Histogram idea

[Alan Horkan]

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 09:28:01 +0200
> From: Boudewijn Rempt <boud at valdyas.org>
> Reply-To: "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>
> To: "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>
> Subject: Histogram idea
>
> I've been playing with bibble pro (http://www.bibblelabs.com/), an image
> manipulation app written using Qt, and one thing they have is very
> interesting: their histogram is not hidden in a modal dialog, but is shown as
> a docker tab. That makes sense, since users tend to want to keep the
> histogram in view as much as possible. I would like to put the histogram in a
> docker tab, too, and when it is visible, update it regularly. The update
> mechanism could then also be used to update the thumbnails we need in the
> layerbox and in the overview docker tabs.
>
> We would also need to add an overlaid mode of the histogram widget where red,
> green & blue are shown, and perhaps overlay the histogram with the curves
> widget and make it interactive. Screenie attached:
>
>
> Arguments? Discussions? Disagreements?

Would be neat if you could open the dialog as you currently do and provide
some way to optionally dock it, hiding the standard dialog decorations and
unneeded buttons.  I'm thinking a bit like how a toolbar can look quite
different when it is undocked.  If I recall correctly some programs have
experimented with dialogs which can be docked as toolbars (things like
Find and Replace, Spellchecking) to avoid them getting in the way.

My only reservation would be any rush to make everything into dockers
because it makes it much harder for anyone (with a smaller screen) trying
to leave open as few palettes as possible and instead use transient
dialogs open and closing them only as needed.  (Artists and developers
tend to have better hardware and larger screens but I'm sure people with
smaller screens (even handheld devices) might like to be able to use Krita
too.)  If you pay careful attention and show consideration for other
workflows I would like think it was possible to have it both ways but some
palette heavy programs make it very difficult to work if you choose not to
leave the palettes always open.

Could be a good opportunity to make the histogram more modular and
easily reusable.

- Alan