We continue our story about a new version of products, Stimulsoft 2022.1. Today, we will tell you about new features for creating and designing dashboards.

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New functionality for creating dashboards

Business intelligence tools need regular updates, and our products are no exception. This time we expanded features of the dashboard creating and added new options:

• rounding corners,
• background transparency of elements,
• shadows of dashboard components,
• watermark.

Let's consider them in detail and visually demonstrate the changes they can make in the process of creating and designing dashboards.

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Rounding corners

Rounding corners, windows, menus, and forms became one of the 2021 trends. Mostly, it happened due to the release of the updated operating system of Microsoft – Windows 11. Although, Mac OS users have been long in trend. We decided to keep up with the trends of the global software market and added the ability for our users to customize dashboards with rounding of component borders.

Component rounding is defined using the Corner radius group. Since we always consider the flexibility of our product and take care of fine-tuning capabilities, when creating a dashboard, we gave you the ability to round each corner of a component separately. This way, you can round one, two, three, or all corners of an element. The rounding radius can be both similar and different for each corner. All of this allows you to set the design of dashboard components to your liking. The corner radius value is specified as a numeric value between 0 and 30, where 0 is no rounding and 30 is the maximum radius.

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Element background transparency

By default, each component in a dashboard uses back color from dashboard style. You used to be able to change back color as well as create custom component style. However, one feature wasn’t added, which our clients asked about a long time ago – how to set transparency of component background.

In the 2022.1 release, we solved this problem. You can set alpha channel parameters according to the ARGB model when specifying component background or the alpha parameter in the Colors control on the Custom tab.

This way, component background acquires transparency, which generally allows not just to design a dashboard beautifully but apply watermark in this dashboard. But about that, a little bit below.

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Watermark for dashboard

As a rule, the watermark specifies authorship, owner of an image, or affiliation with an organization. In other words, its basic function is to protect documents. But in cases with dashboards, it is a great ability to diversify their visual design.

So, we have added the ability to use watermarks in dashboards to the 2022.1 version. Watermark is customized in a special editor. You can call having clicked the Browse button of the Watermark dashboard property or clicking the Watermark button on the Page tab.

In the watermark editor, its types are grouped by tabs. Each tab contains the Enabled option, which enables or disables the using of a certain type. As watermark, you can use:

• Text. Any text, there are no restrictions by length. However, you should remember that text of the watermark sign is not transferred and cut by the borders of your dashboard. It is always placed by the center since the text center is similar to the dashboard center and diverges in different ways.
  You can define angle corner, font, including font family, style and size, and text color.


• Image. Image of any type supported by our report generator (PNG, SVG, JPEG, etc.). For an image in the watermark, the following options are available:
  
  
  • aspect ratio, that is, maintaining the proportions of the image,
  • image stretch to dashboard area or filling this image with repetitions,
  • image transparency. Yes, now, in our report and dashboard engine, you can not only customize component transparency but make the watermark image translucent.
  
  In addition, there is the Multiple Factor option for images in a watermark. In fact, it gives you the ability to zoom in on an image. Move the slider, and you'll see how it works. Please, note that the watermark image is embedded in the report template, which may affect both the final file size and the report loading time in the viewer.


• Weave. This feature allows you to use icons in the dashboard watermark. There are several moments here. First of all, icons are divided into major and minor categories, and they can vary in size, color, and appearance. Secondly, you can change the distance between icons and their rotation angle. This gives you excellent capabilities for creating a unique watermark for a dashboard.
  
  Here is a list of tools available to use when creating a watermark. However, that's not all. We always strive for a flexible approach to component design. Therefore, you can combine all types at the same time - use text, image, and weave in one watermark. Create your own watermark for your dashboards.

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Shadows for dashboard component

You can be both for shadows in the menu, windows, and components and against it. Some people like shadows in an operating system; others disable them. Starting from the 2022.1 release, we added an ability to enable and customize component shadows in a dashboard.

If when creating dashboards you focus not just on displayed data, but want to use shadows for components. They not only create a volume of components making the entire dashboard more interesting in outward appearance, but visually select the objects that are emphasized.

Also, we have prepared a video for you about using a new functionality for creating and designing dashboards.



This way, we gave you excellent capabilities for the visual design of your dashboards. There is not enough time and space on the pages of our blog to consider all the combinations of their applying and use.