Re: [Gimp-user] gimp users matter

[Akkana Peck <akkana shallowsky com>]

> This is such a common task, there may be cause to have a Resize
> option bundled with the Export command.  Having to always perform
> them as two separate steps is an annoyance, but the possibility of
> accidentally saving the wrong resolution back to the XCF file is a
> danger.

First, I'm so glad to see we finally understand what Helen meant
in this thread!

And yes, I've had this issue too, where I want to work on a
large-size original, save that as XCF, but expert to a different
size for the web. I'm forever afraid that when I scale and export,
I'll forget to undo the scale afterward and accidentally overwrite
the scaled-down XCF. (That's not a new issue with 2.8.)

But that got me thinking about a better workflow for this.

Have you ever worked on an image and made a new view zoomed way out
so you could guess what the image would look like when reduced to a
thumbnail size?

Imagine this: you have your original image open, which you've been
saving to filename.xcf.gz. You create a second view, except unlike
existing views, it can have operations and its own export filename
tied to it. Create the view and scale it to 640x480, and export to
filename-640.jpg. Back in the original window, if you export it
still goes to filename.jpg (or whatever you exported to previously).
Now make a change to the original; the second view automatically
mirrors the change (just like the views we have now) but also
applies the Scale operation and any other operations that have been
done in that window. You could even create a third view where you
scale to 64x48 and export to filename-thumb.jpg, and all three would
update when you changed the original. Or a view that converts to
indexed mode, or inverts the colors, or even adds a text or
annotation layer.

I'm not sure if this workflow fits into the GIMP product vision or
not.  But if the GIMP team liked the idea, it might not be too hard
to implement alongside the non-destructive op changes that have
often been discussed.

        ...Akkana