The experience of using "--pin" on Ubuntu/Linux

[RedBearAK]

Feature Description

@veracioux @borgmanJeremy

Read to the bottom before trying to quote or respond to parts of this. This is mainly just informative, but with a couple of recommendations at the end.

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I wanted to know what the "pinning" option does and tried flameshot gui --pin and... Well it doesn't seem to actually do anything. This is on Ubuntu 21.04, where I had a LOT OF STRANGE PROBLEMS attempting to use the Snap package, but ditched that a few days ago and installed the Ubuntu DEB, which has behaved nicely ever since. So I have no idea why --pin appears to do nothing.

Now, I assumed that --pin is supposed to open a window with the screenshot and leave it on display until the user closes it, but I actually see nothing in the "Docs" on the website that specifically lists --pin or talks about "pinning" or "pin the image". Nor is there anything on the main GitHub page when I search for "pin". The only place I see anything about this option is the man page.

I'm not looking for an explanation of the pinning feature so much as pointing out that for a new user this feature is not obvious to even discover.

Oh, as I write this I finally see what happened. Flameshot overlayed the pinned image so perfectly aligned with the area it came from that I didn't notice it was there. There's no frame, no title bar, and the purple outline only appears when my mouse cursor is not hovering over the pinned image. On top of a dark terminal window the appearance of the pinned image was very non-obvious. When I do flameshot screen --pin it's more obvious, but still almost perfectly overlaps the maximized terminal window.

So those are my notes on trying to introduce myself to the --pin feature. It works, but at least on Linux, on an Ubuntu/GNOME desktop with a dark theme, it's really easy to get confused into thinking that nothing just happened, if you miss the quick flicker of the pinned image suddenly appearing (it seems to "expand" into place, but in a fraction of a second, so if I blink...). I don't know the reasoning for the perfect alignment with the original geometry, or the lack of any sort of frame, title bar or background to separate the image from anything behind it (which will usually be a perfectly matching screen), but I would consider doing something to make it easier to visually separate the pinned image from everything else on the screen.

Some eventual enhancements to the Docs related to this feature also seems like a good idea.

[borgmanJeremy]

I'm always open to PRs that improve the docs and man pages.

There is an existing request to adjust the size and color of the pin drop shadow which might help.

[RedBearAK]

@borgmanJeremy

There is an existing request to adjust the size and color of the pin drop shadow which might help.

I have noticed over the years that drop shadows sort of "fall down on the job" with dark themes, and when a window is over another window with dark content. The shadow tends to just blend in. I actually experimented briefly with an "under-light" modified drop shadow for dark themes, and it can be a very nice effect, but it's a pain getting it to work.

Being adjustable might help. If Flameshot could automatically make a dark shadow if the system theme is light, and make a "light" or even "bright" shadow if the system theme is dark, that could make a huge difference in the usability. Apparently there are ways lately to know if the system theme is light or dark? Apps like Firefox offer to match and follow your system theme as it changes.

But I also highly recommend making sure there is a minimum pixel offset for where to display the pin, relative to where the selection was taken. That alone would make it far less visually confusing when the pin pops up.

[mmahmoudian]

I never had issue understanding the pin because the first few times I used it, I triggered it by clicking on the pin button 📌 in flameshot gui. Perhaps it is good to explain why in my point of view the current behaviour is ideal (no offset no border no shadow):

My use case for pin are:

• for when I want to have something with its position across all my virtual desktops. I take a pinned screenshot and set to be visible on all my virtual desktops. This way I can exactly have the picture everywhere in the original size and position
• when I want to compare two pictures side-by-side from different pages of the same pdf file or website, I can take a pinned screenshot and keep it in the original size and then scroll the PDF or webpage and move it to the side of the other picture. Since there is no border or shadow, I can even take a screenshot from the second picture and the pinned screenshot side-by-side and annotate the differences.

Perhaps having some sort of initial overlay on the pin can be used which goes away in a short moment after the mouse is moved or keyboard key is pressed. This way it would be clear that there is something extra on the screen.

pointing out that for a new user this feature is not obvious to even discover.

I agree that this is an issue we have in Flameshot because the application is always out of the way of user and is not showing lots of menus and other stuff. I have been thinking to add a section on our website and showcase the features and tell user how to use them. Perhaps through gif or video. Alternatively we can record short videos and pit them on YouTube (like what ArcoLinux does)

[RedBearAK]

@mmahmoudian

Everybody does have their own way of using a tool like this. I feel like an offset would be a good thing to add as a feature, at the very least, and probably should be enabled by default. Then you could just disable it to retain your perfect alignment. It's a very legitimate point of view if you have a good use for it. But I feel like most users would be better served by having an offset to make the location of the pin much more obvious.

Perhaps having some sort of initial overlay on the pin can be used which goes away in a short moment after the mouse is moved or keyboard key is pressed. This way it would be clear that there is something extra on the screen.

That could be good. Or even slowing down the apparent "expanding window" animation that happens when it appears. Although maybe that's just something my particular window manager (GNOME 3.38.x Mutter) does. The animation I saw was just too fast for it to be obvious what's happening, and I missed it entirely the first few times. But a colored overlay that fades away or animates in some way as it disappears would be even more obvious. Or a thick colored frame that appears and then leaves only the usual thin outline/drop shadow.

I agree that this is an issue we have in Flameshot because the application is always out of the way of user and is not showing lots of menus and other stuff. I have been thinking to add a section on our website and showcase the features and tell user how to use them. Perhaps through gif or video. Alternatively we can record short videos and pit them on YouTube (like what ArcoLinux does)

You know what they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth ten thousand."

Well, no one says that. But I will.

So, all of that sounds like a good idea.