[Gimp-gui] About the "floating selection"
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[Gimp-gui] About the "floating selection"
From
: Jehan
To
: gimp-gui-list gnome org
Subject
: [Gimp-gui] About the "floating selection"
Date
: Thu, 3 Dec 2020 00:10:18 +0100
Hello everyone!
We have been pondering about the use cases of floating selections and
possible changes for GIMP 3.
# Current behavior
Currently say you copy, then paste over a layer, you get a "Floating
selection". You can do nothing so far except modify the floating
selection contents (you can't select another layer for instance), and
finally create a new layer off it, merge it to the layer below or delete it.
## Going simpler?
Beginners are often confused at this stage when they don't realize they
have a floating selection and that they have to make a decision to be
able to do anything else. We gave university classes with GIMP and the
"GIMP is stuck!" issue is quite a common one (when the student shows the
screen, we directly see it, but beginners seem to miss even the big
flashy green and red buttons on the Layers dockable).
Yet even advanced users who are used to it seem to think it is
bothersome. Indeed if a paste were just creating a new layer by default,
then we'd spare one click if that was what you wanted to do (and if you
wanted to merge, you could still do it in one click, so not better not
worse). Also as its own layer, the data can be independently edited
anyway. Finally no beginner confusion anymore. It seems like a total win.
## The only advantage of floating selection (at least only found so far)
When you paste to a mask, there is no concept of multiple mask per layer
(so far), so the only direct action would be merge/anchoring. But then
it means you cannot edit the pasted data before merging.
Indeed if you test pasting into a mask (click on a layer mask, then
paste), your floating selection now acts as a mask itself and you get a
preview of it. It's like the only time where a layer can somehow have 2
masks. So you can actually edit this pasted mask independently, move it,
rotate it, paint in it, and finally merge it.
That's indeed a big advantage here, and maybe the only reason I see for
floating selections so far.
# Proposition
So our idea (at ZeMarmot project) would be:
- When pasting on a layer, just create a new layer over the selected
ones. Done. No floating selection anymore.
- When pasting on a layer mask, still make a floating selection (but
probably name it "Floating mask" because the name "Floating *selection*"
is weird anyway).
# Feedback
So the questions are:
- what do you all think?
- did we miss anything? Are there some use cases where floating
selections over a layer are meaningful too? Are there other use cases of
floating selection we miss at all?
- is there any reason why we'd want to leave a "Paste as floating
selection" action (even if not default anymore)? I mean if there are no
actual use case (other than pasting over mask which keeps the floating
selection anyway), I don't see why we would. It only makes more
maintenance burden with more code paths to take care of.
But if we missed something, we obviously don't want to lose any ability
of GIMP which was only possible (or much easier) because of floating
selections.
Thanks all!
Jehan
GIMP team
--
ZeMarmot open animation film
Liberapay:
Patreon:
Tipeee:
Follow-Ups
Re: [Gimp-gui] About the "floating selection"
From:
Alexandre Prokoudine
Re: [Gimp-gui] About the "floating selection"
From:
Liam R E Quin
Re: [Gimp-gui] About the "floating selection"
From:
Ofnuts
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