dberlow
commented
4 years ago "This suggests a number of features required in TypeTools." Agreed.
The current interface only gives quick visual feedback in three dimensions, wght, wdth and opsz. I'm planning on a move of all the functionality here, into videoproof, to get to a forth dimension, browsing through keyframes of, e.g. GRAD, for a grid layout.
Agreed that wght & wdth sliders should be disabled, and show parameters expanded upon.
The UI suggested to me is a table, where the rows and columns are editable by cell, column or row, like in Sheets, with the addition of the design space being a database that can fill the table by formula that can be edited by the user, or input from nothing, and saved as a series of selectable templates, or vf-specific formats along with 1 or more keyframes.
Linespacing and leading must also have controls.
Show parameters would then do what it's doing now, per cell, perhaps needing linespacing and leading mins on order to show up.
I know that's not all that you write, but covers most of it except editing the Shown parameters.
This one thing, "when a text element is clicked, there is a visual indication that it is currently selected, but there is no indication on the Grid layout" By "Grid layout", do you mean the text box that includes the selected text?
davelab6
ghost
@dberlow made a screenshot of the Grid layout, and I asked, "Which col and which row is 400 weight, 100 wdth?" and he replied,
This suggests a number of features required in TypeTools.
Today when I check "Show parameters" what I get doesn't really make sense, because it only works for axes that are not mapped to the grid:
[ ] It should be possible to select which 2 axes are gridded up, by adding 2 new
datalistdropdown inputs, to the left/to the top of the +/- buttons; and they should become inactive from the left sidebar.[ ] That will fix a bug where today the weight and width sliders do something - they effect the style of the text used on the +/- buttons! XD
[ ] For the 2 axes that are gridded up, I would like a new 1st row and 1st col to show those parameter values: Along the new first row, the first cell is blank, and then the cells are the values of the cols, then a final new col's cell has the axis tag; then similarly that first cell stays blank and down the new first col are the values of the rows, and the final row's first cell is the axis tag; then the rest of that row's cells are merged with a
rowspanattribute and that contains the current 'show parameters' text, without the data for the mapped axes, right aligned.[ ] And then, I would like those values to be editable - and that applies to all page layouts. This will likely be implemented similar to the modal demos in the variablefonts.typenetwork.com brochure.
[ ] That then requires adding/removing cols to not lose the manually set values, and have a button to reset the values to defaults.
[ ] This will also be quicker/better than having to click on each cell to place the caret there and see and adjust the value, but that should also be supported; currently on Ramp layout, when a text element is clicked, there is a visual indication that it is currently selected, but there is no indication on the Grid layout. Turning the currently active cell's background to the same color would be good; and then perhaps all non-mapped axes should be inactive, but clicking them should remove the caret from the cell, making them active.