Bug 407463 - Improve straight line annotation style
Summary: Improve straight line annotation style
Status: REPORTED
Alias: None
Product: okular
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 1.7.1
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Okular developers
URL:
Keywords: usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-05-12 14:42 UTC by Simone Gaiarin
Modified: 2019-05-18 13:55 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Straight line conflicting options (4.20 KB, image/png)
2019-05-12 14:42 UTC, Simone Gaiarin
Details
dimensioning (3.66 KB, image/png)
2019-05-12 20:05 UTC, Tobias Deiminger
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Simone Gaiarin 2019-05-12 14:42:40 UTC
Created attachment 120012 [details]
Straight line conflicting options

SUMMARY
Regarding the straight line annotation tool I suggest the following changes:
- drop the "Leader line length" and "Leader line extension length" that are now meaningless and conflicting with the new "Line end" option (see screenshot attached)
- Rename "Line end" to "End of line"
- Add "Start of line" option
- Add half-butt line end/start (this will replace the case where we set "Leader line length" to a value greater than zero and "Leader line length" to zero.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Manjaro Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 5.15.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.57.0
Qt Version: 5.12.3
Comment 1 Tobias Deiminger 2019-05-12 20:05:19 UTC
Created attachment 120022 [details]
dimensioning

(In reply to Simone Gaiarin from comment #0)
> - drop the "Leader line length" and "Leader line extension length" that are
> now meaningless and conflicting with the new "Line end" option (see
> screenshot attached)

Not sure, but I'd say they're not generally conflicting, see attachment. That's commonly used for dimensioning purpose, isn't it?

PDF spec allows you to set line ends and leader lines at the same time, but it doesn't say much about use cases and possible conflicts.
Comment 2 Simone Gaiarin 2019-05-18 10:28:22 UTC
You are right. I have not thought about that use case.
Comment 3 Tobias Deiminger 2019-05-18 12:21:12 UTC
(In reply to Simone Gaiarin from comment #2)
> You are right. I have not thought about that use case.

But you're also right in that not all combinations make sense.

Let's check, how could leader line + arrow X be used?
- LL+Square: Partially overlapping. No idea what this is good for.
- LL+Circle: No visual conflict. No idea what this is good for.
- LL+Diamond: No visual conflict. No idea what this is good for.
- LL+OpenArrow: Best for dimensioning of longer distances.
- LL+ClosedArrow: Similar to OpenArrow.
- LL+None: No conflict.
- LL+Butt: Complete conflict.
- LL+ROpenArrow: Best for dimensioning of shorter distances. But we must arrows "outside" leader for this use case (currently bug?).
- LL+RClosedArrow: Similar to ROpenArrow.
- LL+Slash: No conflict. No idea what this is good for.

In attachment 120022 [details] I faked the text "20 mm" by using typewriter. That's clumsy, we should better use the native caption feature of line annotations. It's implemented in poppler as LineAnnotation::lineShowCaption, but Okular does't expose this setting => additional item for improvement.

Unrelated: Square, circle, diamond, and closed arrows can be filled with a color. Fill color is not yet exposed in Okular GUI => additional item for improvement.

So there are multiple things to improve, and some of them need more consideration. Would you mind turning this bug into a Phabricator task?
Comment 4 Laura David Hurka 2019-05-18 13:55:45 UTC
(In reply to Tobias Deiminger from comment #3)
> - LL+Slash: No conflict. No idea what this is good for.

Sometimes, / is used instead of > for dimensions. But the slash should be centered on the leader line, and not shorten the line like in attachment 120012 [details].