Hi,

as a new Krita user, I've already broken my teeth several times on some confusing UI design decisions. Latest example of that is as follows:

I tried to manage brushes. When I right click on the canvas, Krita opens some radial menu with completely random brushes I don't use. I wanted to change that to the brushes I actually use. It turned out by default it shows "Favorites" category. So I opened brush management panel, went to the Favorites category, and started removing the brushes. Turns out the ambiguous Trash Can icon does not really remove the brushes from the category, but rather completely deletes it from all categories. What I find odd is that since this operation can not be undone in any way, there's no confirmation prompt present notifying the user of the implications of the action that's about to be performed.

So now, having deleted a few default brushes I'd definitely need down the road, I started to Google how to bring them back, but most of the answers were along the lines of completely resetting the entire Krita configuration, which I certainly don't want to go as I've already spent quite a lot of time customizing it. Other answer I've found was opening resource manager, and reimporting default resources. That I did, and I now have the default brushes back, but not the default brush tag categories.

What confuses me most is that the "Favorites" category is gone too. The Favorites category had a little star icon next to it, which I assume denoted that it is some special kind of dynamic category that automatically populates with commonly used brushes with time. This category is now gone, and I have no idea how to restore it without completely resetting Krita configuration. It seems that the category is somehow hardcoded in the default preset but once gone, can't be recreated by the user.

In general, from the new user's perspective Krita appears to be kind of a minefield of irreversible destructive operations user has to learn and avoid. It would be good if there were some mechanism in place to warn users before performing irreversible actions, as well as option to restore parts of the software configuration instead of having to completely reset the whole software (Preferences, Workspaces, Keyboard Shorcuts, Brushes, Dockers settings) every time one makes a slightest mistake.

Furthermore, it's very confusing that a mere rename of any brush removes all its tags. So if I create a new brush, name it "Soft" and add it to "My Brushes" category, as soon as I rename the brush from "Soft" to "Softer", all the assigned tags get removed

And to amplify the confusion, any time I accidentally create a new brush preset, once I delete it, it reappears as soon as the software is restarted. So I go, open resource manager, and manually delete those preset files. Once I have deleted those preset files, category tags are removed even from the files I have not deleted.

For example. I create a brush preset "Soft" and move it to "My Brushes" tag category. Then I create another brush preset called "New", and add the same tag category to it. Then I decide to delete "New" from the UI. Once I do that, the "New" brush reappears after Krita restart. When I open resource folder, and delete "New" brush, upon Krita restart, the "Soft" brush has its "My Brushes" category removed. This is scary, because it basically means any attempts at customizing brush categories are too fragile to ever pay off.

Ok, it appears that he brush management is completely broken. When I tried to reproduce the issue again, not only did it happen again, but other brush tag categories have randomly replicated themselves for no reason. So just by creating two new brushes, Krita has duplicated a few (but not all) tag categories even though I have not touched the Tag editing/creation UI at all.

This is a result of trying to create a brush and clicking overwrite brush once. Aside from renaming and overwriting brush always removing all tags, it also creates tons of random duplicates.


I was so excited about Krita but now I am a bit disappointed as there appears to be not even a single shred of predictability when it comes to brush management. Sometimes, creating or copying a brush works, sometimes it doesn't sometimes brushes disappear, sometimes more random brushes appear, and sometimes changes happen immediately, other times you get a nasty surprise only after Krita restart

hi, we're fixing this stuff at the moment in the resource rewrite, this is an ongoing project that has taken us over a year already, but we hope to release 4.3 with it.

TheraHedwig wrote:hi, we're fixing this stuff at the moment in the resource rewrite, this is an ongoing project that has taken us over a year already, but we hope to release 4.3 with it.

I am really happy you are aware of it. I guess in that case I'll wait for 4.3 before I use Krita more actively. Do all these issues have the same source (the resource system)? Will the rewrite address also the issue of the brushes and their categories sometimes only refreshing/updating after Krita restart?

Thanks.

Ok, so, let's try to untangle it...
1. "My Favourites" is not a category, it's a tag. Slight difference, but mayeb it will help you understand the design better. A preset can have multiple tags. You can create your own.
2. Popup palette shows "My Favourites" tagged presets, but you can change it: click on the label icon and choose a different tag.
3. Deleting a preset without confirmation
- not sure about confirmation, do you think it would be appropriate to ask the user every time after every preset? That sound tedious.
- deleting "from the category" vs. completely - I mean, the trashcan icon looks scary enough to me?...
- to clean up your resource directory you can go to Configure Krita -> Manage Resources -> Open Resource Folder and delete the *.blacklist files. All previously deleted presets will appear again after restart.
4. To remove a tag from the preset, right-click on the preset in the Brush Presets docker and choose "Remove from this tag" or "Remove from other tag..."
5. Resetting Krita's configuration and resetting the resource folder are two different things (although both contains removing stuff). The method I gave you will only undelete all presets, so you might need to delete them again if you have some that you want to stay deleted. (You can also just edit it since it's an xml).
6.
> The Favorites category had a little star icon next to it, which I assume denoted that it is some special kind of dynamic category that automatically populates with commonly used brushes with time.
Well, no, it isn't. It's just created out of the most basic, useful brushes, for people who are too overwhemled with the whole set to have something to start from. The idea was that everyone will later customize it to their own needs, but the whole tagging system was quite buggy, so...
7. Sounds like you might want to use Brush Presets History docker, which does exactly what the name says - it shows last ten used brushes.
8.
> irreversible destructive operations
They are reversible... there is no way to actually delete anything in Krita, unless you use "Delete Backup Files" in Resource Manager. Btw now, discussing the new Resource Manager, I get users complaining that backup files are bad and if they delete a brush, they want it to be removed completely
9.
> as well as option to restore parts of the software configuration instead of having to completely reset the whole software (Preferences, Workspaces, Keyboard Shorcuts, Brushes, Dockers settings) every time one makes a slightest mistake.
Well, we only suggest resetting the configuration in case we suspect the current configuration is somewhat wrong and we cannot find a way to fix it in the GUI (for example the windows are saved in positions that prevents the user from using it, or Krita crashes on startup or something). For resources, you don't need to touch the configuration.
10.
> Furthermore, it's very confusing that a mere rename of any brush removes all its tags
That's just another bug.
11.
> And to amplify the confusion, any time I accidentally create a new brush preset, once I delete it, it reappears as soon as the software is restarted.
That shouldn't happen. I wonder what's making it reappear - but in any case, it's related to the rewrite we're doing, so it will be fine.

> This is scary, because it basically means any attempts at customizing brush categories are too fragile to ever pay off.
> Ok, it appears that he brush management is completely broken
Exact reasons why we're fixing it now

And yes, all of those issues are exactly what we're trying to fix. Or at least a huge chunk of it. (I guess we need to still allow users to delete brushes by the brushes popup, sorry). Brushes and tags will be updated just after you finish changing them. If you add some resources to Krita using the resource folder, I'm not sure, but it might be that Krita will detect it only after a restart.

I see you already figured out that using your own tags (not changing anything about tags that comes with Krita) is helpful. (If you try to delete a default tag, it duplicates I think).

Btw regarding the Resource Manager UX, you can participate in a discussion here: https://krita-artists.org/t/do-you-use- ... nager/4011 - I'm gathering a feedback.

Also we'll be releasing an alpha version some time in the future (hard to tell when, maybe two months?), it would be awesome to get more people on board with testing - the more people test it, the more robust it will be during the release.

I really think that Krita also has this serious problem. After all, brushes are the most valuable in an Illustration Software. The more we believe that this is being resolved. I loved Krita

I also tried to use Krita for a while, but I didn't understand anything I should do. It was all very confusing. I understand you perfectly. I also had the same problems using WordPress. It was very complicated and incomprehensible to me. But I wanted to manage to use both, but without success. I wanted to make a good website for my company on my own. But unfortunately, my skills do not offer me these possibilities, so I turned to prosvit.design to do all this work for me. I am glad that there are such companies that save my life.

In order to practice user interface design and improve your visual design skills, you need to train your eyesight first. This means that you have to look at other people's high-quality works, try these details in your works, it helps you improve your style

Hi! In order to practice user interface design and improve your visual design skills, you need to train your eyesight first. This means that you have to look at other people's high-quality works, and try these details in your works; it helps you improve your style. Work on a project always starts with UX. The first one thinks about which routes the user will use on the site, what difficulties he may have in interaction, and how to bring him to the target action. To learn about hiring a ux designer, study the special articles.

Thanks for the information. I also thought about it, But I wasn't sure, because I'm not well versed in this topic