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Bug 757811 - bg color misused
bg color misused
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Product: GIMP
Classification: Other
Component: Data
2.8.14
Other All
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: GIMP Bugs
GIMP Bugs
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2015-11-09 11:23 UTC by Jo
Modified: 2016-02-12 23:02 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Jo 2015-11-09 11:23:13 UTC
the bg color is misused, and it has become a cliche. 

example
you need light and dark colors or two complementary colors to paint, which supplement each other, therefore i need both fg and bg color, which i swap back and forth meanwhile i paint. (advanced use instead to rely on the fg color only)

Now lets see the eraser who uses the bg color to erase - i dont know if the eraser of other 2d applications bahaves in the same way like in Gimp that they need all the background color to erase. This code was introduced originally because of technical limitations in the past and is no more sustainable nowadays.

i hope in some nice discussion.
Comment 1 Michael Schumacher 2015-11-09 12:41:03 UTC
Well, it is called "background color"...

But there has been the suggestion that instead of special foreground and background colors for the paint tools (and some filters and export plug-ins - the background color is used to set the bKGD chunk for PNG files, for example), it should be possible to set a background color property for the image and/or individual layers - and those would be used whenever a user wants to erase to background as opposed to transparency, or if a filter needs (to assume) some color value for transparent pixels.
Comment 2 Michael Natterer 2015-11-09 19:36:29 UTC
What "technical limitations" are you talking about? A limitation in the
ability to manage more than two colors? My digital watch from the 80ies
would have been able to do that.

The background color is not "misused", it's used exactly as intended,
as *background* color for erasing, and in other places where the
"background" concept makes sense; that's why it's called "background"
color, and not "secondary color" or whatever.

It's a well established thing that is present in other programs too.

As I already said, nobody is opposed to the concept of having an easily
usable set of swappable painting colors; what you are doing here is taking
things that exist, use them according to your personal preference, and
then ask for that preference be implemented consistently across GIMP.

Sorry, I'm tempted to close this as NOTABUG.
Comment 3 Jo 2015-11-09 22:09:10 UTC
@ Mitch
what i do is to use Gimp all the time, which gives me a good insight, in lots of aspects because i paint not only with Gimp.

coming from a traditional painting, my reasoning is very different, and colors are massively used when you paint. The color dialog is fantastic already, and my intention was to suggest an upgrade of the bg color too. 
For me the bg and fg color is relative as i swap them very often. Maybe its only a temporary solution, till you implement something different, like 'set of swappable painting colors' as you described before

Foremoset i thought: why not assigning default colors for technicallities and leave the fg-bg color to the user? thats my question, hope i could explain the concept.
Comment 4 Jo 2015-11-09 22:34:38 UTC
@ Schumacher

obvioulsy you developers know better than me what code is better to keep and whats possible to change / improve

 - to be honest, i wonder that technical things cannot have default values. example -sorry if it is again- the eraser: why not using the 'color' white as default ?
and why such default values have to touch (possible) user settings ? these are all my questions.
Comment 5 Jehan 2016-01-10 02:15:43 UTC
> why not using the 'color' white as default ?

Because you may want other colors for your background? You said you come from traditional painting. Have you never painted over something else than a white canvas?
Comment 6 Jo 2016-01-19 13:01:22 UTC
(In reply to Jehan from comment #5)
> > why not using the 'color' white as default ?
> 
> Because you may want other colors for your background? You said you come
> from traditional painting. Have you never painted over something else than a
> white canvas?

No, ive not. Usually i tint white canvases if i need so.
back to discussion.
Using a color (the bg color) to erase is per se, a pretty abstract concept as i need all color features.
Comment 7 Michael Natterer 2016-02-12 23:02:38 UTC
After all discussion the fact remains that the BG color is used for erasing
non-alpha layers, and this is not going to change.