Ticker Zones
This page / section pertains to BrightAuthor Classic, our legacy app. BrightSign Author is our latest app for managing content and players.
Development of BrightAuthor Classic has largely ceased and the app will eventually be deprecated and replaced with BrightSign Author.
The Ticker zone allows you to display RSS feeds or pre-defined text strings. You can include multiple Ticker zones in a presentation. Use the Zone Properties window of a Ticker zone to edit the following:
- Number of lines: Set the number of text lines in the Ticker zone. This will also affect the font size (the font size will increase with fewer lines and decrease with more lines).
- Time to display each line: Set how long each line displays in the Ticker zone (in seconds).
- Rotation: Use the dropdown list to select the rotation of text in the Ticker zone.
- Alignment: Use the dropdown list to set whether text is left aligned, right aligned, or centered in the Ticker zone.
If you’re using a right-to-left language (such as Hebrew or Arabic) in your ticker zone, the right/left alignment settings will be inverted. For example, setting a ticker zone with an Arabic RSS feed to “Right aligned” will actually align the text to the left side of the zone.
- Text appearance: Specify how the text will appear on screen:
- Animated: Text appears on screen from left to right (similar to a Teletype-style ticker).
- Static Text: Lines of text appear without any animation.
- Scrolling: Text scrolls across the screen (similar to a news or stock ticker). If this option is selected, the Number of Lines parameter will be limited to 1 and the Time to Display Each Line parameter will have no effect. Note that this option is not available for LSx22, HDx20, or HDx10 models (to enable scrolling with the LS423, BrightAuthor version 4.7.0.8 or later is required). The text can scroll either right-to-left or left-to-right with firmware versions 6.1.37 and later: This scrolling direction is determined by the language of the first text item used in the Ticker zone (e.g. Spanish text will set the ticker to right-to-left, while Arabic text will set the ticker to left-to-right).
- Scroll speed:(Scrolling text only) Use the slider to set the scroll speed to 100%, 200%, 300%, or 400% of normal.
- Foreground text color: Click Choose to select a color for the text in the Ticker zone.
- Background text color: Click Choose to select a color for the text background in the Ticker zone.
- Transparency: Use the slider to set the transparency of the text-background color: 0% is fully opaque, while 100% is fully transparent.
- Font:
- To select a font for text in the Ticker zone, select Browse. You can use any TrueType or OpenType font. When selecting a font file, you cannot browse to the font files in the Windows fonts folder. You will need to copy the font file to your desktop or another location and then select it using the Browse button in BrightAuthor.
- To reset the font, select Reset to System Font
- To adjust the font size in a Ticker zone, change the number of lines displayed in the zone. To do this:
- Select the Ticker zone and click the Zone Properties button.
- This will open the Zone Properties window, where you can increase the number of lines in the zone. The font size decreases with more lines and increases with fewer lines. You can also increase or decrease the size of the zone to adjust font sizes.
Scrolling Tickers can only display 8192 pixels per string. Due to this limit, font options can affect the total number of characters that can be displayed within 8192 pixels.
Advanced
Click the Advanced arrow to reveal the following options:
- Background bitmap: Click Browse to navigate to and select a file for a background image.
- Stretch to Fit: Select Yes if you want to stretch the image to fill the zone. Otherwise, select No.
- Safe text region: Define the dimensions of the text region in the zone. If this region is not defined, the text will be displayed to the edge of the zone.
- X: The horizontal coordinate (in pixels) of the top-left corner of the safe text region.
- Y: The vertical coordinate (in pixels) of the top-left corner of the safe text region.
- Width: The width of the safe text region (in pixels).
- Height: The height of the safe text region (in pixels).