-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Willie Sippel
To: gimp-developer@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: Gimp interface streamlining Date: 01 Sep 2003 20:09:23 +0200

Hi there.

First post, so please go easy on me ;-).

Also Gimp always gets better and more powerful, the interface still needs a lot of work. It almost looks like yet another Photoshop clone - and even if Photoshop is some sort of de facto standard, it's interface is pretty clumsy and inefficient.
So I thought about some interface improvements for Gimp, to make it look more distinguished, remove much of the clutter and unnecessary redundancy and improve the workflow:

Gimp interface improvements: ============================

1.) Remove unnecessary buttons from the main toolbox to reduce clutter: Smudge, Dodge or Burn, Blur or Sharpen, Erase, Zoom, Color Picker;

2.) Remove buttons from the main menu and add the corresponding functions to a mode selector in the Tool Options:

new toolbox icon | includes function ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Transform | - Move layers & selections | - Crop or Resize
| - Rotate Layer or selection
| - Scale layer or selection
| - Shear layer or selection
| - Change perspective
| - Flip layer or selection
| - Corner pin (*)
|
Select | - Rectangular selection
| - Elliptical selection
| - Select shapes from image
| - Select hand-drawn
| - Select contiguous regions
| - Select regions by color
|
Fill | - Fill with a color or pattern | - Fill with a color gradient

(*) This tool would be a great addition, and could even replace most other transform tools.
'Corner pin' is a standard tool in compositing software, it uses the current layer as a plane with four freely movable corners, and skews, rotates and scales the layer according to those corners.

4.) The old eraser should be replaced with an 'Erase' - mode for the paint tools (Brush, Pen, Airbrush, Ink, Text, Fill), to be able to use e.g. the Airbrush as Eraser, this would make the interface less cluttered and also improves the flexibility. Same goes for the 'Smudge', 'Blur', 'Paint using Patterns' 'Sharpen' tools;

5.) The Color Picker should become available when you click the foreground or background color in the main toolbar, and should set the respective color (set foreground when you clicked the foreground color);

6.) Add 'Alpha' to the Color Picker;

7.) Assign hotkeys for the most used modes of the paint tools (e.g.: = Paint, = Erase, = Behind...);

8.) Remove the giant FG/ BG preview at the bottom of the 'Colors' window to make the interface more compact;

9.) The remaining buttons on the main toolbox should be reordered: Brush | Pen | Airbrush | Ink | Text | Fill | Select | Transform | Create paths | Measure tools

10.) Add an 'Erase' - mode to the layer modes. If you use this mode, the layer becomes invisible and 'erases' (hides) only the layer behind according to the alpha channel of the 'Erase' layer. The 'Erase' layer should still be editable until you merge it down;

11.) Add an 'Undo' - mode to the paint tools, to allow the user to blend to the previous step using regular tools, e.g. you apply a filter like 'Solarize' and remove the effect from some parts of the image using the airbrush. Should also allow to undo paint ops, because it's not very confident to undo the whole last line if you traced a large image and there is one minor glitch for example. The undo state for paint ops should be set whenever the user changes the tool, tool setting or color. This mode doesn't have to be accessible using the 'Mode' dropdown in the tool settings, but it has to be available holding down a hotkey like spacebar or tab, and should revert to the previous mode on release;

12.) Add an image view mode, e.g. at the bottom of the image window, to switch between 'Show RGB', 'Show red channel', 'Show green channel', 'Show blue channel', 'Show alpha channel';

13.) Remove the pressure mapping options from the tool settings and add it to the 'Tool state' window, to remove unnecessary options for users without a tablet;

14.) Add a pressure curve to the tool settings, to edit the pressure and suppress values on the fly;

15.) Remove the brush and pattern preview from the main toolbox, because it clutters the toolbox - it's redundant, anyway, because there is allready a preview in the tool settings window. It might be even better to also remove the pattern preview from the tool settings and show the selected pattern on the color preview of the main toolbox;

16.) The color preview on the main toolbox should be redesigned:

___________________ __________ | FG | | BG |
------------------- ---------- ____________________________________ | Gradient | ------------------------------------

Some other small suggestions, as well as many of the described suggestions are on the mock-up,
http://www.zeitgeistmedia.net/gimp/gimpstreamline.png

Suggestions and comments are very welcome and appreciated.

Hi.

On Wed, 2003-09-03 at 12:23, Sven Neumann wrote:

Hi,

Willie Sippel writes:

2.) Remove buttons from the main menu and add the corresponding functions to a mode selector in the Tool Options:

While I see how this would save some screen estate and reduce clutter in the toolbox, I think that it would be very cumbersome to have to click in two different places to select a tool. I'd like to see tool-groups, as you suggest them, to be integrated into the toolbox, not split between toolbox and tool-options dialog.

Check my new mockup, I've changed this. It's available at http://www.zeitgeistmedia.net/gimp/gimpstreamline2.png . You're right on this one, I would suggest to split the toolbox, upper segment containing logical groups, e.g. paint tools, and on click, the lower segment contains the corresponding tools, like brush, pen, airbrush, ink and text. This would reduce mouse movement, as you suggested, while still making it easier to find the tool you need.

6.) Add 'Alpha' to the Color Picker;

See also http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121331.

Sorry, I didn't mean the color picker, but the color dialog. But I thought about this, and this is not really necessary. I removed this from the new mockup.

13.) Remove the pressure mapping options from the tool settings and add it to the 'Tool state' window, to remove unnecessary options for users without a tablet;

There are a few things you can do with the pressure options even if you don't have a tablet. These are considered hacks however and I agree that we should consider to move these settings elsewhere or at least hide them when no special input devices are available.

14.) Add a pressure curve to the tool settings, to edit the pressure and suppress values on the fly;

This has been suggested before, there should be a bug-report for it.

15.) Remove the brush and pattern preview from the main toolbox, because it clutters the toolbox - it's redundant, anyway, because there is allready a preview in the tool settings window. It might be even better to also remove the pattern preview from the tool settings and show the selected pattern on the color preview of the main toolbox;

The brush, pattern and gradient previews in the toolbox are redundant and are scheduled for removal already. It's just a matter of doing it.

Very good. What about the mini - palette from my new mockup?

Sven

On Thu, 2003-09-04 at 14:44, Sven Neumann wrote:

Hi,

Willie Sippel writes:

Check my new mockup, I've changed this. It's available at http://www.zeitgeistmedia.net/gimp/gimpstreamline2.png . You're right on this one, I would suggest to split the toolbox, upper segment containing logical groups, e.g. paint tools, and on click, the lower segment contains the corresponding tools, like brush, pen, airbrush, ink and text. This would reduce mouse movement, as you suggested, while still making it easier to find the tool you need.

I like this idea. Perhaps if the GUI could better indicate the relationship between the selected tool-group and the list of tools below, people would actually have a chance to understand this concept without the need to explain it to them.

That's right, but I don't know how this would be possible with GTK - I tried to use only features I already know from GTK applications (granted, the 'slidebox' is not a GTK widget). My current design is pretty self-explanatory I think, and already more intuitive than the Adobe 'click - hold - wait - look - move - release' way, but I would also like to make this even easier to use. Using tabs for the groups should be better to indicate the difference, I think?

Anyway, my mockup tries to handle the groups in the same way as the 'FG/ BG Color' dialog does now. Whatever solution, it should be consistent.

What I dislike about your mockup is the fact that you overload widgets with functionality using the three mouse-buttons. This hides important functionality and is thus unacceptable for a user interface that is supposed to be as intuitive as possible.

I see. Well, you are right about this, but these are supposed to be advanced functions, and they are pretty much redundant. If you click any widget with the left mouse button, they behave more or less like they do today - the button assignment for the toolbox's color preview could even be reversed, so that it brings up the change color dialog. But currently, MMB and RMB are not assigned, so those functions would be only additions to speed up the workflow for more professional users. If you re-add the 'Reverse Gradient' checkbox to the tool settings, the behaviour would remain almost completely as it is now - but believe me, all but the casual users will use this added functionality as soon as they are used to it. Maybe there could be some description like this for the tooltips (color preview, for example): LMB - Choose Color
MMB - Switch FG/ BG Color
RMB - Color Picker
One other example: The description left of the 'Mode' dropdown is not necessary, as the casual user doesn't know what the 'Mode' is all about anyway until they actually TRY it, and the professional user sees a dropdown, the selected option is 'Normal', so they KNOW that this is the 'Mode' selector - as any professional paint and retouche app has this dropdown.

These are supposed to be additions and improvement, not really changing the current behaviour at all. I use a tablet for all my work, and a pen with two additional buttons - but I know that there are pens from Wacom with no buttons, and I'm therefore aware of this problem and tried to keep the current functionality - as a backup, and for newbies.

Sven

Hi there.

On Sun, 2003-09-07 at 13:24, Sven Neumann wrote:

Hi,

"Adam D. Moss" writes:

Willie Sippel wrote:

Check my new mockup, I've changed this. It's available at http://www.zeitgeistmedia.net/gimp/gimpstreamline2.png .

I rather like the way this is going.

Well, surely the screenshot looks nice. The question is if this is a useable interface that is both intuitive to newbies as well as productive for experts. The mockup brings up a couple of good points. However none of them are really new. A lot of this is implemented in the 1.3 series, some points are scheduled for implementation, some were dropped.

I just want to point out that it doesn't make any sense to say yes or no to the mockup. It just raises a couple of ideas that need to be discussed (and eventually coded).

These suggestions were never about reinventing the wheel, and most of these 'enhancements' were inspired by some other, professional applications - so I think most of them are indeed productive. On the other hand, I don't know about the newbies. But the problem is - as I see it right now - , that the Gimp is too 'intuitive' for professionals, and too 'productive' for newbies.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the Gimp, and especially the way it's going, e.g. gegl. I really admire the work that is done, and I care for this project - that's why I wanted to give something back. My mockups and suggestions are intended as a base for discussing those aforementioned issues.

The basic question is: For what kind of users is/ was Gimp designed? Judging by the very advanced technical possibilities and the current roadmap, I would think the project is aimed at professional users...

I would like this thread to become a pool for suggestions, collecting ideas to improve the usability of the Gimp, and discuss those changes with the developers.

So, if someone replies to this thread, explain what suggestions you like (or dislike) and why, and add your own ideas and concerns.

Thank you.

Sven
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