Digital Light & Color

Hello.
PW 8.0.384

1) menu | transform | color | remap... opens Color remap dlg.
a) But there is no way to figure out this tool without referencing the help. Not good. Suggest open the first color pair when user selects this tool. Why not; there has to be at least one color square to remap so why hide it?
b) R click on the color square for menu options. Select 'Starting outer color' opens the 'color 1' color picker dlg AND the cursor is the plus {+} symbol color picker. The starting color must come from the image, no? and not from the color 1 picker. The Starting color should not open the color 1 picker dlg.
c) Not sure how useful the 'make same' option on R click option menu would be. Sort of defeats the purpose of a remap?
d) hover cursor over the color square and cursor changes to the plus symbol color picker. Why? Not picking a color from the color pair square.
e) Help says there can be up to eight color pairs. So the Amount and Tightness controls would apply to all eight. Can get same result by opening eight color remap transform dlgs. Why eight and not three or fifteen? I remap one color, so this is puzzling. Can you reduce number of color pairs & make color square larger & easier to see & use?

2) File | Save as ...
Select file Save As ... and file options are single dialog with options for selected file type.
Compare: Select File | Export ... and file options are dialog with tabs for multiple file type options. This should use single file options dlg same as File Save as ...
Would be nice if file options remembered last settings.

3) masks
g) Help for masks says "To invert the mask (..) select Reverse." on R click menu but I don't see this on the amt control mask or the mask 1..4 dlg.
h) mask setting menu allows 'save mask as image file.' Should be a note in mask help that instructions to reload this saved mask file are further down on help page. Took me a while to find this, and search in help did not find it.
j) Mask flood fill should have option to accumulate masks so user does not need to hit [apply] button after each selection. Actually, accumulate should be default. Use [Undo] btn if too much is selected. Then don't need [apply] running man button.
k) Mask blur tool has running man [apply] button but feather tool does not??
l) RIGHT click on browser image for options menu. Cf: LEFT click on image on mask 1..4 dlg for options menu.
m) Some transforms such as brightness or levels & color use split screen to show results on R screen. Others such as paint or sharpen transforms display results directly on single screen. What is benefit to using split screen with masks dlg? If you want to see what you are masking, change mask transparency.
n) Create mask = mask 1. I have three versions of mask 1: a) mask, b) saved mask image, c) saved mask image modified with paint tool. Now transform | mask.. opens the mask 1..4 dlg. Mask 1 image is blank!! Mask 1 option menu allows me to select any of the three masks as mask 1. Now, I don't combine masks but it seems it could be really confusing to allow two different masks labled 'Mask 1'?? Probably should not allow a second mask transform on same file in browser window.

4) File open
Double click the 'File open' top level image in browser opens a mystifying 'Alert' message. The 'Open Transform' for the R click menu should be disabled.
thanks. . .

1) menu | transform | color | remap... opens Color remap dlg.
a) But there is no way to figure out this tool without referencing the help. Not good. Suggest open the first color pair when user selects this tool. Why not; there has to be at least one color square to remap so why hide it?

>> It is more complicated to edit a color pair than to create one from scratch -- to edit, you need to bring up a color picker for the color to change and either select a color directly or use the eyedropper in the color picker to select one from the input image. Then you need to pick the color to change to.

Maybe text saying to shift-click on the input image to select a color would make it clearer.

b) R click on the color square for menu options. Select 'Starting outer color' opens the 'color 1' color picker dlg AND the cursor is the plus {+} symbol color picker. The starting color must come from the image, no? and not from the color 1 picker. The Starting color should not open the color 1 picker dlg.

>> If you want to create a new color pair then shift-click on the input image. To edit an existing color you need to use the color picker and then the eyedropper

c) Not sure how useful the 'make same' option on R click option menu would be. Sort of defeats the purpose of a remap?
d) hover cursor over the color square and cursor changes to the plus symbol color picker. Why? Not picking a color from the color pair square.

>> to let you know something will happen when you click there

e) Help says there can be up to eight color pairs. So the Amount and Tightness controls would apply to all eight. Can get same result by opening eight color remap transform dlgs. Why eight and not three or fifteen? I remap one color, so this is puzzling. Can you reduce number of color pairs & make color square larger & easier to see & use?

>> I agree concentric squares are confusing but they place the colors adjacent to one another helps you see small differences. I think side by side would be better with each one labeled. The number 8 is arbitrary -- it lets you remap multiple colors at the same time which is not the same as doing 8 transformations.

Color Remap is very specialized for when you want to change one or more specific colors -- in most cases the Selective Color Correction transformation is easier to use and works better since it changes colors by hue and saturation so variations in brightness do not interfere with its operation.

2) File | Save as ...
Select file Save As ... and file options are single dialog with options for selected file type.
Compare: Select File | Export ... and file options are dialog with tabs for multiple file type options. This should use single file options dlg same as File Save as ...
Would be nice if file options remembered last settings.

>> Ctrl-R reloads the last settings for any transformation.

3) masks
g) Help for masks says "To invert the mask (..) select Reverse." on R click menu but I don't see this on the amt control mask or the mask 1..4 dlg.

>> See help on Amount control. Help for masks is updated it for the next release.

h) mask setting menu allows 'save mask as image file.' Should be a note in mask help that instructions to reload this saved mask file are further down on help page. Took me a while to find this, and search in help did not find it.

>> I have added information on this to the help file

j) Mask flood fill should have option to accumulate masks so user does not need to hit [apply] button after each selection. Actually, accumulate should be default. Use [Undo] btn if too much is selected. Then don't need [apply] running man button.

>> If you shift-click on the input image, it accumulates. If you click normally, it just moves the starting point and recomputes the flood fill.

k) Mask blur tool has running man [apply] button but feather tool does not??

>> They both have an Apply button

l) RIGHT click on browser image for options menu. Cf: LEFT click on image on mask 1..4 dlg for options menu.

m) Some transforms such as brightness or levels & color use split screen to show results on R screen. Others such as paint or sharpen transforms display results directly on single screen. What is benefit to using split screen with masks dlg? If you want to see what you are masking, change mask transparency.

>> It lets you create the mask on one half and see the results of the transformation applied through the mask in the other half. You can configure this behavior using the Mask dialog's Settings menu (the last four items).

n) Create mask = mask 1. I have three versions of mask 1: a) mask, b) saved mask image, c) saved mask image modified with paint tool. Now transform | mask.. opens the mask 1..4 dlg. Mask 1 image is blank!! Mask 1 option menu allows me to select any of the three masks as mask 1. Now, I don't combine masks but it seems it could be really confusing to allow two different masks labled 'Mask 1'?? Probably should not allow a second mask transform on same file in browser window.

>> In most cases, you only need one mask since masks from previous transformations can be selected as the initial mask for the current transformation as long as they are the right size. Having selected the previous mask as a starting point, you can then use the Mask paint tool to modify the initial mask.

4) File open
Double click the 'File open' top level image in browser opens a mystifying 'Alert' message. The 'Open Transform' for the R click menu should be disabled.

>> Double-clicking on a File Open lets you select a different file or multiple files or run a batch process, so it is a very important function. If you use it to select a new file with different dimensions from the current file, certain transformations or masks that depend of the dimensions of the image may not work as expected which is why there is a warning.

PW 3.0.394
Color Remap
1a) Like the changes to color remap. Please check:
1c) When user selects 'make same' how does PW decide which color to make same? Might change that to 'make same as start''?
p) R click color pair and select 'Edit ending (inner) color' Works OK if use color wheel. If use plus shape picker to select from image, then this updates the *start* or left color on picker.
q) R click menu text should reflect left & right color and not inner/outer color, as above.
Tried selective color correction to map or correct a color to gray:
r) The palette on the color wheel picker does not work same as palette on Color Remap. Doesn't select the palette color. Or click on image to activate palette tool (see help) does not work?

2) File | Save as ...
File | Save as ... may not be a transform. Ctrl-R does not work on jpg file options for me.

Selective Color Correction: to make a color neutral, first click on the color in the input image to create a control point and then drag the control point to the center of the color hexagon (white).

File Save is not a transformation and does not use Ctrl-R. If you want to remember the save options, you can insert a File Export transformation which also has a button to save the file. Or you can use File Preferences to change the default JPEG options.

PW 8.0.396
1) Transform | Color | Color remap
Much easier to use.
s) The color box selected by clicking on eg. start color high lights the start color box & should agree with color box selected by R click menu 'edit ending (R) color' but they don't. R click menu selection does not change color box high light. When user R click menu = 'edit ending (R) color' then the end (R) color box should be high light. Now the R click menu changes the selected color box & selected color box drives the color selection, for both plus sign color picker & color cube. Could get rid of color box high light, but this is easier way to select start or end color.
t) Selecting the color box by clicking & high lighting start or end box does not open the color cube selector. Perhaps a R click menu item to open color cube?
u) there can be two color cubes open at same time. Cube for start color caption should indicate 'start color.'
--- center of color cube is white or gray scale - why didn't I know that ??? ;-)
Thx.