Difference between revisions of "Text-Handling in GIMP"

Revision as of 14:00, 14 February 2012

Vision

Text handling in GIMP

• Text in GIMP is always part of the composition - (unless it is an annotation)
• There is no such thing as paging in gimp
• Text in gimp has form and symbolic meaning, but meta levels of information in text are not supported

Users get:

• Complete control over typography and the layout of text on the canvas
• unicode supported localisation of text tools
• editable text until they decide otherwise
• super-fast workflow, when they are experienced

Functionality

Internationalization

• full support of all Unicode content
• support for all OpenType features
• multiple writing systems in the same text-box
• right to left and top-down textflow

Corrections

• the text content is always accessible and editable
• all applied effects are kept

Quick plain text

• the full-functionality text-tool is not obligatory
• simple annotations are supported
• can be inserted in an easy way

Effects

• stroke text
• fill text
• all effects and filter can be applied on the text itself (see "Corrections")

Layout

• full control to the user on every level
• all this is done in the context of the overall work:
  • the canvas
  • the applied effects

Positioning

• freely positionable on the canvas
• text boxes of any shape
• (rectangular) box fixed or dynamic
• text overflow from box to box
• text along path
• transformation tools
• combinations of above functions
• ?grid (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_%28page_layout%29 )

Typography

• fine grained-control
• presets can be saved
• manual access (M) to open type (OT) features: Glyph palette

Character level

• Font family
• Font variant
• size
• Color
• Hinting
• Kerning (M+OT)
• faux bold+italics
• underline
• through-line
• baseline shift
• language

+ OpenType features

• ?glyph scaling (vertical and horizontal)

line and paragraph level

• leading (Line Spacing)
• tracking
• Indent
• justification
• inter-paragraph spacing
• text-flow

User scenarios

Photographer (Annotations)

(see Scenario 1a)

• open file
• apply changes
• add text information to image
  • no effects, basic font+style+size

Creating Original Art

"text as graphics"

• [no-text work]
• freely define text-box-shape (draw it)
• type text
• experiment with font-family/variant/size/color
• apply effects on all text elements
• apply overall effect (let text "interact" with other parts of the composition)
• transform text-box
• transform text (-> perspective, 3-D, along path)
• fine-tune text (make use of advanced typography)
• manually alter advanced typo: manual kerning, individual glyph replacement,…
• do further brushwork
• apply more effects
• change wording

text as information

• create several text-boxes (e.g. info)
  • define overflow direction
• paste text (formatted or plain)
• work on typography
  • chose font family + variant
  • chose size + color
  • set alignment, justification, hyphenation
  • use advanced open type features
  • manually fine-tune text layout (kerning, tracking, glyph replacement)
• move, resize, reshape, reorder boxes

• save/export/print

later

• return - load file
• change wording/correct text
  • maybe change font (other computer)
  • adjust typography
• save/export/print

Icon Design

• Open/hot link to vector image
• Polish & refine the icon
• add very small amount of text
  • manually pick a glyph
• deform text (vector-based)
• apply pixel-based effects
• Review icon & make changes to vector image (& edit text in GIMP). Go back to the 2nd bullet, and repeat.
• Save Icon

Web Images - Production

text use mostly in buttons etc.

• insert text, where it needs to be graphically altered or integrated with the pixel level
• replacement of text for production of multiple instances of the same design element
• Make sets of image elements, see how they work together
  • see how use of text in different parts works together - adjust typography accordingly
• Export parts in optimised web format

Evaluation

evaluated tools: GIMP (2.7.4), Inkscape, Scribus, InDesign, Photoshop

text placement

one-click or define frame first (Gimp, Photoshop, Inkscape)

• + gives most flexibility
• + is easy to handle with one button
• + feels real. You can grab a pen, place it and start writing right away
• - the mouse pointer is important. It indicates the default action. A Cursor: I is not useful for creating a box and a + is not handy to start typing right away.

forced frame-drawing (Indesign, Scribus) may disturb the work-flow. In a graphic-context user should decide whether he wants to break lines manually with the Enter-Button or by pre-defining a vertical border (e.g. the right-side end of the box).

family and style/variant selection

all-in-one (Inkscape, Gimp)

• + only one selector needs less menu space
• + immediate overview of all available font options
• + 1 click selection
• - list grows in length by a considerable amount
• - hard to tell sub-fonts of the same family and different fonts apart

two separate selectors (Photoshop, InDesign, Scribus)

• + Good overview of families
• - users don't see what variants exist, but have to actually select a font to get this information. This takes time when browsing through (Open Type) fonts.
• -

two-step selection with variant as a sub-menu (found in memory)

• + only one selector needs less menu space
• + Good overview of families
• + browsing feels quick
• + one click selection
• - user don't see what variants exist (Mouseover helps)

A preview in the font selection tool comes handy and saves time as users can omit unnecessary tryout clicks. An icon showing the font's type (TTF, OT, etc) helps (also visually) when browsing the font list.

native font variant versus variant toggling (?faux)

no faux bold/italics, only font-integrated options available (Scribus)

faux bold/italics toggles if implemented an automatic switch to pre-designed (Inkscape) applies a change not in the place where user sets it. At least an indicator should be present. An explicit faux b./i. switch (Photoshop) seems more intuitive and gives more control to the user (double bold).

GIMP At current state GIMP does not behave in any of the ways mentioned above. Buttons for faux (presumably) b./i. exist. The display does not indicate a switch to an existent pre-defined sub-font. Also, the toggle buttons do not have any effect when a respective sub-font hast been chosen. (no double bold). A decision should be taken about the way this works and feedback needs to be give to the user.

placement of tool options

toolbox/toolbar

• + more (all) options on screen
• + no extra dialog
• + users can do many changes with one-click
• - uses space
• - the options need to be divided, some features (e.g. OpenType features, advanced functions) are put in a menu

extra window (text editor, options)

• + all of the functionality in one place (at least that's possible)
• + good overview
• + focus on textwork makes it especially fast to work with
• + comes handy in cases where effects/layouting disturb editing.
• - Having some of the formatting options only available in external dialog (Inkscape) is bad for the workflow.
• - Changes are not in the context of the work

GIMP Gimp currently uses a combination of toolbox, extra window and heads-up-display

• + separable radius of effect: toolbox for whole text-box, hud for selected text.
• - above also presents difficulties:
• - in none of the three, ALL options be found
• - a checkbox does not seem the right way to start the text-editor

tool presets/styles

Inkscape does not save any user settings in the text tool besides setting a default.

tool presets (GIMP, Photoshop)

• + give users the option to customize and build a library of often used settings
• + integrate well with the rest of the program. Universal solution
• - They are not where the text settings are made
• - users cannot apply them to already existing text, eliminating a big number of possible use cases. In GIMP one can apply them to a selected text, but only to the whole box. (Also, the behavior is not always predictable: Switching between tool presets changes the text orientation. Bug?)

text styles (Scribus, InDesign)

• + give users the option to customize and build a library of often used settings
• + always applicable, making it possible to write first and format later with some predefined styles. This gives more freedom.
• + can be put next to the text settings, giving quick access and making it easy to see they take effect
• - need toolbox space (toolbox, because they only make sense when quickly accessible)

text along path