With ios17, the markup tool removed the outline shapes. Now they are opaque shapes. How do I outline text with a box or circle?

You can still get outline shapes, but the process is more complicated.

Think of it as two steps:

1) Pick the shape you want and set the color opacity to 0%. There will still be an outline visible

2) Pick the Border color you want, set the size in points, and set the opacity (of the border) to 100%

Hope that helps….

As always, it is worth reading the actual release notes when a new version of iOS drops - the change was fully documented, and one more example of "read the release notes before you update".

In a nutshell, this was neither "change for the sake of change" nor was it not carefully thought out. This was a change to make the function more accessible for users with visual limitations and/or impairment - those people found it difficult to locate and/or maneuver the shape on the screen, especially on colour images.

This makes it easy for everyone to use, and brings the colour tools to the front of pane when a shape is the active object.

Does this create an extra step for those with the good fortune to have no visual impairments? Yes. Could this have been more thoughtfully implemented? Yes, very much so. Ideally this would have been a change that you could turn on and off in the Settings - Accessibility - Vision. Failing that, a new "Markup" item in Settings would have been an ideal location to specify defaults for the tool system wide. Failing THAT, remembering your last tool settings would have been a great help, and has been mentioned many times in developer notes going forward. Keep your eye open for iOS 17.5, nudge nudge wink wink.

There are two buttons at the bottom. The one on the right is for the full of the shapes and the one in the left is for the outline.

open the one on the right, then set opacity to 0.

I do wish that there was a default setting for these, because I’d like them to always be set to 0, because I’m taking dozens of pictures each day and this adds an interruption to my workflow.

My edit feature does not have those two shapes you mention. So far I can only add a solid and not any outline. I've been free handing my circles but they look like crap! Attached is what I see after selecting 'Add shape' from MarkUp menu.

iOS 17.1.2

THAT is the REAL ISSUE. Apple has DOUBLED the time i have to spend marking up photos by making this change! Why can’t it default to NONE like it always has? Making it filled in is one of stupidest things they could have done, requiring everyone to change it every single time. Id really like to know who this person or team was that removed the magnifier and filled in the shapes…they should all be fired and forced to pay everyone for their lost time! It’s not right. We make workflows with these features, workflows we have used for YEARS and they just take things away for no reason or make things more complicated and TIME CONSUMING than they need to be. I wish them hours of wasted for work for the rest of their lives so they can feel the pain I have been experiencing as a result of their actions. I have been perpetually late since these features were changed/removed because i didn’t have enough time with the features that were present before 17. Someone needs to fix this ASAP.

Apple,

I intentionally chose an iPhone for work, vs. the recommendation of the Android because of ease of use. The markup tool has failed in that regard on iOS 17.

i take pictures and mark them up in aircraft cargo areas, and the process used to be:

take picture

go to markup tool

select shape

make the shape point to the area of interest

done

now it is:

take picture

go to markup tool

select the shape

make the shape center transparent

weight the line to 15

select the color

position the shape

here is my suggestion on how to fix this:

have a markup “favorite shape” that stores all of the attributes of the shape (color, transparency of fill and line, line weight, etc.) that is selectable when choosing the shape

make the arrows not snap to 45 degree increments (IRRITATING)

the new markup adds about an hour to my day, as I take about 300 pictures a day, and all of the extra repetition adds about 10-20 seconds for each picture.

this makes it hard for me to recommend iPhones to my coworkers for this purpose, and our new camera policy makes us use our company phones.

It's like someone at Apple thought change for the sake of change was a good thing!

(or they weren't thinking at all)