Feature Suggestion: Expanded funtionality for the object selection tool

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WalksIn2Trees

This one is tougher because it's not really about just the object selection tool... it's also about the contextual use of SHIFT CTRL/COMMAND ALT keys

One feature I liked about adobe illustrator that I missed in Corel Draw was the ability to move an image around inside of it's frame without altering the position of the frame.  In Corel Draw, I could adjust the shape of the frame and it would crop the image, but I had no way to reposition the image independently of the frame... so if I decided after meticulous shaping that a face needed to be more to the left, I needed to select the frames control points and move them to the right then shift the entire frame to the left to reposition the entire image to it's prefered placement.

Well, we have a similar issue in Scribus... I can ALMOST do this... but not quite!  We can fit the frame to the image, or fit the image to the frame, but we cant manually move scale or otherwise adjust the image within the frame.

this is where the contextual use of SHIFT/CTRL/ALT comes in

this functionality is already used in some places such as in micro or macro movements or adjustment of values... SHIFT click to select more than one object

so here's a list of what ELSE it could be used for:

object selection: SHIFT adds-subtracts to-from an object selectionlocally ; CTRL selects across layers ; ALT allows manipulation of CONTENT... such as an images position in an image frame

Polygon/Bezier Control points/handles: normal click selects the POINT; SHIFT temporarily switches to HANDLE mode while SHIFT is held ; CTRL could allow modification of the the curves directly by letting the artist grab the edge of the curve and pulling stretching it to position.  Corel Draw allows all of this without modifier keys... however the problem I found was, that I would grab a handle or curve when I wanted a point instead...

and of course there are so many more, a set for every tool theoretically, and if needed I can add to the list by posting a reply

Nermander

Quote from: WalksIn2Trees on August 18, 2011, 05:53:29 AM
Well, we have a similar issue in Scribus... I can ALMOST do this... but not quite!  We can fit the frame to the image, or fit the image to the frame, but we cant manually move scale or otherwise adjust the image within the frame.

Yes we can.

For an image frame you have first a position (X and Y) for the frame, a size for the frame (height and width), but you also have a position (X and Y) for the image inside the frame, and also a size (widht or height) for the image itself (inside the frame).

I use that feature frequently.

The position for the image within the frame can be negative (thus croping the upper or left part of the image).

a.l.e

... or just double click in a picture and move the content with the mouse...

just take care that the automatic resizing of the image to the frame is disabled...

ciao
a.l.e

WalksIn2Trees

oh I see... I tried the 2x click first and it brought up the properties window, but moved the entire frame... I think what happened is I attempted to move it before it caught up with me... Thanks again!

The thought to check for XY number positioning occurred to me after I went to bed last night.

are there any other surprises that I might not catch onto right away? for instance, can I apply dropshadows? or perspective? gradient transparency? mesh gradients and transparency?

I like the "do math in a dialogue" feature

I'm not really sure what the latex stuff is about, when I place a render frame I get an error

a.l.e

the latex stuff is about putting latex code in a frame and get it rendered as pdf and included in the frame itself... it won't work if latex is not installed on your system (or if scribus can't find it)

basically, no dropshadows, no.

perspective? what's that?

transparency, yes (but scribus won't flatten it while producing the pdf)

gradient transparency: same as above....

WalksIn2Trees

LATEX
Oh I see, Latex is like an advanced mark-up language (what the basis of HTML should have been, really). Any recommendations for a latex package?

TRANSPARENCY & FILL
I figured out the gradient transparency: make a muti-color gradient and adjust the opacity of  individual colors in the gradient.

Mesh fill is similar to the mesh warp tool except that instead of altering the SHAPE of the object, it maps and affects multiple gradient fills within the shape of the object.
Warping the mesh changes the shape of the fill's gradients. Each intersection of the mesh is used to map the starting point of a color gradient, as are the lines and the center of each quadrant of the mesh.
this tool allows for complex shading: for instance if I shape a polygon into a vine the mesh is constrained

PERSPECTIVE
Corel Draw 12 has two types of perspective:

Method One, the main type, operates similar to shear and is included as a tool option along with shear, rotate, freehand, scale...  Perspective "squeezes" or "separates" two corners on one side in relation to each other, on a square this would result a trapezoidal shape... this method does not affect the content though


(in fact the way they do it: single click selects the object, once selected, each additional single click changes the transfom mode: Scale>shear>perspective>rotate>freehand >back to scale... the corner handles change style to indicate the current mode, you can always use the mouse to move the object laterally in all these modes by grabbing the center handle of the object)

Method Two is a Perspective rendering tool:
it allows the artist to map an object and it's content to a 3D plane.  the UI for this is similar in function to the above method (grab and drag a rectangle corner) but it overlays a grid to indicate the perspective change.  It retains the original vectors in case you want to undo it... once you do this though it locks the object and you are not allowed to modify it's shape unless you remove the perspective.

a.l.e

hi walks,

mesh fill: is it something you would expect from a DTP package? if yes, you can try to write a feature request (http://bugs.scribus.net) and maybe franz will implement it for you... (those are the kind of thinks he likes most :-)

perspective: i'm not 100% this belongs to a DTP package... but, who knows? fill a feature request (if it there is none, yet and -- maybe -- the same guy mentioned above may have interest in implementing it...)

[i skipped the "running" text: wft?]

ciao
a.l.e

WalksIn2Trees

I think it's funny that people feel that Illustrator and Indesign should be two separate tools... they share 90% of their functionality... and this is the same thing: why should Inkscape and Scribus be separate tools? why not have a multipage Vector design tool?

Corel Draw IS that combination of Inkscape and Scribus and is an amazing DTP app because of it

Sure Draw has it limits, but the limits are due to a rushed deadline attitude... gotta get out the next version and beat Adobe to market! tick, tick, tick!!!

Scribus doesn't have that problem ;) so why not let it be all that it can be?

utnik

hey walksin2trees

i like the swiss knife – it's a sturdy tool.
but what i like is the simple one with only four fold-up parts. there are swiss knifes with fifty different parts – big toolboxes for all different tasks, but none can handle them.

i hope scribus will improve as a strong and stable dtp tool, not as a fat all-in-one solution that will crash every now and then...

utnik

Nermander


A kitchen knife and a carving knife also have similar features, but most people would not want to replace them for eachother or have one knife to do both tasks. (There are also hobby knives, skivering knives, scalpels and a lot of other knives, but most of them are not interchangeable although all of them are intended for the single task of "cutting".)

WalksIn2Trees

geometry is geometry... inkscape has a few extra tricks in vector editing, and there's no reason that scribus can't as well... scribus already has vector shapes, and the ability to edit them, it just needs a little more flexibility in editing them

I suppose it's like the difference between diet soda and non-diet soda... if all you've had your whole life is diet soda, then you never realize whats missing, but if you usually drink non-diet soda but one day try a diet soda, it seems...empty... the missing part is very obvious

pyropingvin

Quote from: WalksIn2Trees on September 08, 2011, 10:54:56 PM
geometry is geometry... inkscape has a few extra tricks in vector editing, and there's no reason that scribus can't as well... scribus already has vector shapes, and the ability to edit them, it just needs a little more flexibility in editing them

I agree, Scribus needs a little more flexibility in editing vector shapes