Hi,

I received a comment on my Gimp Gsoc proposal from Martin a couple hours ago. To answer Martin’s question, and think about what UI adjustments are needed for Brush Selector Widget, it may help to discuss here, to see whether my understanding is correct. After having some feedback, I can make some scratches on paper for the new UI, and also can use Gimp or Inkscape to design the UI mock-up.

One of the goals of the project on UI is to allow more precise brush selection. For example, users can easily input and see effects with size, angle, and aspect ratio values.

Currently, these cannot be done easily. Brushes are rather complex in Gimp.

1. In Brush Selection, basically there is a list of brushes to select. There is only parameter to adjust for the selection underneath is Spacing.

2. To customize a brush, there are many parameters to choose in Tool Options for brushes.

3. Users can also right click on brushes to duplicate and modify it, or create a new brush, with input of size, angle, and aspect ratio.

Therefore, there are these many places to choose a brush: Brush Selector, Tool Options, and Brush Editor.

In this project, size, angle, and aspect ratio are important parameters for brush selection.

In the UI, my idea is to have widgets of size (radius), angle, and aspect ratio in Brush Selection Widget, maybe under where Spacing is. Then, users can have a brush that has these precise input parameters, without needing to create a new brush copy and adjust them there. This should be a small task, so that some frequently used widgets would be in a more accessible place.

I have some other ideas for the UI design. What are your thoughts on the UI? Maybe Alexia, the mentor of this project, has some good ideas. I am interested to know what other tasks are and make it a three-month project.

Regards,

Zhenfeng.

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the quick feedback...

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 6:40 PM, peter sikking wrote:

i think (and I have thought and discussed about it quite a bit with usual suspects like alexia and pippin) that trying out is best done with the full parameters of _this_moment_, on the canvas or a copy of the canvas. after I attended a sprint with krita, they have implemented a variant of that. you can see blogs about that.

Yes, it is the way that I do it too. One can see if the effect is good, if trying it out (playing with it).

Currently, these cannot be done easily. Brushes are rather complex in Gimp.

1. In Brush Selection, basically there is a list of brushes to select. There is only parameter to adjust for the selection underneath is Spacing.

and that one will be transferred to the tool options

OK. I can do the transferring in the project, "moving Spacing to tool options".

2. To customize a brush, there are many parameters to choose in Tool Options for brushes.

3. Users can also right click on brushes to duplicate and modify it, or create a new brush, with input of size, angle, and aspect ratio.

for a vector brush, yes. pixmap: I believe not.

Right. The "duplicate brush" on right click is disabled for them. For vector brush, they can be cloned and modified.

Therefore, there are these many places to choose a brush: Brush Selector, Tool Options, and Brush Editor.

In this project, size, angle, and aspect ratio are important parameters for brush selection.

after reading that a couple of times, I think you are talking about making a vector brush from scratch for temporary use.

So far, I thought about vector brushes. Input from Alexia would be appreciated. I hope to understand the project goals better.

I do see some drawbacks of the current UI. There are a few ways to improve it. I am interested to know the approach that has a good UI design, and its changes can fit in the architecture.

In the UI, my idea is to have widgets of size (radius), angle, and aspect ratio in Brush Selection Widget, maybe under where Spacing is. Then, users can have a brush that has these precise input parameters, without needing to create a new brush copy and adjust them there. This should be a small task, so that some frequently used widgets would be in a more accessible place.

I think we want to have the 'from scratch' mode mutual exclusive with the
'from collection' mode. this separates nicely the 2 modes users are. this must be done by switching the mode at the top of the brush selection
dialog (a copy of which also pops up in the tool options). of course a 'from scratch' brush can be saved into the collection. then it has become clear
that the 'from scratch' mode is equal to the brush editor (which can definitely use improvements).

OK, it sounds like a good solution. There can be two modes: choose from the

brush selection/collection, and create a brush using brush editor.

The brush editor often hides now. I could be wrong, but maybe most users do not even notice its exist. However, brush editor is very useful to create a customized vector brush.

ah, and when you implement a pattern like that, you will be required (I bet)
to make the changes in such a way that they get applied to all resources (patterns, gradients, etc).

How does the modification apply to patterns and gradients? Do you mean when using a brush shape and a pattern for the stroke? In Clone tool, pattern and brush can be selected separately to use together. If so, I can see there is some work to use a customized brush. Wait, if I make a vector brush using brush editor, and use a pattern source in Clone tool, it works and puts pattern in the shape that I just created. So, if I adjust the UI to have two modes, a newly created vector brush should work with patterns right away, right?

Regards,

Zhenfeng.

--ps

founder + principal interaction architect man + machine interface works

http://mmiworks.net/blog : on interaction architecture