Yet Another Brush Proposal

[Valerie]

> Yup :-). I'm thinking the ideal interface might be one where you can 
> choose what parameters to display 'always', but have the full set 
> available at a click or two. And good presets :-).

Basically, what I tried to achieve too with that mock-up of my own. :-)
You basically have a button where you toggle on and off what you want
visible. 

There is an "advanced configuration" button in there as well, though
truth is I have no idea what would be in there... (i.e., either simple
options, or a whole advanced brush editor, eh)

In the meantime though, I found the perfect compromise between keeping
keyboard shortcuts consistent and actually having enough shortcuts
available for all those dozens of options across brushes! As said,
for each good preset, you'd normally only want to configure one
or two options for that brush.

Solution: the central shortcut definition area basically has
something like this:
- Decrease tool parameter 1: [
- Increase tool parameter 1: ]
- Max/Default tool parameter 1: \
- Decrease tool parameter 2: ;
etc.

When creating a brush, you define what tool parameter 1, 2 etc are
from a drop-down.

For example, for your generic brush:
- Tool parameter 1: Size
- Tool parameter 2: Opacity

For a bristle brush:
- Tool parameter 1: Size
- Tool parameter 2: Bristle density

Calligraphic brush:
- Tool parameter 1: Size
- Tool parameter 2: Ratio
- Tool parameter 3: Angle

Max 5 parameters perhaps, not all necessarily with shortcuts
defined. Obviously, each of those brushes have other options
available, such as a number of jitter and fade behaviors. In
which case, you can set the numerical value of one of them
as tool parameter.

In the same way, you can define what behavior you expect
upon using one of the modifier keys. Generic brush example:
- Shift: draw in straight line
- Ctrl: switch to color picker
- Alt: switch to resize mode (drag left and right for resize)
- Ctrl+Alt: switch to angle change mode
- Alt+Shift: switch to opacity change mode

etc. If you can access such modes, then it frees up a number of
keyboard shortcuts too, not to mention you can hide a number of
options from the toolbar to save space (I'd hide the resize value,
for example).

> (In fact, I only know "camel hair" from Painter; I couldn't tell you 
> what properties that has different from other bristle types ;-).)

And I admit to having no idea what the various types of bristle
brushes are. ;-) 

That said, I know of a pretty simple solution to this as well:
each brush collection would be accompanied by a single image file
(not necessarily included in the download, people can just look
on the website), that gives the following:

- The name
Left:
- A preview of a single instance (example: dot)
- A preview of a drawn line (example: simple line, or line with
decreasing width for line fade)
Right:
- A Description ("Generic line with size fade" "Camel brushes
have a [whatever] texture. They are good for [whatever] and
[whatever else]")
- Draw mode? ("Bezier mode only" for the double-edge stroke idea 
of mine, for example)
- Eventually, what the default parameters for shortcuts are:
Parameter 1: Size
Parameter 2: Opacity

Of course, the above would be explained in an image file as well:
"Parameter 1 refers to a parameter that can be modified through
keyboard shortcuts. By default, Parameter 1 accesses the following
keys:
- [ : decrease value
- ] : increase value
- \ : max value for values between 0 and 100%, default value for
others (example: brush size)

Repeat for each brush. I'll make an example eventually.


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