On Tue, 16 May 2000, Jens Lautenbacher <jtl@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > quinet@xxxxxxxxxx (Raphael Quinet) writes: > > I still haven't found a good reason to keep the background layer > > "special" when the image contains multiple layers. If the only > > reasons are historical or to copy the features of some well-known > > commercial program, then we could have this as an option in the > > gimprc (but IMHO the default should be to promote the background > > layer automatically). > > One reason is the same as you gave for the single layer case: clearing > means filling with a choosen background layer. > > So having a stack of layers with a dedicated background layer in a > dedicated color makes sense, as clearing on the upper layers will > clear to alpha, while it will clear to the background color on the > background layer No, this is precisely what I consider to be counter-intuitive. IMHO, "clear with bg color" only makes sense if you do not understand or are not interested in the concepts of layers and transparency. So this can be good if you are mostly working with "flat" image formats. But if you start working with layers and transparency, then I would prefer to have a consistent behaviour for "clear": it should always make the selected area transparent, in all layers. If you really want "Edit->Clear" to reveal some color when you use it in the background layer of a multi-layered image, you always have the opportunity to add another layer below the one that was your background. This is probably easier to understand than having some special properties on one layer. (Anyway, in that case I would prefer to simply use "Edit->Fill with BG" or to drag the background color into the selection.) On Tue, 16 May 2000, Alan <a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > May I make a humble suggestion. > Change File->New to allow users to select a Fill Type of either > > Background w/o alpha > Background w/ alpha > > Then users can select what they want to begin with. Flatten and Add Alpha > Channel can still exist as is in the Layers menu. No automatic > behind-the-scenes switching need be done. Power users have full control and > newbies can simply select Background w/ alpha if they wish. This would not solve the most common problem which is: load an existing JPEG image, add a layer to it, then be confused because you cannot lower this layer below the background layer or because "Edit->Clear" and the Eraser tool behave differently on the two layers. Note that I definitely do not want to remove the "Flatten Image" option because it is very useful: as Carey Bunks said in a previous message, the user must be able to choose when and how an image is flattened before saving it. -Raphael
