Rationalizing and Simplifying the UI/UX of PL in 2025: A proposal

[Vivi_Ram]

Hello fellow PL users, @Gerhard and @Martin:

I've been labouring away in the background to help PL become even greater in 2025. So in the interest of contributing to further developing this software, I took an extensive study and decided to build a proposal. I only got so far as the first part, and it's already 15 pages long. There are some very interesting ideas, which I hope will be implemented or improved upon by the developers. I'd also love to hear your critique of these ideas.

Three important caveats:

1. If these ideas have been already proposed and declined, then ignore such ideas. I haven't read through all the proposed ideas here.
2. If these ideas already exist in PL, then pardon my ignorance and ignore such ideas. I haven't fully gotten to grips with all the nuances of PL yet.
3. All the images, iconography and such are used only to illustrate the point, and they're not final suggestions. They can be vastly improved upon.

Another note: I haven't proofed the document. So grammatical errors and typos might be found. If you see one, please highlight so I may correct them.

With that said, here's my labour of love for this great tool: You can download it https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pC9EmI ... sp=sharing.

Anyone with a link can access it.

Note for people who speak other languages than English: Rationalising means to "reorganise (a process or system) so as to make it more logical and consistent." Just being aware that there are users who might not immediately get what I mean. No offense meant!

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

[shijan]

- Too many interactive control overlays is not always better. It all creates too many blinking and may distract. It also could affect overall performance and UI could be much slower. Also i guess each that each interactive control is like a new tool that should be coded completely from scratch for each vector type, so it will be endless amount of bugs. For me personally editing everything with numeric fields with mouse scroll wheel in Tool Settings or Layer Attributes provides best precision and provides simple and solid logic.

- Same old request for more custom controls for Rounded Square/Rectangle https://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.p ... 718#p47718
- I agree about more Curves modes for vector creation. Probably the main question - are those curves systems supported natively by PDF, SVG and other exported vector formats?
- Cloner/Array tool also was requested by many users long time ago https://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.p ... 738#p47738 but it is more logical to create it as as Adjustment Layer or some sort of new special cloner folder.

[shijan]

For Edit Vector Point tool it is not so many free key modifiers remaining. Alt key is globally reserved for manual snapping, if auto snapping is disabled in preferences.
Maybe when use "Edit Vector Point" tool, right mouse click to path to quickly apply "Convert Vector Points" tool?

[shijan]

Not sure if i understand about text resize. It is possible to change font size interactively with mouse scroll wheel or drag. Id hold Command+Shift while using Text tool it is also possible to scale text layer same as any other layer.

[shijan]

Morph already could be controlled in easy way from Layer attributes:

[shijan]

"Using Tab to move to next object in the layer". I personally use Tab key to show/Hide panels (same as it works in Photoshop)
There is a "Deep Selection" setting in tool settings, which allow to select bottom layers by simply clicking again and again.

Screen Shot 2025-01-30 at 11.23.49 AM.jpg

There are also customized hotkeys for Layer->Navigation menu, so you can just map them to Tab key if you like:

Screen Shot 2025-01-30 at 11.26.43 AM.jpg

Also there is interactive layers selector in mouse right click menu (it only show layers that have names)

Screen Shot 2025-01-30 at 11.37.41 AM.jpg

[Vivi_Ram]

Not sure if i understand about text resize. It is possible to change font size interactively with mouse scroll wheel or drag. Id hold Command+Shift while using Text tool it is also possible to scale text layer same as any other layer.

The scrubbing action does not seem to work in Windows. Maybe I am doing something wrong?

[Vivi_Ram]

Point taken about too many interactive controls. It can get distracting. Alternatively, you could have this as an option in the program settings.

But the intention wasn't that not all of them would be implemented. But only what all of us agree is best. I personally think group state is a good option. Since, I frequently get confused about which objects are in a group and not. But that's just me.

If all of us agree these aren't needed, that's also fine.

[Vivi_Ram]

For Edit Vector Point tool it is not so many free key modifiers remaining. Alt key is globally reserved for manual snapping, if auto snapping is disabled in preferences.
Maybe when use "Edit Vector Point" tool, right mouse click to path to quickly apply "Convert Vector Points" tool?

This could also work. This is how affinity does it. I'm not a fan of this.

However, my point is that converting to sharp to smooth should be automatic.

I create paths with the same tool, manipulate path by pulling them up or down with the same tool, edit, add, move, delete vector points with the same tool, move control handles with the same tool. It should be completely unified. Switching between tools is not ideal. Because they're all related to one action: vector curve creation.

If I pull the curve down, the points should convert automatically.

Yes, bezigon, catmull rom and arc spline are supported by SVGs. Look up Boxy SVG. It has the last 2 curve modes.

Look up Xara's implementation of curve creation. It's a dream.

Bezigon is a rare exception. And really wonderful to use. It's like an intelligent mode.

[Vivi_Ram]

@shijan: How do you upload gifs? I can't ever get them to upload here. It's always too big?

[shijan]

Not sure if i understand about text resize. It is possible to change font size interactively with mouse scroll wheel or drag. Id hold Command+Shift while using Text tool it is also possible to scale text layer same as any other layer.

The scrubbing action does not seem to work in Windows. Maybe I am doing something wrong?

Just tested on Windows and it works same as on macOS.
If use Layer Tool, just hover mouse over text size value and scroll. Or press middle mouse button and drag.
If use Test Tool you first need to select letters you want to change (or hold Alt key to apply changes to all letters in text layer), then hover mouse over text size value and scroll. Or press middle mouse button and drag.

[shijan]

Morph already could be controlled in easy way from Layer attributes:

This should be enough. No need for further on screen control. I still don't see an option for blend/morph along a path.

Yep, morphing across custom path could be useful.

[Vivi_Ram]

Just tested on Windows and it works same as on macOS.
If use Layer Tool, just hover mouse over text size value and scroll. Or press middle mouse button and drag.
If use Test Tool you first need to select letters you want to change (or hold Alt key to apply changes to all letters in text layer), then hover mouse over text size value and scroll. Or press middle mouse button and drag.

It works, I was trying to scrub by dragging the mouse, not scrolling the wheel.

But that's not what I wanted. I wanted to be able to change the text directly and the text size to update automatically. Now, it is the opposite. The reason is, when you're working on initial drafts, you don't really work with set text sizes. You work with optical sizes - that is, you set text sizes to whatever feels right. So, the green dot outside the box is one possible and elegant solution. This is how Affinity solves the problem, and I think it's a good solution.

See this: https://imgur.com/a/qy6ov4m - Too big to upload here.

[Vivi_Ram]

"Using Tab to move to next object in the layer". I personally use Tab key to show/Hide panels (same as it works in Photoshop)
There is a "Deep Selection" setting in tool settings, which allow to select bottom layers by simply clicking again and again.
There are also customized hotkeys for Layer->Navigation menu, so you can just map them to Tab key if you like:
Also there is interactive layers selector in mouse right click menu (it only show layers that have names)

This is good. I'll need to play a lot more with PL's navigation functions to understand how it can fulfil some of the requirements I've raised. I wonder if it is possible to see all the layers in the layer stack one at a time in isolation mode. This would be useful when you have a large composition, and you're trying to see how each image looks in isolation. I'm also working a part B to this document, which will have even more suggestions directly related to image editing. This section was mostly around vectors.

[shijan]

There are two different "systems": font size and layer size:
You can scale text layer same as any normal layer, but you need to use key modifier for this:
If use Layer Tool or Text Tool, first hold Command (or Ctrl on Windows) and drag corner. Depending of tool settings you may also need to press Shift to keep layer proportions during resize.