ppInk

Introduction

ppInk is an on-screen annotation software under Windows, forked from gInk.

ppInk introduces many new features compared to gInk, greatly inspired by another screen annotation software Epic Pen, but even more easy to use. ppInk / gInk are made with the idea kept in mind that the interface should be simple and should not distract attention of both the presenter and the audience when used for presentations. Unlike in many other softwares in the same category, you select from pens to draw things instead of changing individual settings of color, transparency and tip width everytime. Each pen is a combination of these attributes and is configurable to your need.

As another option you can use ppInk to support demonstrations:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4083478/119278023-16f58b00-bc23-11eb-95de-9dc16505bf43.mp4

(extract from @NOVAinc on Twitch) other demo : https://www.twitch.tv/novaaoe/clip/PlacidConcernedBulgogiOptimizePrime-mONUtlMLGvu2uUu1

This tool is intended to be usable through mouse,tablet pen(taking into pressure) but also throug touchscreen or graphic tablet.

A set of drawing tools are introduced: Hand Writing, Line (2 points and polyline), Rectangular, Ellipsis, Arrow, Numbering Tag, Text Left/Right aligned, cliparts, strokes of patterns and move/copy/resize/rotate.

In order to reduce the number of buttons, some buttons have multiple functions, selected my multiple click on those or some through long click (or right click as an alternative):

Pen: Short click : select Pen Long Click : Open the pen parameters dialog
Hand

/ Rectangular

/ Ellipsis

unfilled drawing -> filled with pen color -> outside filled with pen color -> filled with white -> filled with black
Line : 2 points -> polyline -> pen color filled polygon -> white filled polygon -> black filled polygon
Numbering :
transparent background -> edit tag Number -> white background -> black background
Arrow : arrows heads and tails are now customizable. multiple click will scroll through the different arrows. you can select the ends either in options/general, or with a long press on the arrow button. the definition image shall be 300x201 and a line size of 18px(the image will be shrinked/enlarged to match the curren pen size). the center correspond to the visual end. the line will be ended a little before center by default, but you can define a different position with a blue pixel on line 101 (centered line). normally the ends will be rotated to be aligned with the line, except if the filename of the image is starting with !(eg to have always horizontal square)

Text:
Text left aligned -> Text Right aligned You can now use ctrl+enter to validate the entry
Move:
Move 1 drawing -> Copy 1 drawing -> Move all drawings.
Edit: Short click : modify text/number tool (text and font) or the color/pen width of a stroke Long click : edit default font (for the time of the session) if some strokes are selected before short click, the pen/color dialog will open to modify all selected strokes at once.
Lasso: Allow selection of multiple stroke either with the lasso, or clicking on strokes (surrounded). left click for lasso/selection will add to selection, and right click will substract (for touchscreen, remember that longclick is engaging rightclick).
Each time you click on lasso tool or use shortcut the selection is reset. Once you have just added a stroke with the lasso, you can use undo to cancel this selection modification In lasso mode, the global length is reported in a tooltip. After lasso selection, you can:
- engage Erase to delete selection
- engage move/copy to move/copy selection
- engage edit to modify color/line style/width of the selected strokes
Resize / Rotate: Allow to resize or rotate the selection (also applies to stroke under the cursor if no selection has been done first). First the cursor becomes a target in order,waiting for the center for the transformation with left click, or you can right click: in this case the center will be the center of the selected stroke(s) Then the cursor becomes an arrow, and you adjust the size or the angle. https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4083478/130367372-233d6d64-06fc-4f0f-a976-d66a621f36ac.mp4
Pointer Mode (arrow cursor): Short click : engage Pointer Mode Long click : engage Window mode (Open a window) or click( to come back to fullscreen)
Pen Width: Short click : select Pen Width Long click : engage color picker: this functions allow to modify the current pen color picking up a color on screen; in this mode mousewheel modifies transparency
Cliparts: Open the dialog to select image and the background/frame. This list displayed of cliparts is initialized from the list defined in the options. you can overload adding images for the inking sessions from files or from the clipboard. you can then stamp the images. you just click, the image will be stamped with the images original size. if you use the right click the image will be centered on the cursor click

if you just draw a vertical or horizontal line, the image will be drawn with the drawn width/height respecting proportional size. else you can draw a box which will define the image size (non proportional). If you draw from bottom/right to up/left, the image will be stamped reversed.

3 preset cliparts are also available: they can be configured in the option dialogbox, or for the time of the session through a right or long click on the selected button.

Animated Cliparts are now supported: APNG and animaged-GIF are supported. By default animations are supported forever. you can specify duration or loops using square brackets: negative means the object will be destroyed at the end. x after the number means, the number indicated information in loop percent. eg: ppInkClipart.png -> animated for ever ppInkClipart[5.2].png -> animated for 5.2 sec and then animation stops ppInkClipart[-3.1].png -> animated for 3.1 sec and then disappear ppInkClipart[3.5x].png -> animated for 3 cycles and a half and then animation stops ppInkClipart[-2x].png -> animated for 2 cycles and then disappear
Stroke of Patterns: This tools provides capability to draw images along a hand stroke. The function is selected in the clipart dialog box throught the type of filling selection. Then you will be asked for the size of the image https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4083478/130367766-ee6cbd89-34d1-43ac-9f3e-13184b6a0bca.mp4 Note 1 : the checkbox “save Pattern setup” allows when you modify one of the predefined clipart to bypass the image size and interval in order to go directly to stroke drawing
Snapshot: Short click : Take a snapshot and exit after Long click : Take a snapshot and return to inking mode (keeping data); use alt+Hokey to do that with keyboard note that an option is available to invert behaviors between Long and short click

Magnetic

The magnet activates some magnetic effect :

Find a point on the drawing next to the cursor. For rectangles, magnetic effect is available to vertices, and also to the middle of sides.(also activated pressing Ctrl)
The 8 points of the bounding rectangle of a text.(also activated pressing Ctrl)
On the line from the origin. The lines are horizontal,vertical and every 15°.(also activated pressing Shift) The Magnetic distance can be adjusted in the options. If only Ctrl or Shift is depressed, the global magnetic effect is switched off to only take into account the magnetic of the pressed key. Hotkeys are availables for all tools,pens (configurable throught right click on icon next to clock)

*Move one -> Copy one-> Move All(pan) *

You can move one stroke when clicking first time on the button. The stroke to be moved/copied will be surrounded by a rectangle to identify it and gets its measurement When in Move one/Copy one or Erase, when the cursor flies over a shape, a tool tip indicates the length of the stroke. if the stroke is a 3 point polyline, it will also indicates the drawn angle.

Zoom

Two zoom can be activated (multiple clicks on the zoom buttom). the first one offers a standard dynamic window following the cursor. with the second one, you select the area that you want to enlarge. this area will be frozen and then full displayed on the screen. You can then carry on drawing on this new enlarged background image. a new click will end working on this image and will show back the screen and will restore the previously drawn strokes. behind the zoom, a spot mode is also available where the screen is masked and a transparent area follows the cursor: note 1: if the option is activated, you can activate the spot depressing alt. note 2: the spot remains active during pointer mode note 3: color, transparency, spot size, and activation with alt can be adjusted in the options / general tab

Save / Load

through those two buttons, you will be able to store(in a text format) the current strokes. Load redraw the saved strokes onto the existing drawing.

Save button : a long click(or first short click) is a sort of “save as” : it open the dialog box and will allow you to select the filename. the following short clicks will overwrite the strokes into the previously named file. note that a backup is done when inking is ended/quit.

Load button : a long click(or first short click) is a sort of “load as” : it open the dialog box and will allow you to select the filename. the following short clicks will load the strokes from the previously named file. at first click the file loaded is the autosave(from latest session).

Keep in mind that an automatic save is performed when closing inking mode in autosave.strokes.txt . If you have ended your drawing session by error, you can recall your work depressing load button immediately after opening session

Alt+ shortcut for temporary commands:

When this option is activated (yes by default), when Alt is pressed and hold, the tool/pen/mode is temporary selected, left when alt is released eg : with Hand drawing selected, press Alt and keep it down. Press and release R : rectangle is active, as long as Alt is depressed, and Hand will be reengaged when Alt is released This can be reset any combinaisons of Pens and Tools : eg : press Alt, you can engage Filled Blue rectangle, depressing R twice, and 3 (in any order), and return to previous tools/color releasing Alt Alt also works with dash line selection or fading shortcut. This can be also used with Erasor when pressing down Alt, the cursor is also temporary change to the big arrow to ease finding it on screen.

Option Capture at toolbar opening

Capture can be engaged as toolbar is opened. This option is set to false by default.

Long left click/Right click on Pens

Open the Modify pen dialog box for that pen

Clear Board (Bin icon):

short click : Delete all drawings and apply last selected background Long click : Delete all drawings and select background surface color (white/black/customed color(modifiable through Options)) In options you will be able to select a default mode at opening , and customed color advice : the created rectangle can be deleted using the erasor next to the border of the screen.

Pens specials

through the options or long click on a pen button, or using the edit pen hotkey you can edit advance pen:

Fading : the stroke drawn will disappear after the defined time(adjustable in options dialogbox/pen tab)
Line Style (Stroke/Solid/Dash/Dot/DashDot/DashDotDot) : This will apply the define line style on all type of drawings. Stroke keeps the original drawing which uses the pen pressure to adjust the width. Solid,Dash,… ignore pen pressure.

Note1 : When drawing with dashed lines,try to not draw too slowly : the number of vertex will increase and make the drawing not very nice

Note2 : Hotkeys allows to set/unset the fading, linestyle, increase/decrease penwidth and open the pen modify dialog of the current pen

Note3 : an option is now available in options/pen to allow to modify the linestyle when clicking on already selected pen button(or using hotkeys). also an option in hotkeys allow to select which linestyle will be accessible through click/hotkeys (not applicable to Pen Modify dialog box)

A global option exists also to set/unset smoothing. When off, strokes drawing will not be smoothed. General recommendation is to leave this option on.

color picker

When activated (hotkey or long press on pen width button) : a pickup tool will be available to pickup from screen a color and set it (on mouse click release) to current pen. When in this mode, the mouse wheel will allow to adjust transparency.

cursor files:

You can configure you own cursor file, saving it as cursor.ico in your exe folder (click position and size are loaded from the file). In the same you can save an image as FloatingCall.png to define the calling form image(in this case the width and transparency are in the Window_POS parameter in config.ini

mouse wheel:

Mouse wheel allows you mainly to modify the pen width. this can be easily observed with the tipped cursor. in this configuration, finding the mouse may be difficult to find in this configuration : you can then depress the alt key to get the arrow(or customized) cursor. When Number tool is selected, instead of change pen with, it changes the number size. shift+mouse wheel allows to select pen note1 : mouse wheel / shift+ mouse wheel can now be swapped (shift+mouse wheel to access pen width) : available in options / pen tab note2 : as said above, two hotkeys are available to control width through the keyboard.

video recording:

ppInk has now some capability to do some video recording. tuning is available in options/video tab :

basic recording with FFmpeg: You need to first install ffmpeg. and select the option in the video tab. In this case the button will be proposed. you can start/stop recording. Names and destination folders are defined throught the command line.
advanced recording with OBS-studio: You need to first install and configure OBS-studio(https://obsproject.com/fr/download) with OBS-websocket(https://github.com/Palakis/obs-websocket). select the required option (recording or broadcasting). with this program you will be able to start/stop broadcasting or start/pause/resume/stop video recording. file names and folders are defined in OBS-studio. Note : ppink is now compatible with release 4.8 of OBS-websocket. this should be fixed in very next release. for the moment,prefer to stop recording when stopping Ink mode

UI customisation

You add arrow.ani/cur/ico and eraser.ani/cur/ico to put your own cursors. if you use ico file the cursor is down with the file sized ( you can then put a bigger or smaller image) toolbar Background Color can be changed in the options. currently a draw hickup make the background color incorrect during opening. transparency is currenly ignored Button Images can be customized putting Png files in the ppink exe folder. the name to be used are the same as the one from the src folder. When checked in the options, a secondary toolbar will open when selected some tools to access all functions/filling immediately:

The example above shows also an example with the pens on two lines (setup through options dialog box)

Toolbar orientation

You can now select how the toolbar will be deployed : to left/ to right or vertically to top/ to bottom

Alt+Tab engaging Pointer

When the option is set in the options, switching application (with alt+tab) will engage pointer mode. Also, when pointer mode is activated (by any means, ie button click, alt+tab, global short cut), the toolbar is folded automatically, and when pressing undock button, alt+tab, or global shortcut,the inking mode is restored and the toolbar is unfolded. Note that you can still fold toolbar when drawing without engaging pointer mode with the dock button.

Measurement tool

When enabled, in Move one/Copy one or erase tool, the length of the selected object is provided in a tooltip.

The example shows also a very specific case where the object is a 3 point polyline, the angle is also computed.

Window mode

You can now run ppink in window mode (engaged through Long/Right Click on pointer icon) In this mode ppInk is run in a window and you can access clicks or mousewheel applications out of the window:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4083478/112311221-c656c580-8ca5-11eb-895b-2279366c0fc4.mp4

note : the border color can be changed directly in config.ini

snapshots in pointer mode

when trying to annote menu opened with mouse click / contextual menus

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/61389799/111090958-1d3bfc80-853a-11eb-91fc-04e85ed18454.mp4

(demo from @eamayreh)

you can configure shortcuts with shift/ctrl/alt with a press and hold and tap twice keys to prevent menu to close multiple snapshots can be captured, they are pasted one over the other, in the reverse order to make a full sequence

Rest API

In order to allow customisation, ppInk provides now a REST API allowing control from an external program/device such as a streamdesk from Elgato or touchPortal: Example with StreamDesk :

example with touchportal: (thanks to @NOVAinc)

Ensure you are working with http protocol All the API is described in the https://github.com/pubpub-zz/ppInk/raw/master/ppInk/httpRequests.rtf (provided next to ppink.exe in each release)

Note that this API returns results in JSON format that can be used for further extension.

Download

https://github.com/PubPub-zz/ppInk/releases/

Change log

https://github.com/pubpub-zz/ppInk/blob/master/changelog.txt

How to use

Start ppInk.exe and an icon will appear in the system tray and possible a floating window(*) (which can be moved using RightClick) to start drawing on screen.
Inking is started :

clicking on floating icon
clicking on the icon in the system tray
using the global shortcut (ctr+alt+G by default)
immediately after start Pping if “–startInking” (case insensitive) has been added tocommand line
ppInk is run once more (no extra instance is started)

(*) activation and position saving are available in options.

Click the exit button or press ESC to exit drawing.

Features

Compact and intuitive interface with customizable hotkeys.
Inks rendered on dynamic desktops.
Drawing tools: Hand Writing, Line, Rectangular, Ellipsis, Arrow, Numbering Tag, Text Left/Right aligned
Stylus with eraser, touch screen and mouse compatible.
Click-through mode. (note : once inking is engaged, global shortcut enters and exits this mode)
Multiple displays support.
Pen pressure support.
Snapshot support.
Hotkey support. (includes hotkeys with Del, BackSpace; in options use ctrl+shift+del or ctrl+shift+backspace to delete the current hotkey)
Magnetic effect when drawing shapes
Filled shapes
Video recording
Load/Save stroke
Zoom (2 versions)

Tips

There is a known issue for multiple displays of unmatched DPI settings (100%, 125%, 150%, etc.). If you use ppInk on a computer with multiple displays of unmatched DPI settings, or you encounter problems such as incorrect snapshot position, unable to drag toolbar to locations etc., please do the following as a workaround (in Windows 10 version 1903 as an example): right-click ppInk.exe, Properties, Compatibility, Change high DPI settings, Enable override high DPI scaling behavior scaling performed by: Application.
There is a very few hidden options you can tweak in config.ini that are not shown in the options window.

Configurations

ppInk can be largely configured. Some examples/proposals of simplified configuation are offered here:
Simplified configuration from @earthjasonlin

note about ini files: when upgrading to a newer version, you can copy your config.ini / pens.ini / hotkeys.ini. All the new entries will be copied from the defaults part of the delivery, you can then change the new parameters and when you will use the save to files in the options dialog box, they will be appended to your files

How to contribute translation

gInk/ppInk supports multiple languages now (ppInk introduces a few new sentences where internationalization has not be implemented.). Here is how you can contribute translation. Simply create a duplication of the file “en-us.txt” in “bin/lang” folder, rename it and then translate the strings in the file. Check in ppInk to make sure your translation shows correctly, and then you can make a pull request or use https://github.com/pubpub-zz/ppInk/issues/17 to propose your translation.

When upgrading to a new version, to ease translation, all the missing entries in your translation can be copied from the english version into your translation : For this, go the option, (re-)select your current langage (or another one) in the langage list, you will be prompted for completing the langage definition file. if you say yes, all missing inputs (will be added with the english translation). You then just have to translation the new inputs. after translation you can(not required) also reorder the sentences as you wish.

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