[Feature Request] - Crosshair Pointer Improvements

[americogobbo]

For the artists that use the Crosshair pointer to paint or draw is very difficult to have the notion of the task to scale a brush, up or down, the size mainly but this discussion maybe important to other parameters present on Tool Options tab.
I'm not know if is possible... but would be useful when we use the crosshair to have the possibility a key to interact with the Circle instances of pointer, only to show the circle when this key is down, for example.
A good improvement for me is also to have a label directly on the circle pointer (over canvas) with the nominal dimension in pixels (diameter preferable).
In my cases to resolve this question I've made some fixed brushes, 0.2, 0.4 mm (based on 300 ppi) that I use as reference.
In alternative would be interesting to have in alternative or also a label with nominal values of the tool options parameters.

[achadwick]

I'm not know if is possible... but would be useful when we use the crosshair to have the possibility a key to interact with the Circle instances of pointer, only to show the circle when this key is down, for example.

If you want the brush radius circle pointer, use the settings in the prefs. I think we overload our keys too much already.

But I think you're not asking for that?

A good improvement for me is also to have a label directly on the circle pointer (over canvas) with the nominal dimension in pixels (diameter preferable).

The "circle radius" is fairly meaningless in Mypaint. I don't really want to present any numeric value to the user as if it's a real pixel size because that value is likely to be misleading.

Having an estimated pixel size always visible near the crosshair cursor sounds like a bad idea, especially when the intent of the crosshair cursor is to be super-minimal. I assume that isn't what you're asking for, and you actually want this plus the keypress idea?

In alternative would be interesting to have in alternative or also a label with nominal values of the tool options parameters.

I wouldn't mind having something tucked away in a corner, in the statusbar maybe. Perhaps even a transient message that only appears when radius settings change. Post-1.2 for that though, and this will need mockups, and it should be reported as a separate issue.

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Counterproposal:

1. Hold down a modifier key and a pointer button, radius circle appears while (button AND modifier keys) are held down.
2. Dragging the pointer resizes the circle.
3. Release the button OR the modifier key to begin using the new size.

This can be done as an mode and overlay, like certain other modes. I'd quite like this to preview using the brush engine via the canvas; very direct.

[americogobbo]

If you want the brush radius circle pointer, use the settings in the prefs. I think we overload our keys too much already.

A note about my question... I use MyPaint with big canvas to print artworks and illustrations normally in 300 ppi ... when I'm doing lines or painting details (small radius), many times (depends in part of actual zoom view), some Circle cursors to small sizes are very difficult to see and after some hours in the same session painting is more difficult yet to see ... the Crosshair cursor in this case is very good... is ever present. The problem with crosshair is when I need scale the size brush and we don't have any info about the final dimension ... is necessary to make a line for test it ... the same, in part, is present to circle cursors when I need scale the small sizes ... because the slides don't have any reference of the size.

So I think that your counterproposal and

I wouldn't mind having something tucked away in a corner, in the statusbar maybe. Perhaps even a transient message that only appears when radius settings change. Post-1.2 for that though, and this will need mockups, and it should be reported as a separate issue.

these could be the better solution to problem.
I think also that my issue has a relation with Deevad issue #25.

[odysseywestra]

@americogobbo Could you move this thread over to https://community.mypaint.org/c/feature-requests? I'm working on cleaning up the issue tracker by move all feature requests there so we can get community feedback. If you can also set your post as a wiki that way we can edit the scope of the feature request that would be awesome as well. Don't forget to link back to here as well so I can keep track of it incase we need to reopen the issue.

[jplloyd]

I think this can be considered to be solved by the resolution to #293, since switching to resize mode (even without resizing) will give a visual representation of what the circular brush cursor would show (even better, since the resize circle is not constrained by a maximum cursor size).