Hi everyone,
Having just recently taken a stab @ ISL scripting, I can attest to its utility
and potential ... and it does make for much nicer looking text rendering. But
the key word is "potential" ... it currently lacks some basic features of
scripting languages ... such as the ability to set an integer value and then
increment it (very useful when creating an animation loop).
Please keep these comments coming. The IDV Steering committee, on which sit
both Don Murray and I (apologies if I forgot anyone else on this thread), as
well as the Unidata Users Committee (which I chair) depend on these use case
assessments (good as well as "needs improvement") to give guidance to the
Unidata folks (who also appreciate hearing these real-world use cases too).
The font issue *has* improved in the past ten years ... one can choose from a
plethora of fonts installed on the host system, and the user has much more
control over placing the text strings which use the selected font when labeling
contours. That capability came about via emails such as this thread which Paul
Graham started (thanks, Paul!). Now we see a good call from the user base that
can hopefully motivate further improvements towards publication-quality
graphics.
On a side note, I'm very excited about the changes upcoming in the next
(version 5) release. Memory usage, a big problem with hi-res imagery and
grids, has really improved, as well as progressive disclosure as the user zooms
into a region of interest.
Cheers,
Kevin
_____________________________________________
Kevin Tyle, Systems Administrator
Dept. of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences
University at Albany
Earth Science 235, 1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
Email: ktyle@xxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 518-442-4578
_____________________________________________
________________________________________
From: idvusers-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <idvusers-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Joleen Feltz <joleenf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 1:55 PM
To: the Fingerhuts
Cc: idvusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [idvusers] IDV Font Quality
I should reiterate what Bill stated. It would be nice if this could be made
easier for everyone. Many people to whom I have suggested this option have
decided against it. They only want to use the UI.
Joleen
On Feb 11, 2014, at 12:53 PM, Joleen Feltz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I don't often use ISL scripts, but I do use writeImage from the jython shell
> in McIDAS-V, I believe this would work in IDV as well. Since it is a
> challenge to remember everything, I have saved some of my favorite
> annotations help documentation so that I can copy, paste and adjust as needed:
>
> fileName = "Something.jpg"
>
> writeImage(fileName,"matte background=white top=100;matte background=white
> bottom=150;\
> colorbar width=500 height=20 anchor=UM place=UM,0,20 showlines=true
> interval=5 showunit=true display=IASI;\
> overlay text=IASI Dual Regression Surface Skin Temperature 16:55 UTC
> place=UM,0,60 anchor=UM color=black fontsize=20 fontface=Arial;\
> overlay text=2013-05-20 anchor=LM place=LM,0,-90 color=black fontsize=32
> fontface=Arial;\
> overlay text=GOES-13 Visible Albedo 16:55 UTC anchor=LM place=LM,0,-60
> color=black fontsize=24 fontface=Arial;\
> overlay text=RAP 850-500hPa Wind Shear Vectors 17:00 UTC place=LM,0,-30
> anchor=LM color=black fontsize=24 fontface=Arial")
>
> Joleen
>
> On Feb 11, 2014, at 12:28 PM, the Fingerhuts wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> To obtain better quality text I often use the drawing control or use an isl
>> script.
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> P.S. Please make this easy for everyone to use.
>>
>> On 2/11/2014 10:01 AM, Don Murray wrote:
>>> Hi Paul-
>>>
>>> On 2/10/14 3:41 PM, Paul Graham wrote:
>>>> Is it possible to improve the font quality in IDV, or are there any plans
>>>> afoot by the development team to do so?
>>>
>>> The font quality varies from platform to platform. I find that I get
>>> better quality on Windows than I do with Mac. But both suffer from the
>>> effects you see. Text using fonts gets turned into a series of triangles,
>>> filling the outline of the letter edges. I find Century Gothic works
>>> pretty well, but still not great. The Hershey fonts use lines only, but
>>> you see the lines when the text gets big.
>>>
>>>> It appears IDV does not handle scalable fonts, so often text appears
>>>> pixelated, jagged or with artefacts, especially when rescaled.
>>>
>>> A possible solution would be to use the Java 3D Text3D objects. That would
>>> require some significant development to add it to VisAD first, and then
>>> access that in the IDV. I'm not aware of anybody who is interested in
>>> doing that, although it would go a ways towards Unidata's goal of
>>> "publication quality graphics" for the IDV.
>>>
>>> Don
>>
>>
>> --
>> The Fingerhuts
>> Saint Johnsbury, Vt, 05819
>>
>> email: fingerhuts3@xxxxxxxxx
>>
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