Creating markers with rounded rectangles and numbers

A HyperSnap 6 user asked me recently, how to create numbered boxes with rounded rectangles. This tutorial came out initially as an email to her, but could be useful to others as well, I think.

 

1.       Click File/New in HyperSnap window to create a new image with white background.

2.       Set the “foreground color” to the line color  you want for the rounded frame, and the line width you want

3.       Draw a rounded frame the size you need with the rounded rectangle tool

4.       Change the “foreground color” to some other color, not white (which is your background) and not the color of your frame. I used light yellow.

5.       Select flood fill tool  and click inside the rounded rectangle you have drawn.

6.       From HyperSnap menu select Image/Auto Trim to trim out the rest of unwanted white background. Now your image inside HyperSnap window will look like this:
     

7.       Click “Stamps” button  - on the stamp image, not the down pointing triangle, end when “Edit Stamps” window appears, click “New Stamp…” button.

8.       “Edit Stamp” window appears and “Image” tab in it is active. Click the “From Selection” button there to import your rounded rectangle image to the new stamp.

9.       Click the “Test” tab, then click the center alignment button , then inside the text area type number 1.

10.   Click the “Preview” button at the bottom and look at how the stamp would work. If text is too big or too small, close the “Preview” window, select the text with your mouse so that it’s highlighted in reversed color, and click “Font” button. Set font size larger or smaller, you may also try different fonts there. You may also set a different font color, by default it’s black. Then click OK in the Font window and use Preview again to make sure you like it – may any changes that are needed.

11.   When done with text and font, click the “Frame” tab in “Edit Stamp” window. Click the down pointing triangle next to the background color button, select white color in the tiny window that pops up (bottom right). Also put check-mark into “Make it transparent” box.

12.   If you want further adjust vertical alignment of the text, modify the “Text margins” – “Top” value – set it larger to move text down within the stamp, or smaller to move it up. Then use “Preview” button again to make sure it looks right, adjust as needed.

13.   Click at the filed described as “Stamp Name” near the bottom, and change the name to something you can easily recognize, e.g. “Round Rect Red”. Make sure that “Save stamp” option is selected at the bottom and click OK below it.

14.   Click OK also in the “Edit Stamps” window, and you’re done. Note that “Round Rect Red” stamp is listed in that window now, and you may select it and click “Edit” if you ever need to modify it somehow.

 

Below I used the stamp I created writing this on a small image, changing the number on it to 23:

 

               

 

I see that the font is too big, so I edited the stamp and made the font smaller, and adjusted “Top margin” for the text to move the text down:

 

 

Maybe you’d like to have this stamp with white background inside – the process would be identical, except that you would need to start drawing this at the very beginning on a different color background (e.g. yellow), then when you use flood fill to fill inside – fill it with white. Then select the same yellow in step 11 to make transparent, to remove the white corners.

 

To add the stamps to the currently edited image, click again the “stamp” button in the drawing toolbar, but this time click the down pointing triangle to the right of the stamp image, not the image itself. A list of installed stamps appears, which now contains the “Round Rect Red” stamp. Click this name on the list. Initially the stamp is added at the top right corner of the image (or the selection, if you used area select tool first). You may drag this stamp to the location you need. Then double-click the stamp to change the text in it, e.g. the number from 1 to 2 etc. You can also edit the stamp to change text color and size easily.

 

The same stamp may be used in HyperSnap 7 – even the stamp created with HyperSnap 6 – and it looks better in HyperSnap 7, e.g. the text is smoother:

 

 

You could also create other stamps, e.g. round shapes or elliptical – the process would be identical.

 

Greg