How to switch off the automatic image flattening ?

With the release of TNT v. 2.0 the EC Software screenshot program has become a serious application in its own right, so it was high time that it was given its own forum!

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Abghay
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:12 am

How to switch off the automatic image flattening ?

Unread post by Abghay »

Dear all,

I receive warnings before the image gets flattened and the current object gets merged with the background. If I cancel the image flattening it is ok.
How can I switch off this annoying feature :?: I would like to add several callouts to one picture and get consistently interrupted by this warning. And I want to be able to edit the callouts (text) at a later stage again.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi,

You don't want to switch off this warning in TNT because TNT does not support editable objects or layers and you always want to be warned when you accidentally perform an action that might flatten the image. Because of this I would not use TNT for complex screenshots with multiple callouts or other objects because you can never go back and edit them -- it is more suited for quick screenshots with effects applied while making the screenshot and 1 or 2 objects that you know you don't want to edit.

For complex screenshots it is better to use Impict, the screenshot editing program included with Help & Manual. If you use Impict's own .IPP format your objects will be saved in layers and can always be edited later. Impict also has a simple screen capture utility that does not apply any effects -- it does not need to because you apply all your effects in Impict. The advantage of this is that here the effects are non-destructive -- like objects they remain editable and can always be reversed later if you want.

When you are using .IPP images you need to know that they are always saved as True Color (16 million colors), which can produce unnecessarily large image files if you use them directly in your projects. It us thus better to save working copies as .IPP and use the Export As... function in Impict's File menu to create versions of your screenshots with 256 colors for use in your project.

For full details on choosing image formats to minimize file size see this guide on the forum:

http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?t=4228
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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