Vertical positioning wrong...

[Jayson Bourne]

Hi

I am assuming this is a bug, because I expected different behavior. If it is I cannot believe that it is not on here already (I did searched first), so maybe it is not a bug.

Here goes:

At the top of the screen there is a toolbar with fields for entering coordinates for X and Y. When I enter 0 (zero) into the X field the selected object correctly jumps so that its left border is aligned with the left page boundary.

When however I enter 0 (zero) into the Y field the selected object jumps so that its bottom border is aligned with the bottom page boundary. I would expect it to align its top with the top page boundary.

How to replicate:

Open a new page and draw anything. Select it to get the selection rectangle around it. Enter 0 (zero) into the X field on the toolbar. Now enter 0 (zero) into the Y field. The object will jump to the bottom of the page instead of the top.

Version Information:

Inkscape 0.48.4 r9939
Windows 7 64Bit (Latest Service Pack)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Like many drawing applications, Inkscape uses the first quadrant of the Cartesian coordinate system for the drawing area: the origin is in the lower left corner of the page (check the values on the rulers at the top and the left edge of the canvas).

See also:
«One confusing aspect is that Inkscape uses a different scale internally. On the canvas, the x and y coordinates increase as one moves right or up. Internally the y coordinate is flipped as per the SVG standard. Thus, (0, 0) is defined from the upper-left corner of the page region internally but at the bottom-left corner in the canvas window. The internal scale is fixed (by default) to 90 dpi. The internal scale is important if you wish to edit by hand an object using the XML Editor. »
<http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Coordinates.html>

The request to change the GUI coordinate system to match the SVG coordinate system, or to support a configurable GUI coordinate system, is tracked in:
- Bug #170049 (sf859982) “Inverted ruler co-ordinate system”
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170049>

Proposing to link as duplicate to bug #170049.

[Jayson Bourne (jaysonb)]

Hi

Thanks for the quick response.

 Wow! I am shocked and amazed! I do graphics for a living and I have to respectfully say that I have never heard of the Cartesian coordinate system being used in any web/print graphics application. I usually (almost always) type X & Y coordinates to place points etc. into such fields so I will not be able to use this otherwise brilliant software. This will always remain a bug as far as I am concerned. At best there should be a setting that allows the user to not have to work upside down with a file format that obviously is not designed to be saved like that.

I hope Bug #170049 gets some attention soon and it becomes a setting at the very least for us lesser beings to also be able to use the application without the need to constantly remind ourselves the ruler is upside down. I better shut up now... Too many questions are being raised in my head as to the origins of this situation and it makes me want to lash out at someone, but that would be totally uncalled for here I guess. If I could code I would be on this like white on rice, but alas I can not.

PS: You suggested "Proposing to link as duplicate to bug #170049.", but I do not know how to do that, so can someone please do this for me or let me know how to?

Jayson

[su_v (suv-lp)]

On 2014-03-09 08:27 +0100, Jayson Bourne wrote:
> I have to respectfully say that I have never heard of the Cartesian
> coordinate system being used in any web/print graphics application.

Examples: CorelDRAW defaults to the first quadrant of a positive (aka right-handed aka standard) Cartesian coordinate system, Xara Xtreme 0.7 does, Adobe Illustrator used to (switched in CS5 to a left-handed system i.e. origin top-left, y-axis pointing downwards).

There are plenty of use cases for a vector drawing application like Inkscape to work in the first quadrant of the standard Cartesian coordinate system (technical drawings and diagrams for example).

However, the need to change the fixed legacy GUI coordinate system is well known [1], accepted and on the roadmap for Inkscape 1.0.

Linking as duplicate to bug #170049.

[1] Users who disagree with the current setup tend to get very vocal - thus ignoring the fact that this was a design decision taken in Inkscape's predecessor Sodipodi and inherited by Inkscape, and that a proper fix without breaking backwards-compatibility is not trivial.