Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.6)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
OS:                Linux

There's a feature in Apple's Shake compositing package that Krita might want to copy. The paint tools can be resized by pressing shift and clicking + dragging on the canvas, dragging right scales the brush up, dragging left scales it down. It is a highly intuitive way to resize brushes, since it is quick and the dynamically updated brush outline shows you the size of your brush in relation to your image immediately.

I propose that similar functionality be implemented in Krita, though what the trigger key should be I don't know. Wacom users could just map any keys on their tablets to the appropriate key. Furthermore, it could be useful to be able to control the softness of the brush in a similar manner, either by having a different key trigger softness scaling, or by using the up-down axis of cursor movement to control softness.

If it were implemented for brush softness, some kind of feedback of softness would be needed, maybe just a small text pop-up near the brush while the user is changing the softness showing the softness of the brush on a 0-100 scale. A similar feedback could be useful for brush size as well, although not as critical.