Bug 115737 - Allow more font and position formatting for watermarks
Summary: Allow more font and position formatting for watermarks
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.4.5.1 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Page-Watermark
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2018-02-15 08:32 UTC by Ulrich Windl
Modified: 2020-08-14 10:21 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Watermark option in ONLYOFFICE (18.69 KB, image/png)
2020-08-13 12:03 UTC, Rizal Muttaqin
Details
WPS Writer's watermark option (52.24 KB, image/png)
2020-08-13 12:12 UTC, Rizal Muttaqin
Details

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Description Ulrich Windl 2018-02-15 08:32:40 UTC
Currently (LO 5.4) the size of a watermark cannot be controlled: There is neither a font size, nor some relative width or height of the test to be used as watermark. Also the watermark always seems to be centered on the page.
Other programs offer the following controls for watermarks:

1) Position (horizontal (left, center, right), vertical (top middle, bottom)

2) Relative size (percent of (text area, page area)) (This can be a bit tricky with rotated text)

3) Absolute font size

Another thing is the relative position: Currently the watermark is on the very bottom of the page: If you have any images on the page, the watermark may become invisible effectively. Probably an option to place the watermark on the very top of the page would be useful.
Comment 1 Ulrich Windl 2018-02-15 08:41:11 UTC
I also think the watermark should be selectable as an object (e.g. by clicking on it), and thus hitting DEL after having selected it, it should be removed.
(How is a watermark removed, BTW? Setting the text to an empty string? Doesn't sound like a clean concept...)
Comment 2 Thomas Lendo 2018-03-12 21:40:45 UTC
Adding  Szymon Kłos to CC list as he was the initial developer of the watermark feature.

Szymon, are features of this request planned or desired?
Comment 3 Szymon Kłos 2018-03-13 13:17:07 UTC
(In reply to Thomas Lendo from comment #2)
> Adding  Szymon Kłos to CC list as he was the initial developer of the
> watermark feature.
> 
> Szymon, are features of this request planned or desired?

This is not planned for now.

I can only add that 1. is relatively easy I think, 3 also but some work in filters may be needed.
Comment 4 Thomas Lendo 2018-03-17 20:33:36 UTC
Set to NEW as it's a reasonable enhancement request. Only the mix of different enhancements in a single bug is perhaps suboptimal.

Change summary from "Allow more control for watermarks" to "Allow more font and position formatting for watermarks"
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2018-03-19 09:48:17 UTC
I wouldn't put much effort in this feature as there are alternative ways [1]. The textual watermark is meant to be full-size so 1) is not needed and makes only sense with 2) and 3). Any additional option rather makes the dialog clumsy than adding _needed_ features. => WFM (up to Szymon to agree or not)

By the way, Insert > Watermark has not made it into 5.4/6.1 and is suboptimal placed there because you also _edit_ the watermark. It could be placed at the TSCP toolbar or ideally made available at Format > Page. => NEW

And last but not least it is not documented. => NEW


[1] http://www.ocsmag.com/2015/08/23/libreoffice-tips-watermarks/
Comment 6 Thomas Lendo 2018-03-19 10:14:10 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5)
> I wouldn't put much effort in this feature as there are alternative ways
Someone who has the rights can lower the importance (instead of "medium" now). This would reflect the interest on it for Heiko and maybe Szymon. But I wouldn't close this bug neither as WFM nor as WONTFIX. What's not important for someone can be important for another one. (My 2 cents: Closing this bug wouldn't enforce developers to work on other bugs if they're interested especially in watermark feature.)

> By the way, Insert > Watermark has not made it into 5.4/6.1 and is
> suboptimal placed there because you also _edit_ the watermark. It could be
> placed at the TSCP toolbar or ideally made available at Format > Page. => NEW
Watermark feature is already available via 'Format > Watermark...' in 5.4, 6.0 and 6.1. Enhancement request for importing into page dialog see bug 107996.

> And last but not least it is not documented. => NEW
https://help.libreoffice.org/6.1/en-US/text/swriter/01/watermark.html
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2018-03-19 10:24:02 UTC
(In reply to Thomas Lendo from comment #6)
> I wouldn't close this bug neither as WFM nor as WONTFIX. What's not
> important for someone can be important for another one. 

We spoil UX by adding unneeded options. How about word art, effects, spacing/kerning, borders etc.? If, as suggested by Ulrich, the watermark becomes kind of a layer with full access to text properties the common dialogs work well. But we have to take care about what we duplicate in new UIs. 

> Watermark feature is already available via 'Format > Watermark...' in 5.4,
> 6.0 and 6.1. Enhancement request for importing into page dialog see bug
> 107996.

Thanks for clarification. Both makes sense, removing Olivier again.
Comment 8 Ulrich Windl 2018-03-19 11:26:41 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5)
> I wouldn't put much effort in this feature as there are alternative ways [1].

Despite of being just another opinion, the method suggested adds some graphic to the page, while the watermark discussed here is using text. On a sheet of paper the result may not make much difference, but on some export format like PDF it will. Also if there is a better alternative method, wouldn't be the logical conclusion to drop this feature? So why was id added at all, then?
Comment 9 Rizal Muttaqin 2020-08-13 12:03:28 UTC
Created attachment 164247 [details]
Watermark option in ONLYOFFICE

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors version 5.5.1.78 provides some basic text formatting
Comment 10 Rizal Muttaqin 2020-08-13 12:12:32 UTC
Created attachment 164250 [details]
WPS Writer's watermark option

While in WPS Writer (11.1.0.9604) we can similar text option with ONLYOFFICE, but it has preview.

WPS Writer provide 1) while both office suites provide 3). 

I prefer to see improvement for 1) and 3) point and leave 2) for next enhancement or make it (number (2)) WFM

What missing here is watermark option for picture, but it's another enhancement request/bug report.
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2020-08-14 08:54:28 UTC
We discussed this in the design meeting and the majority welcomes this improvement. Position, size, and some formatting of the text is helpful - and available at competitors.
Comment 12 Roman Kuznetsov 2020-08-14 10:21:24 UTC
Why we don't have just a style for Watermark text? And then we would be use current options for font