On 7/20/07, Joshua A. Andler <joshua@...533...> wrote:
A while back there was talk of a dedicated filters tool (not dialog, but a tool). Is this no longer desired? I could see some really nice benefits with it such as for lighting effects and having draggable light sources (knots/handles on the canvas). Also for stuff like blur where you can have different blur for X and Y, where handles on canvas would be awesome for working with that.
For dragging handles, we don't need a tool. For example we don't have a Pattern tool but we can adjust patterns by handles. We can do the same for filters too: if the object has a filter for which a handle makes sense, display the filter's handle whenever you display the other kinds of handles (gradient, shape handles etc). Just make sure by using dedicated shape/color for the handle that they are easy to recognize as filter handles. (By the way, this is what needs to be done already: shape handles, gradient handles and pattern handles are now all white, which is quite confusing. Only node tool handles use different color (gray). We need a complete restyling of all the handles we have, to make them easier to recognize. Proposals/patches welcome!)
As for the tool, it only makes sense for when you want to _create_ something by dragging or drawing on canvas. Only some of the effects can conceivable be applied by some sort of canvas drag. Others are just command-like things with parameters, and for them the only advantage of a tool will be in easy access to the parameters via the controls bar. Upon reflection, I don't think it's really worthwhile. Besides, filter stacks may be tall and complex, and cramming all of Nick's dialog into a horizontal toolbar would likely prove difficult.