requesting a new blend mode or two

[Jojoyubby]

I would like to suggest 2 new blend modes to be added for the comments/ area markup

the first one is "invert" or "negative"

the second is "clear out" where 2 comments overlap and the color will be removed in situations like the attached image

image.png

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Jojoyubby,

I am afraid that the available blend modes are defined in the PDF ISO spec, and as such we can not add any new ones.
Here are some extracts from the ISO Spec:

image.png

And e.g. here are the formulas on how to calculate the "Screen" blend mode:

image(1).png

These have to be defined, so that when you set a "Screen" blend mode in the Editor, and save the file - it can be rendered the same way on another device in another PDF software, so there is no option for us to "add" our own blend modes - as those would not conform to the 'portability' part of the portable document format

However your e.g. "Inverse" colour can be achieved with a white annotation with "Difference" blend mode selected:

image(2).png

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Jojoyubby]

Many thanks Stefan,

a follow-up question on measurement comments. Is it possible to change the name of the comment in the property window?

image.png

It can help us automate the complex area calculation in excel where some measurements needed to be subtracted from the overall areas after we export the comments. it is hard to identify which area is corresponding to which measurement with the current auto "string" of name.

cheers.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Jojoyubby,

These names can only really be changed with JS.
Something like this:

Code: Select all

var annots = this.getAnnots();
for (var i = 0; i < annots.length; i++){
   if (annots[i].name == "86edfe23-49da-4381-9019ecf1c93a81f2"){
     annots[i].name = "CustomName";
   }
}

would do the trick - but you will also need to ensure that you specify unique names, and my initial name is copied from the properties pane for an annotation I tested with - so you will obviously need to update that for the script to work for you.

And the result after that is that my annotation has it's desired custom name:

image.png

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Mathew]

Here's a simple interactive version with a dialog to enter the name. Select the annotation you want to change first. Paste and run in the javascript console:

Code: Select all

if (this.selectedAnnots[0]) {
	var annotName = app.response({
		cTitle: "Change selected annotation name",
		cQuestion: "Enter new name for selected annotation:",
		cDefault: this.selectedAnnots[0].name
	});
	if (annotName != null) {
		// will fail if the name already exists
		this.selectedAnnots[0].name = annotName;
	}
}else{
	console.println("Nothing selected!");
}

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

slick!

I like it!