adding color after using threshold

[rich2005]

@ CmykStudent

As you can see from my screenshots, I am very much old-school. When single window mode came in with Gimp 2.8 I decided on a layout - Layers dock on top (most important for me) Brushes dock at bottom (I only use 2 or 3 brush shapes) Only Tool Options dock remains under the Tools (other tabs closed).

...and locked in place by going through preferences and unticking the "Save on exit" toggles. That means when I start a new Gimp session I know what to expect. Not for everyone but so many beginners get caught out by setting some option and then forgetting what they did.

When it comes to Layer Effects, I have to confess, I did not notice the one action-for-all, Apart from Gaussian blur, I rarely use the others mentioned, only Curves and Levels and they get fx toggled off.

For old-style users (not that many) it might be an idea for a global fx toggle off. Put it in Preferences -> Tool Options (similar to the move-active-layer toggle)

I have my own fix, a one-liner script, as a key-shortcut to merge any fx on the active layer. Keeps all options open

Anyway, all your hard work is much appreciated. Many thanks.

[makeitwork101]

teapot: Thank you for adding clarity to rich2005's post... It's probably no surprise, but I'm a visual thinker, and it was tough to make sense of the imagery in said post for the simple reason that the colors didn't match my setup. But I took a closer look, found the right box to check, and am pleased to say that the threshold tool is now working properly, i.e., the way it used to, i.e., the way I want it to... and having closed GIMP, then reopened it, I can also confirm that it has remembered my choice, which means I don't have to check the box every time.

That having been said...

WOW.

Figuring this out took several people, several hours, over the course of roughly three days.

I get that new features are fun for the people who ask for them. But as CmykStudent_ pointed out, "It is incredibly funny that we received so many comments about 'GIMP is useless because it doesn't have non-destructive editing!' And once we added it, we immediately starting getting the opposite feedback."

So here's my proposal for the whole GIMP development team: when new features are added, DON'T MAKE THEM THE DEFAULT, i.e., in this case, had the new feature NOT been active by default, I probably would've never noticed it, never been frustrated by it, and never had reason to complain, because the same old tool would've functioned in the exact same way as it did in previous versions. On the other hand, users who want the new feature would know to look for it, and would thus have no trouble activating it if desired.

[CmykStudent_]

rich2005: Agreed. When developing it originally, I thought that the setting would be universal since it came from the parent tool. Turns out each tool has its own values even if it inherits the same variable.
There's a reluctance right now to add more options in Preference though. In fact, the move-active-layer checkbox you mentioned has a UX report about it being placed in the tool instead: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Desi..._items/687

So in the short term, it might end up as a global setting that's not exposed in Preferences, but still tied to all the filters (so Color Balance and Gaussian Blur would both check the global setting instead of their tool setting). We'll see.

makeitwork101: Sure, you would have never noticed it - and neither would any of people who repeatedly requested that feature and said GIMP was lacking without it.

It's a difficult balancing act. What's the difference between "fun feature to have" and "missing core functionality"? For instance, I'm working on a full CMYK mode and a built-in Shape Tool. I don't think anyone would want those hidden by default.

[teapot]

Bug raised:
Bucket fill on a layer with an un-merged filter displays incorrectly.
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/16718

[makeitwork101]

CmykStudent_: Disagreed. If I want a cigarette lighter built into the dashboard of my car, then every time I buy a new car, I'll check the dashboard for a cigarette lighter. Similarly, if I want non-destructive editing from my image editing program, then I'll look for the non-destructive editing features when using said program.

Non-destructive editing isn't something I'd even heard of until the subject was raised in the comments of this post. And again, I hope all the people who asked for it will enjoy it. The problem was that because the new non-destructive feature was switched on by default, it blocked use of the other tools I wanted to use, and it took days to figure out why that was happening.

To put that into perspective, imagine a virtual reality game that involved sitting at a table to eat a steak... you stick your fork into the steak, but when you try to cut the meat with your knife, the knife won't work. Why? Because someone asked for "non-destructive eating" in the virtual environment, so the programmers switched that feature on by default, i.e., use of the fork blocks use of the knife... until you spend days looking through the game's features to figure out how to switch non-destructive eating off.

In my humble opinion, use of the fork shouldn't block use of the knife.

[rich2005]

I think you are overstating your problem. Things change, people change with them.

However, and it all depends on which linux you use but this might work. No need to worry about non-destuctive filters.

A Gimp 2.10.38 appimage

https://github.com/ivan-hc/GIMP-appimage...ous-hybrid

[CmykStudent_]

makeitwork101: I think it might be helpful in the future if we post news about development releases in forums with existing users (like here). It seems like longtime users wait quite a while before updating, so we don't get their feedback until long after the release. Hearing from you all sooner could us catch workflow issues that we don't learn about from early adopters - for instance, "So, about that change to the Path tool...".

To use your analogy, we are repeatedly told that GIMP is missing a brake pedal, not a cigarette lighter. Obviously if we add a brake pedal, it should be there by default, right? So, we build it, release it, and get lots of praise. Then we start hearing "Why did you add this weird extra pedal? It interferes with my driving!".

GIMP has a large and diverse user group, which is both great and also difficult to design for. I've had this exact conversation in reverse, where someone wanted to know why we had an option to make filters destructive at all.

I also think some UI/UX improvements would help. People seem to not notice the Fx icons in the layers dock, and the proposed UI update would help make the live filters more visible. They also seem to miss the "Merge filters" checkbox in the dialogue, and another proposed redesign might help make it more visible.