MEASUREMENT UNITS

[greenmorpher]

In "Scale Layer Size" and "Change Layer Size", the absolute measurements come up in cm -- which I want.

In "Scale Docuent Size", the absolute measurements are in cm again, but in "Change Document Size" the measurements come up in PIXELS -- which I don't want.

I presume this is a bug -- all should be the same units of measurement.

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FEATURE REQUEST: Would it be possible to add the option to change layer size, document size and page size *in proportion*?

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Ludger]

Hi greenmorpher,

I presume this is a bug -- all should be the same units of measurement.

you can change units by rightclicking into the unit field or on the arrow button in font size fields.

Would it be possible to add the option to change layer size, document size and page size *in proportion*?

You can directly calculate in unit fields (+ - / *, just like in QuarkXpress).



Cheers, Ludger

[greenmorpher]

Hi greenmorpher,

I presume this is a bug -- all should be the same units of measurement.

you can change units by rightclicking into the unit field or on the arrow button in font size fields.

Dang -- that's the second time I have been caught like that. Pity it is not mentioned in the manual ... or if it is, I can't find it. I searched on measurement units, ruler units, centimetres and centimeters. I finally found a reference to units in the Tool Settings area ... but no mention, so far as I could see, on how to change the units.

Gerhard -- why not change these to a menu with an arrow to indicate it is hidden there? As it is, it is invisible. I forget things if I use them only occasionally. So do lots of other people.

Would it be possible to add the option to change layer size, document size and page size *in proportion*?

You can directly calculate in unit fields (+ - / *, just like in QuarkXpress).

You have to be joking, Ludger -- I am sitting in front of a computer and I have to set up a calculation for keeping a shape I am resizing in proportion? THAT's the sort of stuff I have a computer for instead of doing stuff with a hard copy photo and a slide rule!

Quark does that? Yet another reason to dislike Quirk Depress -- a much overrated program. I've never used it, but I have watched graphic artists struggling with it and using it like a typewriter.

The command "Scale Document" should, in fact, deal with what I want to do in upsizing a document -- but it doesn't. It is really just another name for "Scale Layer", it seems to me. What does it do that's different? According to the manual, nothing.

Gerhard -- I don't understand why you have resampling for scaling images but NOT for changing their size.

And why have Scaling and Change Size as separate dialogs? As it is, the Scaling dialog allows a choice of proportional or non-proportional and all these is needed to incorporate the Change Size dialog is to include a choice of non-sampling.

And, of course, to make scaling the document actually change the size of the document only -- as Change Document Size does -- and NOT the layer which ought to always remain a separate command (because when you change the size of the layer, you change the document size too).

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Hoogo]

Change Layer size and change document size do exactly the same when your document is in "picture mode". That's the usual mode when you open a normal picturefile or create anew one with file > new picture. The backgrund-layer is the ducument, you cannot move it, and all things that are outside of its borders don't matter.
Then there's a document mode. Try file > new document. Now there's an imagined sheet of paper, all layers can be placed on it, an the entrys in the document-menu behave different.
For switching between the modes: View > Dialogs > Attributes. Try double-clicking on the list-items. In the layer-sheet you find something more about layer-size and positions.

That there are 2 menu entrys for recaling and changing size seems logical to me, I dont' get the point how both options can be more useful in one dialog. Change size changes the size of the "paper" without touching the pixels on it, so there's no need for resampling. I think I quite don't get the point there...

[Ludger]

You have to be joking, Ludger -- I am sitting in front of a computer and I have to set up a calculation for keeping a shape I am resizing in proportion? THAT's the sort of stuff I have a computer for instead of doing stuff with a hard copy photo and a slide rule!

Right. If you have a layer with let's say 24,56 cm you have 24,56 cm in the unit field. If you want to resize the layer to 50 % you only have to type /2 between 24,56 and cm (or just behind 24,56) and hit return or OK. You will get a layer with a width of 12,28 cm. So what is so funny about calculating in unit fields? I like this function very much, and maybe it can help you too with you work.

Cheers, Ludger

[greenmorpher]

HIYA Hoogo and Ludger

Many thanks for your help on this.

What I am getting at, I guess, is that we have SIX sub-menus when we only actually need one, basically the "Scale" menu slightly extended to include the case of "Change Size" in picture windows and layers, to cover ALL eventualities.

Right? We have "Scale ..." Page, Document and Layer, and ALL of them are, in fact, the same menu which includes a selector for choosing which you will apply it to!

We have "Change ..." Page, Document and Layer size, and all of THEM are much the same menu. Okay, there are contextual differences, but they could be readily dealt with in a dialog.

Further, the Scale and Change actions are little different most of the time or niot different at all, and any difference could be a matter of a choice in a single Scale/Change dialog which could be conveniently and correctly situated in the "Tools" menu.

It would simplify the interface for users.

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Ludger, I see what you mean about the functions in the dialog boxes, which is actually cool. BUT they apply to the measurement boxes in the Scale dialogs too, where you have proportion available AND percentage so you have the choice of setting a fraction as a percentage, too.

So to change just one dimension I could use the Scale dialog and uncheck "proportional" or to halve the size of a picture overall, I could use the Scale dialog and check proportional (the default for me, so it wouldn't require checking) and type in the calculation against just one measurement rather than having to do it for two in the Change dialog.

My objection really refers not having the choice of proportion in the Change dialogs -- which would make one entry less when changing in proportion. With the amount of time I spend at the keyboard,, any entry saved is appreciated and with my level of typos, removes a possibility of error.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com