Inkscape 0.48 interface

[Trekkele]

affects: Inkscape 0..48 on both windows and linux.

the new UI is to be rethinked: the button bar on the righ of the screen is way too crowded! there are too many secondary-importance buttons, while the important ones (fill&stroke, align, layers(!) text etc..) disappear on a standard 15.6" screen.

this cripples usability very much, since i have to look for a small arrow button in the lower right corner of my screen, click it and then choose from a crowded menu the important functions i mentioned before.

it would be great if the important buttons would return to the upper bar, leaving the secondary ones where they belong. ie. on the sidebar.

ps. i am a pro interaction designer, if somebody in the inkscape team is interested, i will gladly help with mock-ups and suggestions.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

There are options in Preferences to change toolbar button sizes and such which may help in your situation (just turn them all to small). Additionally the 15.6" screen is not an issue, screen resolution is. I have the same size screen on my laptop and the whole interface is visible (1680x1050).

As for mock-ups, you are more than welcome to create them and attach them to this report. We take usability very seriously and all suggestions are welcome. However, if it starts looking like an Adobe Illustrator clone, it might not be taken too seriously. ;) Cheers!

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> (…) the button bar on the righ of the screen
> is way too crowded! there are too many secondary-importance buttons,
> while the important ones (fill&stroke, align, layers(!) text etc..)
> disappear on a standard 15.6" screen. (…)
>
> it would be great if the important buttons would return to the upper
> bar, leaving the secondary ones where they belong. ie. on the sidebar.

You can change the arrangement of the toolbars:
'View > Default' has the commands bar horizontally right below the menu bar and only the snapping bar vertically at the right edge of the window,
'View > Custom' puts all 3 toolbars horizontally below the menu bar at the top (like in 0.47).
'View > Wide' has both the commands bar and the snapping bar vertically at the right side (intended for netbooks and wide screen monitors).

[Trekkele (trekkele)]

@~suv:
thanks for the tip, it helped a lot.
there still are, however, several issues regarding inkscape's UI... i'll be posting some mockups this weekend to show what i mean.

@ScislaC:
i love inkscape because it is _not_ an illustrator colone. no way i'll be designing an illustrator-like UI, don't worry :)

mock-ups under way, wait till tomorrow!

[Trekkele (trekkele)]

This is a UI evaluation describing the issues of the "default" interface configuration, as chosen from the "view" menu.

Some of the issues affect all of the interfaces, so I decided to point them out too.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Most of the mentioned issues have been reported as bugs or feature requests already. Here are some links to the most relevant reports (the list is not intended to be exhaustive):

1) Non-dockable dialogs:
Bug #592323 “dockable text and font settings”

2) Toolbars not dockable side-by-side
Bug #463937 “Toolbars can not be moved from their default position”

3) Ruler numbers -> coordinates system
Bug #170049 “Inverted ruler co-ordinate system”

4) Secondary importance controls
«these controls are seldom used» - This really depends on the individual workflow & type of drawing (e.g. for me this is a toolbar I frequently use, whereas I tend to use keyboard shortcuts for most other commands - if available).

Blueprint: Resize the tools box and move buttons
<https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/toolbar-resize>

5) status bar - style indicator - layer selector
- Uncomfortable color palette: the 'Swatches…' dialog can be used docked (or detached) and offers various size and width options for the arrangement of the color swatches. Choosing a different palette with fewer colors doesn't need the horizontal scrollbar either (see also item 6).
- Misplaced layer selector: the 'Layers' dialog can be docked at the right side of the canvas for easy access to all layer features.

Bug #171617 in Inkscape: “toolbar UI mockups: fill/stroke, font style”
Bug #172212 in Inkscape: “Misplaced Controls”
Bug #171184 in Inkscape: “Better layers interaction”

Blueprint: User Interface Improvement Effort
<https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/ui-improv>
discussed on 'inkscape-devel':
<http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.inkscape.devel/34844>

6) "Lower bar too thick"
Not clear to me - is about the palette having its own scrollbar?

Bug #602698 “Sanitize default palettes”, details discussed in
<http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.inkscape.devel/34350>

[Trekkele (trekkele)]

thanks a lot for the links, i'll check them out.

as regards the lower bar, in my opinion it is too thick because it holds 4 different "layers":
-the canvas scroll bar
-the pallette
-the pallette scrollbar
-the status bar

moving the pallette and the layer tools to the upper bar would solve the problem at once.