The Basics

The edit image feature of DocScanFx lets end users draw on the selected image with various sized brushes & colors and add text to an image.  This is useful for annotating worksheet diagrams, highlighting an area of interest, or adding some important text to an image. Image editing can be performed on any scanned images, but it is especially useful with electronic forms.    At a minimum the image editing option must be turned on with the following INI option for an end user to access this feature.

ScanOptionEdit=True

This can be set in the [COMMON] section of the INI file if you want all modes to be able to edit images, or use this option in a specific mode.  When it is turned on the user interface will have this new button:


The image editing screen's toolbars are kept to a minimum to avoid distractions::

Just left click and drag to draw on the image.  Use the curved arrows on the top toolbar to UNDO or REDO recent actions.  Change the brush size using the three left most buttons on the toolbar, or pick a different color using the colored buttons.  By default the brush size is set to small with the color red.  See the "Advanced" section below to change this.


If you want to place some text on an image, click the 'T' button and a re-sizable text window will display on the image. Drag the box to the location you want it and resize it as necessary.  Be sure to press enter when you are done typing.  Type your text and notice if you resize the box it will word wrap the text appropriately.  Use the remaining toolbar options to change the font family, size, and color.


Clicking the "X" in the corner of the Image Edit window will prompt if you want to save the changes or not.  Note that the displayed image will change size when this save dialog appears.  That is normal behavior.


Advanced

You can customize most every aspect of the drawing and text annotation experience and apply these customizations globally or to specific modes.  To get started, add a section to your INI file and name it anything that isn’t already in use as a section name somewhere else in your INI file and that represents something meaningful in regard to editing images, like [ImageEditing].  Here are two sample sets of options demonstrating the settings available in versions 3.1.0.4+ and prior:


Settings for Version 3.1.0.4+

ImageEditorScalePercentage=90
ImageEditorAppPixelPadWidth=10
ImageEditorAppPixelPadHeight=20
ImageEditorPenSize=Medium
ImageEditorPenColor=Blue
ImageEditorBrushSizeSmall=4
ImageEditorBrushSizeMedium=8
ImageEditorBrushSizeLarge=20
ImageEditorTextSize=18
ImageEditorTextColor=Orange
ImageEditorTextFont=Courier


  • ImageEditorScalePercentage: [Defaults to 85]
    • Whichever image dimension is largest in regard to screen layout will be scaled to this percentage of total available space. Must be between 50 and 95.
  • ImageEditorAppPixelPadWidth: [Defaults to 50]
    • Additional horizontal pixel padding to shift the draw window to the right.
  • ImageEditorAppPixelPadHeight: [Defaults to 80]
    • Additional vertical pixel padding to shift the draw window down.
  • ImageEditorPenSize: [Small* / Medium / Large]
    • Initial pen size.
  • ImageEditorPenColor: [Black / White / Red* / Orange / Blue / Purple]
    • Initial pen color.
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeSmall: [Defaults to 2]
    • Pixel size of the small brush, must be between 1 and 50.
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeMedium: [Defaults to 5]
    • Pixel size of the medium brush, must be between 5 and 100.
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeLarge: [Defaults to 15]
    • Pixel size of the large brush, must be between 10 and 200.
  • ImageEditorTextSize: [Defaults to 14]
    • Initial font size: Can be 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 36, 48, or 72.
  • ImageEditorTextColor: [Black / White / Red* / Orange / Blue / Purple]
    • Initial font text color.
  • ImageEditorTextFont: [Defaults to Arial]
    • Initial font to use. Can be set to most common font names. Replace any spaces in the font name with dashes.



Settings for Version 3.1.0.3 and prior

[ImageEditing]
ImageEditorWindowWidth=1200
ImageEditorWindowHeight=1000
ImageEditorTextFont=Times New Roman
ImageEditorTextSize=60
ImageEditorTextWeight=800
ImageEditorTextHexColor=0xFFFF00
ImageEditorBrushSizeInitial=1
ImageEditorBrushSizeSmall=5
ImageEditorBrushSizeMedium=25
ImageEditorBrushSizeLarge=50
ImageEditorBrushHexColorInitial=0xFFFFFF00


Note that these settings can be used to set the initial brush characteristics and font annotations settings to values that are not available through the normal right click context menu user interface in the editing application.

  • ImageEditorWindowWidth: [Defaults to 800]
    • Desired pixel width of image editing window.  Note this will be adjusted in order to accommodate the image size.
  • ImageEditorWindowHeight: [Defaults to 600]
    • Desired pixel height of image editing window.  Note this will be adjusted in order to accommodate the image size.
  • ImageEditorTextFont: [Defaults to Arial]
    • Preselect the font used when adding annotations in the editing application.  Note that while in the editing application the end user can select any font that is installed on their computer, only these fonts can be preselected through the INI file: Arial, Courier New, Lucida Console, Tahoma, Times New Roman, or Verdana.
  • ImageEditorTextSize: [Defaults to 18]
    • Font size when adding annotations.
  • ImageEditorTextWeight: [Default is 400]
    • The weight of the font in the range 0 - 1000.  400 is normal.  600 is bold.
  • ImageEditorTextHexColor: [Defaults to 0xFF0000]
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeInitial: [Defaults to 5]
    • Pixel size of the brush.
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeSmall: [Defaults to 2]
    • Pixel size of the small brush.
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeMedium: [Defaults to 5]
    • Pixel size of the medium brush.
  • ImageEditorBrushSizeLarge: [Defaults to 10]
    • Pixel size of the large brush.
  • ImageEditorBrushHexColorInitial:  [Defaults to 0xFFFF0000]
    • Brush color in ARGB hex format. (Read about ARGB here - basically the first two hex characters represent transparency and the last six are the color.)