I'm making a paint program, so useful tools, ideas and features required please

[happymonster]

I've done some experimenting, but the new look ends up looking a little bit too cramped for me..
So, I've gone back to using the old look for now.

I think it's time to stop tweaking for a while and add some more functionality.

[happymonster]

Ok, Here's the latest version to test:
http://www.funkemunke.com/Pixe_Demo.zip

Please note: I have not yet redone the fileselector to use the external GUI system, so there is no proper load / save. However.. the program will try to load 'untitled.bmp' at the start and save to this file at the end. With this and the external data used for the GUI and variables you can now exit and then continue where you left off the next time you start the program (I think this was Surt's excellent suggestion?). It works very well and does help make things nicer.

This should hopefully now run in a maximised window on the desktop and has a lot of changes underneath the surface. It also uses the new GUI look which helps a lot IMHO.

So, yes, there is still a lot missing. But I think it's now getting quite usable. The next things I want to add is undo/redo and basic brush cut/paste functionality.

[happymonster]

I've also updated the ideas spreadsheet a little:
http://www.funkemunke.com/ideas.xls

[surt]

The maximize, restore and resize work fine for me now.

The colour selectors work very nicely too, but I'm not so keen on the colour space view options submenu, I'd rather just have two buttons on the same level (looks to be room for it), one to cycle between the view modes and one to cycle between the colour planes.

A couple more minor ideas:

• Preview the colour change on the canvas when the mouse hovers over a colour plane or slider.
• An option to pick the nearest existing colour from palette when selecting a colour from a plane or slider.

[happymonster]

Hi Surt,

Yes the palette GUI still needs some more work. But, I think I need to add more functionality like undo/redo & brushes first. I'd rather not spend too much time on one aspect when other things still need implementing.

Those ideas are good.

BTW: If you press Escape it does a quick save and exit.. Useful if you are supposed to be at work!

[surt]

I've uploaded a windows build of my most recent prototype (this thread inspired me to hack around with the code some), to demo the canvas transformations I mentioned earlier in the thread (rotation mainly).
You can get the build here (I hope I included all the necesary shared libraries, source there too).

To demo:
Open an image (new image is broken).
MMB drag to pan canvas.
Ctrl-MMB drag to zoom canvas.
Shift-MMB drag to rotate canvas.
Ctrl-Shift-MMB drag to rotozoom canvas.
Mousewheel to zoom canvas.
Shift-Mousewheel to rotate canvas.

Nevermind the widepixels, just there for testing.

Maybe this'll convince you to include canvas rotation. 

[happymonster]

Thanks for the app.. It works ok for me.
I may support canvas rotation at some point in the future. But there is other stuff I want to focus on first.

[happymonster]

I'm currently working on the Undo/Redo functionality, but I've also been thinking ahead to the Brush section.

I don't have the latest version of ProMotion, but am I correct in thinking that it can only handle one custom brush at a time? (I.e. A brush selected from the canvas) I can't remember how many DPaint on the Amiga could handle, but I know that Personal Paint could deal with upto 9 different brushes.

Graphics Gale, PSP and PhotoShop seem to use the selection based idea I think (where you define an area, rather than cutting/copying automatically).. Does GIMP do it the same way?

Is this correct? I'm just planning out the design for Pixe's user brushes..

[happymonster]

Dpaint days...



(Just a test..)

[Ai]

I'm currently working on the Undo/Redo functionality, but I've also been thinking ahead to the Brush section.

I don't have the latest version of ProMotion, but am I correct in thinking that it can only handle one custom brush at a time? (I.e. A brush selected from the canvas) I can't remember how many DPaint on the Amiga could handle, but I know that Personal Paint could deal with upto 9 different brushes.

Graphics Gale, PSP and PhotoShop seem to use the selection based idea I think (where you define an area, rather than cutting/copying automatically).. Does GIMP do it the same way?

Dunno what cutting/copying 'automatically' amounts to. However in GIMP you can make brushes from the selected pixels, so probably yes.
GIMP also has a 'clipboard brush' which allows you to paint directly with the current clipboard contents

Personally my experiences with GIMP have led me to think that a bank of 3 brushes that I can cycle through by keyboard is about right.

I really like the dpaint-ish test gui!! It's far more clear and readable. IMO the old bevelling effect drew too much effect to specific icons (which had a lot of edges)