GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 769022
Improve text along path when path is short
Last modified: 2016-12-27 15:00:29 UTC
Created attachment 331855 [details] [review] text along path: truncate excessive text When the length of the path along which the text layer content is warped is shorter than the width of the text the excessive text is somewhat mapped to the origin (0,0). This behavior is often confusing users (see http://gimpforums.com/thread-weird-line-when-creating-paths or http://gimpforums.com/thread-text-along-path-error) and hardly something to be usable. I think it would be better to either truncate the excessive text or warping it along the tangent of the last path stroke, probably this is not what the user is going to use (she'll probably reduce the font-size or extend the guiding path), but it should help not considering it a bug and look for help on forums. Attached a patch to truncate the text and to the next comment a patch to extend the guiding path.
Created attachment 331856 [details] [review] text along path: extend guiding path Alternative approach
Created attachment 331857 [details] [review] text along path: extend guiding path Alternative approach. (fixed version)
Both versions have their interest in my opinion. Truncation is more a way to tell the user "something is not right: fix your text or your path, then try again". Therefore it should be accompanied with an error/warning or something to make sure the user noticed the end of the text is missing, the risk being that one fails to see the missing text immediately, thinks everything is good and continue editing. On the other hand, I like the extending the text along the tangent and it makes some sense too. It may actually even be what the user wants. Let's say I want some text to finish straight, I could just warp the part I want warped and expect the rest of the text to be aligned with the finale tangent. So I'd say extending along tangent is my favorite approach right now.
By the way, both patches tested and reviewed. Works well and all.
Would you mind shipping this eventually. I think extending on a tangent is best. That means that if the path is just a little too short, the result will still be usable, the user might not even notice the condition. I'm not sure why this is classified as an enhancement. I ran into this problem again yesterday and it's just highly annoying that lines are drawn from the text to some off position.
(Sorry, I never received the bug mail, so testing again.)
I agree with comment 5 that it is worth committing, and as I said in comment 3, I also prefer the extending along tangent approach. Massimo > were you unhappy with something in your patch which explains you don't push it? :-) I will ask Mitch if he is ok on his side, and will push your patch when I get some time to test it again, so if you want me to hold this, tell me in the next few days. Thanks!
Review of attachment 331857 [details] [review]: Ok so as I was saying, this looks like the best approach to me. Mitch was not responding, but I know that end of year is particularly busy for him, so I'll just take the decision and push. The code looks simple enough, which is a good thing, and it does what it says. commit 99050ecee6a8240125d511496fd6f9a7f44165e7 Author: Massimo Valentini <mvalentini@src.gnome.org> Date: Thu Jul 21 10:31:53 2016 +0200 Bug 769022 - Improve text along path when path is short. Extend the text along the tangent of the last path stroke. app/vectors/gimpvectors-warp.c | 49 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
Review of attachment 331855 [details] [review]: This patch is rejected in favor of the alternative which I find much more artist-friendly. If anyone has comments and won't to come back on this behavior, feel free to comment or reopen.
Is bug #169616 (still open) a duplicate of this one?
So I had a look at bug 169616. They kept it open apparently for a nicer non-destructive approach to the text along path feature. They explain it in bug 169616, comment 4: attaching a vector to each text layer, you can warp the text layer. Editing the text would re-render the warped text (oppositely to now where if you change the text, you have to run a new "text along path" since the feature basically generates a path reproducing the text.
The the title of bug 169616 should be changed - or IMHO a new one focused on the specific improvement should be opened; making it easier to navigate the gimp bug collection.
I just did an update. But you are right that maybe we should open a separate report.