https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=442287
Bug ID: 442287
Summary: Replace fill layer's properties dialog color button
with a color picker with instant preview
Product: krita
Version: 4.4.7
Platform: Microsoft Windows
OS: Microsoft Windows
Status: REPORTED
Severity: wishlist
Priority: NOR
Component: Usability
Assignee: krita-bugs-n...@kde.org
Reporter: odraenco...@gmail.com
Target Milestone: ---
SUMMARY
It would be useful if Krita's fill layers were more like Fire Alpaca's 8 bit
layers.
Like this: https://i.imgur.com/45hO0E1.mp4
PROBLEM
Currently, to change a fill layer's color in Krita the following steps are
necessary:
1. open the layer's properties dialog.
2. click on the color button in the dialog.
3. click on a color.
4. click OK, now you can see the color changed.
5. click OK again, now the color is set.
Fire Alpaca/Medibang have 8 bit and 1 bit paint layers that work in a way
similar to Krita/Photoshop's fill layers, except that they're not designed as a
bucket fill that applies automatically, but instead as a paint layer that can
only have one color (they don't fill the canvas by default, and black is opaque
instead of white).
These 8 bit layers are useful for artists with workflows that make use of
multiple single-color paint layers (typically cel-shaded style, with one base
layer for color, and multiply/addition/etc. blend modes on top for shading).
The "fill" layers in Krita/Photoshop are designed backwards for this use case,
but one could still use them the same way as the 8 bit paint layers: you'd just
need to delete the mask after creating the layer and draw with white instead of
black. So long as you don't have a brush that uses a multiply blend mode, for
example, it should work the same way.
The problem is that the way color change is designed in Krita makes them
practically unusable for this use case.
Without this type of layer, artists with this workflow use a normal paint
layer, and to change color they lock the layer's alpha, select a new color, and
use a shortcut (such as CTRL+F) to fill. While this is a bit of a hassle, you
can quickly click color, CTRL+F, click color, CTRL+F, click color, CTRL+F,
until you find the color that you want.
In photoshop and Fire Alpaca, the 8 bit/fill layer's properties dialog has a
color picker immediately accessible. With just one click you can change the
color and preview the result, so it's much easier to search for the color you
want.
In Krita, you can't preview the result as quickly. There's a color button
instead of a picker, and the color button opens a dialog where you choose the
color. Then you have to click OK to preview the color changed. If the color
doesn't look good, you'll have to open the dialog again, click a new color,
click ok again, and repeat.
The process to change the color in a layer type designed to have only a single
color ends up being more complicated than the same process in the
general-purpose paint layer type that's designed to have any color.
This isn't a problem if the fill layer is supposed to be just an automated
bucket fill tool that you barely touch, similar to a filter layer, but I think
with some small changes like this one these fill layers could also be used as
single-color paint layers, which would be useful for artists with the
aforementioned workflow.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Replace the color button with a color picker, and make picking a color preview
the change instantly.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Bug 412928 proposes to change the way the brush's color picker works when fill
layers are selected, which would equally make the color-change process faster.
I don't think this should be done.
First, tools should work seamlessly independent of layer. Selecting the gray
color makes the brush paint gray, and it just happens in mask/fill layers gray
means half-transparent. If you changed this, there would be no way to paint
"gray" in a fill layer. I don't remember for sure, but I think there was a
brush setting to make it replace the layer's alpha with the brush's opacity
instead of adding alpha. You could use this instead, but you would need to
create a custom brush just for fill layers.
Second, if selecting the color for the brush changes the layer's color, then
conversely selecting a fill layer should change the brush's color to match.
This would mean the brush color changes without you changing it. If you were
painting green on one layer, and selected a blue fill layer, when you go back
to the previous layer, is your brush green or blue? In either case it would be
very confusing.
Instead it makes more sense that the same color (white in Krita's case) always
mean opaque, so you don't need to watch the brush's color when changing layers.
One solution could be if clicking on the fill layer thumbnail (which shows its
solid color) in the layers docker "selected" the thumbnail, and selecting the
thumbnail changed the brush color to it, and changing the brush color while
it's selected similarly changed the layer color. However, given this whole
thumbnail-selecting concept simply doesn't exist in Krita right now, it would
be too complicated to implement something like this currently, while simply
replacing the color button in the properties dialogue should be much easier to
implement while also being a huge improvement.
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