Re: [Gimp-developer] Overlay Mode - fix.

["Guillermo Espertino (Gez)" <gespertino gmail com>]

El 14/11/12 23:18, Ofnuts escribió:
> Use legacy mode when the image is iprocessed in 8-bit? (which could be 
> on e of the technical reasons for the non-linear  blending anyway)

That's interesting, and iirc it was one of the first proposals.
The problem with that, in my opinion, is how to communicate to the user 
the difference and what bitdepth to use as default.
If a default session of GIMP starts in 8 bpc int... Should the blending 
behave as the old GIMP? I don't think so.
But perhaps the solution is indeed a new mode there, among the other bit 
depth modes.

What about a new mode, a "legacy/web mode" which is 8 bpc int, with 
nonlinear blending but it's NOT the default bitdepth?
The rest of the modes should be linear to ensure the best quality, and 
probably the current 8bpc mode should be replaced by a 16bit int mode 
with a conversion to 8bpc in the end (to make sure all the color 
operations, blendings and filters provide good quality results, even in 
8bpc).

I'm not sure about the technical viability of this proposal, but from a 
user point of view the impact in the UI would be minimum (just an extra 
mode in the precision menu).
The legacy files would open using that mode, and in that mode the 
blending should be done in non-linear space, and the layers UI would 
show the same modes, but they will work as in legacy. If the overlay 
mode uses the new formula, the imported legacy files could get the 
overlays converted to soft-light.
The same mode would work for web design.

If that's possible from the technical side it sounds like a pretty 
elegant way to address these needs, and meanwhile it would keep the rest 
of GIMP working at the best quality for the creative work.

Gez.