Some thoughts on cropping

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dietmar
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:55 pm

Some thoughts on cropping

Post by dietmar »

Pierre,

here's a couple of ideas regarding cropping:

1) "Crop, save & next" repeats placing the crop region on the second image as it was on the former. If you need to adjust the second image before cropping, e.g. by rotating, you have to leave the crop function. This typically happens on scanned images. You do your adjustments and start to crop again. Now the previously selected area (placement and ratio) is lost.
WISH: Add a "previous" selection to the list of sizes/ratios which should restore the crop area selection (placement, size, ratio, rotation).

2) The crop toolbar is kind of confusing and difficult to understand. To the left is a list of standard selection ratios and sizes. Next is a dialog which seems to allow to edit the list to the left.
PROPOSAL: Move this dialog to the Settings... dialog.
Then there are input fields for left and upper border, width and height, whereas the "<>" button exchanges the two, i.e. swaps the selection width and height.
PROPOSAL: Exchange "<>" by a "Swap width/height" button and put it behind the fourth number to make the function easier to find and understand.
To the right of the crop toolbar there are the buttons "Crop", "Save selection", "Crop, save & next" and cancel. Fine.
But it have no idea and was not able to find out what the "Grid" icon between the last number and the "Crop" button does.
WISH: Tooltip or explanation for the "Grid" button.

3) Rotating the selection: If you click and drag outside of the selected area, you are able to rotate the selection. This is a fine addition and would free me from rotating the scanned image first. But it's not finished. For instance there is no way to return to horizontal if you need to.
WISH: Add the rotation angle to the crop toolbar to allow a selection of zero degrees (horizontal) when needed.
And when rotating the selection this is where a grid display makes sense so you can adjust the selection to lines within the image.
WISH: Allow showing a grid (as in Rotate...) when rotating the selection area.

Otherwise, as always: Thanks for the good work!
Dietmar
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xnview
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Re: Some thoughts on cropping

Post by xnview »

dietmar wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:25 am 1) "Crop, save & next" repeats placing the crop region on the second image as it was on the former. If you need to adjust the second image before cropping, e.g. by rotating, you have to leave the crop function. This typically happens on scanned images. You do your adjustments and start to crop again. Now the previously selected area (placement and ratio) is lost.
WISH: Add a "previous" selection to the list of sizes/ratios which should restore the crop area selection (placement, size, ratio, rotation).
But the crop area is kept after 'Crop, save & next'
2) The crop toolbar is kind of confusing and difficult to understand. To the left is a list of standard selection ratios and sizes. Next is a dialog which seems to allow to edit the list to the left.
PROPOSAL: Move this dialog to the Settings... dialog.
Is it not better to have customize size here?
Then there are input fields for left and upper border, width and height, whereas the "<>" button exchanges the two, i.e. swaps the selection width and height.
PROPOSAL: Exchange "<>" by a "Swap width/height" button and put it behind the fourth number to make the function easier to find and understand.
So '<>' before grid button, right?
To the right of the crop toolbar there are the buttons "Crop", "Save selection", "Crop, save & next" and cancel. Fine.
But it have no idea and was not able to find out what the "Grid" icon between the last number and the "Crop" button does.
WISH: Tooltip or explanation for the "Grid" button.
It's to show a grid in the crop selection
3) Rotating the selection: If you click and drag outside of the selected area, you are able to rotate the selection. This is a fine addition and would free me from rotating the scanned image first. But it's not finished. For instance there is no way to return to horizontal if you need to.
WISH: Add the rotation angle to the crop toolbar to allow a selection of zero degrees (horizontal) when needed.
ok
Pierre.
dietmar
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:55 pm

Re: Some thoughts on cropping

Post by dietmar »

xnview wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:46 am
dietmar wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:25 am WISH: Add a "previous" selection to the list of sizes/ratios which should restore the crop area selection (placement, size, ratio, rotation).
But the crop area is kept after 'Crop, save & next'
Only as long as you are in the Crop subroutine. If you exit from it (by selecting "Cancel"), e.g. to rotate the image first, the crop area is lost. A "previous" would enable me to restore it then.
xnview wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:46 am
dietmar wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:25 am PROPOSAL: Move this dialog to the Settings... dialog.
Is it not better to have customize size here?
That's a design decision you have to make. I am a bit confused about the various ways to select and report areas:
- There's the edit menu which has two lists: Selection Size and Selection Ratio
- There's the crop toolbar which has a combined list of Size and Ratio
- And there's the selection reporting in the status bar which uses yet another format

I would prefer to have a unified list of typical areas such as sizes in pixels or length units and typical ratios. I would like to see the same list both in the edit menu and in the crop toolbar. Which would need a place to customize it: the Settings dialog. And I would like to see a common area format shown in the menu, the toolbar, and the status bar.
xnview wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:46 am
dietmar wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:25 am PROPOSAL: Exchange "<>" by a "Swap width/height" button and put it behind the fourth number to make the function easier to find and understand.
So '<>' before grid button, right?
If space permits, I would prefer a format with labels such as
Left: [ 0] Top: [ 0] Width: [ 0] Height: [ 0] [Swap width and height] Rotation: [ 0]
xnview wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:46 am It's to show a grid in the crop selection
Now I see! I was experimenting with scanned images having a white background. As the grid lines are white as well, I did not recognize those. In contrast the grid during Rotate is shown in red which is easy to see on almost all images. Could you please use the same grid in Rotate and Crop? Could be customizable, but in my opinion Red is just fine and any reasonable spacing such as 10% of the image size would be fine as well.
xnview wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:46 am
dietmar wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:25 am WISH: Add the rotation angle to the crop toolbar to allow a selection of zero degrees (horizontal) when needed.
ok
By the way: Shouldn't there be a rotation angle with the normal selection area (Edit menu) as well?

Kind regards
Dietmar
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