the same properties of the above but would be shaded or blended from a selected start colour to selected finish colour.

Here are some examples to illustrate what I mean.....

Anybody any thoughts.........?

The black background around some of these examples is just to show the soft shadow effect a little better and is not the text background. It's equivalent to the full frame background currently available.

Any thoughts anyone.....?

Nat

borate

Looks good. But at what point does the program become 'bloated'?

Is it marketing's aim to compete with Premiere or even PowerDirector?

Or instead to focus on being an easy to master tool that has just enough bells and whistles to satisfy the average home movie maker.

[deleted]

Hi Borate.

" But at what point does the program become 'bloated'? "

I suppose that would be up to the NCH developers. I have no idea myself. :-) I just thought that as a film/video editing program (and with a version referred to as "Professional") it ought to have a feature that could produce professional looking shadowed titles.

" Is it marketing's aim to compete with Premiere or even PowerDirector? "

Again, I have no idea. It's already a great program but I can't see why NCH wouldn't want to make it better.^_

" Or instead to focus on being an easy to master tool that has just enough bells and whistles to satisfy the average home movie maker."

But this suggested enhancement to the Shadows option would be easy to use. (Perhaps not easy to program though.)

I actually produced these examples above with a graphics program called Micrografx Windows Draw 6. This sadly is no longer available but the text generating part is extremely easy to use and learn and is very similar to that in VP....

Click Add Text
Enter Text
Set theText Parameters (font/colour/scrolling etc)
Tick Shadow box if a shadow is required...... Currently in VP this just puts a narrow line along the lower part of the letters. In Draw however this opens a small parameter window shown below where the other properties of the shadow are set up just like VP. (In this case a soft lower right shadow in Orange > Red.) The colour selection arrows just show the colour matrix like VP. Perhaps something like this could be implemented when the Shadow box is ticked........?

It would be intuative (like in Draw) and with all the fonts readily available (and visible) it would be capable of producing some impressive looking titles.

Regards

Nat

c_major_2

I agree with Borate that we must be very care about adding new features. I also agree with Nat that we do need so nice looking text effects. In fact it is a high priority to-do item.

We'll find a way to minimize the impact to the learning curve and experience when adding new features.

Thank you both for the suggestions!

[deleted]

Hi Sam

I just replied to Borate with some further details to my suggestion..

Nat

c_major_2

Hi Nat,

Yes, I saw that. Thanks.

What I'm thinking is a generic way to do text effects (not only for shadow). A text effect can be shadow, blur, grow, fade etc. or a special kind of animation (e.g. Starwar title).

flennwagner

The current shadow feature is quite basic, and adding more control—like adjustable position (top, bottom, left, right), custom colors, and spacing—would definitely enhance the text generator. A block shadow that’s attached to the text and a soft shadow with gradient blending would offer much more creative flexibility. These additions could really improve the visual quality of the output without making the tool harder to use. Fully support this!

borate

File a suggestion.