Hi, guys:
This just reached a critical "must-express" pressure in my head: I've been periodically, over the last few years, missing this (yet non-existent?) feature for a dropper, in Inkscape (as well as in other image editors). An enhanced version of a dropper, which does the following:
It's able to "suck up" the attributes of an object (similar to what it's already doing), and then "drip them out" onto one OR MORE (multiple!) objects, as the user wishes. The sampled (sucked up) attributes could stay in the dropper buffer, indefinitely... until the user replaces them with another dropper "suction".
In addition, it would be nice to expand the number of attribute types the dropper can disperse, and, of course, let the user check/uncheck the attributes that are being copied and dispersed.
[x] fill [x] stroke color [x] stroke thickness - absolute units [x] stroke thickness - proportional/adjusted to the transform magnification (not sure about this one, just a thought) [x] opacity [x] alpha [x] a variety of other attributes, like roundness, etc. (limited to certain objects, perhaps) [x] funky, crazy user-assigned things, like "reduce to same number of nodes" -- OK, maybe i'm going too far here... [x] I might be missing many many other great additions to this list; i'm sure others would suggest more stuff.
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So... with this superdropper I'd be able to click on a path/object, and then, holding down some drip/endow control key combo (like, "Ctrl+Alt[+click]", or some such) click on object(s) TO WHICH I WOULD PASS these attributes — as many objects as I like, in succession..., without re-sampling (without sucking in attributes)
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It seems like code-wise, it shouldn't be that difficult.
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I was checking out the 0.48 dropper, and it is already capable of copying either the stroke color or the fill color, distinctly, and there's already a button tool bar to go with it. (But it doesn't seem to be able to do a series of "drip-outs" onto many objects.)
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As far as I know this is my original idea, and I'd like to "bequeath" it to Inkscape and other GPL-licensed applications. So, just to be sure no commercial app hijacks this feature (the concept/algorithm) and claims it as its own (and prevents open-source apps from acquiring it), I hereby declare the afore-mentioned feature to be under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, v3, as spelled out by the Free Software Foundation.
Again, this is just in case it hasn't been developed yet, although i'm actually hard-pressed to believe that it doesn't yet exist somewhere, and in case there's a looming threat of some commercial-venture grabbing the feature before it gets integrated into some GPL'ed app (hopefully into Inkscape)
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Thanks!