Save + export specification

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Revision as of 12:12, 26 April 2009 by Guiguru (talk) (saving files)
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intro

This specification defines a clear separation between saving and export, based on version 2.6.

This change tries to achieve some specific goals:

  1. simplify and clarify the user model: what you see on the canvas is always GIMP content;
  2. enforce that what is on the canvas is only safe when saved as an xcf file—or its compressed variants;
  3. give primary support for a high-end workflow where the work is saved in xcf, and when it is time for ‘delivery’, it is exported to the required format;
  4. give secondary support to workflows where the input and output are the same non-xcf file; the reason for this is not the often touted ‘prosumer photo jpeg–to–jpeg’ workflow, because of GIMP product vision there is no need for optimising this. A much better reason for optimising are situations where high-end GIMP users have to do some quick touch-ups on graphic files for mates or clients, and send them back.

The basic strategy that follows from the points above is: GIMP opens and saves GIMP files and imports/exports the rest. We make however one optimisation: fold Import back into Open, so everything stays (almost) the same there. Furthermore for the secondary workflow a ‘Export to’ menu item is added.

file menu changes

Currently (v2.6) the Save section of the file menu looks like this:
Save menu.png

Two new menu items shall be introduced: Export and ‘Export to’. To avoid too long (== too slow to scan) menu sections, this section shall be split in two:

  • Save
  • Save as…
  • Save a Copy…
  • Revert…
  • <menu separator>
  • Export…
  • Export to
  • Create Template…

The sensitivity of the Export command shall track that of the Save command. The ‘Export to’ command shall be insensitive by default.

keyboard shortcuts

The existing shortcuts in the FIle menu stay as-is. Finding them for the 2 new items is tricky, because the obvious candidates are taken. <ctrl>(-<shift>)-E would have been perfect for Export, ‘Export to’.

(no) changes in actions

opening files

It is not the goal of this spec to overhaul the file Open dialog, it and other means of opening files shall remain unchanged. What matters is what happens after a file is opened.

opening a GIMP-type file

After opening a (compressed) xcf file everything works as it does in v2.6.

opening a non-GIMP-type file

After opening any other type of image file, it is officially imported, and the following shall be different:

  • the title of the image window shall be set to “Untitled (imported from <filename>)-X.Y etc, etc.” where the <filename> is the name of the imported file; further opening of other files into this document (even GIMP files) shall not change the title or its status;
  • the ‘Export to’ menu item shall have its label set to “Export to <filename>” and shall be made sensitive;
  • the document shall be treated as a new, untitled file;

saving files

Save, ‘Save as’ and ‘Save a copy’ shall only save to (compressed) GIMP formats, which shall be the only available format choices in the Save dialog. Only Save and ‘Save as’ shall change the saved-status of the document and replace the document–to–file association.

In the save dialog, the default path and filename shall be, in order of precedence (highest at the top):

  1. path and filename of the last file where—within this session—this document was saved-to as GIMP file;
  2. path and filename of the opened file that started this session with this document;
  3. path: user’s ‘documents’ folder on the operating system, name: “Untitled”.

The type of the file shall be always (compressed) xcf.

revert

The revert dialog box shall remain as-is. For reverting back to the state of opening non-GIMP files, the top string shall be “Revert 'Untitled' to '/<path>/<filename>'?”.

To be clear, here is the list of what revert should revert to, in order of precedence (highest at the top):

  1. the last file where—within this session—this document was saved-to as GIMP file;
  2. the opened GIMP file that started this session with this document;
  3. the opened non-GIMP file that started this session with this document.

exporting files

All non-GIMP file types can be exported via the Export menu item:

  • no (compressed) GIMP formats shall be available as format choices in the Export dialog;
  • the ‘Save as’ dialog shall be recycled for the Export dialog; the dialog title shall be “Export Image”;
  • an export shall not change the saved-status of the document, or replace the document–to–file association;

In the export dialog, the default path and filename shall be, in order of precedence (highest at the top):

  1. path and filename of the last file where—within this session—this document was saved-to as GIMP file;
  2. path and filename of the opened GIMP file that started this session with this document;
  3. path and filename of the opened non-GIMP file that started this session with this document;
  4. path: user’s ‘documents’ folder on the operating system, name: “Untitled”.

The type of the file shall be, in order of precedence (highest at the top):

  1. the last type this document was exported to, this session;
  2. the type of the opened non-GIMP file that started this session with this document;
  3. the last type any document was exported to;
  4. the zero-day default: png (I’ll take any other reasonable suggestion of a free and open image format).

export to original

From the moment it is made sensitive the ‘Export to’ menu item shall remain sensitive until the document is closed.

  • ‘Export to’ shall export the current document back to the opened non-GIMP file that started this session;
  • if for some reason this file can not be written (e.g. file server gone, no permissions), Export shall be invoked;
  • ‘Export to’ shall not change the saved-status of the document, or replace the document–to–file association.

export options

Nobody likes clicking their way through export options dialogs. So we will put the brakes on them:

  • there shall be one export options dialog:
    • export conversion information that needs no user choices shall be omitted;
    • the generic export choices and the file-type specific export choices shall be integrated into one dialog;
    • the whole string “Your image should be exported before it can be saved as <file type> for the following reasons:” shall be omitted.
  • if there are no export user choices then there shall be no options dialog;
  • if there is an export options dialog it shall not be shown when:
    • the document has already been exported—within this session—to exactly the same path + filename + type;
    • the document is being exported to original and the file format is not lossy and all the export options can be determined from the original file.

The export options shall default to, in order of precedence (highest at the top):

  1. the export options used last time when this document was exported to the same file type;
  2. the export options used last time when any document was exported to the same file type;
  3. the export options used in v2.6.

lossy file formats

Lossy graphics file formats are defined as those who cannot be read into memory and written back unmodified to file without loss of fidelity.