[Tuxpaint-devel] Revisiting Selection tool idea

[Bill K. <nb...@so...>]

I was thinking about kid friendly ways of presenting the idea of selection
tools in a graphics program.  Here's what I've come up with... what do
people think?

(1) There'd be a "Selection Tools" button in the tool box
    (along with Stamps, Brushes, Lines, Shapes, etc.)

(2) When the "Selection Tools" button is clicked, the buttons on the right
    change to include the following:

    * Name: "Add" or "Add Rect."
      Icon: Dashed rectangle with plus ("+") symbol
      Description: Rectangular add to selection

    * Name: "Subtract" or "Sub. Rect." or "Remove" or "Remove Rect.
      Icon: Dashed rectangle with minus ("-") symbol
      Description: Rectangular remove from selection


    * Name: "Add" or "Add Oval" or "Add Ellipse"
      Icon: Dashed oval with plus ("+") symbol
      Description: Oval add to selection

    * Name: "Subtract" or "Sub. Oval." or "Remove" or "Remove Oval", or...
      Icon: Dashed oval with minus ("-") symbol
      Description: Oval remove from selection


    * Name: "Add" or "Add Freehand"
      Icon: Dashed squiggly outline with plus ("+") symbol
      Description: Freehand (click-and-drag) add to selection

    * Name: "Subtract" or "Sub. Freehand" or "Remove" or "Remove Freehand"
      Icon: Dashed squiggly outline with plus ("+") symbol
      Description: Freehand (click-and-drag) add to selection


    * Name: "Grow"
      Icon: Grey dashed outline with a darker outline around it
      Description: Grows the current selection by a few pixels

    * Name: "Shrink"
      Icon: Grey dashed outline with a darker outline within it
      Description: Shrinks the current selection by a few pixels


    * Name: "Shrinkwrap" or "Snap"
      Icon: Dashed outline of a hand with fingers spread (like tracing a hand)
      Description: Snaps/shrinks selection to any kind of obvious object
        Tux Paint can find in the canvas


    * Name: "Unselect" or "None" or "Clear"
      Icon: "X" or a grey dashed outline with a kind of "> <" (pop!) around it
      Description: Disables any selection (aka 'Select None')


    * Name: "Cut"
      Icon: Scissors
      Description: Copy selection's contents to clipboard, remove contents
        from canvas, and disable selection (aka 'Select None')

    * Name: "Copy"
      Icon: Photo camera
      Description: Copy selection's contents to clipboard

    * Name: "Paste"
      Icon: Large thumbnail of the current clipboard contents
        (I figured it could be take up 2x2 spots in the toolbox)
      Description: Acts like the Stamp tool; the user can click in the
        canvas to 'paste' the clipboard's contents


    * Name: "Mirror"
      Icon: [Mirror icon used elsewhere in Tux Paint]
      Description: Acts like the Stamp tool's mirror; mirrors the clipboard's
        contents, so when it's pasted, it will appear mirrored, horizontally

    * Name: "Flip"
      Icon: [Flip icon used elsewhere in Tux Paint]
      Description: Acts like the Stamp tool's flip; flips the clipboard's
        contents, so when it's pasted, it will appear mirrored, vertically

    * Maybe also include resizing 'slider', like Stamps have,
      or Grow and Shrink buttons, like Fonts have in the Text tool.


Also, I'm considering whether I want to keep the current selection active
when the user goes to use other tools, in which case it will act like other
graphics tools.  That is, if you have a selection and then use the paint
brush, the painting will be restricted to the selected area.  Magic Tools
would similarly only affect the selection (likely by being masked when
the Magic Tool plugin is done doing its job...?)

This could be really useful, or could be very confusing.  Of course, making
it optional is always an option. :)

What do people think?

-- 
-bill!
bi...@ne...
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/