Re: [Gimp-gui] Possible places to save vertical space in Single (and Multiple) Window Mode

[Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre prokoudine gmail com>]

On Sat, Dec 30, 2017 at 7:09 PM, Elle Stone wrote:

I'll snip some bits I have no answer for, if you don't mind.

> > Or you can add (toolbox-wilber no) to gimprc.
>
> Thanks! I didn't realize this. Works like a charm. What is that "by default"
> empty space above the tool icons for?

Not really sure. Just some negative space between logo and tools that
doesn't go away when you disable logo?

> > The space looks wasted, because you created such a wide group of
> > dockable dialogs :)
>
>
> I don't know what you mean by "such a wide group". I use all the dialogs. In
> fact several dialogs that I normally have in the toolbox are missing because
> switching from multiple to single window mode completely messed up the way I
> had the toolbox set up.

I'd have to try to replicate this layout to see if that's the only way
you can see all of UI.

> > At 16x16, the FG/BG widget will most likely be not very usable. While
> > tools can be switched via shortcuts, the widget is a mouse pointer /
> > tablet stylus target.
>
>
> Well, the Krita FG/BG widget is considerably smaller than the GIMP FG/BG
> widget, and still is useable. But it's bigger than 16x16.

Yep :)

> I was referring to the padding around the text in the middle of the sliders,
> which contributes to the total height of the sliders themselves. I wasn't
> referring to the "padding space" between the individual sliders - my
> apologies for the confusion!

Ah, that explains it! :) No worries :)

> > Either way, there recently was a discussion to introduce filenames for
> > tab captions as an alternative to previews. I hope that's going to
> > happen. And yes, I agree that smaller previews could be introduced
> > too.
>
> I saw some of the discussion of file names instead of icons, and wondered
> how this would work with really long file names - truncated to a maximum
> number of characters, depending on the available width and the number of
> open images?

One feature of GTK+ we don't use nearly enough is ellipsis. Dockable
dialogs like Layers and Images History could do with that feature,
because any long layer name or file name generates this stupid
annoying horizontal scrollbar. Instead, anything that won't fit would
have '...' at the end and a tooltip with the full name. Which means
you don't have to scroll a thing, just hover your mouse. The same
could be used for tab captions. I actually tried patching the code for
the Layers dialog, but failed big time by being not clever (or
persistent) enough.

> > Frankly, I'm surprised that you keep scrollbars in the image window
> > around. They account for a lot more screen space than 7. Unless you an
> > me understand padding differently, of course.
>
>
> Well, it depends on what I'm doing.
>
> Right now I'm teaching myself how to paint/draw not from a photograph but
> from an actual item out there in the real world. So for example with the
> screenshot posted above, I'm drawing and shading a wooden salt shaker (it's
> not done yet). Originally I had the ruler, grid, and guidelines set to "so
> many pixels per inch". This was very helpful when making "air measurements"
> using an actual ruler to determine the heights and widths of the various
> parts of the salt shaker.

Wait, but I was referring to scrollbars, not rulers :)

> > Moreover, you could shave just a little more pixels by switching to
> > text captions instead of icon captions for dockable dialogs.
>
>
> Except that with as many dockable dialogs as I keep open, there would be no
> way to read the text, and also at some point the GIMP interface wisely
> switches to using the icons even if you ask for the text. Text that's not
> readable is useless.

You can force it to always use text :)

> Also I want the tool options dialog to show all of the paint tool options
> without having to use the scroll bar. Scrolling up and down is just plain
> time-consuming and requires extra clicks. Keeping the tool options dialog
> "scroll-bar free" is actually the overriding reason for the way I've
> arranged the entire toolbox.

Personally, I'm still in the
why-doesn't-gimp-use-top-toolbar-for-settings-like-inkscape-does camp
:)

Alex