Hi,
Bryce told me that some dialogs need redesigning and "Export to bitmap" is one of them. After some serious thinking I came to conclusion that redesigning "Export to bitmap" is not enough. The issue is actually with Save as.../Export dialogs themselves. IMO, there are some inconviniences that need to be fixed.
Let's look at these functions through the user case glass.
Designer A has done a nice sketch. Though he likes it, he wants to make another version. He saves it under some other name and keeps working on the new file.
Designer B has done several sketches. Now he wants to send them to his customer in some easy to view file format. He needs to save copy of each original file in a different file format in the same directory, where originals are.
Now let's look closer.
In the first case he wants to go to "File - Save as..." and specify name of the new file in the same directory, without changing file extension. The only reason to "save as" into, e.g. AI is when he was told that the new version has to be done in AI from ground up -- and only if his $VECTOR_GRAPHICS_EDITOR supports direct editing of AI files. I wonder how smooth Inkscape is at editing AI/EPS/EPSI/POV/PS instead of native SVG :)
In the second case he wants to go to "File - Export as..." and: 1) specify name of the new file; 2) specify its extension; 3) specify export parameters.
I don't even doubt that Inkscape will have export parameters dialog for EPS and PostScript (and TIFF as soon as someone writes it). Users are not supposed to see "Export to EPS", "Export to TIFF" etc. menu items in "File", don't you agree? ;)
The GIMP model I'm talking about is quite nice, but its has a PITA drawback -- The GIMP doesn't remeber the last directory it went to. If you find a way to work around it, we will need the following:
1. Add "Export as..." menu item to "Files". 2. Add "Export to" dialog in a GIMP style with
- a file name entry box; - a combobox to switch between directories from gtk bookmarks; - a hidable large "Specify directory" file panel; - a hidable "Choose export format" panel.
3. Move current "Export to bitmap" dialog to a new dialog "PNG export settings" which will appear, if a user chooses PNG as export format. Adding export settings to other file formats will be easier then.
Guys at Novell have good points in their DesignWiki (http://primates.ximian.com/~glesage/wiki/doku.php?id=gimp:png_export). I really like their idea, so I suggest:
4. Add "Fast export" (or "Save for Web") menu item to save a PNG to the same directory, where the sketch is, or to a "fast export" directory specified in Inkscape's preferences. It will make decision on saving region from the selection context:
- export the whole page, if nothing is selected; - export current selection, whatever is selected.
Honestly, I don't remember myself ever saving a "special" region -- only current selection or the whole page. If I want something to be absent in exported bitmap, I either don't select or move it away out of the page. But my use case may be different from yours. I can imagine a situation when a designer needs to export "slices" from his design.
I really hope that this proposal makes some sense to you :)
Alexandre