Re: [Gimp-developer] Re: alpha vs. transparency / translucency

2002-12-19 Thread David Necas (Yeti)
On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 12:08:55PM +0100, Sven Neumann wrote:
  
  Side effect, will be RGBA be named RGBT everywhere (in user visible
  interface)? Is not a bit silly to start renaming basic concepts of a
  field with something else (aka causing differences with reference docs
  that existed long time ago)? Just wondering.
 
 the user shouldn't be confronted with the term RGBA at all. IIRC, this
 is the case unless she's writing a script or plug-in in which case she
 is not a user any longer but a developer.

Maybe.  But how do you say RGBA in less then five words
without using the acronym?  I think RGBA is one of the terms
a Gimp user could learn.

BTW, I'm not sure if someone already pointed out
Transparency is the oposite of Alpha, so if we changed Alpha
to Transparency, not only the word, but also the meaning
would change (think about all the hscales, entries and
curves).

Yeti

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Re: [Gimp-developer] Re: alpha vs. transparency / translucency

2002-12-19 Thread Stephen J Baker
On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero wrote:

 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (2002-12-18 at 1711.13 +0100):
  I agree with Alan and Raphaël (see the bug report) when it comes to the
  What/How statement. I can see how the term alpha may be unclear to
  new users, but I think it would be a pity to replace it all together, as
  this might cause users who are accustomed with the term to be confused.

 Another How: My image is RGB, how do I make it RGBA? :]

 Side effect, will be RGBA be named RGBT everywhere (in user visible
 interface)? Is not a bit silly to start renaming basic concepts of a
 field with something else (aka causing differences with reference docs
 that existed long time ago)? Just wondering.

I agree - that it would be better to consistently use the
more modern, technical term 'Alpha' - and provide some simple
cues to new users that 'Alpha' and 'Transparency' are related.

Technically, the meaning of 'Alpha' is completely the opposite
of 'Transparency'. An Alpha of 1.0 (Lots of alpha) means
'opaque' and an Alpha of 0.0 (no alpha at all) means totally
transparent.  Hence, Lots of Transparency and Lots of
Alpha have opposite meanings and the terms are NOT
completely interchangeable.

Perhaps in the couple of places in the higher levels of the GIMP
menu where you can access alpha, it would be better to say
'Alpha (Transparency)' - so that newbies would come to understand
that the terms are related.  Having established that relationship
in their minds, you can drop the '(Transparency)' part in deeper
menus and dialogs.  You could also add a 'Tip of The Day' that
explains this.

As an alternative, you could talk about 'Opacity' as a synonym
for Alpha - but there are definitely contexts where that would
be confusing too.


Steve Baker  (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
L3Com/Link Simulation  Training (817)619-2466 (Fax)
Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   http://www.link.com
Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   http://www.sjbaker.org

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Re: [Gimp-developer] Re: alpha vs. transparency / translucency

2002-12-19 Thread Raphaël Quinet
On Thu, 19 Dec 2002 10:04:10 -0600 (CST), Stephen J Baker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero wrote:
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] (2002-12-18 at 1711.13 +0100):
   I agree with Alan and Raphaël (see the bug report) when it comes to the
   What/How statement. I can see how the term alpha may be unclear to
   new users, but I think it would be a pity to replace it all together, as
   this might cause users who are accustomed with the term to be confused.
 
  Another How: My image is RGB, how do I make it RGBA? :]
 
 I agree - that it would be better to consistently use the
 more modern, technical term 'Alpha' - and provide some simple
 cues to new users that 'Alpha' and 'Transparency' are related.

That's why I think that the suggestion given in the bug report #89275
is the easiest way to solve this problem: keep alpha almost
everywhere, but just rename the sub-menu Alpha to Transparency.
So you would have Image-Image-Transparency-Add Alpha Channel.

-Raphaël
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