On Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 10:37:16AM -0700, Mark K. Kim wrote: > So, Tux Paint is... > > 1. A painting program, plus > 2. a configuration tool, plus > 3. an image browser with alpha channel editor that can also copy things > in-and-out of Tux Paint and stamps? > > #3 seems so monolithic yet not monolithic enough to combine the > configuration tool. I think it'd be better to combine #2 and #3, so we > can categorize them in a simpler way, like: > > 1. A painting program, plus > 2. Everything else. > > Where the painting program is used by kids, and everything else is used by > the adults to help the kids. > > This may be more difficult to write but it makes more sense to the user. > What do you think?
No. The image browser with alpha channel editor would be usable by kids too. So you don't want to lump it in with the configuration tool, which is targetted solely at admins of kids systems. > On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Bill Kendrick wrote: > > On the other hand, I think it'd be awesome if we had a GUI to allow people > > to import EXISTING pictures INTO Tux Paint... (like a JPEG digital photo > > or a GIF downloaded from a website). > > > > We already have "tuxpaint-import", a simple shell script for Linux/Unix that > > uses NetPBM tools (e.g., "anytopnm") to convert an existing file into > > an appropriately-shaped PNG image for Tux Paint to load, and drops it into > > the 'saved' directory. Even makes the thumbnail :^) This is a kid-friendly proposal. My kids all use multiple tools, and are comfortable to varying degrees with using the desktop. I'm in the process of migrating them from their preferred window managers (some prefer wmaker, and some openbox) to wm + GNOME. They're catching on to using nautilus for graphical file management. Have a look at GNOME's "change desktop background" dialog. This is almost what you'd want for your import: the ability to browse pictures from different sources (you can use nautilus to help here, but in tuxpaint it would be integrated) and when you have what you want, you drag it (or in Tuxpaint's case, just select with a click, since dragging is a more complex movement we avoid) to a "target" area that makes the selected picture your new background. You can then select from among different kinds of processing: tile, center, scale, stretch, with each button presenting a thumbnail of the processed image. > > However, I think a GUI tool would be cool. It could have a very basic > > set of tools for turning a raw image (like a JPEG photo) into something > > suitable for Tux Paint (so that one doesn't need to load Photoshop or Gimp > > first!) > > > > First would be the obvious: a crop tool. Of course, Tux Paint's canvas is > > a fixed size, so the user would only be able to move the crop. > > (Or, if they could resize it, it would keep its aspect, to match Tux Paint's > > canvas.) So, using the "change desktop background" model, you'd show the cropped portion in thumbnail on the "crop" button. Moving your crop origin should be as easy as clicking on a new spot on the source image. > > Second would be a scale tool. (e.g., if the photo is huge, and you want > > more than someone's nose in Tux Paint, you could zoom out enough to let > > it fit in Tux Paint's canvas.) Although, I guess if the crop tool were > > resizable, this would be moot. Scaling would simply be 'built-in' to the > > cropping action. How would we keep the controls for resizing (both of the full image and the crop region) easy? I find the Gimp crop tool fidgety. > > What do people think so far? So far, so good. :) > > Now, here comes the crazy part... one thing I've always wanted was a very > > simple GUI tool to allow people to make stamps. (At least the images, if > > not everything else; sound effect, description, set options, etc.) > > > > The reason this would be necessary is because not everyone out there has > > Photoshop or Gimp... and even if they do, they might not understand or > > care much about alpha channels, which are really /necessary/ in Tux Paint. > > > > So I imagine a tool which loads up a bitmap image (like a JPEG or GIF), > > and lets the parent/teacher/artist/etc. "draw" the alpha channel. > > (Think of a layer mask in Gimp, or the QuickMask selection editor mode.) > > > > > > Does THIS make sense? Yeah, a stamp creator would *very much* be used by this family. But don't think that it's just the older folks that would use it. You'd be surprised at what my 6 and 9 year olds can pick up with relative ease. > > Now, who wants to work on THESE projects!? ;^) I'm incredibly overcommitted already. Always happy to help hash out designs and test new stuff, though. Ben -- ,-. nSLUG http://www.nslug.ns.ca [EMAIL PROTECTED] \`' Debian http://www.debian.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] ` [ gpg 395C F3A4 35D3 D247 1387 2D9E 5A94 F3CA 0B27 13C8 ] [ pgp 7F DA 09 4B BA 2C 0D E0 1B B1 31 ED C6 A9 39 4F ] _______________________________________________ Tuxpaint-dev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://tux4kids.net/mailman/listinfo/tuxpaint-dev
