GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 752923
transformation tools unable to pick a layer dynamically
Last modified: 2018-05-24 15:30:44 UTC
I think its pretty straight forwad if we users could click (with one of the transformation tools) on the layer we want to transform instead to pre-select it first or by using the move tool.
There is one problem there - for what you suggest, upon clicking on the image, the top-most layer with content where the click occurs should be the selected layer for transformation - that is, the exact default behavior of the Move Tool. The problem is exactly that this does not work well in UX terms - there are lots of complaints around the Web of people unable to move the layer they want, because by default the tool will pick another layer. (in a scenario like: 1) select layer with text content in small fonts; 2) select move tool; 3) click do start moving; 4) GIMP moves background layer due to click not being exactly over non transparent pixels on the text layer; 5) Eeeeeeeeeekk; 6 )Curse GIMP; 7)Ask in forum; 8) retry, with zoom, and clicking on exact pixels on the text layer 8) after some hours read response in forum with someone telling you to ctrl + click in step 3; 10) Eeeeeeek again. So, it would be better to have a better UX-wise spec for these, and fix the move-tool (and them, I agree, replicate to the transform tool), than trying to copy the broken behavior there.
i see, the problem is multifold. scenario 1: id suggest to add text boxes (with box i mean the cage in which the user places the text), instead to add text only. The background could visualize alpha (only for our eyes), but be a box, that would help moving text elements. scenario 2: prior to transform a layer, the selected transform tool (be it rotation, scaling, ect) could use the features of the move-tool before switching to the transformation itself.
The transform tools could highlight the layer on-mouseover that is going to be transformed on-click. I guess this is what the scenario 1 is about. But can we have a proper specification for the behavior (in the style of the existing GUI specs) to see if this will work out before anything is implemented, please?
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