Work in progress on windows layouts
Contents
Problem statement
We've been carrying more or less the same default layout of GIMP's main window for well over a decade. However, we now ship GIMP with tools grouped by default, which begs for reviewing the layout.
Moreover, there have been multiple requests to introduce workflow-specific named layouts finetuned for commons tasks like digital painting, digital photography etc. with an ability to create your own named layouts.
Research
To collect initial data, we asked users on social media to submit customized window layouts and explain 1) what is their main usecase for GIMP, 2) why they customized the layout like that.
Resulted submissions (however few) can be categorized as follows:
- General editing
- Layer compositions
- Graphic design
- Drawing and painting
- Photography
- Web design
- 3D-related: texturing, UV etc.
Below is the gallery. Please note that while all users named primary tasks, not everyone submitted more information than that.
General editing
User kirill_rrr: "I only do very basic and general editing, I don't need much from GIMP".
User Brian00298905: "Image manipulation."
Layer compositions
User 82pixels_de: "This is mine, it actually looks like yours. I arranged everything like in Photoshop almost so the transition was easier. What I would like in Gimp to have an option like in the Blender splash screen where you can chose between program keybinds in Gimp for example Photoshop."
User adderbox76: "Nothing too crazy. Most important thing for me was having a free floating dock for my most commonly used tools that I can drag around the canvas without using "multi-window mode", and making as much as possible available in tabs rather than menus."
Graphic design
User BupeJoseph: "This is my common setup. I use GIMP for touching up my architectural design projects, and that includes texturing, lighting and documentation. My workflow often need enough working space, but thanks to Ell for the show-all and now the grouped tools ๐๐"
Drawing and painting
Photography
Web design
Proposal
TO BE DONE