Opening PNG in Inkscape shows nonsense "png GDK pixbuf Input" alert

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

inkscape 0.47.0-2ubuntu3, Ubuntu Maverick
inkscape 0.48.4-0.1ubuntu2, Ubuntu 13.04

1. Select a PNG image and choose "Open With" > "Inkscape".

What happens: A dialog appears, that:
a. has the title "png GDK pixbuf Input";
b. is resizable, but copes terribly with resizing;
c. does not show up in the window switcher, so if you focused anything else while you were waiting, Inkscape seems to have failed to launch;
d. has uncapitalized radio button labels "embed" and "link";
e. has a strange empty space between the radio buttons and their introductory label;
f. has a horizontal line above the buttons
g. displays an error if you choose "Cancel".

https://launchpadlibrarian.net/144066982/Inkscape%20PNG%20import.png

What should happen: either the dialog should not exist, or it should:
a. have a sensible title, such as 'Open PNG “diagram.png”';
b. not be resizable;
c. show up in the window switcher;
d, e. use push buttons rather than radio buttons; and
f. not use any horizontal lines
g. does not display an error if you choose "Cancel".

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

this option is a relatively new feature that has been placed there deliberately in order to give the user the opportunity to choose between linking or embedding the image. Previously this choice was not available.

attached is the dialog that is shown in Windows, using Inkscape 0.48.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

While technically correct (Inkscape can't edit the PNG file itself (or any other supported raster image formats), instead the image is linked or embedded into an empty SVG document structure), the dialog is confusing.

A better solution would be the reorganization of the 'Open…' and 'Import…' dialogs:
- open supported vector formats,
- import supported raster image formats,
similar to the blueprint "Sort out Save as vs Export formats" <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/save-as-vs-export>.

Related reports:
Bug #555234 “[bitmap import] modal dialog destroys workflow ”
Bug #429529 “Opened bitmap images get overwritten with svg on save without warning”

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

The Windows version of the alert is a little better than the Ubuntu version, because it at least mentions what the opposite of linking is, and it gives an explanation. It still could greatly improve its layout, though. The explanation has two sentences, the first sentence repeating the word "Embed" and the second repeating the word "Link"; that should tell you that the paragraph should be refactored into one-sentence captions for each of the radio buttons.

I don't see how changing the Open and Import dialogs would have anything to do with this bug: I opened the file from the file manager. But probably it's still possible to eliminate the alert altogether, by moving the options to the other end of the process, the point where I save or export the image.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> The Windows version of the alert is a little better
> than the Ubuntu version

The difference is between versions, not platforms (0.47.0-2ubuntu3 vs 0.48.0): only rev. 9143 seems to have been backported to the current Inkscape package in the official Ubuntu repos (see <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/211607/comments/41>), but none of the later updates that went into the current stable release (0.48).

List of changes to 'src/extension/internal/gdkpixbuf-input.cpp':
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/changes?filter_file_id=gdkpixbufinput.cpp-20091128124040-aej0x7yhxng1m6ly-1074>

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Related (in progress) Bug #171842 'Add an option to the preferences-dialog: "Auto embed images" '

[Jonathan Hofinger (jhofinger)]

As of 0.92.4, (Windows 10) the dialog displayed is identical to the one displayed when dragging a PNG file onto the canvas. The title says "png bitmap image import", it resizes fine, and has an entry in the taskbar. Closing the dialog/Clicking cancel displays an error message that the file could not be opened (which is reasonable, imo).

Closing as not reproducible.

Please reopen on http://inkscape.org/report if the problem occurs again.

Closed by: https://gitlab.com/jhofinger