Wishlist

[Juan]

Hi all,

Since I´m using PL as my main software (ex-PS user) I would like to compile a wishlist.

1- General speed boost (I usually work with pictures of 3000x2000 tiff 16bits and many adjustment layers (AL), after a couple of AL the zoom in / out gets so heavy and slow, and even selecting many layers gets really slow).
2- Brush dynamics (How much I miss this feature everyday, jitter, scatter, etc).
3- Snap guides to vector points (right now is only vector points to guides).
4- Move ruler origin.
5- Brightness and contrast adjustment layer and fill solid/gradient adjustment layer.
6- Rotate any kind of brushes (right now the custom made ones can´t be rotated).
7- Make convert layer to lasso non aggressive (the source layer shouldn't be destroy).
8- Blur brush.
9- Smart panels. (http://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2890).
10- Color labels for layers.
11- Add Vignette in the Filter-Digital camera (useful to remove/correct or add vignette to a picture).
12- Virtual copy even for external references (right now is only a virtual copy of a layer in the current document).

Feel free to share your thoughts and/or vote

Cheers
Juan

[bkh]

1- General speed boost (I usually work with pictures of 3000x2000 tiff 16bits and many adjustment layers (AL), after a couple of AL the zoom in / out gets so heavy and slow, and even selecting many layers gets really slow).

I don't think that this is a general problem. Compared to any other image editors (including a few PS trials), PL is very fast, imo. Of course, there may be bottlenecks somewhere, but in that case, it would be good to have concrete examples.

5- Brightness and contrast adjustment layer and fill solid/gradient adjustment layer.

Not sure what you mean. There's brightness and contrast in the Curves adjustment layer. Is this too difficult to find? Personally, I don't even think that people should adjust brightness – usually exposure and gamma are better choices.

What's the difference between a fill solid/gradient adjustment layer and a (square) vector layer with a fill colour/gradient?

8- Blur brush.

What's a blur brush supposed to do? What's the difference to the various available blurring options (e.g., water tool and filter brush/soften/Gaussian Blur)?

10- Color labels for layers.

What's that?

11- Add Vignette in the Filter-Digital camera (useful to remove/correct or add vignette to a picture).

I've thought about that one, too. De-vignetting is pretty difficult, though, because it's very lens dependent, and you need much more than just a single intensity slider. Otoh, there is software out there which has lens data and uses it to correct vignetting (and other lens defects) at just the press of a button, so it's hard to compete againts that.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[Twindaddy]

1- General speed boost (I usually work with pictures of 3000x2000 tiff 16bits and many adjustment layers (AL), after a couple of AL the zoom in / out gets so heavy and slow, and even selecting many layers gets really slow).

With many layers it's possibliy better to temporarily use a merged copy over a invsible group of layers that you currently don't edit. This is usually way faster.

2- Brush dynamics.

+1

5- Brightness and contrast adjustment layer and fill solid/gradient adjustment layer.

The curves adjustment layer as has controls for brightness, contrast and gamma.
Layout -> Vector -> Fit in Vector Layer. You can change the background of this layer to gradients too.

8- Blur brush.

Filter Brush (N) -> Tool settings: gaussian blur

11- Add Vignette in the Filter-Digital camera (useful to remove/correct or add vignette to a picture).

I would like that too (even though I know various other ways, but most of them are somewhat tedious.

Cheers,
Markus

[Twindaddy]

arg ... bkh beat me to it

[Juan]

I don't think that this is a general problem. Compared to any other image editors (including a few PS trials), PL is very fast, imo. Of course, there may be bottlenecks somewhere, but in that case, it would be good to have concrete examples.

With many layers it's possibliy better to temporarily use a merged copy over a invsible group of layers that you currently don't edit. This is usually way faster.

I agree, PL is very fast, is more a slowdown at the moment to move around (zoom, grouping layers, selecting layers) is not related with filters speed or anything like that.
Good tip Twindaddy
But I guess there is always room for a speed boost.

What's the difference between a fill solid/gradient adjustment layer and a (square) vector layer with a fill colour/gradient?

The curves adjustment layer as has controls for brightness, contrast and gamma.
Layout -> Vector -> Fit in Vector Layer. You can change the background of this layer to gradients too.

Somehow I oversee this.

What's a blur brush supposed to do? What's the difference to the various available blurring options (e.g., water tool and filter brush/soften/Gaussian Blur)?

Filter Brush (N) -> Tool settings: gaussian blur

Honestly I had no idea about this tool

What's that?

You can "mark" the layers in the layer tab with colors for a little more organization.

I've thought about that one, too. De-vignetting is pretty difficult, though, because it's very lens dependent, and you need much more than just a single intensity slider. Otoh, there is software out there which has lens data and uses it to correct vignetting (and other lens defects) at just the press of a button, so it's hard to compete againts that.

Interesting, would be nice to know which one.

I would like that too (even though I know various other ways, but most of them are somewhat tedious.

Yes, my workflow now is create a wayyyy big vector layer and add a gradient and play with the size.

Cheers
Juan

[Hoogo]

1- General speed boost (I usually work with pictures of 3000x2000 tiff 16bits and many adjustment layers (AL), after a couple of AL the zoom in / out gets so heavy and slow, and even selecting many layers gets really slow).

That's JUST MY wish!!! I had some discussions about that topic with others one or two years ago. There are two things:

-PS has only simple adjustment layers ike curves, hue/saturation or tonal range correction. That's why speed decreases when using the more difficult adjustment layers.
-We assume that PS stores an intermediate result for every layer. That could explain why PS eats memory, but still feels smooth with even hundreds of layers.

Any kind of such a cache would be very, very appreciated by me. Even if it is just in a simple form like an option in the attributes dialog to cache an encapsulated group.

[Juan]

That's JUST MY wish!!! I had some discussions about that topic with others one or two years ago....

I own PS elements, and you can assign how much memory you want to use on and adjust the cache level (I guess this last one is about redraw speed)

Cheers
Juan

[Ashcraaft]

7- Make convert layer to lasso non aggressive (the source layer shouldn't be destroy).

TOP

[addison]

7- Make convert layer to lasso non aggressive (the source layer shouldn't be destroy).

I agree. Additionally, the lasso should be as crisp as the source layer. It's my experience that if you fill the resulting lasso, even if it's from a pixel-perfect square vector, the edges are blurred 1 pixel or so.

[Ashcraaft]

7- Make convert layer to lasso non aggressive (the source layer shouldn't be destroy).

I agree. Additionally, the lasso should be as crisp as the source layer. It's my experience that if you fill the resulting lasso, even if it's from a pixel-perfect square vector, the edges are blurred 1 pixel or so.

That´s somehow like selecting a good wine, showing that to a salesperson and asking for a good cheese. The salesperson will give you the cheese and keep the wine. Who would ever select two identical wines just to give one away to the salesperson?!

[bkh]

That´s somehow like selecting a good wine, showing that to a salesperson and asking for a good cheese. The salesperson will give you the cheese and keep the wine. Who would ever select two identical wines just to give one away to the salesperson?!

Well, but that's not the meaning of "convert". But I agree that "Generate Lasso from Layer" would generally be more useful than "Convert Layer". I'm unsure whether the counterpart which converts a lasso to a vector layer should convert or generate a layer.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[bkh]

Additionally, the lasso should be as crisp as the source layer. It's my experience that if you fill the resulting lasso, even if it's from a pixel-perfect square vector, the edges are blurred 1 pixel or so.

I get sharp edges here, provided that position and size of the square vector layer are integers. (Set a grid width of 1 and align to grid to make sure that the vertices of the square are aligned to pixel boundaries.) If position and/or size of the square are fractional, PL uses antialiasing.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[addison]

7- Make convert layer to lasso non aggressive (the source layer shouldn't be destroy).

I agree. Additionally, the lasso should be as crisp as the source layer. It's my experience that if you fill the resulting lasso, even if it's from a pixel-perfect square vector, the edges are blurred 1 pixel or so.

That´s somehow like selecting a good wine, showing that to a salesperson and asking for a good cheese. The salesperson will give you the cheese and keep the wine. Who would ever select two identical wines just to give one away to the salesperson?!

Sorry, I should have been more clear -- my intention would not be to simply create a bitmap from a vector via the layer-to-lasso, but to, let's say, create a lasso from a complex vector shape in order to remove a portion of another bitmap. I'm thinking in terms of creating shapes for web interface graphics.

[addison]

Additionally, the lasso should be as crisp as the source layer. It's my experience that if you fill the resulting lasso, even if it's from a pixel-perfect square vector, the edges are blurred 1 pixel or so.

I get sharp edges here, provided that position and size of the square vector layer are integers. (Set a grid width of 1 and align to grid to make sure that the vertices of the square are aligned to pixel boundaries.) If position and/or size of the square are fractional, PL uses antialiasing.

Ok, forget everything I said (sorry). I was doing just as you said -- I always have a 1-pixel grid turned on and the dimensions were exact pixels. The issue was caused by the stroke being set to 1 pixel even though there was no color applied to the stroke (it was transparent). I removed the 1 pixel transparent stroke and all is well. Please carry on!

-Addison

[Juan]

I would like to add a couple more wishes:

1- In the toolbox, open the sub-items with right click (only once, not keep it pressed) until you select the sub-tool that you want with left click. Right now you have to keep pressed all the time left click until you choose the sub-tool that you need. This could help to the people who have wrist problems to reduce the stress holding a button pressed.

2- Make the Tool settings panel "dockable" in horizontal position to keep it open all the time. See the attached picture.

Cheers
Juan