Before I start... what can I submit as "blueprint", and what should I be submitting as "wishlist" instead? Can I use the wiki? If so, what pages am I supposed to save them as? Anyway, most of these will be submitted separately, but they're all only made feasible with a proper toolbox management.

So the toolbox is getting cramped, right? At the same time, it's not really fun when many tools are grouped and you have to find each sub-component (case of the tweak tools, I can never remember the shortcuts either). So here's a possible solution, and some possibilities that'd derive from it.

1. Toolbox proposal

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/416/toolbarmanagement1ov3.png http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/3712/toolbarmanagement2xb0.png

Some features: - There should be a visible icon, as people won't be able to find the feature otherwise.

- The icon allows you to access toolbox presets.

- Managing a preset is easy, just go to "configure toolbox" and toggle on and off the visibility of any tool, just like with Gimp.

- Multiple toolbars may be possible: see mock-up 1. The additional floating toolboxes would have a close button, though not the "main" one to avoid confusion (insert "Aaah! My toolbox has disappeared!" messages).

- Some tools could have "grouped" and "separate" options (mock-up 2). Examples: . square, ellipse, spiral and polygon can be options of a single "shapes" button for those who don't use them often. . the individual modes of the tweak tool could be accessible separately: see mock-up. . when 3D shapes are added, they'd also have both grouped and separate options.

- Since management is easy now, have some LPEs as tools too? Please? PLEASE???

2. LPE as tools

With a proper toolbox management system like the one above, LPEs can be incorporated as tools when needed. It saves one the trouble of applying one from a panel every time (it Really breaks the flow when you have a lot of lines to do, not to mention the LPE panel takes up a lot of space).

This would simplify interface for many LPEs tremendously. You just select the tool, modify any necessary parameters, and draw the paths you need. As soon as you've drawn the path the effect is automatically applied. For example, Spiro lines: you draw your normal bezier, and as soon as you release the mouse it becomes a Spiro line (by the way, any chance for "native" Spiro lines as opposed to a Bezier with an LPE on it?).

I actually think LPEs should eventually be separated into categories: - Spiro lines (native spiro lines? Yes please!) - Complex lines (sketch, waves, wide) - Shape generators (gears, stiches, etc.) - Guides (grids, technical, composition guides, perspective guides) - Transform (envelop deform, perspective deform) - etc.

3. LPE tool: Wide lines

It's crazy, but it's nearly impossible to find a program that would let you do a nice double-edged line without either: - a tablet (+ very steady hands, which I don't have) - half a dozen operations - or forcing you to switch between panels.

It's Really discouraging when you want to do several hundred hair strands. D:

The wide lines LPE would be a very simple tool: a few basic shapes are saved. You draw your path. The shape automatically gets stretched onto it:

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/9302/widestrokeslpemx3.png

There you go, easy-to-edit (direction wise, in any case, I'm assuming that a person doing dozens of hair strands does not care about the exact form of each) double-edged stroke drawn in a single operation with a mouse (or with bezier, whichever).

Note: Developers will probably not want to set this as a tool until a proper toolbox management system is in place, which is why I proposed one myself (though I'd be more than happy if a better solution comes along).

For this particular LPE tool, you'd have the following entries: - size: size of the maximum. It basically takes the saved shape and adjusts the size first, so you can modify the width of the strokes with just the directional keys. - presets: preset shapes: single edge, double edge with max at 1/2, double-edge with max at 1/4, etc. Users can add their own commonly-used shapes, but the above are among the most ridiculously common ones. - and you can adjust the size with just the directional keys! (though there could be %width options to further tweak the thin lines)

If anybody knows how to automatically generate shapes likes these, that's fine too (though let's be honest, including a few files of shapes like these would take up tiny disk space anyway. They're 4 nodes each!).

4. Tool for charts: shapes with text

Another feature that probably would be considered too much waste of real-estate without a proper toolbox management.

I often use Inkscape to do charts. Having to call up the Align dialog each time (which really takes up a Lot of space by the way) just to place a few text into shapes, and having to realign every time the text is modified, is needlessly tedious to say the least.

The auto-text shapes I'm proposing would come as Ellipse, Text, or Polygon. They're simple: place a shape, click on the center and you can start typing away. The text is always automatically aligned to center (or some other option of your choosing).

They may have the following features or options: - padding of text to borders: sets a minimum distance between the text and the border. - auto-adjust size: if the text starts to fill the shape, the shape resizes automatically to fit. - the default is for the text to be centered, but there could be other alignments. - linked duplicates: a linked duplicate only conserves the shape, not the text content, so by making a duplicate, when the text in one of the boxes forces one of the items to become bigger, all the other shapes of the same type resize as well. This is for those charts that need all elements to be of approximately the same size. - adding points for connectors: this is simpler for rectangle shapes than for other shapes... you can basically specify how many connector points you want per side (example: 3). Though, ideally, there'd be an on-canvas means to mark points for each side, but I don't have UI ideas for that one...

Also handy for comics.

It's at least three steps fewer (changing the tool, selecting all then aligning the whole, not to mention it has to be repeated if the text is changed much) for a rather common task, which can translate into a good enough time gain and a much more pleasant work flow.

Any comments before I submit? (if only to say which ones should Not be submitted as blueprints, because I'm a bit confused right now)