ColourPicker

Inkscape and The_Gimp should share a colour picker. The Gtk one is simple but not powerful enough for serious work.

Of course, some of what pickers and features we need will depend on what exactly we mean by InkscapeColor

Here are some example pickers that are worth copying:

• http://www.joncruz.org/NewColorSel.png
• http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/figures/uiswing/components/ColorChooserDemo2.gif
• http://www.oldjewelsoftware.com/ppicker/index.html
• http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/
• http://www.tigercolor.com/
• http://www.synergymedia.net/products/ColorPerfect/
• http://macosx.narcissisme.dk/colordesigner_v7_screenshot.jpg
• http://www.code-line.com/software/colorconsultantpro.html
• http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/macintyre91constraintbased.html

And a few recent additions

• http://www.colorschemer.com/
• http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
• http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/

Patents

There is a Adobe Patent on Tabbed Palettes.

More Infos: http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/ep689133/index.en.html

The patent claim quoted:

1. A method for combining on a computer display an additional set of information displayed in a first area of the display and having associated with it a selection indicator into a group of multiple sets of information needed on a recurring basis displayed in a second area of the screen, comprising the steps of establishing the second area on the computer display in which the group of multiple sets of information is displayed, the second area having a size which is less than the entire area of the computer display, the second area displaying a first of the multiple sets of information;
2. providing within the second area a plurality of selection indicators, each one associated with a corresponding one of the multiple selecting a second of the multiple sets of information for display within the second area by activating a selection indicator associated with a second of the multiple sets of information, whereby the second of the multiple sets of information is substituted for the first of the multiple sets of information within the area of the display; and
3. combining the additional set of information, displayed in the first area of the display into the group of multiple sets of information so that the additional set of information may be selected using its selection indicator in the same manner as the other sets of information in the group.

This is so absurdly vast that it encompasses all Tab widgets ever created, including the tabs at the bottom of Microsoft Excel, the CTabCtrl included with virtually every version of Microsoft Visual C++, email systems where there's a set of categories on the left and a detail section on the right, most websites with menus, including the WC3's frame based pages, all tree-folder setups with a detail view...It's not a sane claim, and it's only purpose is promoting fear of financial damage. AngleWyrm 04:59, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Thoughts:

It would be best to avoid copying any of these exactly.

I like the idea of allowing the user to adjust groups of colours in a picture simultaneously.

The colour picker should be implemented using a widget that displays SVG.