[Digikam-devel] New Filterdialog option "Preview"

[Andi Clemens]

I have to rename the patch, this is not web compatible...

patch:
http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/misc.tarballs/temp/filterdialog_previewmode/previewmode.patch

So please try the new behavior and tell me what you think!

Andi

On Thursday 10 July 2008 12:29:22 Andi Clemens wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have added a new option to the filterdialogs: a "Preview" checkbox.
> Right now the filterdialog works as follows:
> Some filters take a lot of computation time, even in PreviewMode. For this,
> some of the filter dialogs have a "Try" button, where you can set your
> settings, zoom in, move the preview area around and watch the results by
> pressing the button.
> But somehow this is a strange way to use those filters. If you move the
> preview area for example, you have to hit "Try" all the time. Also when
> changing the preview mode, you have to hit the button. This looks like
> a "broken" dialog to me. When I'm in preview mode, I expect the preview to
> update automatically, not by hitting a button.
>
> So here is the new behavior:
> In normal mode, you can set your settings, zoom in and position the preview
> area where you like to have it. Then you can hit the "preview" checkbox
> like you would with the "Try" button. The difference is that now every
> change in the filter settings will affect the preview, like hitting "Try"
> all the time. I think this behavior is much more natural and is also used
> in Photoshop or Gimp.
>
> Unfortunately i18n is frozen, so this change (if accepted) will never hit
> the KDE3 version of digiKam...
>
> I'll provide a patch here, it fixes the filterdialog behavior in general.
> Additionally the sharpen filter will be fixed with the patch, too. So you
> can actually use one filter with the new behavior.
>
> patch:
> http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/misc.tarballs/temp/filterdialog_previewmode/
>previewmode(%20+%20sharpenfilter).patch
>
> demo video:
> http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/misc.tarballs/temp/filterdialog_previewmode/
>filterdialog_preview.mpg
>
> What do you think? For me it is a usability improvement, maybe we can use
> it in further digiKam releases?
>
> The preview checkbox can be placed elsewhere of course if this is no good
> place...
> Also the preview mode buttons can be disabled if checkbox is not set, so it
> is visually clear to the user that the normal view mode will not affect
> anything.
>
> Andi