Regarding selection and the filter dialog, how about the following setup: the dialog will still display all filters, but the user can set which filter is currently applied to the selected object(s) by double clicking a filter in the left-hand list. The active filter will get a dot or a small icon to show it is being used on the selection. Single-clicking a filter will select it for editing of its primitives/attributes, but won't apply it to the selection.
How's this sound? If it's OK, it shouldn't take too long to do.
I'll post again soon with my thoughts on the discussion of showing better simplified controls than the current Blend Mode combo.
-Nicholas
On 7/23/07, bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> wrote:
Hi Nicholas,
You never responded to this discussion. Do you agree that the Filters dialog must track selection and instant-apply to the selected objects?
On another subject, please make your dialog remember size and position across sessions, as other dialogs do. Now it always starts in minimum size which is annoying.
Also I highly encourage you to keep an up-to-date summary of what already works (and what is likely to remain more or less the same at the end of the project) at http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes046#Filters_UI. It's important to do it as you code. Don't wait until everything is completed - you will forget some valuable details by then. Just as soon as you finish some feature, no matter how small, add it to the list there, with complete description of the functionality as well as, ideally, examples and usage tips.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> Date: Jul 21, 2007 4:09 PM Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] filters UI To: MenTaLguY <mental@...3...> Cc: Florian Köberle <FloriansKarten@...128...>, Nicholas Bishop <nicholasbishop@...400...>, inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, Niko Kiirala <niko@...1267...>
On 7/21/07, MenTaLguY <mental@...3...> wrote:
I do think simply calling that option "Filter" is a little weird. How about labeling the blend mode drop-down as a whole "Filter", and changing the "Filter" option to "Custom..."? That may be a better description of what it does, and then it would make sense to put other filter presets there too.
I'm all for adding more preset blending and composite modes to that list, yes. But why do we need "custom" at all? As it is now, it's out of place there. When I'm in fill&stroke, I don't think in terms of choosing among "filter2578" and "filter2593". That is an entirely different task for the different specialized dialog - the Filters dialog. This list in fill&stroke contains various ways of compositing an object over its background, period. A "Custom" there would only make sense if its function would be to allow you to edit a customized expression for compositing (e.g. for the "arithmetic" option in feComposite), but NOT for assigning the overall filter stack for an object as now. That assignment must be done automatically by the Filter dialog (which is where you edit those stacks).
I would also like to see some feComposite presets in that list.
Sure, one thing I would really enjoy is inverting the background - is this possible with feComposite?
This list, like the Blur slider below it, must search the selected object's filter stack for feBlend or feComposite, display the current mode of that filter and let me change it (or add a new filter to the top of the stack, but only if no such filter already exists in the selected object's stack).
That would interact very badly with many interesting filters, as they may be built out of multiple feBlend/feGaussianBlur elements; simply picking the first or last feBlend element (or even all of them, depending on how the filter is designed) won't give desirable results.
OK, that was just one of my ideas, I don't insist on making it that way too much. It may indeed be confusing sometimes, although also useful IMHO. What do others think?
-- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org