[Feature request] - Brush size hotkeys

[djm2k]

Hi Tanner, love your app. I tried out the latest build to replace Photoshop CS6 Portable as my GIF editor.

I'm opening up animated GIFs with some transparency already, and going through each frame and erasing more to fix some of the transparency, then re-saving the animated GIF.

I looked for documentation of a list of shortcuts but couldn't find one; I did find Hotkeys.bas though which makes me confident these don't exist yet.

Describe the best way to implement this.

I think these hotkeys would be a great addition and would improve my workflow:

Hotkey action	Keyboard Buttons
Decrease/Increase brush size	[ or ]
Brush hardness in 25% increments	Shift + [ or ]
Select previous/next brush size	, or .
Select first/last brush	Shift + , or .
Show/Hide cross hair for brushes	CapsLock

They could work with the Eraser, Brush, Stamp etc tools.

Thank you!

No, thank you! No need to list me unless I get around to implementing these 😋

[tannerhelland]

Hello @djm2k . Thank you so much for this great feature request! I apologize that it's taken me several days to reply. Implementing these hotkeys took longer than I expected 😩

The shortcut keys you suggested for brush size, hardness, and "show/hide cross hair for brushes" are now available in PhotoDemon nightly builds. Feel free to download or auto-update to the latest nightly to test them at your leisure (I hope I implemented them correctly!), or you can wait until these features arrive automatically with stable release 9.0 in September.

The most recent version of Photoshop I have is CS2 so I've used that as my reference for how these hotkeys behave in PS. I am also open to deviating from Photoshop's formula, if you think a different system could work better!

I'm also interested in any further feedback related to your workflow of hand-editing animated GIFs. PhotoDemon was originally designed as a photography-centric tool, so full animated image support is a relatively recent addition. I would be receptive to any ideas for developing/improving animation support further. (So far I've just had to guess at how animation features should work, alas.)

Paint tools are also a relatively recent addition which is why PhotoDemon's current brush engine is rudimentary. I hope to start work on a more advanced brush engine after 9.0 releases. The current plan is for the new brush engine to include different brush shapes, a proper "brush collection", and if I'm extra lucky, built-in support for Photoshop brushes. (When those features are added, I've made a note to add the previous/next and first/last brush hotkeys you suggested!)

If you need specific brush features for your workflow, please let me know and I'll add them to my roadmap.

Thank you again for this great feature request 🙏 (And it's no trouble to add you to the contributor list for the next release if you're interested! It's the least I can do as thanks!)

[mythter]

Hello @tannerhelland. Thank you very much for this awesome tool!

Is it possible to implement continious incresing/decreasing size (or other parameters) while holding the keys? I mean know you need to press each time you want to change the parameter but I think it would be convinient if you can just press the shortcut and hold it while you get desirable setting. I hope I was able to explain clearly.

[tannerhelland]

Thank you for this feedback, @mythter ! I have just uploaded a new nightly build that fixes this problem. You should be able to press and hold hotkeys now to trigger behavior like continuous increasing/decreasing size of brushes.

Thanks again!

[tannerhelland]

Now that PhotoDemon has full support for custom hotkeys in the Tools > Keyboard shortcuts menu, I feel okay closing this issue.

Thank you to everyone who participated! If I've missed any of the suggested improvements, please let me know and I can re-open this issue to investigate further.