"Last used style" for pen tool not working properly for 'Shape' ≠ None

[Bart Van Audenhove]

(This might be related to bug #1401893)

"Last used style" of pen tool does not work properly in Inkscape 0.91 r13725 on Windows 7 64-bit Professional.

1. Preferences of pen tool are set to "last used style"
2. Draw a path with pen tool. Let's say fill color = red, stroke color = blue.
3. Draw a second path with pen tool. (Fill color = still red, stroke color = still blue of course.) Now, with the second path still selected, change it's Fill to green and Stroke to yellow (by clicking and shift-clicking on the colors in the color palette).
4. Draw again a path with pen tool. Fill should be green and stroke yellow. Instead, fill is yellow and stroke is "no paint".

Restarting Inkscape after changing preferences doesn't seem to solve this problem.

Attached a screencast demonstrating the issue.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Switch 'Shape' to 'None' instead of using 'From Clipboard'.

'From clipboard will apply a path effect even if the clipboard is empty. Don't use the setting unless you want to draw a path with the brush currently on the clipboard. As with any of the 'Shape' options other than 'None', the last used 'Stroke' color is applied for the fill.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Proposing to close as 'Invalid' - this is a question about usage, not a bug.

[Bart Van Audenhove (bart-vanaudenhove)]

Thanks for the explanation. So it's not a bug. My apologies.

For user experience maybe it would be nice if some way would be found to avoid confusion like mine. (I have the feeling I'm not the only one confused by this behaviour). But I don't have a simple proposition either...

Maybe add short warning in the shapes tooltip? "Caution: choosing a shape other than 'none' will cause stroke color to be applied for fill." Or something of the sort?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Requesting to state the obvious? If the behavior were different (i.e. stroke color not applied for fill when using a tool option which generates a filled output path), and the user chose a shape intentionally (to create a path with a variable width, or to use a vector brush), it would be reported as bug if the filled output of the patheffect would _not_ use the default stroke color of the tool as fill color ...

Alternatively, what about displaying a warning in the status bar if (and only if) the clipboard is empty while drawing a path with 'Shape' taken from clipboard?

[Bart Van Audenhove (bart-vanaudenhove)]

Actually, I just noticed it already says "Nothing on the clipboard" when "from clipboard" shape is selected and clipboard is empty. I didn't link that to color behaviour...

I still don't quite grasp the logic however. When I have "Last used style" active and I do have a path on the clipboard, I still find the behavior unexpected:
- I draw a shape with pen tool. A few clicks and enter. All well: I get a shape (modified according to clipboard path) as expected.
- With the shape still selected, I choose fill red, stroke green. The shape changes color as expected: filled red with a green outline. So far so good.
- Now I draw a new shape. I would expect again a red fill and a green outline. Instead I get a green fill and no outline. Intuitively this doesn' behave like "last style selected", I find. No?

Attached a demonstration of what I mean. I would have expected the 3d shape to be exactly like the 2nd, and the 5th exactly as the 4th, but they're not...

(Wonderful program by the way, Inkscape, I'm not criticising, just trying to grasp the details here).

[Andreas (wertandrew)]

I am having this issue using the "ellipse" from the shape drop-down. I want the drawn shape to have the fill color of the previous shape, as set from preferences. Instead the color defaults to a color that is taken from a previous shape, but from an unknown (to me) source.

Also, what is said above does not apply (using 0.92.3), the stroke color is NOT the fill color of the shape.

I am attaching a video to further explain this. This is the number 1 issue in Inkscape for me btw, and it is very time consuming to change every single shape when you draw 200-300/hour, so please don't think this is low priority.

Video repro:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkG5n8_vobVPh6Itu-klytYuKF523w

[Andreas (wertandrew)]

Also to prove that the stroke color does not affect fill, as mentioned above:
(Also for some reason now the ellipse color switched to black without me doing anything except writing this)

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkG5n8_vobVPh6IupjXp04MrGzUKIQ

[Andreas (wertandrew)]

EDIT: I now realized that the color is taken from the previous shape stroke color. Very weird behaviour, but I can work with that. At least I can set the color I want that way.