Re: [Inkscape-devel] GSOC status report - Better support for SVG paints

Hi Tomasz,

Thanks for posting the video and screenshot, these help a lot and I wanted to give you a user interface review. I like the icons and these show the patterns much better than the old drop down.

Because 'current Document' and 'patterns' have exclusive options, they are more properly expressed using a tab pattern. Those expanders are most often used in gnome for setting categories which are non-exclusive and thus one must have access to all of them in one stream.

The symbols dialog contains the closest match with it's 'current document' and then other sources for symbols as categories available in a dropdown.

But, if there is only going to be two entries (current document vs other patterns) I would:

a) Copy the solid fill ui with it's use of tabs b) use text labels instead of icons (like you are now) c) Select current document if it has any patterns d) or Select the "other patterns" by default instead

If we plan to have multiple collections of patterns, then a drop down will be better as the user could expand the available set of patterns.

Hope this is helpful.

Best Regards, Martin Owens

On Mon, 2014-06-23 at 22:05 +0200, Tomasz Boczkowski wrote:

Hi!

Now it's time to write about week 5 of GSOC.

I've implemented pattern preview in fill and stroke dialog. It loads pattern files from inkscape stock directories, displays as tiles and allows selection. The screenshots [1,2] show the widget in action.

Regards, Tomasz

[1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/4c88d2qkb7s8yfq/pattern-selector.mpeg [2] https://www.dropbox.com/s/kpbf9vqls5lxpf7/pattern_dialog_bg.png

On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 6:24 PM, Tomasz Boczkowski <penginsbacon@...400...> wrote: Week 4:

    This time I had to do a couple of tasks for my university, so
    the development has slowed down a little bit.


    I managed to integrate the TileView widget with symbols
    dialog. Screencast [1] shows the dialog in action.


    Another task I was involved in was creating a model for
    storing paints. This one should allow grouping
    into categories, and manage such functions as reading the
    resource directory and reacting to the changes
    in current document. I also considered the possibility for the
    model to store any kind of previewable elements,
    including symbols. I had to do a few tries "from scratch",
    what took a lot of paper. The model will be ready tomorrow.


    [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/nn93i2cvdbnfk4y/symbols-dialog.mpeg


    On Sat, Jun 14, 2014 at 1:06 PM, Tomasz Boczkowski
    <penginsbacon@...400...> wrote:
            > As you progress with converting existing dialogs to
            the TileView widget
            > and adding new dialogs that use the widget, have a
            look at what
            > behaviors should be common to all the dialogs. For
            example, I would
            > think that users would want to control the size of
            the tile (as is done
            > in the Symbols dialog).


            I've noticed that symbols, patterns and swatches are
            very similar in the
            way they can be stored, rendered and presented to the
            user. They are 
            all fragments of SVG documents, usually stored
            in /shared directory.
            When I finish implementing model for strong paints
            I'll see if it's usable
            for symbols. It seems to me much of the code can be
            shared.


            In addition to symbols dialog, size of the tile and
            fitting into tile will
            be controlled in swatches dialog. TileView widget
            supports it. 
            I have to choose what kind of UI to use for setting
            the size. Currently
            the symbols dialog uses buttons at the bottom, while
            existing 
            swatches dialog provides menu with options to control
            the look.
            In addition to this, in my proposal [1] I sketched a
            dialog for TileView
            configuration, but now I see it using it would mean a
            lot of clicking.


            [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/vupc7hl7wwsxsj1/new_patterns_ui_3.png


            Tomasz

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