Request: Changes to "Hide all except selected" in Export Bitmap.

[tehalynn]

I attempted to export a bitmap of only the object that I had selected so I went to Export Bitmap, clicked the "Selection" button, then exported. This actually just exports the region your selection is in, including objects other than the selected ones, which wasn't what I was expecting. It turns out, there's a checkbox "Hide all except selected" that when checked makes exporting the selection work as expected. At first I was going to suggest making this checkbox checked by default, but then I realized that "Hide all except selected" is visible for Page, Drawing, and Custom as well.

My request is this: Make the "Hide all except selected" checkbox visible only when exporting the selection, and checked by default. This will make the exporting the selection work as expected without having to do any configuration.

[Andrew (and471)]

I don't support having it hidden, setting it to be 'insensitive' is better as otherwise a user may not found out it even exists.

[tehalynn (tehalynn)]

Hmm, I think you're right, Andrew. Insensitive is probably better.

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

Committed revision 11569.
"Hide all except selected" sensitive only for export selection, and checked by default.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

<opinion>
Personally, I'm disappointed by the changes recently implemented based on this report:
1) Changing the default export behavior without further notice is bad IMHO (I'm likely not the only one who will have to check and redo recent exports because of this).
2) The change simply shifts the burden to all other users who happen to not share the same workflow as the reporter, and rely on the default export setting since this _optional_ feature had been added in 0.46 [1].
3) Existing and working features got disabled without convincing argument ("Hide all except selected" for fixed export sizes)
4) OTOH the only feature which never actually worked so far was left enabled ("Hide all except selected" combined with batch exporting a selection of objects).
<http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.inkscape.devel/39314>
</opinion>

[1] <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.46#Bitmap_export>

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

Yes looking at this again, it doesn't look correct.
I think the intention was that when export area is "Selection" then "Hide all expect selection" should be on by default.
But any other export area, then "Hide all expect selection" would be off by default.

@suv, do you think we should completely revert this change ?
Or any other suggestions ?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> 3) Existing and working features got disabled without convincing argument
> ("Hide all except selected" for fixed export sizes)

Actually it is worse then disabled (insensitive): the new default to always use "Hide all except selected" for export is insensitive in 'Page', 'Drawing' and 'Custom' yet still in effect as soon as the user happens to have a current selection of object(s) while exporting the page, drawing or a custom area.

The user now has to either make sure each time to deselect everything before clicking on 'Export' for 'Page', Drawing' or 'Custom', or alternatively first to return to the 'Selection' option, disable the new default setting and then switch back to the other export area option (if he/she does not want to loose the current selection, for what ever reason).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> I think the intention was that when export area is "Selection"
> then "Hide all expect selection" should be on by default.

Whose intention? The one of the developer who added the optional feature to the bitmap export dialog in 0.46 (AFAIK the command line option '--export-id-only' [1] has existed since Inkscape 0.40)? Or the intention of the request filed by someone maybe just getting started with Inkscape?
What if I a file a new request tomorrow asking for the opposite (Make "Hide except all selected" optional for 'Selection' (i.e. not active by default))? I'm just another individual user, who might happen to prefer different workflows than the reporter of this request, and so far had been content with the original default setting (i.e. only occasionally had the need to drop any overlays (e.g. blurs or gradients for shading), or background(s) from the exported selection).

IMHO such a change of a frequently-used default action (which affects all users, and can result in fundamentally different exported bitmaps with default options) should be based on a broader consensus, especially since the chosen setting doesn't stick (is not remembered across sessions).
OTOH - maybe I'm oversensitive wrt this change (likely because it will affect me most of the times I export a selection), and others don't really care …

[1] Inkscape manual:
-j, --export-id-only
    Only the specified object is exported. Must be used with the --export-id option. See above. Can be used with --export-area-canvas and --export-area-page.
<http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/CommandLine-Export.html#CommandLine-Export-Region>

man page:
-j, --export-id-only
    Only export to PNG the object whose id is given in --export-id. All other objects are hidden and won't show in export even if they overlay the exported object. Without --export-id, this option is ignored. For PDF export, this is the default, so this option has no effect.
<http://inkscape.org/doc/inkscape-man.html>

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

How about this :
* "Hide all expect selection" is always sensitive (can always be toggled on/off) - as it was previously
* "Hide all expect selection" is by default off - as it was previously
* "Hide all expect selection" setting is stored in prefs and restored on each session

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

Commit r11857 reverts the changes (from r11569) to keep the original behavior.
Adding saving to prefs of the "Hide all expect selection" setting.

[Todor Eemreorov (blurymind-gmail)]

Can we please add the option to export each individual object withough rendering other selected objects behind or infront of it.

Consider this scenario:
-You have created a character, that is made of different body parts. They are all assembled on the character (overlapping).
-You have created a bunch of sprites and a background behind them- you need to batch export both the sprites and the background - sepparately.

In both cases you will need to be able to tell inkscape to batch export all the selected objects or selected groups individually- without rendering stuff infront of them that is also selected or stuff behing them that is also selected! And also ignoring how the document canvas has been set.