Usability and Colors

FG Invert Color

In the painting tasks, are very important to work with different methods to select or to choose colors. The complementary colors is commonly utilized by all artists.

Improvements reasons

To invert a color is necessary many steps between pick and wheel colors dialogs. With a shortcut these actions are more immediate and, the painting session has less actions and steps with different color dialogs.

Invert color of FG

Add a toggle shortcut to invert the current color on FG.

References

A modern approach to complementary colors

Color Swapping

Main Scope is to have a swap a "fixed number" of colours used in each session, via a toggle shortcut key.

Current possibilities

Swap FG/BG Shortcut

Swap between FG/BG Color via keyboard shortcut → screenshot Configure Keyboard Shortcuts.

Configuring the current keyboard shortcut to swap the FG/BG colours.

Scrolling Swatches Current Palette

Scrolling between the swatches of the current palette via Keyboard Shortcuts:
The 'context-foreground-palette-...' and 'context-background-palette-...' to scroll the all swatches of a palette.
But to use these shortcuts is necessary to have the Palette Swatches and the Palette Editor opened or dockable.
For more details see the report on Bugzilla about these shortcuts → Context actions on Palette dialogues.

Comments [Massimo Valentini]

I experimented a bit with these actions and I have found that they only work if the 'Palette Editor' is docked or at least open. So one has to open Windows->Dockable Dialogs->Palettes and double click on a palette, this way the 'Palette Editor' is opened and after that, these shortcuts start working. They keep working even if the dockable is not the active tab.

Configuring the current keyboard shortcut scrolling the swatches in a palette (thanks to Massimo Valentini).

Swatches Colours Stored

The Swatches of colours used and or stored by the user appear on two different dialogues: FG/BG Color(Dockable) and Change Foreground/Background Colour (a floating dialogue that is shown when clicking on FG/BG on Toolbox. The swatches (two rows) could be understood as a palette built, on on-the-fly on the Change Foreground/Background Colour dialogue, during the work sessions by the user in three ways:

• via the button '>' to add the current colour on FG to the palette or;
• via drag and drop colour in each swatch or;

• via picker colour, but is added only after the colour is used on canvas. Each new colour is placed, always, in the first slot (left side of the first row), and the displacement of colours happening versus the right-side direction to each new colour that is added.

History Colors in the FG/BG Colours.

Change Foreground Color Dialogs.

Modifying Current Status - Improving alternative | Bug Report Request

Create an action of the history colors independent, or rather, is not necessary to have opened or tabbed the palette editor.

Improvement Reasons

Enhancing the General Usability:

1. to have a fast way to access the history colors used in each work sessions;
2. to avoid excessive use of steps, via mouse mainly, between paint tools tasks (repetitive stress), see test below;
3. Swapping color without necessity to use the traditional dialogs... the session task is more focused and simple.

Scenario | Float full or Dockable | Single Window

Is the same thing, because we need to move the cursor around the window/docks and make clicks to select colours in the different dialogues.

Example: Fill a Mondrian Grid

Example to find the number of steps to pick colours in the current release.

Steps to fill the grid

1. Rectangle Tool Selection → select a rectangle;
2. Bucket fill tool;
3. Choose colour;
4. Click on FG Color on Toolbox → Open Change Foreground Color → Move cursor on Dialog → Choice steps (minimal 1 step, 2 steps if need to close dialogue);
   
   1. Move cursor until FG/BG Color Dialog → Choice steps (2 steps);
      
5. Fill the selected rectangle.

To choose colours is necessary a minimum of 2 steps and a maximum of 3 steps (cursor movements and clicks).

The sample has 6*6=36 rectangles, only to select colours for all rectangles, we must cross or move the cursor and do clicks at an amount of a minimal 72 and a maximum of 108 times.

Proposal Swap History Colors

 +-----------------------+     
 | A | B | C | D | E | F |  
 +-----------------------+ 
   |   |   |
   |   |   +--Next Color (C) --------> (3) Hit key again → is selected this swatch.
   |   |
   |   +----> Next Color (B) --------> (2) Raise finger from key → is selected this swatch, previous of the last colour used.
   |                
   +--------> Last color used (A) ---> (1) Hit key Shortcut Open Popup with swatches.
        
canvas                           

• History color pop-up, for instance, with the last 6 colors stored in history of the FG/BG Colors dialogue. This pop-up is enabled when hit the key shortcut action.
• Each time that raise finger from key and hit again, the selection color goes to next color, for instance, from A to B, and successively until F and in a closed cycle. The principle is the same of the short-cut to swap colors between FG/BG, but in this case we have 6 colors.
• Each time that the key short-cut is held down, the color remains stopped in the slot, for example A.
• The cycle is stopped naturally after a lapse time between hit key and raise finger of key.
• Have on GIMP preferences the possibility to choose the amount of colors to use in this pop-up, for example, minimal 6 and maximum 12 colors.

Note: is possible to think the sequence from F going to A, where F is the last color used by user, E the previous and successively.

References

Short video showing general behavior.