> I.2. Two-faced sliders, usabilityI agree that the current slider behavior is rather strange and, even after you realize and get used to how it works, it's very difficult to make fine adjustments to brush size, small brush sizes very especially. Here's my two Abe Lincolns for the pot: 1 - If you click within a few pixels of the slider's current setting, this ALWAYS means fine-grain tuning relative to the current value (matches current behavior on lower half of slider). 2 - Click anywhere else within the slider range always results in coarse tuning across the slider's whole range. (matches current behavior on upper half of slider). (This behavior logic is very comparable to a standard scroll bar, where clicking on the position nub yields fine adjustments while clicking on the margin yields coarse adjustments.) Also, "fine grain" should be defined as a percentage of the current brush size. Currently it is not, which makes it impossible to make very fine adjustments to very small brush sizes. Say 1% of the current value ("current" defined as "prior to drag operation start", not the actual "current" value) per pixel moved; e.g. a 50-pixel drag translates to a 50% increase or decrease. Brush size 1 = increments of 0.01 . Brush size 50 = increments of 0.5 . After all, 0.01 increments for a brush that is a few hundred pixels wide won't even make a visible difference, but vice versa, 5/10 increments for a brush that is only 1-2 pixels wide is NOT "fine grain" control. In the meantime, at least the spinbutton part of the slider works. > II.1. Brush dynamics, usability and friendliness > > I have no idea why, all of the brush dynamics in Gimp 2.8 cannot be > changed. I need to create a custom dynamics and use it whenever I need to > change the dynamics parameters... Wait a minute: so you're now telling us > *all* we need to do is clone a dynamics "preset" and edit that? And we > just need to delete it when done? Why not reboot the computer twice while > we're at inventing oddities? I also mentioned this issue in a previous discussion. With GIMP 2.8 making brush dynamics into their own "resource", you lose the ability to make impromptu edits to mapping matrix or pressure curves and more often than not this is a Bad Thing for the end user. Although it really is more of a design flaw than a "bug", IMHO this is NOT something we should have to wait for 2.10 to see addressed - 2.10 may be another 3-5 years in the future and some users will not be able to endure the current behavior until then ('Mayan apocalypse' permitting). I would love to see a quick hack on the matter included in some 2.8.x patch, and much better sooner than later. (Like a certain meat sauce: "yes, it's that important.") I also use Alexia's current workaround. I have one -- just ONE -- custom brush dynamics (named "Adjustable"), exclusively for the purpose of being able to make impromptu, seat-of-your-pants changes to the mapping matrix or pressure curves. And if I want to make copies, I can duplicate that. In fact, I think I'm going to go remove the default dynamics folder from my GIMP preferences right now. I never used them anyway ... I really do have almost zero need to map pen pressure to tool opacity. > My suggestion: make *all* of those dynamics preset editable! Just like > Gimp 2.6. And I honestly don't give a damn whether they store my > modifications or forget them as soon as I quit Gimp. I just don't want to > battle each time I need to get around a new feature that's been placed in > my way! One of the alternatives I suggested in the previous discussion was exactly this. In detail: 1 - Do not lock controls on the Dynamics editor. 2 - EVER. 3 - Add a button to revert the current dynamics back to their saved values on disk. 4 - If you try to save dynamics to a readonly preset, GIMP instead duplicates it and saves that instead. The readonly file (as required) remains unchanged. > III.1. Tablet-specifics, Pen/Eraser consistency > > First thing I noticed in 2.8 is that I now need to select the eraser tool > when I flip my pen to use the eraser. I didn't have to do that in 2.6. This may be a WORKSFORME issue, because my GIMP 2.8 properly associates (in my case) Paintbrush with pen tip and Eraser with eraser tip, no extra clicks required. Provided GTK actually detects the tablet (see bug #549839) during GIMP startup ... if GIMP doesn't actually detect the tablet, then it won't know that there actually are pen and eraser tips available. Check your "Device Status" tab and if it only lists "Core Pointer", that is your problem (try restarting GIMP). > Tablets tend to slip a micron during clicks and that registers to GTKIsn't GTK's minimum drag distance configurable? I seem to observe it taking about 5-6 pixels for GTK to initiate a drag operation, and the maximum "slip" I tend to experience when clicking via pen is well within that threshold. -- Stratadrake strata_ranger hotmail com -------------------- Numbers may not lie, but neither do they tell the whole truth. |