screen display 0.92pre2 vs other viewers and 0.91

[Brynn]

Hi Friends,
I've noticed a very obvious difference between how Inkscape 0.92pre2(beta) displays (at least 1) filter, compared to 0.91, and exported PNGs in Windows Photo Viewer (in Windows 7).

Please see the attached screenshots.

f1.png is what I see in 0.92pre2.
f2.png is what I see viewing exported PNG in Windows Photo Viewer.
f3.png is what I see in 0.91

The SVG file in question is also attached in the zip file.

I posted on the mailing list, but didn't get any response from developers, only a suggestion that developers need to address this problem. Thus this report.

I did learn recently that the native dpi for 0.92 is 96 (while previously it was always 90). I wonder if there's some option somewhere that I need to change?

I also know that different viewers can display the same image very differently, according to what the viewer can support and other features of the viewer. But it seems to me like Inkscape itself should provide the best display of images created with it.

Let me know if I can provide any additional info, files, screenshots, etc. This is with Windows 7, 64-bit, sp1 and Inkscape 0.91pre2(beta).

Thank you very much,
brynn

[su_v (suv-lp)]

The display rendering quality settings in Inkscape 0.91 are known to be broken (ignored) as tracked in this earlier report:
* Bug #1512729 “Filter effects and blur quality options broken”
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1512729

Based on the provided screenshots, it appears that the reporter uses lower rendering quality settings than Inkscape's default ('average' ≠ 'default'). These lower quality settings are ignored in Inkscape 0.91 (see bug mentioned above): Inkscape 0.91 will always fall back to the default quality settings for on-canvas rendering of filter effects.

The mentioned bug was fixed a few months ago and is no longer happening in pre-release builds of Inkscape 0.92: the quality settings as explicitly chosen by the user in the preferences dialog are now again (and correctly) used for on-canvas rendering.

In the reporter's case - with what appear to be lower quality settings than the default (or fallback) values - the result is that rendering of filter effects on-canvas in Inkscape 0.92 appears with lower quality when compared to rendering in Inkscape 0.91.

Inkscape's default rendering quality settings:

A - Gaussian blur quality for display:
[x] Average quality

Filter effects quality for display:
[x] Better quality (slower)

B - The custom settings likely used by the reporter:

Gaussian blur quality for display:
[x] Average quality

Filter effects quality for display:
[x] Average quality

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

On the mailing list, Brynn wrote:
"I switched both to Best and restarted Inkscape. No significant change :-(
A tiny improvement, but not nearly as good as the display in 0.91."

For me, it looks the same in both versions.

@Brynn: did you maybe not close both Inkscape versions, but only one, when testing/restarting? They both use the same preferences file... Maybe the setting was overwritten in between?

[Brynn (brynn4inks-deactivatedaccount)]

Well, I don't quite understand about the problem with 0.91, but yes, it was set to Average for both, and they provided an acceptable display for me.

Yes, that must have been it, I only restarted one image, and had left another open. However, it does not indicate that a restart is needed at all. If restart is needed, it probably should say so on that Prefs page.

Now I have an acceptable display, with both switched to Best, but it seems like Average should still be the default, where most users look. for an acceptable display.

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

Inkscape 0.91 ignored the setting and just used 'Better' for filters, and 'Average' for blur.

A restart isn't needed, but if two different programs use the same preferences file at the same time, it could be that modifying it doesn't turn out as expected. Seems that was it :)

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

(maybe having a warning in cases like these would be good?
Or being able to set a preferences file in the settings - it looks as if one could type something in there, anyway, but one can't. Is there a report for this? Would help with switching languages more quicky...)

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Just tested on Windows XP, lp:inkscape/0.92.x rev. 15155, and the drawing shows exactly as expected. If the filters quality setting is "Average", the image looks like the f1.png file from the attached archive. If the setting is "Better", then it shows as f3.png.
Thus I'm proposing to close the report "Invalid" (or to convert it to a question).

Note that the drawing doesn't automatically update when changing the filters settings, but you can trigger an update manually (without rebooting) by zooming in and out.

@Hachmann, do you mean a warning when two different versions of Inkscape are launched at the same time?

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

@jazzynico:

Yes (for two different instances, even of the same version), because when you change the preferences in one window, the change won't take effect, when you switch back to the other document, and that overwrites the preferences again.

(I guess it has them in memory, and saves when changed, doesn't read directly before saving - and even then, there could be a gap...).
No restart can change that ;-) I noticed this when switching languages to review translations.

[Brynn (brynn4inks-deactivatedaccount)]

I don't have a problem closing this report. But just like it did with me, I think we will see this problem from other users (in forum, mailing list or irc).

I'm not sure if it rises to such a level to need a new FAQ item. But mention on Release Notes would probably be good.

I think Maren mentioned there was an indirect reference (unless I'm thinking of something else)..... Ok, I see it's mentioned in the bug fix section. I'll add a short note about how this potentially affects users' display.

Thanks for everyone's help! (and nice to see ~suv :-) )

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Follow-up report: bug #1644837 "Multi instance preferences handling".

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Do you want to keep the report open until the the release notes are updated?

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

Brynn already made that update:

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php?title=Release_notes%2F0.92&type=revision&diff=102971&oldid=102951

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Perfect! Thanks.