Feature request

Dorico
1

I have a feature request: export png files with inverted colors. So black becomes white and vice versa. I can do it in paint or another program, but it would be great if Dorico could do that.
Thanks!

2

Just out of curiosity: what do you use it for? :nerd:

3

For a beamer in a church. Inverted colors work best;

4

This is something that could be automated outside of Dorico: png files could be automatically converted when they are saved to a given folder, or when you drop them onto some script icon.

Dorico already has to be half-DAW, half-DTP app, without adding half-Photoshop as well! :smiley:

5

UP to the 1980s or thereabouts, computer monitors all displayed bright text on a dark background by default, until research shows that dark text on a light background caused less eye strain.

But I guess the problem with your church is that the ambient lighting is too bright, or your projector isn’t bright enough, so you can’t to create a “white” page with enough contrast.

I’m not going to ask why you are using png files instead of a vector format which should give you better resolution - I know all about idiosyncratic technology in churches with no money available to upgrade! A common piece of idiosyncratic technology being a pipe organ that had its last major maintenance work done about 100 years ago…

6

Rob, vector images aren’t really useful for projection, which maxes out at around 1080.

Also, eye strain isn’t typically an issue for the length of viewing time we’re talking about here. I certainly prefer black background with white text.

In the case of displaying the actual music, I do think I’d prefer black-on-white though.

7

To the OP: Open the PNG in something like paint.NET and one-click to invert colors. Easily done.

8

PNG should be OK so long as you can match the image size in pixels to the projector. Otherwise you are rasterizing the original twice, once when you make the PNG and again when you project it.

And not every projector will have the same resolution - though if you are only concerned about one venue, that doesn’t matter.

It seems a bit surprising that projectors can’t do this automatically. I’ve heard of people who create two versions of presentations, blank-on-white and white-on-black, because they don’t know which will work best in an unknown location.

9

Thanks all!
I did make a AHK macro to make inverted colors in paint. It works okay.
And Rob, what format would you advise?
It is a beamer which projects from the rear.