Color in Container has Odd Result

[K1200]

I'm trying to use colors held in a container field to colorize large areas on layouts. As shown in the screen image file below, there is a strange effect showing up along the bottom edge of the displayed results. I've tried various combinations of Enlarge settings with no improvement. A sample file is attached.

Would anyone know why this is happening? Is it an "undocumented feature" that serves some purpose?

Thanks in advance for any help. (I'm running 8.5 Developer under XP)

ContainerTest.fp7.ZIP

[Lee Smith]

Video Card maybe. It is sharp as a tack on my Mac.

Lee

[K1200]

Thanks, Lee. At least I know it's not a feature.

Anyone willing to confirm the operation on a PC running 8.5?

[mr_vodka]

Your intial image that you put into the container field is not big enough. Try to make a bigger one and then paste that into the container field. Then you can use the graphic format option of crop if you wish.

[K1200]

I guess I've misunderstood the whole idea of using color "swatches" in container fields. I've seen several examples on the forum, but I guess they we using them for field backgrounds and tab colors -- and I never noticed the fade effect on those smaller fields.

So the conclusions are (1) on PCs the swatch has to be larger than it's intended target field and (2) it's not that way on Macs.

Any other comments or suggestions? .... Anyone?

[mr_vodka]

Your image that you created within FM and then pasted into the container field is being stretched because the image is not big enough.

[comment]

Well, stretched is one thing, and frayed another. A single-pixel rectangle should be quite sufficient to fill a container with solid color, maintaining sharp edges on all four sides.

K1200 - just to eliminate other possibilities, can you report what you get with the attached file? Please examine both records.

testing.fp7.zip

[K1200]

Comment, here's the result on my PC. Both records look the same except for the slightly darker color on the second one.

[K1200]

Oops! ... Here's an update.

I went into layout mode and grabbed one of the single-pixel color swatches ... and then returned to browse mode and pasted it into the container.

This was the result:

[comment]

That IS strange - what exactly is involved in "grabbed"?

[K1200]

In layout mode, I right clicked on the lower of the one-pixel colors inside the vertical rectangle and selected "Copy". Then I changed to browse mode, clicked inside the container field to select it, then right clicked and selected "Paste Layout Object" -- which produced the transparency effect. (I say transparency because a text field placed behind the container shows through, so it's not transitioning the color from green to white but rather green to none).

I agree this is turning out to be a rather strange effect -- which might be useful if I/we can understand how to control it.

UPDATE: It just went from strange to weird when I edited one of the colors to be a 2 x 2 swatch (instead of 1 x 1). Here is the result:

Edited February 21, 2007 by Guest
added update

[comment]

I think you are very correct to call it 'transparency'. It looks like your copy/process converts the pixel into png format, with alpha (see also this thread).

I wonder if other Windows users get the same result, or is this limited to your particular system.

Some things you could check meanwhile:

- Does it happen with BOTH colors (they are not the same for a reason)?

- Does it happen with a completely black (0;0;0) pixel?

- What color pallette is selected in your application preferences?

[Genx]

No I get the same result

[comment]

OK, another question: I don't have a "Paste Layout Object" command. What happens if you just plain paste the pixel into the container (if it will let you)?

[K1200]

Both colors produce the same effect

Black does also

"256 Colors" is selected

The PC only has "Paste Layout Object" ... and Ctrl-V produces the same result.

Latest Results: I copied a 2 x 2 color swatch from another application and it ALMOST fills the container. Different problem ... but I still don't have a usable solution.

Edited February 21, 2007 by Guest
added remark and new results

[mr_vodka]

I tried creating the image from outside FM, and inserting the image in the container field via 'Insert Picture'. Same result.

[Genx]

Try creating it as a vertical rectangle (i.e. higher than it is wide)

[Raybaudi]

Hi all

I always thought that this was normal, not specifically of my Windows machine !

BTW: to have plain colour into a container field I have to paste a rectangle no less than 1/4 of the container. ( container = 240x120 ; rect = 120x60 )

[comment]

Was it like this in version 7, or is it new in 8 (or 8.5)?

[Genx]

I've seen it since I started working with FM at v7.

[K1200]

OK, this is what I've come up with:

1. If the Source is from inside FileMaker (e.g., those one-pixel swatches) the source has to be larger than the Destination container. Otherwise you get a "transparency fill" in any dimension that was short.

2. If the Source is from another application (e.g., MSPaint) filemaker attempts to fill the Destination modulo the source dimensions. There is not a transparency effect; the container will be blank after the integral is calculated.

3. FileMaker's algorithm does not like fractional Source dimensions (e.g., 3.5 x 3.5 pixels) -- which produce anti-aliased objects. The ArtisticResult.png was produced with a 6.5 pixel color source. ... so it's "garbage in, garbage out". It pays to confirm the Source Color with an application like MSPaint, which operates, literally, pixel by pixel. (See the ColorSources.png for an example)

The most interesting result is still the transparency fill effect with a 1-pixel source, but I was not able to control the direction of the fill so I don't not see how it would be useful.

For my own purposes, I think I understand enough to rein in the behavior to get the results I need. If anyone has more to add, certainly do. This was a facet of FileMaker I never intended to explore, but the more we know, the better, I suppose.

Thanks for the assistance.

[comment]

One thing that would be perhaps interesting to see, is an enlarged contents of the container after pasting (i.e. paste a 1x1 FM rectangle in, copy it, paste it in a paint application and zoom in).

My theory is that Filemaker forces anti-aliasing on the pasted object, then stretches it out (instead of the other way round).

[K1200]

Comment, I had looked for that ... but didn't notice anything when doing a 4x zoom in MSPaint.

[comment]

But is that a pixel that has been copied from the insides of a container?

[K1200]

No, it wasn't at the time.

However, I just ran the test you suggested (i.e., setting the container to allow the pasted object maintain its original size) -- and the object grabbed from the container and pasted into MSPaint is exactly the same.

[comment]

It kind of makes sense. If you don't mind one more test to satisfy my curiosity: what happens if you take my first file (the one that shows sharp edges on your system), and in Browse mode cut the contents of the container, commit the record, and paste it right back?

[Raybaudi]

It looks exactly as you made it... but if I cut it, paste it in Layout Mode, copy it from Layout Mode and paste again in Browse Mode, it changes and becomes transparent !

[K1200]

It pasted right back just fine.

And as one more test, I loaded your file and (only) changed the container to Reduce + Maintain Original Proportions.

When I went to browse mode, there was the lone pixel displayed in the center of the container. I cut/pasted into MSPaint and it was intact.

[Raybaudi]

...and what do you see into the container of this file ?

testing2.zip

[K1200]

One Final Observation:

In actually using what we've determined, I can only get 100 percent sharp results on my runtime screen when the color swatch comes from outside of FileMaker (e.g., MSPaint). Swatches generated inside FileMaker (in layout mode) all result in a slightly fuzzy right and bottom edge -- if they're smaller than the Destination container.

[comment]

What else?

[comment]

One thing does NOT make sense here. If you copy from my container, and paste it back and it still looks sharp - that means you have something on your clipboard that works. When does it stop working?

If you paste it into a paint application, copy it back and try to paste it into the container, does it still work?

[Raybaudi]

Much more...

[Raybaudi]

When does it stop working?

When i paste that into Layout Mode.

BTW: How do you place a transparent .png into your layout ?

I have to place it into a container, cut it and paste it while in Layout Mode; I can't directly have transparent .png placed in the Layout: they lose their trasparency

[Lee Smith]

Danielle,

This looks a lot like what Matt Petrowsky has described in his video about Transparentency in windows.