SmallHD User Guide

Safe (guides)

Updated on

Also known as Title-safe, this tool provides a simple line border near edges of the frame as a friendly reminder to keep important elements in-frame to account for 'overscan'- some TVs will crop out part of the frame to fit various aspect ratios/resolutions being sent and title safe is still used by broadcast stations and other users not using an internet medium.

Safe (guides) - Settings

On

Enable/Disables Safe guides.  This can also be done at the tool bar level by activating or deactivating the tool.  It will be Green when active and Grey wen not.

Format

Adjusts the aspect ratio of the safe guides; set this to what you consider the 'least common denominator', i.e. if you have to make a 16x9 AND a 4x3 deliverable, use the 4x3 guide to account for the 'worst case'.
*These are the two standard when it comes to Broadcast Television.  If you know you will need a custom title safe area, you can use the ASPECT tool in line mode.

Color

Choose the line color of the guides for easier view-ability depending on your shot.

Opacity

Adjust the transparency/visibility of the guide lines, best practice is typically to go with 'visible but not distracting'.

Safe-Action

Enables/disables the Action safe (outside) border.
*This again dates back to broadcast, if you wanted to be sure that the crop of the panel on the TV would not interfere with your image/ or action in the frame.

Safe-Title

Enables/disables the Title safe (inside) border.

*This again dates back to broadcast, if you wanted to be sure that graphics would not interfere with your image/ or action in the frame.

Safe (guides) - Quick Start

Let's apply Safe guides to a page to help judge where to keep titles and action

From any page, click the joystick or tap the screen to bring up ‘Add New Tool’.

Navigate to Frame > Safe and select to add it to the current page.

Odds are the default setup is all you will need but you can edit the settings by navigating right when ‘Safe’ is highlighted.

Let's change the aspect ratio to 4:3 so we can visualize how an old TV would crop our image.

If the guides are not visible in your viewing environment you can edit the Color and Opacity for better viewability.

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