I was going to post a feature request, but it seemed to similar to bug #1507665
(http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1507665&gro...)
So I thought I would post here first, rather than get myself deleted.
I would really like to see some better control over gradient creation in Inkscape. Currently it is possible to make cool gradients, but the dialog is cumbersome, and anti-intuitive. I would love to see colored sliders, as in the attached screenshot from Photoshop's gradient editor so that I can micro-manage every aspect of how my gradients look visually, with instant feedback.
Right now it is difficult to get the offsets right, and if you are working with a gradient with a lot of similar colors (say, trying to simulate some shiny metal), it is difficult to select the correct stop (for me anyway).
I was very confused by buliabyak's comment that the "'gradient dialog box' is no longer needed," since we would now be able to "edit [it] all on [the] canvas".
In Inkscape 0.45.1 I can edit the end points of a gradient on the canvas, which is a neat trick, but I don't see how you would edit any of the stops in between those without the dialog. If this kind of functionality is in the roadmap, I will humbly step back, for I am no coder (in C#/GTK anyway) just a lowly web designer.
Axiom X11 wrote:
--SNIP--
I was very confused by buliabyak's comment that the "'gradient dialog box' is no longer needed," since we would now be able to "edit [it] all on [the] canvas".
In Inkscape 0.45.1 I can edit the end points of a gradient on the canvas, which is a neat trick, but I don't see how you would edit any of the stops in between those without the dialog. If this kind of functionality is in the roadmap, I will humbly step back, for I am no coder (in C#/GTK anyway) just a lowly web designer.
In the current SVN copy (which will eventually be 0.46), we have editing of the gradient mid-stops on canvas in addition to the end stops which 0.45 has. It's much more intuitive than Photoshop's implementation since you are doing it all right there directly on the object.
The gradient edition dialog is literally no longer needed (well, 95% not needed at this point, but by the time 0.46 hits it will be completely obsolete).
If you don't mind potential bugginess, grab a nightly build from: http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?C=M;O=D
You will want the topmost file, which will require 7-zip to decompress it. Also, you need to NOT overwrite your stable copy.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
-Josh
Joshua A. Andler escribió:
In the current SVN copy (which will eventually be 0.46), we have editing of the gradient mid-stops on canvas in addition to the end stops which 0.45 has. It's much more intuitive than Photoshop's implementation since you are doing it all right there directly on the object.
The gradient edition dialog is literally no longer needed (well, 95% not needed at this point, but by the time 0.46 hits it will be completely obsolete).
If you don't mind potential bugginess, grab a nightly build from: http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?C=M;O=D
You will want the topmost file, which will require 7-zip to decompress it. Also, you need to NOT overwrite your stable copy.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
-Josh
One question about this, if the gradients will be editable directly through the stops on the object, how will you pick the color for each stop and define each stop? I assume for that purpose the dialog will still be needed and then you're able to further edit? It may seem redundant, but at the same time effective. Actually I've grown used to the current gradient dialog, and maybe I'm having a hard time imagining how would the gradients be controlled without the dialog.
On 3/29/07, Gian Paolo Mureddu <thetargos@...155...> wrote:
One question about this, if the gradients will be editable directly through the stops on the object, how will you pick the color for each stop and define each stop? I assume for that purpose the dialog will still be needed and then you're able to further edit?
No. Any gradient stop behaves just like an object: select it and assign any color to it (from palette, or by Paste Style, or fill&stroke, etc). You don't need a dialog for styling gradient stops specifically.
bulia byak escribió:
On 3/29/07, Gian Paolo Mureddu <thetargos@...155...> wrote:
One question about this, if the gradients will be editable directly through the stops on the object, how will you pick the color for each stop and define each stop? I assume for that purpose the dialog will still be needed and then you're able to further edit?
No. Any gradient stop behaves just like an object: select it and assign any color to it (from palette, or by Paste Style, or fill&stroke, etc). You don't need a dialog for styling gradient stops specifically.
Ohh, that sounds rather intestesting... And how do you add more stops, like adding a node in a path? (this is actually very interesting!)
Gian Paolo Mureddu wrote:
bulia byak escribió:
On 3/29/07, Gian Paolo Mureddu <thetargos@...155...> wrote:
One question about this, if the gradients will be editable directly through the stops on the object, how will you pick the color for each stop and define each stop? I assume for that purpose the dialog will still be needed and then you're able to further edit?
No. Any gradient stop behaves just like an object: select it and assign any color to it (from palette, or by Paste Style, or fill&stroke, etc). You don't need a dialog for styling gradient stops specifically.
Ohh, that sounds rather intestesting... And how do you add more stops, like adding a node in a path? (this is actually very interesting!)
You can either double click on the gradient line where you would like the new stop or Ctrl+Alt+Click to add one on the gradient line.
-Josh
bulia byak <buliabyak@...125...> writes:
On 3/29/07, Gian Paolo Mureddu <thetargos@...125...> wrote:
One question about this, if the gradients will be editable directly through the stops on the object, how will you pick the color for each stop and define each stop? I assume for that purpose the dialog will still be needed and then you're able to further edit?
No. Any gradient stop behaves just like an object: select it and assign any color to it (from palette, or by Paste Style, or fill&stroke, etc). You don't need a dialog for styling gradient stops specifically.
Wait - how *Do* you assign a precise color to a single stop through the fill&stroke dialog? Will you incorporate the color sliders back into the gradient section of the F&S dialog?
Michael Grosberg wrote:
bulia byak <buliabyak@...125...> writes:
On 3/29/07, Gian Paolo Mureddu <thetargos@...125...> wrote:
One question about this, if the gradients will be editable directly through the stops on the object, how will you pick the color for each stop and define each stop? I assume for that purpose the dialog will still be needed and then you're able to further edit?
No. Any gradient stop behaves just like an object: select it and assign any color to it (from palette, or by Paste Style, or fill&stroke, etc). You don't need a dialog for styling gradient stops specifically.
Wait - how *Do* you assign a precise color to a single stop through the fill&stroke dialog? Will you incorporate the color sliders back into the gradient section of the F&S dialog?
An easy way is to double click the stop you want to change the color of (which pulls up the dialog for you) and then change it. :)
-Josh
On 3/29/07, Michael Grosberg <preacher_public@...9...> wrote:
Wait - how *Do* you assign a precise color to a single stop through the fill&stroke dialog?
Simple. When you have a stop selected, the dialog does not show you a gradient. It just shows a single color of that stop, as if a solid color of an object. Try it :)
Will you incorporate the color sliders back into the gradient section of the F&S dialog?
No.
On Mar 29, 2007, at 9:51 AM, Joshua A. Andler wrote:
The gradient edition dialog is literally no longer needed (well, 95% not needed at this point, but by the time 0.46 hits it will be completely obsolete).
I personally don't think it will be obsolete. We probably want to keep that as an option, though I would expect most people to find the on-canvas editing more often preferred.
I think the dialog will need to be improved later on.
Wow. I tried the latest nightly, and I am blown away. I like it, and you may be right about not needing the dialog anymore. (Although I think people are still going to want some kind of gradient organizer)
Moving the stops on the canvas is very natural, arguably more usable than even the Photoshop implementation.
Keep it up guys, y'all rock!
Nice to hear you like it :) sorry I wasn't in time to get it into 0.45; but now at least it will be "bug-free" when it hits the road in 0.46. Please keep testing it and tell me when something bugs!
- Johan
Jon A. Cruz wrote:
On Mar 29, 2007, at 9:51 AM, Joshua A. Andler wrote:
The gradient edition dialog is literally no longer needed (well, 95% not needed at this point, but by the time 0.46 hits it will be completely obsolete).
I personally don't think it will be obsolete. We probably want to keep that as an option, though I would expect most people to find the on-canvas editing more often preferred.
If we move the "precision" spinbox to the gradient toolbar, how is the dialog not obsolete at that point? If you can do everything you could in the dialog and more on canvas, it sounds like the dialog would be deprecated.
-Josh
On Mar 29, 2007, at 11:31 AM, Joshua A. Andler wrote:
If we move the "precision" spinbox to the gradient toolbar, how is the dialog not obsolete at that point? If you can do everything you could in the dialog and more on canvas, it sounds like the dialog would be deprecated.
It's not obsolete in exactly the same way that adding a keyboard shortcut for some action does not make a menu item and tool button for the same action obsolete.
On 3/29/07, Jon A. Cruz <jon@...204...> wrote:
It's not obsolete in exactly the same way that adding a keyboard shortcut for some action does not make a menu item and tool button for the same action obsolete.
I can understand the desire to keep a button or shortcut for an action. But dialog is a whole different thing. Getting rid of another dialog is a huge win, if only because of the atrocious way GTK handles them. It will also consolidate our code, get rid of tons of ancient kludges, and close a boatload of bugs and RFEs as no longer relevant.
Come on - if no one improved the dialog thus far, chances that someone will work on it now, with much more convenient way of doing the same on canvas, are virtually zero.
Come on - if no one improved the dialog thus far, chances that someone will work on it now, with much more convenient way of doing the same on canvas, are virtually zero.
Viva the canvas! Ditch the dialogue! (It was the world's most horrible dialogue anyway - come on, you know I'm right :p)
:D /d
On Mar 29, 2007, at 12:02 PM, bulia byak wrote:
On 3/29/07, Jon A. Cruz <jon@...204...> wrote:
It's not obsolete in exactly the same way that adding a keyboard shortcut for some action does not make a menu item and tool button for the same action obsolete.
I can understand the desire to keep a button or shortcut for an action. But dialog is a whole different thing. Getting rid of another dialog is a huge win, if only because of the atrocious way GTK handles them. It will also consolidate our code, get rid of tons of ancient kludges, and close a boatload of bugs and RFEs as no longer relevant.
Come on - if no one improved the dialog thus far, chances that someone will work on it now, with much more convenient way of doing the same on canvas, are virtually zero.
I think, then, that I will be happy with killing it as long as we keep in mind that later one might add in a new panel to server the same function.
I probably won't touch it until I start using gradients more, so keeping the legacy code around would probably qualify as dead weight.
Also... if the old dialog goes away and there are people who work better with other than the new on-canvas control, we can get better feedback on the design needed to replace it.
On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:39:48 -0700, "Jon A. Cruz" <jon@...204...> wrote:
On Mar 29, 2007, at 11:31 AM, Joshua A. Andler wrote:
If we move the "precision" spinbox to the gradient toolbar, how is the dialog not obsolete at that point? If you can do everything you could in the dialog and more on canvas, it sounds like the dialog would be deprecated.
It's not obsolete in exactly the same way that adding a keyboard shortcut for some action does not make a menu item and tool button for the same action obsolete.
I rather strongly disagree in this case. If it's all doable via canvas and toolbar entry widgets, the dialog's just dead weight.
-mental
participants (9)
-
unknown＠example.com -
Axiom X11 -
bulia byak -
Donn -
Gian Paolo Mureddu -
Jon A. Cruz -
Joshua A. Andler -
MenTaLguY -
Michael Grosberg