Setting Preferences

The Preferences dialog box, shown in Figure 3.18, is opened using the Edit, Preferences menu command. The Preferences are divided into four panels: Options, Video Uploads, Editor Colors, and GUI Colors. Most of these options are covered in later chapters.

Changing Language

One setting in the Options panel of the Preferences dialog box that directly impacts the interface is the Language setting. This drop-down list lets you switch the interface language to English, German, or French and a restart of the program is required. Figure 3.19 shows the interface with the French language selected. Notice how the language change doesn’t change the named layers, only the interface strings.

Changing UI Colors

The Editor Colors panel in the Preferences dialog box is used to change the default colors used to denote when an object is selected or inactive. It also shows the colors for the object, background, default fill, and edge. You can change any of these colors as needed by simply clicking the color swatch you want to change. Figure 3.20 shows the Editor Colors panel of the Preferences dialog box.

The GUI Colors panel, shown in Figure 3.21, shows the colors for the various interface controls. For example, the default text color is black, but you can set it to whatever color you want. The Sample Widgets section shows what the various controls look like with the currently selected colors. The Reset button is used to restore the original colors.

If you select the Use Large Fonts option, then all the interface text is displayed using a larger font size, which is helpful if you find the interface text hard to read.

Although Anime Studio by default uses a white background with black text, many users prefer to have the opposite contrast with a black background and white text. Using the GUI Colors panel, you can easily make this change. Figure 3.22 shows the interface with these types of colors. The interface also uses the Large Fonts option.