Zotero 7 Beta: [Feature Request] Text size/font at annotation level in Reader

DonnaCoxBaker

When possible to add this, it would be very helpful to enable the text feature in the Reader to allow changes in font style and size at the annotation level, including bold and italics.

martynas_b

The font size can be adjusted by resizing the text annotation. Regarding font style, are you referring only to bold and italic or anything else as well?

DonnaCoxBaker

Thanks, @martynas_b. I even confused myself when I read it back. I'm talking about having some control over the way the text boxes look that you can put into a PDF with v7. When I use similar tools in Adobe DC, etc., I often change the color, size, and bold/italic settings from one box to the other, for various purposes. I might want one text box to make big red letters to warn me about something instantly in the document. I might be inserting a long paragraph in a margin or between two lines and want it in a tiny font. I might put the citation information on each page, for use if the document is printed out--and need italics in the text.

Hope that's more clear. Thanks!

warwickmm

Not sure if it's related, but I also have a use case for changing the annotation comment fonts (e.g., monospaced, or a font with better distinction between i and l):

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/434287/#Comment_434287

dstillman

@DonnaCoxBaker: Right, so to be clear, you can change the color of text annotations in the same ways as other annotation types. You can also change the font size in the way that Martynas says, although we may make it possible to change it to a specific numeric size in the future. It's not currently possible to use other formatting (or change the font itself).

nilssssssss

@dstillman

Would love to see this changed. Mac's preview is a great example of easy to use text annotations.

As of now, in Zotero changing the font size by making the box smaller/larger is cumbersome. For one, it gets tricky to select a box to drag it, which is required often as the box easily extends beyond the page if one uses the default setting). Additionally, it isn't possible to copy paste text boxes (as opposed to Mac's preview), which would make it quick to simply copy a box and then change the text to maintain the font size and size of text box.

martynas_b

@nilssssssss Could you explain what do you mean with "it gets tricky to select a box to drag it"?

In future there will be other ways to change font size.

nilssssssss

@martynas_b

in certain documents, if i enter text into a box and type away, the view will move to the right of the document, basically extending the white space. if i scroll back to the left, to have the document in the center to be able to read and then select a text box, it takes multiple clicks to get the textbox selected to be able to re-size/drag it.

Additionally while we are it, it it would be great if the shortcut CMD Z would also work for textboxes to undo the last action

martynas_b

@nilssssssss Could you make a video demonstrating the issue?

nilssssssss

@martynas_b https://file.io/7v7vnBTchQav

martynas_b

@nilssssssss Could you upload the video again?

hanheihei

also need to change text size

nilssssssss

@martynas_b
https://filebin.net/miugmwtw2sdl3ebs

nilssssssss

@martynas_b

were you able to watch the file?

Additionally, it would be great if the drawing option would also include a way to do a simple straight line. For documents without OCR, it just looks messy otherwise to mark a line of text

martynas_b

@nilssssssss Yes, I have the video — thanks. Could you also send an example PDF file, which could help us to reproduce the issue, to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread?

Additionally, it would be great if the drawing option would also include a way to do a simple straight line. For documents without OCR, it just looks messy otherwise to mark a line of text

A good point. We'll think about it.

dstillman

For documents without OCR, it just looks messy otherwise to mark a line of text

@nilssssssss: Better to discuss this in a separate thread, but OCRing the document would be a much better solution. Then you get all the benefits of highlights, with selectable, extractable text.

DonnaCoxBaker

I somehow let my original question drop and wanted to follow up with @martynas_b and @dstillman to confirm that the way the text boxes are working is much better than I imagined. Without actually trying it, I had the idea that if I was dragging the box size, and it changed the size of the text, that somehow the text had turned to a graphic and I could no longer edit it.

Today, I finally had a chance to actually do what @martynas_b had instructed and WOW. I find this method much better than choosing font sizes, except maybe for a consistency factor--a way to make sure multiple text boxes are all the same size. But I love that I can quickly make the text exactly as big as I want it to be for the given purpose--especially the ability to shrink it to fit tight places. Well done on the text resizing!