Subject: [Gimp-gui] Simplifying The GIMP Menus

From: john smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 22:35:58 -0500

Often you see people say that the GIMP is too complicated and they are
looking for a simpler alternative.

I think it would be a useful feature to have a tick box in the preferences
that says "Simple Menus" and it hid all but the basic commands from the
Menu Bar.
To be completely flexible (as you will invariably have people who don't
want everything but want more than the basic) you could have a "Custom
Menu" option that allowed you to pick and choose the items in the Menu
manually.

What do you think?

I decided to try to see if I could attempt this with xml config by
modifying share/gimp/2.0/menus/image-menu.xml

The original menus are still available if you right-click on the editor so
functionality is not completely lost.

For instance, the edit section in the file now has
    <menu action="edit-menu" name="Edit">
      <placeholder name="Undo">
        <menuitem action="edit-undo"/>
        <menuitem action="edit-redo"/>
      </placeholder>
      <separator/>
      <placeholder name="Cut">
        <menuitem action="edit-cut"/>
      </placeholder>
      <placeholder name="Copy">
        <menuitem action="edit-copy"/>
      </placeholder>
      <placeholder name="Paste">
        <menuitem action="edit-paste"/>
      </placeholder>
      <menu action="edit-paste-as-menu" name="Paste as">
        <menuitem action="edit-paste-as-new-short"/>
        <menuitem action="edit-paste-as-new-layer"/>
      </menu>
      <separator/>
      <placeholder name="Clear">
        <menuitem action="edit-clear"/>
      </placeholder>
      <placeholder name="Fill">
        <menuitem action="edit-fill-fg"/>
        <menuitem action="edit-fill-bg"/>
      </placeholder>
      <separator/>
      <placeholder name="Preferences">
        <menuitem action="dialogs-preferences"/>
        <menuitem action="dialogs-keyboard-shortcuts"/>
      </placeholder>
      <separator/>
    </menu>

This gives
Edit
    Undo
    Redo
    Cut
    Copy
    Paste
    Paste as -
                   New Image
                   New Layer
                   New Brush
                   New Pattern
    Clear
    Fill with BG Color
    Fill with FG Color
    Preferences
    Keyboard shortcuts
    Units

Units (http://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/plug-in-unit-editor.html) is not
mentioned in the xml file. How can I remove it from the menus?

The Paste as sub-menu has only 2 items in the xml but 4 items in the edit
menu. Why is that?

---

From: Alexandre Prokoudine <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 08:57:48 +0300

> looking for a simpler alternative.

Which is perfectly fine.

> that says "Simple Menus" and it hid all but the basic commands from the Menu
> Bar.

John, I hope you will agree that complexity of software isn't solely
defined by its menu structure and menu contents.

Users would still get tools with tons of settings to understand. And
all the filters that are preserved in the menu still have all the
settings that have to be understood as well. And the save/export
distinction will be preserved as well (which simpler apps don't
usually have).

Simpler software for image editing _really_ means a different approach
towards building user interaction. Crippling the menu would get you
maybe just 5% out of 100% there, and most likely in the wrong
direction.

Alex

---

From: john smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:40:28 +0000

On 22/12/2015, Alexandre Prokoudine <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Menu
> _______________________________________________
> gimp-gui-list mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-gui-list
>

It is funny that you mention Save As/ Export as that was going to be
my next email :)
However, let's not get into that now!

I have simplified all of the menus including the tools menu. The
filters menu is another item that is not completely controlled by the
XML though.
Ideally I would remove most of them and leave just the most common ones behind.

My goal is to have a version that is easy (easier?/clearer?) to use
for people who are just trimming screenshots, cleaning up/rotating
scanned receipts, removing red-eye etc.

As long as most of the tools have useful defaults and they are named
in an intuitive way, and the interface isn't full of overwhelming
choices that you don't understand, I think it could become more
approachable for new people.

If this was a preference rather than editing XML people could
gradually progress to more advanced editing.

Anyway, that's my reasoning; are the items I mentioned in the original
email possible with the XML or do I have to fork it and modify the
source?

If I do have to modify the source, which classes should I look at?

Thanks

John

---

From: Alexandre Prokoudine <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 20:02:15 +0300

> gradually progress to more advanced editing.

John,

I'm afraid I have to be blunt here :)

Please read this: http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/GIMP_UI_Redesign#product_vision

You want GIMP to be something else. Moreoover, the use cases you
describe have already been covered by existing applications such as
Pinta (also free/libre application).

It's entirely possible to create a new app that will use GIMP's tech.
Case in point:

https://debarshiray.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/the-goats-have-strayed-into-gnome/

Or you can try to do what Seashore developer did to the original
GIMP's codebase:

http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html

Either way, you want a different kind of application.

Alex