Digital Light & Color

An update is available to Version 8.0.115 (21-Jun-2020)

The changes (taken from the update log) are:

Lines/Arrows/Text Tool: fixed problem with drop shadow dialog box being left open when transformation is closed, fixed problem with current line’s text box disappearing when clicking OK or Cancel, fixed problem with control points being allowed to be placed outside the input image, fixed problem with drop shadows causing misaligned and truncated text.

Text: fixed misalignment and truncated text problems with drop shadows

Thank you. The v8.0.115.0 updates easily makes the previously posted *.arrow script adaptable to another, larger image with an added overall Drop Shadow:
-------------------------- *.arrow -------------------------------

arrow 0 nx 800 ny 450 amount 1 -1 0 0 ″Amount: ″ ″Mask″ line_width 10.0025 head_size 4.9887 transparency 0 color ffff heads 1 style 0 line_style 0 has_text 1 text_info 0 ″...Text...″ ″Arial″ 80 4 1 0 0 ffffff 0 255 255 20 0 0 5 1 0 5.036 -45 50 10.0819 0.5055 0.3811 display 2 sync_scroll 1 auto_preview 1 narrows 1 arrow0 10.0025 4.9887 0 ffff 1 0 0 2 0.5049 0.3803 0 0 1 1 0.7975 0.7427 0 0 100 100 has_text0 1 text_info0 0 ″...Text...″ ″Arial″ 80 4 1 0 0 ffffff 0 255 255 20 0 0 5 1 0 5.036 -45 50 10.0819 0.5055 0.3811

------------------------------------------------------------------- .
and the v8.0.114.0 updates make Composite with [2point (shift/rotate/scale)] Alignments easier with more accuracy.

Again, thank you...
...den...

Thanks for reporting the bugs and making the suggestion.

Den, in the example above, uses Drop Shadow transformation to create an impression of raised text box and arrow. To do that, one needs to create a mask in a shape of the text box and arrow. This is not that difficult but requires some fiddeling and, at least in its basic form, the mask needs a standard shape.

I was thinking that perhaps it could be automated by e.g. a button that would create an implicit mask and than call Drop Shadow control box...

It's all Den's fault :-)

How about a separately optional added text border inside drop shadow as well?
. ! Maciej's fault !
...den...
P.S. The transform is already rather daunting with its controls/options... ...this may be too much and is fairly easy to do with separately used Drop Shadow transforms remembering that the masks will be image specific.

I was trying to figure the simplest method to create a mask to drop shadow with Line, Arrow and Text. I'm not sure how Den does it, but I tried Flood Fill first, then tried filling pinholes (to cover the text), but that didn't work that well. So my latest idea, that looks complicated, but it's really not was this:

1) Create a New blank (black in this case) image with the same dimension as the one with the text/arrow. I discovered a nice addition to New (not in Help yet) - sizing it dynamically according to Reference Image.

2) Copy the line and arrow transformation below it, so that I have the same line and arrow (and textbox) but on a black background.

3) Then it's easy to make a mask that fills the black background and then inverse the mask.

4) Use this mask with Drop Shadow on the original image.

It's quite simple, but I suspect there may be a simpler way...

Den?

That sounds like a good method.

I updated Help for File New for the next release.

If the New transformation uses a Reference image to get the pixel dimensions from, and the reference image is resized, the New image dimensions don't seem to be updated automatically. Reopening New and re-selecting Reference image do change the New dimensions. Is that how it is supposed to work?

Fixed for next release.