On 1 Sep 2003, Willie Sippel wrote: > Date: 01 Sep 2003 20:09:23 +0200 > From: Willie Sippel <willie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: gimp-developer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [Gimp-developer] Gimp interface streamlining > > Hi there. > > First post, so please go easy on me ;-). > > Also Gimp always gets better and more powerful, the interface still > needs a lot of work. It almost looks like yet another Photoshop clone - I really dont think GIMP looks at all like Photoshop although ... > and even if Photoshop is some sort of de facto standard, it's interface > is pretty clumsy and inefficient. ... I agree Photoshop is far from perfect either. > 1.) Remove unnecessary buttons from the main toolbox to reduce clutter: > Smudge, Dodge or Burn, Blur or Sharpen, Erase, Zoom, Color Picker; I also would love for the toolbox to be customizable http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105764 but comletely removing the buttons as you suggest without anyway to add them back will likely displease many different people depending on which features they happen to use, personally I would miss the Zoom button. It might also be worth considering better to do like Photoshop and Sodipodi and have button submenus, that when you click and hold you get more of the related items. Screenshot of Adobe Photoshop toolbox submenu http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~horkana/dev/gnome/gimp/screenshots/photoshop/AdobePhotoshop-clicknhold.png shorter link to Photoshop screenshot http://tardis.linux.ie/1653/matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie > 5.) The Color Picker should become available when you click the > foreground or background color in the main toolbar, and should set the > respective color (set foreground when you clicked the foreground color); This is already the case in GIMP 1.2, just double click on it. > 6.) Add 'Alpha' to the Color Picker; Consider carefully if the more user friendly term "Transparency" should be used. > 8.) Remove the giant FG/ BG preview at the bottom of the 'Colors' > window to make the interface more compact; There is an option to hide the brush+pattern preview, an additional option to hide the colours widget might be an acceptable idea (but there is always the matter of getting some one to write the needed code). > 9.) The remaining buttons on the main toolbox should be reordered: > Brush | Pen | Airbrush | Ink | Text | Fill | Select | Transform | Create > paths | Measure tools care to explain your reasoning for this reordering? > 15.) Remove the brush and pattern preview from the main toolbox, because > it clutters the toolbox - it's redundant, anyway, because there is > allready a preview in the tool settings window. It might be even better > to also remove the pattern preview from the tool settings and show the > selected pattern on the color preview of the main toolbox; There is already a preference to remove it. Toolbox, File, Preferences... Interface, [] Display Brush, Pattern and Gradient Indicators. > 16.) The color preview on the main toolbox should be redesigned: some paint programs have differnt designs, some even allow you to choose which design you like best but I dont understand what is wrong with the current design, please explain why your suggestion is better. > Some other small suggestions, as well as many of the described > suggestions are on the mock-up, > http://www.zeitgeistmedia.net/gimp/gimpstreamline.png > > > Suggestions and comments are very welcome and appreciated. It is great that you took the time to thnk about how to improve the GIMP but keep in mind that you suggested a whole lot of changes that could take a long time to get done iff there is a developer interested in making the changes you suggest. Sincerely Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
