1/19/2014 1:52:29 PM

The font size is still where I left it but now I have to crank up the size of the font to like 50 or 60 to get my lyrics to fill the screen. Before 21 size font would fill the entire screen. It is like the font sizes are on a different logarithmic scale now than they used to be.

I have updated to the latest SSP 8 update and it affects the font size on entire database of songs they all have shrunk the same amount to the size of a postage stamp in the center of the screen.

Is this normal? I can still scale fonts by cranking up the font to like 50 or 60 but I am also worried that some day it will change back to the way it used to be and then 50 or 60 size font will be gigantic on the screen.

My fonts seem to have a mind of their own right now I have to manually adjust all the songs.

1/20/2014 11:00:27 AM

There was a change to the way font sizing is handled in the last build though I have not experienced what you described.

Take a look at your shrink/grow/consistent options in the text slide settings and also make sure you do not have any overlapping margin or font Slide Property settings.

You can save your current global Slide Property settings and the select the default setting to see if that affects the font size.

Is this only affecting songs or do you see the same behavior in slide shows as well?

1/21/2014 1:00:44 PM

Another thing to consider...

Check your system DPI setting to make sure it is at the default (smallest) setting.

This change is done by some vendors or users when using larger resolution displays.

This may or may not be effected more with the recent grow/shrink adjustments.

Let us know what you find.

1/22/2014 6:44:24 PM

Slide show builder slides are not affected the text is the right size it should be.

All songs however are still not working and text is too small. Grow to fit and shrink to fit are unchecked. Grow to fit is still working though however I never use grow to fit I prefer to manually set the font to the right size when the song is created once and then forget about the size. I also notice that some times my character spacing settings change for no reason but I have just dealt with that. The font size always stayed the same time though until now.

For new songs I created a user template that I use for layout and text size and then I change the background. But this new text problem affects both new and old songs alike.

1/22/2014 6:47:21 PM

I checked the DPI in control panel and it is set at (smaller) 100% default setting.

1/23/2014 1:00:17 PM

Thanks Brian,

I am not seeing this right off but I will continue to look at this.  I may need to get some content from you as far as your template and understanding what properties you have set.

I will send you an email with the specifics that I need.

1/26/2014 10:03:21 AM

Here are all the songs in my database. Download Here

Most of them are set at 20 something font. There are some that I manually changed we have used the last two Sundays.

Let me know if you need anything else.

1/26/2014 10:06:30 AM

Here is the download link again

1/27/2014 2:00:22 PM

Brian,

Thanks for the info.

After looking at your songs and some additional examination we have determined where part of the issue is.  You had stated that Grow/Shrink were unchecked but did not specifically state that on most of them Ensure Consistent was checked.  This setting is only intended to work when either the Grow or Shrink option is selected.  The Consistent option selected by itself is causing some odd behavior when it should have no effect at all.

This and some additional text sizing issues should be corrected in the next build. 

1/28/2014 2:24:57 PM

Verified...That's it... I unchecked consistent text and everything cleared up.

Please make the consistent text box behave the same way it always did. Right or wrong I have been using song show like this for many years and it never exhibited this behavior.

Templates are great but I also wish Song show had a way to change properties of multiple songs in the database all at once. A new feature request.

Thanks,
-Brian-

1/29/2014 10:23:57 AM

Posted By Brian Gulliver on 28 Jan 2014 02:24 PM

Templates are great but I also wish Song show had a way to change properties of multiple songs in the database all at once. A new feature request.

Brian, there is a way to do this now - it is called Slide Properties....

Rather than editing the song properties directly in each song file you should use the global slide properties from the main tool bar - Slide Properties > Songs to modify the properties for all songs.  This will save you a lot of time.  For those instances when you want to temporarily modify a group of songs in a program, you can insert a program specific slide property element - right click in the program and select Insert Item > Slide Properties for > Songs and edit it to your liking and it will apply to all songs in the program.

These tool are more versatile and dynamic than the fixed editing of the song file properties.

If what you are looking for is a tool that will actually edit and save certain changes to multiple song files at the same time, that is unlikely but you are welcome to add it to the wish list.

Hope that helps.

2/4/2014 11:48:28 AM

In the newest build (1/29) I am having a (related?) font size issue on slides. I initially had "Shrink to Fit" checked, but the fonts in every text box (no matter what the font size) were expanding to fill the box. If I uncheck "shrink to fit," all the text is HUGE (even if I set the point size to 10 or smaller) in the Slide Builder. The size looks about right when I'm editing text, but as soon as I leave the edit mode, the text blows up.

4/9/2014 8:13:35 AM

Still having the same problem (and other type mayhem) with Slide Builder. I can send files and/or screenshots if that would be helpful.

4/9/2014 9:08:02 AM

Stuart,

I assume this is with the 4/1 build - is that correct?

And yes - screen shots and specific steps to replicate would be really helpful.

You can send those directly to me.

Thanks.

4/23/2014 10:00:06 PM

I have a large database of songs that are carefully formatted to look just right in SSP7.  I use global display properties with the text size of 26 and "ensure consistent text size". 

In my new install of SSP8, the text size is unpredictable.  If I use my old settings in the "all media" global slide properties, the media control panel shows enormous text, while the display shows tiny text.  If I check "grow to fit",  the media control and display text are the same size, but too large.  If I use "shrink to fit", the text seems a bit small.  So far that's the best I have done, but "ensure consistent text size" ought to get me exactly the size I have entered.

This seems to be an old problem that was scheduled to be fixed.  Is it now working as expected? 

4/24/2014 7:17:45 AM

I should clarify that I am using "consistent text size" along with "grow" and "shrink".  Actually, I have been trying various combinations, but am not seeing any setting that gives me the consistency I had before the update.

4/24/2014 11:43:45 AM

Sara,

The text rendering mechanism in 8 is completely different than the one used 7. And for the auto sizing settings (grow/shrink), the new mechanism works better than the version 7, that is to say, more correctly. In version 8, if you have specified both grow and shrink, the font size you specify is essentially irrelevant. Changing it should have no affect on the output. This is different than how version 7 worked, and it was actually version 7 that was resizing things badly. "Grow" should ensure that text is as large as it can be to fit within the boundaries, and "shrink" should ensure that text is as small as it needs to be to fit within the boundaries, but no smaller.

Regarding the "consistent" setting: That is to ensure that all text of the same style type are rendered at the same size. If "grow" and "shrink" are both specified, then all text should still be rendered at the same size, matching the text object that was resized the most to fit within the boundaries. Again, the original text size has no effect on this.

Text size is used if only "grow" or "shrink" is used, but not both, in which case it is the starting point before the text is resized. In this case, if "consistent" is also used, all of the text of that same style should still be rendered at the same size, matching the text object that was resized the most.

If nether "grow" or "shrink" is used, then text is rendered at the size specified, and in this case, "consistent" doesn't do anything extra because all the text will be rendered at the size specified by default.

To summarize, I don't expect that text, especially song text, will be rendered at exactly the same size in version 8 as it was in version 7 if any of the automatic sizing options are used.

However, some of what you are describing makes it sound like text is being rendered in an odd way, and if that is the case, then we'll need to look into that further. To start an official support incident, contact the technical support team.