I submitted this as a bug, here:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635004

It was suggested that I post it to the gimp-developer list, so I apologize if

anyone is receiving this twice.

While I appreciate that GIMP's gradient editor is highly capable, the advanced features are set up in such a way that creating a simple gradient quickly is next to impossible. This is a major usability problem. I would suggest the

following changes in order to remedy this:

* At the moment, clicking on an endpoint does nothing. Right-clicking on an endpoint brings up a context menu, but for the *segment* that's currently selected and not the *endpoint* itself. Instead, if you click on an endpoint,

it should select that endpoint. Double-clicking it should pop up a color dialog that allows you to edit the color at that endpoint, and then sets that color for *both* segments.

* Right clicking on an endpoint should give you a context menu for that

endpoint, where you can either set the color for that point on both segments, or to the right or left segment. It should also allow you to delete an endpoint, merging the segments to the right and left of it.

* Clicking on an endpoint should update the color box to that endpoint's color as long as the endpoint is selected. If a color is dragged into the color box while an endpoint is selected, that endpoint should be set to the new color for

the segments on either side.

* Right clicking on a segment gives you a context menu for the currently selected segment and not necessarily the segment you clicked on. This means that if I attempt to set endpoint colors for that segment, I could end up

instead setting endpoint colors for a different segment.

* Double-clicking on the middle of a segment does nothing. What it *should* do is split the segment at the point that you double-clicked and (possibly) pop up

a dialog box that allows you to select a color for the new point. This should also happen if you double-click the half-way marker.

Here's the difference it would make. Let's say that I want to make a simple,

continuous, two-segment gradient. At the moment, I need to do the following:

* Create a new gradient. * Click on the segment to select it. * Right click on the segment, select "left endpoint's color"

* Set a color. * Right click on the segment, select "right endpoint's color" * Set a color
* Right click on the segment, select "split segment at midpoint" * Left click on the left segment to select it

* Right click on the left segment * Select "right endpoint's color"
* Set the color to what I want
* Copy the HTML value for the color onto my clipboard * Left click on the right segment to select it

* Right click on the right segment * Select "left endpoint's color"
* Paste the color from my clipboard

I *should* be able to do it as follows:

* Create a new gradient * Double click the left endpoint

* Set the endpoint's color * Double click the right endpoint
* Set the endpoint's color
* Double click the midpoint (which splits the gradient there automatically) * Set the midpoint's color

Note that the process has half as many steps and doesn't involve navigating context menus.

The above changes would vastly improve simple gradient editing in GIMP without removing any advanced features or making advanced gradient editing more

difficult.

Thanks for your consideration, Bart K.
http://opengameart.org

I'll be honest with you -- I have some big projects of my own, and I don't have the many free hours necessary to build an entire UI spec. I already took quite a while thinking about this and typing it up, and I was hoping that I could perhaps generate some discussion, or maybe get a GIMP developer who happens to like my idea to flesh it out into a real spec. I would be happy to answer questions about my idea if anything is unclear. If no one feels that it's worthwhile, I won't be offended. :)

Bart

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 2:14 PM, Martin Nordholts wrote:

On 11/16/2010 07:16 PM, Bart Kelsey wrote:

While I appreciate that GIMP's gradient editor is highly capable, the

advanced

features are set up in such a way that creating a simple gradient quickly

is

next to impossible. This is a major usability problem. I would suggest

the

following changes in order to remedy this:

Hi

Just a hint:
Suggestions for UI improvements will be a lot more punchy if you provide mockups and other graphical diagrams. The most preferable form is a complete UI spec like the ones found at gui.gimp.org.

BR, Martin

--

My GIMP Blog:
http://www.chromecode.com/
"Nightly GIMP, GEGL, babl tarball builds" _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list
Gimp-developer@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer

Didn't notice that. It's good, but completely non-obvious, which is a problem in and of itself. Most people (myself included) are going to click around with the mouse. Also, this isn't anywhere on the context menu, nor is it listed in the documentation (which I checked when I was trying to figure this out).

I would be happy to update the documentation to list this (very important) feature if someone could tell me how. That being said, this shouldn't be taken as me withdrawing my idea.

Thanks for pointing that out, though -- it'll make my life a lot easier.

Bart

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:33 PM, Joao S. O. Bueno wrote:

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Bart Kelsey wrote:

I'll be honest with you -- I have some big projects of my own, and I

don't

have the many free hours necessary to build an entire UI spec. I already took quite a while thinking about this and typing it up, and I was hoping that I could perhaps generate some discussion, or maybe get a GIMP

developer

who happens to like my idea to flesh it out into a real spec. I would be happy to answer questions about my idea if anything is unclear. If no

one

feels that it's worthwhile, I won't be offended. :)

Bart

Hi Bart --
thank you for your input on this issue - Of course the gradient editting needs work -- but have you noticed that you can drag colors to specific points in the gradient? (Therefore both splitting new segments, and setting new colors for both endpoints?)

This is hard to discover, but once one finds out, it can conver almost all use cases for gradient editing (at least it did for me).

js ->

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 2:14 PM, Martin Nordholts

wrote:

On 11/16/2010 07:16 PM, Bart Kelsey wrote:

While I appreciate that GIMP's gradient editor is highly capable, the advanced
features are set up in such a way that creating a simple gradient quickly is
next to impossible. This is a major usability problem. I would

suggest

the
following changes in order to remedy this:

Hi

Just a hint:
Suggestions for UI improvements will be a lot more punchy if you provide mockups and other graphical diagrams. The most preferable form is a complete UI spec like the ones found at gui.gimp.org.

BR, Martin

--

My GIMP Blog:
http://www.chromecode.com/
"Nightly GIMP, GEGL, babl tarball builds" _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list
Gimp-developer@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer

--
--

_______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list
Gimp-developer@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer

That would be cool. I'd be happy to test and give feedback if a prototype is built.

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 4:18 PM, yahvuu wrote:

On 16.11.2010 20:15, Bart Kelsey wrote:

I'll be honest with you -- I have some big projects of my own, and I don't have the many free hours necessary to build an entire UI spec. I already took quite a while thinking about this and typing it up, and I was hoping that I could perhaps generate some discussion, or maybe get a GIMP developer who happens to like my idea to flesh it out into a real spec.

I believe the gradient editor can be prototyped as a plugin (e.g. in python),
as all necessary API is published. If that helps...

regards, yahvuu