Optimized UI flow selection for changing line color

Bug #1468090 reported by why2jjj
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Inkscape
New
Undecided
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Bug Description

This is based on Inkscape version .91.

Inkscape is exactly the program I want to be able to quickly draw up engineering designs with a Wacom drawer. THere is one thing I think could be improved upon- selecting the line color you want with the pencil.

Current "best case" flow I see:
1. select the pencil
2. draw your line
3. click on the "stroke" box in the lower left-corner, which is currently colored black. This brings up a new window, "fill and stroke"
4. select "stroke paint" tab
5. click between the R, G, B color bars to get the line color you want. This changes the color of the line.
6. If I draw a new line and I want that same color, I have to repeat steps 1-5 over again.

As an optimization, why can it not be this?:
A. select the pencil
B. click on the stroke color box lower-left corner (defaults to black).
C. Now click on one of the box colors you want that runs all along the bottom of the screen.
D. Draw your line.
E. The pencil continues to use that color until you select a new color.
F. If you want to bring up the 'fill-and-stroke' box, either click on that stroke box in the lower-left corner two times, or hold down the shift key and click on that stroke box. But the pencil will continue to use that color for new lines until you specify otherwise.

To me, my suggestion seems way more intuitive, practical, and less steps.

Tags: color
Revision history for this message
ScislaC (scislac) wrote :

After you draw your line, you can just Shift+Click swatches to change the stroke color.

Revision history for this message
why2jjj (why2jjj) wrote :

Yes, that is true, but the optimizations I would like to point out:
1. I have to physically go to the stroke paint tab to the RGB bar to select what color I want.
2. Then when I draw the next line, it defaults back to black instead of staying with the color I selected.

Thus my questions:
Why does the pencil not keep the color I select for the next line I draw?
Why can I just select one of the colors along the bottom of screen (see attachment and circle I drew)? Those are common colors I would rather use by just clicking them. If I try to do click on them, it fills in the line,which is not what i want (I want it to change the line color).

Revision history for this message
ScislaC (scislac) wrote :

If you want it to take the last used color, double-click the pencil tool icon in the toolbox. That will bring up the preferences for that tool and you can change it to "Last used style".
The paradigm for swatches (the colors toward the bottom of the window) is click sets fill, shift+click sets stroke. So, shift+click is what you want to do with swatches.

Do these suggestions help?

Revision history for this message
why2jjj (why2jjj) wrote :

Apologies for the long delay in my reply.

I tried what you suggested:

"double-click the pencil tool icon in the toolbox. That will bring up the preferences for that tool and you can change it to "Last used style"."

When I do that, it causes the line I draw to be filled in with a color, even though it does keep the last used line color. And I do have the "Fill" selected to "None". So that is not the behavior I am looking for.

The second suggestion, "shift+click" to select the swatches, that is good for me. Thanks for that 2nd tip.

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