Hello,
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 5:27 AM, Daniel Eddeland <d.skalle@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Google Summer of Code Project: Improve the text-tool in GIMP
>
> By Daniel Eddeland (Skalle)
>
> In Gimp 2.4 and earlier versions, the text tool uses an external
> editor window, which is inconvenient in several ways. The aim of my
> project was to support on-canvas text editing, so that the user would
> be able to act directly on the image, instead of using a separate
> window. The code has been placed in a special SVN branch, called
> "soc-2008-text", which anybody who has SVN access can download and
> build.
>
> What have I done?
>
> *The first thing I did was to port the text-core in gimp to use
> PangoCairo functions instead of Freetype2. This port will be helpful
> for some work in the future which will make the text-tool faster.
> *After porting I started working on "on-canvas text editing". That
> means you'll be able to type, delete, copy and paste text on-canvas
> instead of using the text-dialog. I have added settings to tools to
> give them the ability to grab the keyboard input (which is obviously
> needed if you want to type).
> With these settings the tool can block
> the input from the rest of the interface, so that typing a "P" will
> add a "P" to the current text object instead of switching to GIMP's
> pencil tool. Input is possible typing normally on a regular keyboard,
I am really impressed with that...
> but also using alternate input methods like SCIM.
> *I have added a text-cursor, mouse-actions and graphical feedback for
> text-selections, so the text-tool would feel as ergonomic as possible
> like other text applications.
> *I have added a context-sensitive menu which appears when you
> right-click on the text-area. It has options such as copy/cut/paste
> and changing input methods.
And this.
GIMP really needs more time put into UI infrastructure such as this.
The UI team seem to think variation in right-click menu is confusing,
but IMO several tools would benefit from it (for example, when you're
painting fullscreen, you might want to change the FG color without
needing to exit fullscreen to use one of the dockables.) and we do not
have any alternatives currently -- some of the HUD-style propositions
on gimp-brainstorm.blogspot.com look good, but will require much more
extensive use of Cairo by GIMP than there currently is.
"Skalle"? Are you the same "Skalle" that I ('neota') once did a CPC
pixel art collab/exchange with ?
(ie. same person as
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?PHPSESSID=7ab74a703bfc3ae3032d9d6d3f16e69f&topic=514.msg6714#msg6714?)
David
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