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Old 08-12-2015, 05:59 PM   #1
brainwreck
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Default Selected item border thickness in Reaper 5?

Edit: I suppose I should have said 'item edge width', but hopefully the point got across.

I barely touched any of the pre-releases, and I don't know what has changed on the theming front. Maybe someone knows off hand...Is it possible to have a thicker border drawn around selected items?

I like for media items to remain the same color when selected, but there should still be some selection indication to replace changing the color of selected items, which a thicker border/outline of media items would solve for me. It is one of the small graphic things that I like from reason. Example (blue items selected):



I don't care about the other little graphic bits for selected items in the above image; just the border thickness (and possibly the color).
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Old 08-13-2015, 11:50 AM   #2
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I too would like these options and they are ways to do it.

I think in prefs you can have a highlight at the top of the item (forget name of preference sorry)

You can also change the selected background item png file to one that you have drawn a think line round and that helps too (even works for the same file for tracks as well as items.)
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Old 08-13-2015, 06:08 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by musicbynumbers View Post
I too would like these options and they are ways to do it.

I think in prefs you can have a highlight at the top of the item (forget name of preference sorry)

You can also change the selected background item png file to one that you have drawn a think line round and that helps too (even works for the same file for tracks as well as items.)
The only preference I know of relating to that is 'Draw labels above the item...', but there are no indications in that for selected items.

On editing the item images, item_bg_sel.png can be replaced with item_bg.png to prevent color change when items are selected. But these are raster images and will not scale how you might expect when adding a frame around the item background image. For example, here is a black border added to item_bg.png and renamed to item_bg_sel.png, and the second item is selected in the screenshot:



Edit: Well, it would have helped if I had aligned the border, which didn't happen in the above image. But even after doing that, the border still wouldn't keep it's scale and alignment. And there is some tinting stuff going on for items that doesn't seem to be accessible in either the theme editor or in WALTER, i.e., if an isn't selected, some sort of tinting happens that changes item color.

Or, maybe I'm doing it wrong...
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Old 08-19-2016, 05:59 AM   #4
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I'm using the default Reaper 5 theme. Selected media items look horrible. It's impossible to see at a quick glance what items are selected using just weak color shading and opacity defaults.

How can I get the border around the items selected? I've seen it in other themes.

And please don't tell me I have to hack some INI file or photoshop some PNG and play around with it for hours to find the right width and stuff.

This is DAW 101 here.

Suggestions please?
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:06 AM   #5
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You need to photoshop a PNG file. Try it; it's actually quite fun!
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:14 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sju View Post
You need to photoshop a PNG file. Try it; it's actually quite fun!
:P Thanks

It'd be nice maybe in Reaper 6 if maybe the default theme adjusted some of these silly quirks and hacks:

hacking for tint settings
hacking for selected items color
hacking for selected items border lines
etc.
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:24 AM   #7
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Quote:
The only preference I know of relating to that is 'Draw labels above the item...', but there are no indications in that for selected items
There are two prefs for drawing a thick line above the selected item - one is for takes, the other for the item as a whole. Both of these are for indicating what is selected without changing other visual elements of the item. In the image below, magenta is selected take, orange is selected item.



These exist in the theme editor:

[x] Draw colored bar on selected media item.
[x] Draw colored bar on active media item take.
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:29 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by karbomusic View Post
There are two prefs for drawing a thick line above the selected item - one is for takes, the other for the item as a whole. Both of these are for indicating what is selected without changing other visual elements of the item. In the image below, magenta is selected take, orange is selected item.

Thanks, I had found that earlier and it's good as a band-aid, I have the take color above selected items yes, but I gave up trying to tinker with the right balance between track lane color, selected line color, active take color, etc too many things to balance just to see what was selected.

What color scheme works for you regarding track background color vs. media item color vs line above selected item color?
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:35 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowellben View Post
What color scheme works for you regarding track background color vs. media item color vs line above selected item color?
I chose a coloring scheme that used more of a semi-pastel type shade (maybe less saturated/more muted is the better term) for items then like above chose highly saturated colors for those bars just to make them pop. I'd imagine they could be made even more contrasting but sort of stopped there last time I tweaked it. I also don't really like waveform colors inverting when selected so I think I set those so that the selected one is only less muted than non-selected. I also set the label text on the item to change color when selected (somewhere ).
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Old 08-20-2016, 06:28 AM   #10
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I just use the same image / same background color for both item and item selected PNGs. The item PNG with a grey outline and item selected PNG with a white outline to stand out. Paint.net image editing software, no talent required...

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Old 09-29-2016, 05:57 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brainwreck View Post
The only preference I know of relating to that is 'Draw labels above the item...', but there are no indications in that for selected items.

On editing the item images, item_bg_sel.png can be replaced with item_bg.png to prevent color change when items are selected. But these are raster images and will not scale how you might expect when adding a frame around the item background image. For example, here is a black border added to item_bg.png and renamed to item_bg_sel.png, and the second item is selected in the screenshot:



Edit: Well, it would have helped if I had aligned the border, which didn't happen in the above image. But even after doing that, the border still wouldn't keep it's scale and alignment. And there is some tinting stuff going on for items that doesn't seem to be accessible in either the theme editor or in WALTER, i.e., if an isn't selected, some sort of tinting happens that changes item color.

Or, maybe I'm doing it wrong...
I experienced the same issue but it was due to my own mistake: while changing the colors of the borders I forgot to turn off "antialiasing" in Paint.NET and as a result some additional pixels were drawn. The pink corners were also affected, and I had to make sure every pixel was either a solid color or completely transparent.

The result works rather well (Reaper V5 theming engine in rtconfig.txt)
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Old 05-21-2017, 07:27 PM   #12
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It's very helpful thanks!
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Old 11-09-2018, 10:58 AM   #13
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^ Thanks DrJedd.

To be clear, the goal here was to display true chosen media item colors without default color fading behavior and adding a black boarder to selected media items.

Some notes on doing this:

It's all kind of a pain in the ass for such a small change, so if you just want the easy way out: https://stash.reaper.fm/v/34789/Defa...ReaperThemeZip . Else read on:

Rename the default 5.0 theme to something like 'Default_5.0.ReaperThemeZip.old' so that you can easily revert back to the default in case something goes wrong. Copy and paste it to a working directory for doing the edits. Unzip your copy of 'Default_5.0.ReaperThemeZip.old'. Inside are two png files of interest that need to be edited: item_bg.png and item_bg_sel.png.

Both files include a semi-transparent overlay color that fades the true selected item colors in Reaper's color picker (I always found this to be frustrating). Redrawing these files in Inkscape (or whatever graphics editor) allows for removing these overlay pixels. And so when you are done editing these files, the colors you pick in Reaper's color picker will be exactly what you get without any color fading.

In the latest version of Inkscape, create a new document and go to: File > Document Properties > Display, and turn off antialiasing. Import item_bg.png and item_bg_sel.png. Redraw the pink and yellow elements on top of the imported png files using the the eye dropper to get colors and the rectangle tool to draw the elements. You will need to zoom in at the pixel level. Note here that Inkscape's snapping doesn't always work as it should, so you will need to check that the X, Y, W, H settings for each element that you draw is exactly aligned to the pixel grid.

For item_bg.png, add a 1 pixel wide boarder that is something lighter than full black between the pink elements. After everything is drawn, remove the underlying png image.

For item_bg_sel.png, add a 3 pixel wide fully black boarder. Anything wider than 3 pixels will create problems. Remove the underlying png image.

Select a set of drawn elements and go to: Object > Group, so as to create a selection only around the drawn elements. Then go to File > Export PNG Image. Set the export area to 'Selection' and doublecheck that the Image Size is set to 20 X 84 pixels at 96 dpi. Export the files with the respective names of item_bg.png and item_bg_sel.png.

Replace the existing png files in the previously unpacked theme directory with your newly created png files. Go up one directory and select the 'Default_5.0_unpacked' folder and 'Default_5.0_unpacked.ReaperTheme' file, and zip them. Rename to 'Default_5.0.ReaperThemeZip' or to something like 'Default_5.0_True_Item_Color.ReaperThemeZip'. Copy and paste the resulting file back into the Reaper Color Themes directory: C:\Users\<your-username>\AppData\Roaming\REAPER\ColorThemes
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Old 11-09-2018, 11:40 AM   #14
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Also, if you want to prevent media item peak colors from changing, you can go to the Actions menu, search for 'theme tweak', and open the theme tweak tool. Set selected media item peaks to have the same color as media item peaks.
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