#5 Text invisible in actors and boxes when exporting to .emf with modern_blue scheme

[mcufan]

Hi,
I upgraded from v5.0.6 to v5.3.1 and started to have issues when exporting to .emf format using modern_blue scheme. The text in actors and in boxes with text-only content is not visible in the exported file. When the same message sequence chart is exported to .png, it works as expected. It also works when exporting to .emf but using a different scheme (eg. round_green).
Below you can find the source code.

hscale=auto;
t1: Actor 1 is not visible;
t2: Actor 2 is not visible;
t1--t1: Text in box with mixed content is visible
{
t1->t2: testing;
t1--t1: Text in box with text-only content is not visible;
};

The attached modern_blue.png is the expected behaviour, while modern_blue_emf.png is the result when exported to enhanced metafile. The .emf was later converted to .png in an image editor tool, so that it is visible in the web browser.

I don't know if it is related, but back in v5.0.6 I noticed that when exporting to .eps using modern_blue scheme the very same texts that I have visibility issues now were not selectable in the EPS/PDF viewer. It seemed as if actors and boxes with text-only content were exported as images.
I did not have this issue though when I used a different scheme, eg. round_green. I suspected that the issue was caused by the shadow that was casted by the actors and the boxes with text-only content. I tried to remove the shadow style from original_designlib.graph and original_designlib.signalling, but unfortuantely that would not make any difference.

Br,
mcufan

[Zoltán Turányi]

To me all the text is visible in an exported EMF. Could you please send me the EMF you find at fault? I attach my EMF here.

What you observe is true: the text is added to EMF in a fallback image, because the EMF format cannot render the shadow and/or transparency. Thus, where there is a shadow in the image a bitmap is created and then added to the EMF. The same thing happens to EPS (albeit that could, in theory, render the shadow with mesh gradients), but they dont. This would happen to SVG, too, but there I have switched mesh gradients off (on a user request to avoid the fallback image), so there shadows are approximated, which shows even at a small magnification. For PDF mesh gradients work splendidly.

I have also removed the shadow (by setting shadow.offset to zero) and the fallback image disappeared.

Let us compare notes and analyze the situation a bit more and decide what to do.

[mcufan]

I checked your EMF file, it looks fine. However in mine the actors' and the white box's contents are invisible after a fresh install.
I tried to set shadow_offset=0 for modern_blue scheme in original_designlib.graph and original_designlib.signalling files and it solved the problem. It seems there are two shadow offsets for modern_blue scheme in original_designlib.signalling and apparently I forgot to switch off one of them last time.
Anyways, I wonder why you don't have this text visibility problem even with shadows enabled. modern_blue scheme looks better with shadows enabled, so it would be great if I was able to produce EMF files like the one you attached.

[Zoltán Turányi]

I have checked your file. The first one does contain a fallback image, but that is completely white (and only for the white box, not for the entities). I have no clue why it does the thing it does. I can only speculate.

1. Try uninstalling all versions of Msc-generator. If you just installed the new one, the old ones are kept. In Control Center|Uninstall programs you can see all. Remove all of them.
2. Check that there is no such folder as Program Files(x86)\Msc-generator. If it exists, remove it.
3. Then do a fresh install of 5.3.4.

If this does not help, I have no idea. I did not do anything special here for this to work (and dont recall doing anything from 5.0.6 to 5.3.1 that may break it, but I havent checked an it is a lot of time). Maybe I can check it if it still does not work. I have a Win7 box. Yourself?

[mcufan]

I use Win7 at work. I uninstalled the previous version before installing the new one, and also checked Program Files(x86) and Msc-generator was not there. I also tried the newest 5.3.6, but it produced the same result.

[Zoltán Turányi]

I have checked and found one potentially relevant difference from 5.0.6. Please check out v5.3.902 in folder v5.4/RC/ if it still produces the bad emfs.
I hope this solves the issue - I cannot check it, as it works well for me anyway.

[mcufan]

Hi. Yes, it solved the problem. Export to .emf in v5.3.902 works as expected. Thank you!

[Zoltán Turányi]

Thanks for checking. I close the ticket then. It will be included in all future releases from 5.4.