Speech Balloons

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Speech Balloons

Postby Jeff.R » Fri May 31, 2013 8:05 am

A recent slideshow turned into a nightmare because I used speech balloons on a number of photos from different cameras. I put the speech balloons in (on osx preview). My problem is that all the photos in the slideshow had text and ballons of different sizes . I presume that this is due to the original photos being from different cameras with different image sizes. How can I set up a correct workflow to avoid this problem? Please forgive my ignorance, I am a 70 year old newcomer to this forum.

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby im42n8 » Fri May 31, 2013 8:50 am

I'm not sure I understand ... so, pardon my ignorance. Am I understanding that you put the speech balloons into the photo's themselves, prior to putting the images into ProShow? If so, the speech balloons are going to size according to the images themselves ... that's because they're considered part of the actual image itself.

To work around this, you will need to import the image (sans balloons/text) separately from importing the speech balloon graphics. Since each are separate, you can now control the size and position of each (including the speech balloon "content").

If I'm understanding correctly, you'll import the speech balloons as a graphic and then add a caption (in ProShow or as graphical text) to appear inside the speech balloon.

If I'm not understanding, what additional information can you provide about exactly what you did?

Dale

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby gpsmikey » Fri May 31, 2013 9:26 am

As another "old geezer" I understand - I have run into this before (and invented several other ways to shoot myself in the foot as well). You are correct in that when things get "resized" to fit the frame, depending on the image size, the degree of "change" will vary causing the effect you ran into. Probably the easiest way to avoid that is to resize all the images to the same size. One very handy utility is the free "Irfanview" - you can use it in the batch rename/resize mode to create new images from a batch of images. I do it all the time to reduce images I have modified down to ones that are 1024 pixels on the long side and in the process rename the new images to include "_1024px" in the new file name (giving me images easy to email to folks). Since they are now all the same size, you will not run into that issue with the balloons being different sizes (or at least minimize the problem). Irfanview is a very handy utility for sorting through images, batch converting to other formats and/or renaming in the process. One of my standard installs on my system - best of all, it is FREE !!!
http:www.irfanview.com

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby BarbaraC » Fri May 31, 2013 11:54 am

When I want a collection of images to all land in ProShow with the same relative size, I bring them into Photoshop (any image editor will be fine), and place them on a 1600 x 900 pixel transparent layer. In Photoshop, I can do all this in layer upon layer, sizing each, and then saving each layer as a separate file, but it can also be done with each image in a separate file, simply judging the sizes.

It's all very annoying. :D

You received replies from just 3 of us old folks, but there are plenty more in the forum. You're either in good company or bad. Not sure.

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby debngar » Fri May 31, 2013 1:15 pm

Keep in mind... different fonts can take up different amounts of screen space even if they're set to the same font "size". So if another font is chosen in place of the previous one, it may not fit the speech balloons to your liking without a tiny bit of tweaking even if it's set to the same font size.

Here is a quickie example of how different one font looks compared in size on the screen to another given they are set to the same font size.

"Font Choices Make A Difference! - :50 seconds
http://www.photodex.com/share/debngar/2wp2dmg4

It might be possible to avoid resizing speechbubble image files by using a speechbubble dingbat font underneath the captions instead. There is one called "talkies" that can be found here:

http://www.dafont.com/talkies.font

Can't say for sure but maybe duping a caption (to preserve the placement etc), then changing it to the dingbat font, selecting one of the letters that represents the bubble you like, then sizing the font to fit might be easier all around. Without a bit of experimentation, I can't say whether or not it would save you time though. But that's another way to approach the effect.

Good Luck :)
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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby tdew » Fri May 31, 2013 4:57 pm

My thought would be to leave the pictures as they are and just add the speech bubble as a separate layer on a transparent background. Wouldn't that work?

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby Jeff.R » Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:14 am

Many thanks to all of you for your replies. As suggested, I have solved the problem by keeping all my workflow within the Proshow application, using a seperate layer for the balloon and adding the relevant caption. This also saves a lot of time as changing fom one application to another on different operating systems is time wasting.

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby BarbaraC » Sat Jun 01, 2013 3:26 am

Jeff.R wrote:...changing from one application to another on different operating systems is time wasting.

Are you using a Mac?

Barbara
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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby Jeff.R » Sat Jun 01, 2013 7:35 am

Yes, I 'm using a Mac and VMware Fusion running Windows 7. I only use Windows 7 for Proshow as there is nothing to compete with it at this level.

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Re: Speech Balloons

Postby BarbaraC » Sat Jun 01, 2013 8:23 am

Now I understand why you want to do as much as possible inside ProShow. It's so convenient running software simultaneously, and I guess if Photodex ever makes a Mac version, you'll be one of a number of people standing up and cheering.

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