Pattern Fills, Strokes and Interface
Hi all,
One thing first. I tried to subscribe through GMANE and I am using Thunderbird as my New Server but I'm not getting through, so I'm here on line (http) to re-post this. Any idea why this is happening to me??
Anyway................
Giving Inkscape .39 a run and I think it's really coming along nicely!!
I do have some observations, questions and suggestions.
The redraw is pretty sketchy sometimes. Esp. if I draw a star shape with it dragged into other interesting shapes using the Edit Path tool (with or without rounded corners).
Fills are a bit of trouble. I know this is a very new area but I wanted to report on what I am experiencing.
OK, so one has to import an image file into the doc in order to get it to tile with in a shape, am I correct here??
Once I have right clicked and copied the shape and then click on the object and choose "tile" from the Edit menu sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't.
Something interesting I notice is that if you do tile the object then it seems to be transformed into a bitmap. I see this happening only because then if I go to use the "Edit Path" tool there are no nodes to move in order to reshape the shape. All of a sudden if I choose a new fill the nice star shape is a filled rectangle. Not a star shape any longer but a rectangle now. I can undo it, no problem but I would like to ask what exactly is happening?
So I guess what I am really getting at here is that I would like a little tutorial on how to PROPERLY use the fill option. I would also like to suggest that an expansion of the options be included in the Pattern Fill tab so one can work from there. You might also want to include some basic functions in the right click menu when a shape is filled with a pattern!! One other thing would be to include resizing handles to allow for rotation, resizing and moving of the fill within the shape.
Also, when I click on the icons from the "Standard" bar for the Fill and Stroke or Text dialog... etc.... in my thinking one click should turn ON the dialog and another should turn it OFF. Maybe what you guys were thinking was to click on the icon would bring the dialog back to the top where it's accessible but I would think that making the dialogs float ABOVE the main interface at all times so as to not loose sight of them would be better for many users and then you could implement the icons to be ON and OFF buttons for the corresponding dialogs.
Thanks much for your help and consideration.
Richard ;)
The redraw is pretty sketchy sometimes. Esp. if I draw a star shape with it dragged into other interesting shapes using the Edit Path tool (with or without rounded corners).
What is "sketchy"? Slow?
OK, so one has to import an image file into the doc in order to get it to tile with in a shape, am I correct here??
If you need to tile a bitmap, of course you need to import it first. Otherwise just Edit | Tile.
Once I have right clicked and copied the shape and then click on the object and choose "tile" from the Edit menu sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't.
File a bug with a reproducible example where it does not. It always does for me.
Something interesting I notice is that if you do tile the object then it seems to be transformed into a bitmap. I see this happening only because then if I go to use the "Edit Path" tool there are no nodes to move in order to reshape the shape. All of a sudden if I choose a new fill the nice star shape is a filled rectangle. Not a star shape any longer but a rectangle now. I can undo it, no problem but I would like to ask what exactly is happening?
It's not a "bitmap". It's a pattern fill of a rectangle. So you can node-edit the rect but not its fill. If you need to edit the fill, Untile it, edit, and then Tile again.
So I guess what I am really getting at here is that I would like a little tutorial on how to PROPERLY use the fill option.
OK, I will write it for the next version.
I would also like to suggest that an expansion of the options be included in the Pattern Fill tab so one can work from there. You might also want to include some basic functions in the right click menu when a shape is filled with a pattern!! One other thing would be to include resizing handles to allow for rotation, resizing and moving of the fill within the shape.
We do have such handles. Switch to node edit and you'll see them.
Also, when I click on the icons from the "Standard" bar for the Fill and Stroke or Text dialog... etc.... in my thinking one click should turn ON the dialog and another should turn it OFF.
No. That's counterintuitive. To hide/delete something, act on that something, not on some button half a screen away.
Maybe what you guys were thinking was to click on the icon would bring the dialog back to the top where it's accessible but I would think that making the dialogs float ABOVE the main interface at all times
They ARE above the interface at all times (except on Windows, where it's hard to implement).
bulia byak wrote:
The redraw is pretty sketchy sometimes. Esp. if I draw a star shape
with it
dragged into other interesting shapes using the Edit Path tool (with
or without
rounded corners).
What is "sketchy"? Slow?
When complex objects are dragged the redraw is sometimes pretty bad!
OK, so one has to import an image file into the doc in order to get
it to tile
with in a shape, am I correct here??
If you need to tile a bitmap, of course you need to import it first. Otherwise just Edit | Tile.
OK.
Once I have right clicked and copied the shape and then click on the
object and
choose "tile" from the Edit menu sometimes it will work and sometimes
it won't.
File a bug with a reproducible example where it does not. It always
does for me.
OK, I'll keep at it and if I can reproduce the problem, I'll file a report.
Something interesting I notice is that if you do tile the object then
it seems
to be transformed into a bitmap. I see this happening only because
then if I go
to use the "Edit Path" tool there are no nodes to move in order to
reshape the
shape. All of a sudden if I choose a new fill the nice star shape is
a filled
rectangle. Not a star shape any longer but a rectangle now. I can
undo it, no
problem but I would like to ask what exactly is happening?
It's not a "bitmap". It's a pattern fill of a rectangle. So you can node-edit the rect but not its fill. If you need to edit the fill, Until it, edit, and then Tile again.
Misunderstanding. Sorry...
So I guess what I am really getting at here is that I would like a little tutorial on how to PROPERLY use the fill option.
OK, I will write it for the next version.
Thanks much!!
I would also like to suggest that an expansion of the options be included in the Pattern Fill tab
so one can
work from there. You might also want to include some basic functions
in the
right click menu when a shape is filled with a pattern!! One other
thing would
be to include resizing handles to allow for rotation, resizing and
moving of the
fill within the shape.
We do have such handles. Switch to node edit and you'll see them.
OK, I'll look for those next time I work in the program! :-)
Also, when I click on the icons from the "Standard" bar for the Fill
and Stroke
or Text dialog... etc.... in my thinking one click should turn ON the
dialog and
another should turn it OFF.
No. That's counterintuitive. To hide/delete something, act on that something, not on some button half a screen away.
Not counterintuitive to me at all. I work allot in a program called Xara X1 and that's how the dialogs work. Click once, the "gallery" of choice comes up, click again and it's turned off, keeps the interface under control.
Maybe what you guys were thinking was to click on the icon would bring the dialog back to the top where it's accessible
but I
would think that making the dialogs float ABOVE the main interface at
all times
They ARE above the interface at all times (except on Windows, where it's hard to implement).
Yes, I work with WinXP Pro (SP1+) so I guess that's one that still needs to be fixed.
Thanks bulia!
Richard ;)
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There was a little thread before, with shortcuts. I think it would be very useful to use personal shortcuts. Another example, why:
undo: this is on CTRL-Z, what is good. But, I use QWERTZ keyboard, so CTRL and Z is far-far from each others. Now it is difficult to press these keys with one hand. So sbdy fits CTRL-Z, for others is a nightmare ;)
(I use ALT+backspace for undo, but it is just mine flavour)
Thanks, Aewyn.
Quoth Aewyn on or about 2004-08-01:
undo: this is on CTRL-Z, what is good. But, I use QWERTZ keyboard, so CTRL and Z is far-far from each others.
Oh, this reminds me!
From a recent conversation on another list:
Especially I miss the GTK1-style ability to rebind menu items
Editing of menu accelerators by pressing an accelerator over the menu item is disabled by default. To enable, it, add: gtk-can-change-accels = 1
to your ~/.gtkrc-2.0
This works for galeon, gnumeric and dia. It does not work for inkscape, xscreensaver-demo and gedit. Is this then a bug in these apps?
What needs to be done to make this (customizable bindings) work for Inkscape? Or does it already work and I am being thick?
-trent
What needs to be done to make this (customizable bindings) work for Inkscape?
Inkscape keys are a complex system. Far from all of them are in the menus. For those that are in the menus, I guess we need to use some GTK datatype that links keys to actions for the menu key reassignments to work. Instead we use our own datatype (global verbs).
The issue of making keys configurable has been discussed before. See here:
The issue of making keys configurable has been discussed before. See here:
'Right, I picked the source and modified myself. It's OK now :)
Thanks!
Cool. But maybe you and Trent ought to put your heads together and see about adding the capability for personal shortcuts; I bet a *lot* of people could get use out of that, and plus, then you won't have to redo your own bindings each time you upgrade Inkscape. ;-)
Bryce
On Sun, 1 Aug 2004, Aewyn wrote:
The issue of making keys configurable has been discussed before. See here:
'Right, I picked the source and modified myself. It's OK now :)
Thanks!
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participants (5)
-
Aewyn -
Bryce Harrington -
bulia byak -
Richard A. -
Trent Buck