Path painting question

[jw2004]

As we know, path painting tool can paint along a path,
but it does not directly use color setting and brush setting in the toolbox,
it will open a dialog and set parameter standalone,
Why not use the global color and brush setting in the toolbox, it can give more flexible and versatile result. I think there is no more difficulty than current implementation.

[Hoogo]

I like the idea. You might even drop the menu entry and enable the paint tools in the toolbar instead.

[jw2004]

Path painting only support single color or a gradient color, doesn't support texture and pattern. and doesn't support brush's color jitter.

For example, I can draw a image like below using paint tool and set some brush and color setting, but can't do it use path painting tool.

tt1.jpg

[Eurgail]

You can simulate this via "Change color", choose the HIS spectrum and then "Speckle Gradient". Every brush stroke has only one color, not a gradient, but you have color and transparency combined (and have to change it manually) and its not really random...
Yes, would be cool.
For patterns you can use a white brush over black background and then use this path painting as layer mask for a vector layer with pattern filling. A work around, but not very tricky and it's more non-destructive.

If the brush settings of the brush tool and path painting should be connected? I don't really care. Of course, it's the Photoshop way...
But I never felt missing this behaviour. On the other hand, now it doesn't change your working brush, if you do a path painting. This is also wished sometimes. I don't remember, if i ever wanted to use the same brush settings, that i used for normal painting, for path painting. Did you?

[bkh]

As we know, path painting tool can paint along a path,
but it does not directly use color setting and brush setting in the toolbox,
it will open a dialog and set parameter standalone,
Why not use the global color and brush setting in the toolbox, it can give more flexible and versatile result. I think there is no more difficulty than current implementation.

Not sure what you mean. It might be a good idea to use the current colour and brush settings as a default in the dialogue (maybe the Reset button might load them because there are also cases when you'd rather use the previous settings than the brush settings). In any case, when I use the path painting tool, I normally have to fine-tune the brush settings using the preview, so I think the settings should remain in the dialogue as well.

I like the idea. You might even drop the menu entry and enable the paint tools in the toolbar instead.

I think I couldn't do without the preview, really. Having to undo, select the image layer to change the brush settings, then go back to the vector layer to use the path painting tool seems too much overhead.

But frankly, I don't normally use "Paint vector path" as a painting tool, but rather to draw vector lines with special properties (especially with variable widths, now obsolete, and/or colour gradients along the path). If you want to use it as a painting tool, then a different UI like a simple "Paint the current vector path with the current brush settings" tool might be useful as well. Might even use the variable width of the vector path to control the brush size and/or pressure.

Thinking about it, I think what I'd like best is a "Draw using next vector layer" button next to the "Apply to entire image" button in the tool settings for all paint tools. Having the stamp tool follow a vector path could be real fun . If vector line width could be interpreted as pen pressure, this might also be an interesting drawing option for people who don't have a pen tablet.

Something else I would sometimes like to have is an "Undo last brush stroke and convert it to a vector layer" (maybe even with pen pressure recorded as line width), so that I could edit the path and re-apply it using the same tool as before.

Path painting only support single color or a gradient color, doesn't support texture and pattern. and doesn't support brush's color jitter.

Indeed. I don't see a reason why this can't be made to work, at least when you don't specify a colour gradient below.

I'd also like to have path paint respect the new vector line width when the "Change width" option in the dialogue is off.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[photoken]

Thinking about it, I think what I'd like best is a "Draw using next vector layer" button next to the "Apply to entire image" button in the tool settings for all paint tools. Having the stamp tool follow a vector path could be real fun . If vector line width could be interpreted as pen pressure, this might also be an interesting drawing option for people who don't have a pen tablet.

+1
I would probably never use that capability, but it sounds like something that would really appeal to people doing digital scrapbooking. For example, imagine the effect of using a gradient to fade the Stamp Tool's content to transparency along the path....

[kevjon]

I'm finding path painting to be very useful in my work.

One thing that is missing from the tool is the ability to change the brush size. It only seems to use the size shown in the brush editor.

The other thing that is odd about the tool is that it doesn't use the spacing of the brush. You have to set distance in path painting dialog to match the spacing of the brush.