Proportional change in text size and line thickness when scaling comments

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

If you select a comment and then resize it by dragging the selection handles or by specifying a ratio in the Transform dialog, the size of the text and the thickness of the various comment lines will be maintained. Users of any PDF application accept this behavior as a matter of course, and in many cases they are fine with it. On the other hand, there are cases where the size of text and the thickness of lines in comments should change proportionally to the size change.

Even with PDF-XChange Editor, such size change is not supposed to be possible in the usual way of operation. However, you can somehow achieve your goal by copying the entire comment you want to resize to a new page, scaling the page with all the Content Scale Options enabled in the Resize Pages dialog, and copying it back to the original page.

• 

  
  

  

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

Unfortunately, this method is quite complicated to use. If possible, it would be great if you could add a new option so that only when that option is enabled, the size of the text and the thickness of the lines in the various comments would change in proportion to the size change.

If someone has already requested this, I will vote for it. If not, I would appreciate your consideration.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version: 10.2.1 build 385
- OS Version: Windows 11 Home 23H2 Build 22631.3296
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL, HP All-in-One 22-c0xx

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rakunavi,

If you need to resize text - you can flatten the annotation, and then select the base content object - and that would change the text size for you.

Unfortunately it is not possible to do so while the object is an annotation.
I will ask our developers whether this is something they would consider for comments, and if approved - I will make the necessary FR ticket.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Stefan, thank you for your reply.

As you can see if you actually try the method presented above, it seems to be possible. When I first learned of this method, I was again impressed by the awesomeness of PDF-XChange Editor. For your reference, I made a video showing the Comments Pane using the same procedure as before. At the end of the verification, I changed some of the text colors, but the changes are reflected in the Comments Pane, aren't they?

• 

  I think this capture tells you that it is possible to change the text size and border thickness for comments without flattening it.

  
  

  

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

I propose this feature because if you guys have already achieved this level of awesome functionality, just a few more improvements will enable you to achieve overwhelming functionality that no other software can reach.

I believe in the results of the verification I have seen with my own eyes.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rakunavi,

Just heard back from the devs on this one as well.
Unfortunately this would not be trivial to implement, and is also not standard behaviour for the annotations, so our developers have rejected the request for the foreseeable future, and you would need to have to continue to use the alternative approaches you have found to achieve the desired result.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Stefan, thank you for informing me of the results of your review.

Currently, there is no PDF software that can proportionally change various sizes, such as text size, when annotations are resized, except for this backdoor trick in PDF-XCE, as far as I know, so I understand the developer's decision. But that does not mean it is true for all annotations in all PDF software.

For example, Drawboard PDF changes the line thickness proportionally when resizing annotations only for annotations drawn with the Pencil tool. That is standard behavior, and there is no option to maintain the thickness. This is one of the reasons why I am so tempted to use Drawboard PDF instead of PDF-XChange Editor when I take handwritten notes in Windows. I have been using it for many years and the behavior is quite natural and reasonable.

• 

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

As I already mentioned, PDF-XChange Editor maintains the pencil thickness regardless of the annotation resizing, and most other software, such as Acrobat, does the same with PDF-XChange Editor.

• 

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

Instead of deciding on one behavior for all annotation tools, it might be possible to satisfy the needs of more users by flexibly deciding what the behavior should be for each tool, such as making an exception for the pencil tool.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rakunavi,

Can you please share with us one such file created with that Drawboard tool with the text already inside of it? I'd like to check whether that is a standard annotation or something specific/custom they make. And I will also ask our devs to take a look at your videos and advise if we could possibly do something similar. Even if they approve - it will likely be quite a longer term project.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Stefan, thank you for your reply.

Drawboard PDF changes the line thickness proportionally only for the pencil tool, but for text annotation, the text size is maintained as in PDF-XChange Editor. It should only be possible to change the text size of text annotations proportionally when the annotation is resized by using features such as "Resize Pages" or "Set Margins" in PDF-XCE. I apologize for the confusion caused by my lack of writing skills.

Just to be sure, I have attached a copy of the annotation drawn with the pencil tool in Drawboard PDF with the size changed in steps for your reference, but I am sure this is not what Stefan wants.

• 

• sample.zip

  (64.96 KiB) Downloaded 6 times

I apologize for taking time out of your busy schedule.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rakunavi,

Thanks for that sample!
Actually that PDF file is exactly the sample I was thinking of.
I do see that those annotations do scale in thickness even when resized in the Editor, unlike our own pencil input.
I will now ask my colleagues to take a look and advise what is different for those annotations and if we can do something similar for at least the pencil tool in the Editor.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Stefan, thank you for your reply.

I am happy to have unexpectedly provided the requested file.

I do see that those annotations do scale in thickness even when resized in the Editor, unlike our own pencil input.

With all due respect, what you are describing might be somewhat different from my understanding. As far as I have tried here, the line thicknesses were not scaled when selected using the selection tool in the PDF-XChange Editor and resized by dragging the resize handles. The results are shown on the first page of the attached file.

• 

  Image output of the first page of the attached "ResizedByPDFXCE.pdf"

• ResizedByPDFXCE.zip

  (203.72 KiB) Not downloaded yet

When I used the Resize Pages dialog, which I have been telling you about since the beginning of this topic, the line thickness was scaled when resizing.

• 

  Image output of the second page of the attached "ResizedByPDFXCE.pdf"

However, when comparing the results of scaling down in Drawboard PDF with the above results of scaling down in PDF-XChange Editor using the Resize Pages function, they are similar in that the thickness of the lines is proportional to the size, but depending on the zoom level, the thickness of the lines in PDF-XChange Editor.

When the zoom level is increased, the line thicknesses of both seem to eventually become the same, but at zoom levels within the commonly used range, the result of scaling with Drawboard PDF looks more natural, at least to me. This is probably a matter of preference, and I am not sure if I am conveying what I want to say properly, but I have attached a video for your reference.

• 

  At some zoom levels, the thickness of the lines scaled down by the Resize Pages function appears too thin visually.
  This figure shows an example of a monitor with Full HD resolution,
  but the higher the resolution, such as 4K, the more pronounced the difference becomes.

  
  

  

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

• sample2.zip

  (88.08 KiB) Downloaded 2 times

Sorry for repeatedly mentioning Drawboard PDF from the middle of the topic, but of course I am not asking for scaling compatibility in PDF-XChange Editor for annotations created in Drawboard PDF.

Even if, in the far distant future, PDF-XChange Editor should be able to scale annotation thickness proportionally when resizing pencil tool annotations, if the implementation is similar to the current Resize Pages function, the line thickness might become too thin, as shown in the above example. For this reason, I have provided the status of the ideal implementation in Drawboard PDF that users are looking for.

It might be premature to be concerned about such things at a stage when nothing has been decided yet, but as I am asking a precious few elite developers to consider my request, I believe it is more meaningful to make all my wishes known from the beginning, rather than nitpicking them.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version: 10.2.1 build 385
- Drawboard PDF 5.39.17.0
- OS Version: Windows 11 Home 23H2 Build 22631.3296
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL, HP All-in-One 22-c0xx

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rakunavi,

I have just created a FR ticket for the above request:
#6878: FR: Proportional change in text size and line thickness when scaling comments
We will be posting updates here as soon as we have any further news!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Thank you, Stefan, for creating the ticket!

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule.
Please give my best regards to the developers.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]