bulia byak wrote:
On 10/21/07, microUgly <drworm@...1743...> wrote:
I agree that if "Master Opacity" is going to be used to control the opacity of a colour stop then it shouldn't be called "Master" anymore.
Agreed, it's probably time to drop "master". It was called that when it was first added to the UI, to differentiate it from the fill/stroke opacity. Now it's established itself and largely replaced the fill/stroke opacity, so we can call it simply "opacity", _the_ opacity.
I always understood the infobar opacity to affect all selected objects. If this is true (and the intention is to keep it so), could it not simply be renamed "Selection Opacity" to make sure it's not confused with the fill or stroke opacity? Maybe then the "Master Opacity" slider in the F&S dialog can be removed (since it isn't directly dealing with the fill or stroke properties of anything, necessarily), and a slider place in the infobar by the "Selection Opacity".
But what advantage does the Opacity slider offer? It seems like a step backwards to abondon a colour picker that lets you see how transparent it will appear.
For flat color, yes, the fill/stroke opacity sliders do allow you to see the color. But for many other situations - such as entire objects if they have gradient or pattern fill - this color preview is not applicable and will in fact be confusing.
I think it makes sense to have the alpha preview for a gradient stop; I don't think it makes sense to use the fill and stroke tabs to adjust gradient stop colors. That's really confusing, especially when you see both are available while you have a stop selected, and either can be used to affect the color, and on top of that you can still edit stroke style for the whole object without leaving the gradient stop selection. Hmm...
I think the dialog should change from the 3-tab to the gradient editor when a stop is selected or when using the on canvas gradient editor. That would be much more consistent. Maybe add the gradient editor dialog as a 4th tab? (I know its controls are mostly going to be deprecated, but that would make more sense at least for now.) Then you could blank the other tabs when a stop is selected and move to the gradient editor tab.
(Incidentally, why does the Stroke Style tab only get greyed out when it can't be used, instead of blanked like the other two tabs?)
It's argued that Opacity makes more sense for colour stops because they are objects. But in my mind they are... stops... of colour - sorry, can't explain it better.
They are not objects. They are just somethings that can be selected just like objects. The general principle of Inkscape UI is to treat similar things in similar ways. Hence, for all somethings that can have opacity, we should use the same opacity controls, command, shortcuts, etc.
I think confusion could be avoided in this also by using the "Selection Opacity" label. I think the current setup makes a lot of sense, once the ambiguity of the opacity slider in the F&S dialog is taken care of. (Similarly, the blur slider doesn't make a whole lot of sense there anymore, now that we have other filters, and it doesn't affect either fill or stroke separately. I think the issue is really with making everything present in the F&S dialog deal with either the fill or the stroke, depending on which tab is selected.)
JF