Allow users to control addition of nodes with freehand

[Silsor-users]

Instead of enforcing either the Inkscape or Sodipodi style of freehand
drawing, it would be better to optionally leave the decision of where and
when to place nodes up to an experienced user.

IRC log follows:

<silsor> what do you guys think about a pen tool that would allow you to
draw freehand, but lay down nodes on the press of a key?
<silsor> I was thinking about the comparison between the Inkscape and
Sodipodi freehand drawing tools and realized that it might be better to let
an experienced user control when the nodes are added
<silsor> when you pressed the hotkey, it would add a node at the current
mouse position that most accurately represents the scribbles between that
point and the previous node that was set down
<^-> [cyreve] xara records the whole list of mouse positions and once
you've lifted it gives you a slider to control how many nodes you want.
It's quite slick
<silsor> this would allow you to draw slowly with a mouse for control,
without adding the insane numbers of nodes that this creates with the
current inkscape drawing tool
<^-> [ScislaC] silsor: that's a discussion to be had with bulia...
<^-> [ScislaC] cyreve: that is definitely slick!

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

Xara's system is not very convenient at all. I've used it.
Once you deselect the just-drawn path, or draw a new one,
you can't return to that path and adjust its number of nodes.

Our Simplify is similar but better because you can simplify
any path at any time. On the other hand, Simplify only works
downhill, i.e. you can only simplify but not "complexify" a
path to make it closer to hand movements. Xara can go both
ways, but only because it stores the exact hand movement for
the just-drawn path - but quickly forgets it afterwards. And
it's understandable, because if you try to store it forever,
it will give weird results after you node-edit the path or
do anything else with it manually. So, between the Xara way
(selecting arbitrary precision, but only for the freshly
drawn path) and Inkscape way (being able to only simplify a
path, but do it to any path at any time) I prefer the latter.

[Silsor-users (silsor-users)]

I only included the Xara comment for completeness - I prefer to RFE the
idea of manual selection of node points as a compromise between the
ultra-sensitive drawing tool, and the limited flexibility of the line/curve
tool.

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

How do you do freehand drawing with manual node selection?
I'm having hard time trying to visualize it.

[Silsor-users (silsor-users)]

The user would draw freehand with the pointer, but they
would tell Inkscape when it's okay to lay down a new node.
When that happens, Inkscape would evaluate the mouse
positions since the last node was laid down, and extend
the SVG path by adding one new node to best approximate
the freehand drawing.

For example, if I wanted to draw an oval-like shape in
freehand with four nodes, I would hold down the mouse
button to start it, draw a quarter of the oval in the style I
would like it to appear, then add a node there which would
most closely fit the scribble I have drawn. Then I would
continue dragging around the rest of the shape, adding
nodes where appropriate.

Like you pointed out, the current freehand tool + simplify
can create results somewhat similar to this, except that the
nodes often end up in random-seeming positions that
require tedious dragging and hand-editing of node handles
to match with the artist's conception of the shape.

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

This sounds like a novel approach. I'm not convinced that it
will be really that usable. Someone will need to code a
working demo to explore the idea.

[grey tomorrow (gtomorrow)]

Hi - thanks for reporting this bug, I've manually migrated it to Inkscape's new bug tracker on GitLab, and closed it here.

Please feel free to file new bugs about the issues you're seeing at
https://inkscape.org/report .

Moved to: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/issues/2506
Closed by: https://gitlab.com/greytomorrow