Gesture trails
The trail is the line drawn under the pointer while you draw a gesture. It is only a picture: what you draw is matched the same way whatever the trail looks like, and turning the trail off changes nothing about which action runs. You choose the trail on the Appearance page, in the Gesture trail section.
What can draw the trail
| Choice | What draws | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A style | The renderer, a plugin. On a standard installation this is the Styles plugin, with over a hundred animated styles. | Needs the renderer running (Plugins). |
| Shuffle | The renderer, with a different style for each gesture | Never repeats the previous gesture's style while another one qualifies. |
| Classic line | Input.Observer itself: a plain line in one color | The lightest choice. Draws whenever the renderer can't. |
| None | Nothing | Gestures still work. |
Whatever you choose, if the renderer is stopped, starting or switched off, the classic line draws in its place until the renderer is back (Appearance).
The three tabs
- In use shows the basic choices (Classic line, None, Shuffle, Auto), the style in use, and any tile a draw button uses as its own choice.
- Gallery ① shows every style, one category at a time ④: the style categories, then More styles for anything else the renderer offers, All, and Archived while you have archived styles. Customize… ② opens the settings every style shares. Typing in the search box ③ searches every style by name, ignoring case and accents, and shows the matches under All; clearing the box goes back to the tab you were on.
- Trail options holds the trail's color and width and the classic line's settings ("Trail options" below).
The page remembers the section, the tab and the gallery category you last used.
Choosing a style
Each tile ⑤ shows a picture of the style, its name, and its state in words: In use, Free, or Locked with a padlock.
- On Appearance, choose Gesture trail, then Gallery.
- Find the style: pick a category, or type part of its name in the search box.
- Choose Use on its tile. The style is in use from your next gesture; you don't need to choose Apply.
To see a style before you choose it, click the tile itself. Its settings window opens with a live preview ("A style's settings window" below). Use this style there does the same as Use on the tile.
To go back to the plain line or to no trail, choose Use on Classic line or None on the In use tab. Clicking Classic line opens the Trail options tab.
A locked style has no Use button. See Free styles, locked styles and purchases.
Some styles aren't offered in every country. When your Windows region setting is Saudi Arabia, Green Haze isn't in the gallery, Shuffle never picks it and Auto never switches to it (its switch isn't shown). If it's already your style, it keeps drawing and keeps its tile until you choose another.
Auto
Auto follows the calendar. On a holiday or festival it switches to that day's style; otherwise it follows the season: First Snow, then Northern Lights in winter, Cherry Blossom in spring, Firefly Meadow in summer and Autumn Drift in autumn. When two dated styles fall on the same day, the one with the shorter period wins. South of the equator the seasons are swapped; holidays are not. Its tile names the style it draws today, for example "Today: Autumn Drift".
Click the Auto tile to open its settings: the hemisphere (from your Windows region setting by default), and a switch for each dated style. A switch you turn off keeps Auto away from that style. National holidays follow the country in your Windows region setting unless you choose otherwise. A gesture keeps the style it started with.
Auto needs at least one of its calendar styles unlocked. On a day whose style you don't own, it draws Neon glow.
Shuffle
Shuffle draws a different style for each gesture.
- On the In use tab, choose Choose styles on the Shuffle tile. The Gallery tab opens with the Choosing Shuffle's styles bar ① above the tiles, and every unlocked style tile shows an In Shuffle box ⑤.
- Tick the styles Shuffle may pick. Each box takes effect at once. The last ticked box can't be cleared.
- The bar counts the ticked styles ②, for example "Ticked: 12 of 40". With every box ticked it says "Shuffle picks from every style.", and styles you unlock later join in too.
- Every style ③ ticks every box again. It is unavailable while every style is already ticked.
- Choose Done ④. Picking ends and the In use tab shows again. Choose Use on the Shuffle tile if Shuffle isn't in use yet.
While you pick, the Shuffle tile's own button on the In use tab reads Done instead of Choose styles, and also ends picking.
A different trail for each draw button
When you draw gestures with two or more buttons (General page, Draw buttons), each button can have its own trail. Open the ⋯ menu on a tile and choose Use for and the button, for example Use for Middle button. The tile then carries a badge for that button, and the In use tab lists it. Choose the same entry again to give the button back to the trail in use. Classic line, None, Shuffle and any unlocked style can be a button's own choice.
A button's own style belongs to the renderer it was chosen with. If you make another plugin the renderer, that button draws the trail in use instead. If you stop using a button for gestures, its own choice is dropped.
Archiving styles you don't want to see
The ⋯ menu on a style tile has Archive, which moves the tile to the Archived tab. Restore to gallery moves it back. Archiving only tidies the gallery for you in this window: an archived style can still be chosen from the Archived tab, and one in use stays on the In use tab.
A different style per program
Input.Observer has no per-program trail setting. An action can change the style with the StyleSet builtin,
for example from the Foreground window changed global event (Global events). See the Style
builtins in the builtin reference. Each such change is saved in your configuration.
A style's settings window
Clicking a style tile opens the style's own settings window.
- Use this style ① puts it in use. A style already in use shows In use instead.
- Live preview ② plays the style's demonstration stroke over and over, with a sample hint and a sample message in that style's look under it. It starts over after each change you make, so you see the change on the next stroke. Pause stops it; Play starts it again. Light backdrop plays it over a light background instead of a dark one; the window remembers that choice for every style. The preview comes down while you move the window or switch to another window, and plays again once the window is in front and still.
- The settings ③ are grouped in cards: the style's own look and motion under its name, then Tuning, Sounds, Hint panel skin and Message skin. A dot beside a setting means it differs from the style's default.
- Changes take effect at once and are saved as you make them. They don't wait for Apply, and Discard in the configuration window doesn't undo them. A slider, number or color is sent once it has stayed unchanged for a quarter of a second. If the plugin adjusts a value to fit its range, the setting shows the value it uses. The first time, the window may take a few seconds to load while the plugin starts.
- Restore defaults puts every setting in this window back to the style's defaults.
- A locked style's window shows every setting with its value but takes no change, and has Buy in place of Use this style. Its preview still plays.
The style's settings are kept by the plugin that draws it, in its own settings file beside your configuration file, not in your configuration. They are not part of an export.
Settings every style shares: Customize…
Customize… on the Gallery tab opens the settings that aren't tied to one style, in the same kind of window, with a list of sections on the left. With the Styles plugin as the renderer, the sections are:
| Section | What it holds |
|---|---|
| What this plugin draws | Draw gesture trails (off makes the classic line draw instead; hints and messages are chosen on the Appearance page), Get a newly chosen style ready before its first gesture, Keep the drawing layer behind windows between gestures |
| Style and calendar | Auto draws today, Hemisphere for the seasons, and Auto's switch for each dated style |
| Line and Particles | The line under the effect and the particle limits of Comet, Lightning, Fire, Vibrant rainbow, Firework, Neon glow, Water splash, Paint brush and Dot chomper |
| Size and particles | Size of everything the trail draws (×) and the particle limit for every other style |
| Hint panel | The fonts, sizes, colors and opacity of the hint panel when hints are set to Match style |
| Sounds | Play styles' sounds, a custom sound file for each sound, and each sound's volume |
| Memory | Release graphics memory when idle and how long to wait first |
The same window opens from the gear on the renderer's row of the Plugins page, where it also lists every style's own section.
Sounds
Each style has three sounds: one when a gesture starts, one that plays while you draw and follows your speed, and one on release.
- Every style starts silent. The speaker on a style's tile switches that style's sounds on and off; its picture and tooltip say which. The same switch is in the style's settings window, in the Sounds card.
- Play styles' sounds in Customize… > Sounds switches the styles' own sounds off for every style at once (on by default).
- A custom sound file (uncompressed PCM
.wav) set for a sound plays in that sound's place for every style. A file that can't be played falls back to the style's own sound. A style whose own speaker is off plays nothing, custom files included. - Sounds load only for the style in use (about 0.6 MB each), not for every style.
Trail options
The Trail options tab holds the trail's color and width, which both the renderer and the classic line use, and the classic line's own settings.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Range | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trail color | The line's color, as #RRGGBB. Click the swatch for a palette and red, green and blue sliders. | #5B8CFF (blue) | Any color | Renderer and classic line |
| Line width | The line's thickness | 4 px | 1–50 px | Renderer and classic line |
| Per-button trail | A color and a width of its own for each draw button. A button with its switch off uses Trail color and Line width. | Off for every button | 1–50 px | Renderer and classic line |
| Opacity | How solid the line looks | 100% | 5–100% | Classic line only |
| Draw after moving | How far, in a straight line from where the stroke started, the pointer must move before the line appears. The line never appears before Minimum gesture movement (General) either. | 8 px | 0–500 px | Classic line only |
| Trail length limit | 0 keeps the whole stroke visible. Otherwise only the most recent part, this long, stays visible. | 0 | 0–10000 px | Renderer and classic line |
| Keep the drawing layer behind windows between gestures | Moves Input.Observer's drawing layer behind other windows whenever no gesture is being drawn | Off | On or off | Classic line only |
Advanced mode. Per-button trail, Draw after moving, Trail length limit and Keep the drawing layer behind windows between gestures are hidden in Simple mode.
- Many styles draw in their own colors or at their own size. While such a style is in use, a note under Trail color or Line width names it and says the setting doesn't change it.
#FF00FFis the color Input.Observer's drawing layer treats as see-through, so a trail in exactly that color would be invisible. Input.Observer draws#FF00FEinstead, and the row shows a warning.- Only the color's red, green and blue are used. A pasted
#AARRGGBBkeeps its color part; transparency is Opacity's job.
Keeping trails light
Input.Observer draws only while you gesture, but a drawing layer that covers your screens takes memory while it exists. These are the settings that change what the trail costs.
- Classic line uses the least memory and processor time. With the trail, hints and messages all on the classic choices or off, the renderer doesn't run at all; the Plugins page shows it as "Not in use".
- Release graphics memory when idle (Customize… > Memory, off by default) makes the Styles plugin give back its full-screen drawing surface after the set number of seconds with nothing on screen (30 by default, 1–3600). It is the plugin's largest use of graphics memory: about 16.6 MB for one 1920 × 1080 screen, 29.5 MB at 2560 × 1440, 66.4 MB at 3840 × 2160, and more for several screens side by side. The next gesture rebuilds it before drawing its first point, which costs that gesture a short moment.
- Keep the drawing layer behind windows between gestures helps when a full-screen game or video stutters or behaves differently while Input.Observer runs, or a program reacts badly to a window covering it. The Styles plugin has its own switch in Customize… > What this plugin draws; the classic line's is on the Trail options tab. Both are off by default.
- Get a newly chosen style ready before its first gesture (on by default) prepares a style you just chose out of sight, so its first stroke doesn't start with a stutter. It doesn't cover a draw button's own style or Shuffle's picks.
- Most particles on screen (Line / Particles, and Size and particles) caps how many sparks, leaves or other pieces a style keeps on screen. Lower it if busy styles feel heavy.
- Trail length limit keeps only the last part of a long stroke on screen.