Re: [Gimp-developer] Create New Layer Button

[Gez <listas ohweb com ar>]

El dom, 29-03-2015 a las 11:53 -0400, Elle Stone escribió:

> What you just described - shift-click the new layer button plus dragging 
> the foreground/background color - works perfectly, MUCH better than 
> using the new layer dialog. Thanks! Many thanks!! By comparision, using 
> the new layer dialog really is cumbersome.


Dragging bg/fg colors to the editing area is definitely a handy option
in GIMP, and it also has predefined keystrokes (ctrl+. and ctrl+,).
iirc the keystrokes are the same that PS uses.
If clicking just created a transparent layer, it would be much faster
and less disrupting to fill the new layer afterwards when it's required.
The only situation that would require an extra click is filling with
white if other BG/FG colors are set, but it's just one click away.


> Where's the documentation for these two shortcuts? I did a quick 
> internet search and didn't find any tutorials or documentation regarding 
> "shift-click" plus "drag the color".

GIMP official docs:

http://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/gimp-tools.html#gimp-toolbox-areas

The shift-click on the new layer button is not documented though, it's
only available as a tooltip

http://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/gimp-dialogs-structure.html#gimp-layer-dialog


The docs also say that "A good way to visualize a GIMP image is as a
stack of transparencies: in GIMP terminology, each individual
transparency is called a layer."

http://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/gimp-image-combining.html#gimp-concepts-layers

I think that makes a reasonable case for a default using transparency
and putting the extra options in a second level.
As I said earlier, Tobias' proposal allows that keeping discoverability
and reducing workflow interruptions.

Regarding your question about hard evidence that backs my claim about
most of the people expecting layers to be transparent, I don't have it
and I don't think a public poll is the best way to get that.
I'm a graphic designer like C R, and my workflow is similar. I'm not a
photographer, but cutting out and touching up photos is part of my
regular work. I use GIMP "professionally" (which means it is one of the
tools I use to do work that pays my bills) so I think I am a "target"
user.
You can interview other "target" users of GIMP and get better results
that what you'd get from a poll, and that's exactly what Peter Sikking
and his team did a couple of years ago when they interviewed a group of
users for input on their usage patterns.

If you put a poll in a public website you will receive answers from
everyone, not just from the target users. That will result in useless
data. Imagine that you get 20 replies from people who hardly uses GIMP
and are just hobbists who need to remove red eyes from point and shoot
photos and 2 replies from serious photographers with high-end
requirements. I wouldn't like that decisions on usability are done that
way.

For the same reason some automated statistics won't necessarily throw
what target users prefer or need.

Gez.