Difference between revisions of "Text toolbar rewrite"

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Revision as of 09:21, 11 June 2019

The text toolbar has become a monstrosity. This page is for discussing how to rework the toolbar into something more usable.

Issues

  • Text toolbar shows too many options.
  • Line height control is confusing.

Ideas

  • Utilize "hamburger" menus to hide less used options:
    • Either: Put all "overflow" options in one big menu.
    • Or: Put options in to several menus
      • Glyph tweaking (rotating, etc.). (Maybe not convenient.)
      • Writing modes (vertical/horzontal, right-to-left, etc.). (These are usually set once and then forgotten.)
  • Move some of the options to mini-dialogs.
    • This could be useful, for example, where you want the controls readily available (like the glyph positioning ones).
    • Mini-dialogs allow more text to explain what is happening.
    • Should work well when we move to the tabbed dialog framework.
  • Set a default line spacing option, require user to use hamburger menu (or mini-dialog) to change option.
    • Which option should be the default?

Mock-ups

Line spacing

Line spacing is complicated:

  • The minimum line-height is set by the 'font-size' and 'line-height' properties on the text element.
  • 'line-height' and/or 'font-size' can be set on any tspan element.
  • 'line-height' % values and pure numeric values have different meanings:
    • %: 'line-height' computed values is fixed by element where 'line-height' property is set. One set, computed value is inherited by all child elements.
    • Number: 'line-height' computed value is determined anew for each child element using the child-elements font-size and line-height values (which can be inherited).

Inkscape has four options for determining 'line-height' behavior. Three of the options enforce certain rules:

  1. Adaptive: 'line-height' is set to zero on text element, this allows computed line-height to be any value in child elements.
  2. Minimum: 'line-height' values is set to some non-zero value on text element. This sets a minimum line-height computed value. Line spacing can be larger but not smaller.
  3. Even: 'line-height' value is set on text element. line-height computed value is fixed regardless of font-size in child elements (provided line-height unit is not '%', 'em', or 'ex').
  4. Adjustable: Inkscape enforces no restrictions on 'line-height' and 'font-size' values. The user must fully understand how 'line-height' and 'font-size' interact with inheritance.

This proposal returns font-size and line-height to follow all other properties:

  • If there is no selection (just a blinking cursor), font-size and line-height entries apply to entire text.
  • If there is a selection (some text high-lighted), font-size and line-height entries apply to selection.

The toolbar would be altered as follows:

  • The "Outer/Inner" button will be removed.
  • The "Line Spacing" menu will be replaced by a button that opens the hamburger dialog which will display the outer (paragraph) values for font-size and line-height with text that is changed depending on which mehtod is selected.

Hamburger line height.png


Text direction

Hamburger text direction.png