Not about node sculpting, but UI...
In the spirit of node sculpting debate, I felt free to say something about Inkscape's UI in general. :) Just my observations (from user's perspective).
1) I would make Freehand drawing tool an option of Pen tool.
Pen tool - Bezier curves and straight line (default) - Freehand drawing (top toolbar option and configurable auto-turning-on option when "stylus" or "eraser" input device is enabled and Pen tool selected)
For about year and a half of using Inkscape this tool has been picked only 10-20 times. :)
2) Rename Star and polygon tool to Figure tool(?)
Figure tool - Polygon - Star (- Comic book balloon - will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
3) On canvas gradient tool
- if object has no gradient fill/stroke - should be able to detect if selected object has fill or stroke activated and edit existing one. In case of both activated do top toolbar selected editing. Current default adds unnecessary fill/stroke to an object.
4) Selector tool
First LMB click - Scale Second LMB click - Rotation/skew Third LMB click - Perspective
I see all of these as overall object editings. This way perspective should be relatively easy to find, I think. First thing I do when I try new graphic application is to click on some object few times to see if something's happening. Don't know about others...
5) Snap to...
Would like to see snapping options in that top toolbar always easy accessible. Tools that will benefit: Node, Rectangle, Circle, Shape, Spiral, Pen, Bezier, Text and Gradient.
Again, all written here are my aloud thinkings. I don't expect positive feedback on any but would like to hear comments. I think that adding more tools in toolbox will just make things worse and will clutter the desktop. And that's already happening.
Cheers, Vlada
Vladimir Savić wrote:
- Rename Star and polygon tool to Figure tool(?)
Figure tool
- Polygon
- Star
(- Comic book balloon
- will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
could be used for logos as well, define an svg logo as a figure object and have it in your menu?
janet
On Thu, 2006-05-18 at 07:53 +0930, Janet Hawtin wrote:
Vladimir Savić wrote:
- Rename Star and polygon tool to Figure tool(?)
Figure tool
- Polygon
- Star
(- Comic book balloon
- will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
could be used for logos as well, define an svg logo as a figure object and have it in your menu?
janet
This is an interesting idea. It would be cool to offer a dropdown in the aux. toolbar with presets for the styles you list above.
Jon
On 5/17/06, Vladimir Savić wrote:
(- Comic book balloon
- will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
This can only be an extension of plain SVG, because SVG 1.1 has nothing like ballons.
Also, I'm not sure that grouping only part of shapes (you didn't include rectangle and ellipse in that group) is a good idea.
Alexandre
On Wednesday 17 May 2006 23:14, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
On 5/17/06, Vladimir Savić wrote:
(- Comic book balloon
- will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
This can only be an extension of plain SVG, because SVG 1.1 has nothing like ballons.
I don't know SVG specification at all. And I really don't mind if this appears to me as extensions menu item.
(What is the relation between Function plotter, Embed all images, Fretboard designer etc. with name of their menu - "Effects"?)
Fine. But, first - there is an internal Inkscape .isvg format saved by default and second - there must be some way to make Inkscape recorganize it's own drawing elements afterwords. Perhaps that kind of object could carry it's own attribute or label or whatever-wont-prevent-browser-proper-rendering-of-the-same that Inkscape could catch on load and re-render with correct number of nodes (roundness, arrow length and position -- taking comic book balloon for example).
Also, I'm not sure that grouping only part of shapes (you didn't include rectangle and ellipse in that group) is a good idea.
It's better then adding new icon on that poor little toolbar (toolbox?). I'm having problem to fit this window on the screen (1024x768) already. Add there Stroke/fill dialog, plus swatches, plus Document properties for choosing snapping type...
That brings me back to thinking about Freehand drawing/Bezier curve tool merging. :) And spiral tool, how often do you use it?
Rectangle/square and Circle/ellipse/arc are more frequently used then all other tools for drawing (together). It is practical to have these separated.
Vlada
Alexandre
On 5/18/06, Vladimir Savić wrote:
This can only be an extension of plain SVG, because SVG 1.1 has nothing like ballons.
I don't know SVG specification at all. And I really don't mind if this appears to me as extensions menu item.
Uhm, the other type of extensions :)
Also, I'm not sure that grouping only part of shapes (you didn't include rectangle and ellipse in that group) is a good idea.
It's better then adding new icon on that poor little toolbar (toolbox?). I'm having problem to fit this window on the screen (1024x768) already. Add there Stroke/fill dialog, plus swatches, plus Document properties for choosing snapping type...
Jon promised to work on mini-toolbars that will give you snapping options as well :)
That brings me back to thinking about Freehand drawing/Bezier curve tool merging. :) And spiral tool, how often do you use it?
Me - never :)
Alexandre
On Thursday 18 May 2006 10:33, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
On 5/18/06, Vladimir Savić wrote:
Add there Stroke/fill dialog, plus swatches, plus Document properties for choosing snapping type...
Jon promised to work on mini-toolbars that will give you snapping options as well :)
Yeahhhh! :)
That brings me back to thinking about Freehand drawing/Bezier curve tool merging. :) And spiral tool, how often do you use it?
Me - never :)
That explains a lot... :)
Vlada
Alexandre
2006. 05. 18, csütörtök keltezéssel 12.25-kor Vladimir Savić ezt írta:
Fine. But, first - there is an internal Inkscape .isvg format saved by default and second - there must be some way to make Inkscape recorganize it's own drawing elements afterwords.
Just to clarify, the "inkscape internal svg format" is totally valid .svg file. Dont need to make any distinction with the extension ".isvg", its valid .svg. (the difference between of those option (inkscape svg vs. plain svg is the filesize. In inksccape .svg there are comments what inkscape use to store some editing information in the .svg file. Please correct me, if Im wrong)
You really missed the svg concept here. SVG is a standard, so its really important, that this standard support some particular feature (shape) or not, even if you dont CARE about it. Implementing a feature what is included in the standard is more straightforward demand, than demanding for some workaround about the lack of the standard.
I really prefer a standard (what is lacking some feature) more than some home-made propriatary fileformat. So its more important, than this standard is wide supported with various application, and I can show almost everyone my work, than a inkscape-only fileformat, what I need to export a bitmap image to show somebody. So standards are good thing.
Khiraly
On Thursday 18 May 2006 11:32, Khiraly wrote:
- 18, csütörtök keltezéssel 12.25-kor Vladimir Savić ezt írta:
Fine. But, first - there is an internal Inkscape .isvg format saved by default and second - there must be some way to make Inkscape recorganize it's own drawing elements afterwords.
Just to clarify, the "inkscape internal svg format" is totally valid .svg file. Dont need to make any distinction with the extension ".isvg", its valid .svg. (the difference between of those option (inkscape svg vs. plain svg is the filesize. In inksccape .svg there are comments what inkscape use to store some editing information in the .svg file. Please correct me, if Im wrong)
I think you misunderstood me. I hope that .svg will become standard for every vector application. :)
Remember this: "The file "something.svg" was saved with a format (SVG Output) that may cause data loss! Do you want to save this file in another format?"? Yet, that same something.svg will be rendered exactly equally in every browser (or some other vector editing app) that supports SVG.
I will try to explain my idea as simply as I can. Make triangle using Shape tool (star) and you will have one node to control it's appearance(file 1). Convert it to curves and you'll have tree(file 2). Try opening both files in browser -- renders exactly the same. If we needed such an option, Inkscape could understand that both shapes are the same visually. It will be needed to introduce one COMMENT more in Inkscapes' svg (.isvg), which describes origin of shape, to make that triangle editable with one node again. It's the same with famous :) comic book balloon. Provide a tool for making balloons and store it's attributes in such a way (as path?) that every app that follows the standards can render it, but add one more that describes that it is what it is -- comic book balloon. When Inkscape reads that file it will eventually proceed editing of that shape to an internal tool which will define key nodes for that particular shape (roundness of balloon - as in rectangle tool, length and direction of however-is-called that sharp pointer :) etc. ). Then, when editing is finished, store that shape as path again + one description comment (attribute) and it will be standardized.
So standards are good thing.
I love them. Standards are good.
Vlada
Khiraly
On Wed, 17 May 2006, Vladimir [utf-8] Savi�^G wrote:
In the spirit of node sculpting debate, I felt free to say something about Inkscape's UI in general. :) Just my observations (from user's perspective).
- Rename Star and polygon tool to Figure tool(?)
Figure tool
- Polygon
- Star
(- Comic book balloon
- will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
Macromedia Freehand does seem to have rather interesting infrastructure and only the basic shape primitives are hardcoded. Shapes like torus/donut, comic book balloons, arrows, et cetera seem to be extensions. (If you can get a copy of Freehand you should rummage through the configuration files and you should find some shape definitions that look a lot like ASCII Text art.)
Much as I'd like to see Dia benefit from the continued improvement of Inkscape that doesn't seem to be happening and more and more people will want to use Inkscape for diagramming. This will increase the desire for people to use predrawn shapes, which I expect would overlap somewhat with some of the more exotic shape tools.
Certainly it will be interesting to see how this potentially very complex area of functionality evolves.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org
Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
participants (6)
-
Alan Horkan -
Alexandre Prokoudine -
Janet Hawtin -
Jon Phillips -
Khiraly -
Vladimir Savić