Bug 471387 - Feature request: Load existing pictures into Spectacle Annotations Editor via GUI
Summary: Feature request: Load existing pictures into Spectacle Annotations Editor via...
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Spectacle
Classification: Applications
Component: General (show other bugs)
Version: 23.04.2
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Noah Davis
URL:
Keywords:
: 498716 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-06-23 14:27 UTC by cparg
Modified: 2025-01-16 19:00 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

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Version Fixed In:
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Description cparg 2023-06-23 14:27:07 UTC
The Spectacles Annotation Editor is really great!
It has exactly the features I need 99% of the cases.
The only thing I missing is that I could use it also for existing screenshots or other arbitrary picture files.

Please make spectacle open and loading existing png (or other formats) files from disk also!

It's a really great tool!
Comment 1 Noah Davis 2024-06-14 14:44:08 UTC
This should already be available from the command line interface (-E and --edit-existing; see `spectacle --help` for more info). Are you asking for a way to do that from the graphical interface?
Comment 2 cparg 2024-06-15 12:09:46 UTC
I can confirm that spectacle 23.08.5 provides this desired ferature! 
This is great ! Thank you! Please close the ticket!
Comment 3 Yannis 2024-06-15 16:55:54 UTC
As an interested party, could I ask that this is kept open please?

I agree with the reporter that having an Edit button after taking a screenshot is a great advancement.

However, the other use case of loading arbitrary images from storage to edit, has not been fully met (as of Spectacle 24.05 on my distribution). I was not aware of the command line switch so glad to hear it is possible. I think that to close the request, you would need to implement graphical interface for this too.

It could perhaps have a different desktop file, or allow for multiple windows in order to use an editor separately. Either way, it would need some consideration as to how the user interface will be presented.
Thanks for your consideration.
Comment 4 Noah Davis 2024-06-16 02:55:11 UTC
(In reply to Yannis from comment #3)
> As an interested party, could I ask that this is kept open please?
> 
> I agree with the reporter that having an Edit button after taking a
> screenshot is a great advancement.
> 
> However, the other use case of loading arbitrary images from storage to
> edit, has not been fully met (as of Spectacle 24.05 on my distribution). I
> was not aware of the command line switch so glad to hear it is possible. I
> think that to close the request, you would need to implement graphical
> interface for this too.
> 
> It could perhaps have a different desktop file, or allow for multiple
> windows in order to use an editor separately. Either way, it would need some
> consideration as to how the user interface will be presented.
> Thanks for your consideration.

I'm not quite sure what we should do. On one hand, adding some kind of way to open an existing image in the GUI would technically be very easy. On the other, it would take up space in the UI that could be used for a more useful control later.

The annotation editor is for quickly annotating screenshots without having to save first. The --edit-existing CLI option mainly exists so that you can click an "Annotate" button in system notifications for screenshots when using global shortcuts or the --background CLI option. We don't necessarily need a CLI for that, but having the CLI makes testing much easier.

There are dedicated image editors with more functionality and more editing focused user interfaces than Spectacle will ever have, so I think it could be fair to tell people to use them instead. However, maybe you want this because Spectacle's annotation UI is more desirable in certain ways than the image editors you know? Perhaps if we add a hamburger button (main menu button), we could move some of the existing less commonly used controls there and then we'd have room to add a GUI option to open an image file.
Comment 5 Yannis 2024-06-17 21:15:03 UTC
(In reply to Noah Davis from comment #4)
> There are dedicated image editors with more functionality and more editing
> focused user interfaces than Spectacle will ever have, so I think it could
> be fair to tell people to use them instead. However, maybe you want this
> because Spectacle's annotation UI is more desirable in certain ways than the
> image editors you know? Perhaps if we add a hamburger button (main menu
> button), we could move some of the existing less commonly used controls
> there and then we'd have room to add a GUI option to open an image file.

I do find the annotation UI much more desirable than alternatives. I also use ShareX on Windows (a FOSS program) for the same purpose, which likewise has a strong annotation editor built in. It is the focus on the annotation experience that makes it so useful.

In particular, it is useful for quickly hiding confidential information (by blurring or pixellating), which is very useful in my working environment. Oftentimes, it is unclear which screenshots will be the most useful so it is only worth blurring/pixellating confidential text at the time of sharing - which is later than whenever the screenshot was captured.
I also occasionally use it for demonstration purposes, so I would again be modifying an image hours/days after I have captured and stored it, adding arrows, and saving a separate copy.

I agree that the existing image editor is a more niche feature, so it would be a good fit for the hamburger menu as far as placing a button goes. There are two more key considerations:
1. That passing an image to spectacle with 'Open with' should open it in editing mode. I am happy to log a separate issue for this if it would be useful to keep track.
2. That Spectacle's editor should always act as if it is in multi-window mode if it was used to open an existing image, regardless of the chosen setting. That is, if a user hits PrtSrc while in the editor window, it should not take a new screenshot. Perhaps this could a different setting, enabled by default.
Comment 6 Daniel Morris 2024-11-18 14:13:48 UTC
(In reply to Noah Davis from comment #1)
> This should already be available from the command line interface (-E and
> --edit-existing; see `spectacle --help` for more info). Are you asking for a
> way to do that from the graphical interface?

Thank you! I finally got around to filing a bug/enhancement request and there was a command line option hiding all along.

Spectacle's annotate features are easy to use and not drowned with overkill. I've taken the Captain Caveman approach of screenshotting screenshots to invoke it. I've also abused Okular on png, but annotations in Okular can be hit and miss, with different pdf readers showing notes and popups etc. differently, so I now modify the underlying graphic whenever possible.

(incoming bug to have the man page updated so this awesomeness isn't lost, I never thought of --help flag to the executable [23.08.5 on openSUSE Leap 15.6]).
Comment 7 cparg 2024-11-18 19:07:47 UTC
I noticed that gwenview now also features the same annotation editor as spectacle.
As I was able to upgrade to RHEL9 I fortunately have access now to this great feature with gwenview 23.08.5.
Comment 8 Daniel Morris 2024-11-19 09:49:11 UTC
(In reply to cparg from comment #7)
> I noticed that gwenview now also features the same annotation editor as
> spectacle.
> As I was able to upgrade to RHEL9 I fortunately have access now to this
> great feature with gwenview 23.08.5.

Thank you for the pointer. I use gwenview regularly but hadn't spotted the added Annotate button beneath Reduce Red Eye in the list of Image Operations.
Comment 9 Noah Davis 2025-01-16 16:05:22 UTC
*** Bug 498716 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 10 DeKay 2025-01-16 18:37:57 UTC
(In reply to Noah Davis from comment #4)
> I'm not quite sure what we should do. On one hand, adding some kind of way
> to open an existing image in the GUI would technically be very easy. On the
> other, it would take up space in the UI that could be used for a more useful
> control later.
> 
> The annotation editor is for quickly annotating screenshots without having
> to save first. The --edit-existing CLI option mainly exists so that you can
> click an "Annotate" button in system notifications for screenshots when
> using global shortcuts or the --background CLI option. We don't necessarily
> need a CLI for that, but having the CLI makes testing much easier.
> 
> There are dedicated image editors with more functionality and more editing
> focused user interfaces than Spectacle will ever have, so I think it could
> be fair to tell people to use them instead. However, maybe you want this
> because Spectacle's annotation UI is more desirable in certain ways than the
> image editors you know? Perhaps if we add a hamburger button (main menu
> button), we could move some of the existing less commonly used controls
> there and then we'd have room to add a GUI option to open an image file.

One way to add this to Spectacle without cluttering the GUI would be via Drag & Drop. That isn't very discoverable but it is better than a CLI-only option.
Comment 11 Noah Davis 2025-01-16 18:59:56 UTC
(In reply to DeKay from comment #10)
> One way to add this to Spectacle without cluttering the GUI would be via
> Drag & Drop. That isn't very discoverable but it is better than a CLI-only
> option.

You're right, drag and drop would be nice to have.
Comment 12 Noah Davis 2025-01-16 19:00:05 UTC
I'm marking this as confirmed since there seems to be more interest in adding the ability to open images from the GUI.