Re: [Gimp-user] Enhancement request: Transparency as a "paintable" color

[Kasim Ahmic <kasim ahmic gmail com>]

You could always just use the Eraser tool. I'm pretty sure you can set how strong it is, the brush style, etc.

Sent from my iPod

On Jul 25, 2013, at 9:09 AM, Brendan Scott <disposableemail apps opensourcelaw biz> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I have lodged a request for GIMP to support use of transparency as a color.  By this I mean mainly that 
> when using a paint tool, painting with that tool paints only the chosen level of transparency.  The 
> enhancement request is here:
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=704775
>
> This email is to invite comments on the proposed enhancement.
>
> What?
> Ability to tap a palette region with the paintbrush and then "paint" with full transparency/erase.
>
> Why?
> This request occurred to me after watching online digital painting tutorials from a couple of different 
> sources.  In them, the artist chooses a particular color as their background (typically white) and, rather 
> than erasing their mistakes, simply switches to the background color and paints over with it.  I have seen 
> several comments on these videos (replicated across the sources) to the effect that this swapping to 
> background color rather than using the eraser is a neat trick - mainly because it simplifies the workflow.
>
> How would I use it?
> I recently worked on an ecorche
> http://brendanlearnstosee.deviantart.com/art/An-onion-skinnable-ecorche-dorsal-view-387530797
>
> To do this I basically had 9 tool presets
> - a solid brush, no dynamics in each of 3 sizes (small, medium, large)
> - the same brushes but with pressure->opacity dynamics; and
> - erasers in each of the three sizes (with no dynamics)
>
> I also had a small palette of colors.
>
> The tool preset tab separates the brushes from the erasers.  So each time I swap from paint to erase and 
> back again I spend a little time hunting, and breaking my concentration.
>
> I have a Wacom tablet and the pen had an eraser on the other end from the stylus.  If I spin the pen 
> around, it gives me an eraser with the right size and dynamics. However:
> - the palm rejection on the tablet often skips while the pen is being spun in my hand, so I can end up in a 
> changed window, screen or activity (I am on Linux); and
> - the GIMP's interface doesn't seem as responsive to the eraser as to the stylus.
>
> I was specifically creating an onion-skinnable picture, so there had to be multiple layers and each layer 
> had to have transparency so I couldn't simply use a background color. Any time that there are multiple 
> overlapping layers a transparency brush will be useful.
>
>
> Implementation
> I don't know how it would be implemented or whether transparent should be treated as a color internally.  
> The main point is that the workflow would be simplified if fully transparent were accessible through the 
> color selection interface.  If I could add fully transparent as a color to a custom palette, then I could 
> have my "eraser" and color selection in the same place. I know that conceptually it may be useful to draw a 
> distinction between an eraser and a paintbrush but, in practise erasure is equivalent to painting with 
> transparency.
>
> Also, having transparent as a color is more consistent as the background "color" for layers.
>
> I thinking only of a fully transparent brush, simply because that would be my use case. There would 
> probably also be a use case for partial levels of transparency (this is already sort of implemented through 
> eraser opacity).
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Brendan
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