Feature req for android ui to be considered

[Reitei17]

A REQUEST TO BE CONSIDER FOR FUTURE ANDROID KRITA UI:

SMALL CHANGE:
Please make the free transform scale to always locked ( the chain locked) so that everytime i want to free transform an image, i wont have to tool option and lock the chain scale. Because krita android dont have keyboard shortcut. @sh-zam

UI CHANGE

1. In the picture shows the FLOATING ICON that have eyedropper, eraser and shift.

I know that everyone want the press hold 1 finger gesture to activate the eyedropper, but i thought that a finger takes time to be precise if i want to pick a colour that is so small, like a line. So it would be nice to use my stylus to pick. But right now it quite too much to click eyedropper and back brusn mode and repeat. Would be much faster if my left finger could press hold to eyedropper and then back to brush mode immeadiately. This goes for eraser mode too.

For the shift button, i need a straight line easily without keyboard on android or any other shift functionality.

2. For the next UI 3 MODES. This actually inspired from artstudio pro but i add the brush mode. So as shown, i can change brush size and opacity, or maybe u want to add flow as well? Then, i can click on top rectangle with stylus to pick which mode, OR swipe that thing left or right to change mode. As clearly shown in the pic, there is colour palette and also brush history and complimentary colour on the sides. In artstudio, they use the contrast and hue rather than colour palette but i kinda need the palette. And the third mode of course a nice way for changing brush. On top also can choose brush group.

OTHER THINGS THAT I DONT KNOW HOW TO FIX:
When I selected a part of an image and copy paste it to a layer, I need to go to file copy and the file again paste. Cause i dont have keyboard shortcut ctrl+c. Need to think how to implement this easily for android.

This is all i could think of my ideal krita UI, i dont know is this possible or any other flaw, feel free to respond. Add and critique. Hopefully mobile UI can be implemented well.

[AxelFar]

@Reitei17, do you use a phone or a tablet?
I totally agree with a vertical slider for brush size and opacity, and a way to acess keys modifiers like Shift, it’s something we really need.
I know you are suggesting UI, but for using all this with what we have now let me suggest some things for you:
Use color picker on the S-Pen/Stylus Button, it’s the best way to color pick in my opinion, you can go to the Canvas Input Settings, on “alternate invocation”, add a mouse shortcut, click on input and press the stylus button (it’s recognized as middle mouse button) then select “Sample Foreground Color from Merged Layer” on the action option, and done you will have color picker on the Stylus Button.
For the Copy and Paste you can place icons on the toolbar, so you can easily use them, like this:

With the last Sh-zam gesture implementation we can acess the pop up pallette with a gesture, so we can acess the color history, brushes and color pallette now more easily, so I don’t know if your 3 modes ideia is really needed, although it’s indeed a nice idea.

[Reitei17]

Thank you for the suggestion, yes color picker using the spen button is great but for now im using it for pop up palette and going to change it to color picker when krita 5.1 officially release on google play store with the new touch screen gestures.

Yes i guess when the one finger gesture for pop out palette is here and im using colour picker with spen button, the colour picker flowing icon may not be useful, but the erased still useful and also the shift, still have no medicine for it without keyboard haha., well im up for people giving ideas thou.

Oh i forgot i can put copy paste icon in toolbar. Thanks.

FOR NOW i still really need that small changes part, where the scale chain lock for free transform to stay lock for starter.

Im using krita on tablet.

This feature request actually just an idea in the future, cause i heard from the devs chat that they are going to make mobile ui for krita 6. So im just putting idea, too soon i guess.

[AxelFar]

I think you should use the Sh-zam build with the gestures already, it’s on this link, instead of wait, 5.1 may take some time to launch, it can be installed alongside the official app, it’s a separated app called “Krita Debug”, I’m using it as my main Krita app now, even uninstalled the official one, that’s how great it is.
That’s the configuration i use:
Color Picker on S-Pen Button
One finger Tap to Eraser Toggle (use it all the time in my workflow that’s why i’ve put it here)
One finger Drag/Slide to Pop up Pallet
The rest is default: Two finger tap to undo, two finger drag to Zoom and rotate, Tree finger Tap to Redo, etc

And I think it the free transform tool should come chain locked by default too, or maybe save your settings, like, if you chain lock it, it should save and next time you transform it should use the same setting.
Yeah, the whole Krita 6.0 will take a while, it took 3 years to go from Krita 4 to Krita 5 , i think we could make the Krita Mobile UI come faster by bringing more people to mobile and by starting threads like this so i don’t think you did it too soon, it’s by doing these that we can bring these changes.

[Reitei17]

The only reason that i dont want to use unofficial release is that I dont want to set up everything like the configure settinge, importing all brushes,etc everytime there is a new release. You have advice on the easiest way to importing all that?

And is that version stable enough? The last 5.1 i tried a bit, have a problem with the colour bucket fill, not working, i guess that should be fix now.

[cosmos10040]

I understand the sentiment. I want to work on a project using krita on android and it has made tons of improvements already with touch gestures, but is it stable and wont loose work?

I think with some more tiny UI options without doing a full overhaul should be good enough until full support goes on.

[AxelFar]

@Reitei17 Backup everything no, but you can create bundles to backup your brushes and workspace, go to Settings > Manage Resources and create a bundle with your brushes (they need to be in the same tag), and create one with a saved Workspace to save your windows layout, then you can go to the same setting and click on import resources to get them back if needed.
What i do is create the bundles, take print screens of my toolbar, pressure curve, and other settings i changed and place everything together on a folder on android in case i need to reconfigure anything.

But when you update the app it keep your settings, so you don’t need to redo them every time you update, also there isn’t that much new releases. I mean i updated the app a lot because i was using Sh-zam version and he was updating it with the gestures and new functions, he even added a function now that if you uninstall the app android gives a option to keep your settings so if you install it again they are intact.
@Reitei17 Also i remember that buck fill bug, you used the very first build he provided, it’s all fixed by now.
@cosmos10040 i’ve been using his last updated app and it’s super stable, as i said i’m using it as main app, not once has crashed with me, also by default Krita on Android saves your file ever 7 minutes automatically, and every time you leave or change to other app so don’t need to worry about losing your files. I still recommend to manually save the file from time to time tho.

Anyway, i think you two are losing a lot of amazing functions for not using it .

[Reitei17]

@AxelFar yep i tried the 5.1 build u gave. Finally done finishing all the importing and settings. Really like it, the dark orange theme also so awesome. Yes its true after trying a few sketch, i dont think the 3 floating icons are really neccessary. Cause i use wacom one pen instead of my spen, im not using the spen gesture, so i use set eraser for my pen button, cant find to set it as color sample or freehand brush.

@cosmos10040 The UI with the 3 modes I suggested is very mobile UI, I dont think krita is up to there even in a few years i think, maybe make the tool options UI neater and also the layers docker to be more slim and looks more like mobile UI and can be put in the toolbar as an icon.

[AxelFar]

@AxelFar

you can go to the Canvas Input Settings, on “alternate invocation”, add a mouse shortcut, click on input and press the stylus button (it’s recognized as middle mouse button) then select “Sample Foreground Color from Merged Layer” on the action option,

@Reitei17 have you tried this? i think it will work as well with the Wacom one pen button.
I recommend you using a gesture to set eraser toggle, under the new gestures option on “Canvas Input Settings” you can add one as toggle eraser.

[Reitei17]

Thank you so much!! Works perfectly…

[AxelFar]

Enjoy! i suggested @sh-zam to add a new type on Canvas Input Settings ( like there is Gesture, Mouse button, Mouse wheel, Key Combination) called “S-pen button” (with the middle button already embed on it) so it was easier for people to visualize that the S-pen button can be changed to anything on Canvas Input Settings, hope something like it can be done to be more clear for everyone in the future.

[Reitei17]

Yes i agree… and the 3 fingers swipe up and down also left and right for brush size and opacity.

For the one finger hold for colour sample is no longer needed, takes too long anyway. The spen button works really great, thanks to ur advice.

[AxelFar]

Multiple things in a single gesture may be trickery to implement and something for the future, but you can already use 3 finger to change size only, go to Canvas input settings, on “Change Primary Settings”, you can add a gesture and place “three finger drag”, just be sure three finger drag isn’t also on something.

[Reitei17]

Thank youuu i put it on snap, much better. I also change the set eraser to 4 finger drag, i think much nicer with pinch motion. And put 1 finger drag for select single layer.

This krita on android getting really awesomeee…

[AxelFar]

Since you liked the orange theme so much, i recommend you to change the default background color to a blacker color, here’s a difference, left is changed and right is the default:

I actually use this color on another theme that have a better contrast with it, maybe a color a bit lighter on the orange theme is better, but you can place any color you want, I find the default grey of Krita background kind of ugly, and a blacker color can be easier on the eye
On Settings, go to Display, then on the “Grid Settings” tab, change the “Canvas Border Color” to a color of your liking.
But yeah, Krita on Android it’s getting awesome indeed.

[Reitei17]

Yea i forgot that one, thanks for reminding me…

Samsung should help funding krita instead of csp.
I almost want to move to ipad because so many art apps there that i want to try but krita always pulls me back.

[AxelFar]

I will give my opinion about IPad softwares, CSP and Krita on Android, etc, on a text below, read it if you get the time .

Big text

I think that on IPad the other two softwares for painting i find interesting are Procreate and Adobe Fresco. Fresco requires a Adobe subscription and do not have any advantage to like Clip Studio Paint, so i would just consider Procreate that it’s the thing we don’t have on Android.
Procreate it’s amazing, super user friendly, have a beautiful modern interface, but i think the only things Procreate wins over CSP is the user friendly interface and the one time purchase, because in the rest, CSP it’s overall a superior software.
Samsung got it right on teaming up and supporting CSP, it’s a super stable, fast and madure software that will help the Android professional art community grow. Out of all the softwares i tested, including Krita, CSP is the best one, it just loses to Photoshop, not because of functionality per say, but because photoshop can handle big canvas and hundred of layers with ease and process everything super fast.
My only problem with CSP it’s their subscription model, not even the price to be honest, i think that for professionals it’s very cheap, a small price to pay to have such professional software to use on the go, and also it help it’s funding since the desktop app is very cheap, I’ve payed $25 for it on a offer that happens very often, years ago, and i have infinite upgrades. If a subscription model help them iron out and work on their software more, let it be. But it’s still a subscription model that not everyone can pay.
Krita on the other hand, for being a open source project, it’s really amazing, the thing about krita is that it try to do a lot of things, and we have amazing tools because of it, but few of them are really optimized, i find krita to be slow and unstable on a lot of process, that’s the main reason i don’t use it for professional work, but i don’t really blame the devs, they are a small team that do what they can and not hundred of people like CSP and Photoshop teams that receive to work on their software.
I’m totally Ok with CSP being the best Professional ironed out tool for Android and Krita being the best Free tool for Android, Krita will never be as good as CSP optimization wise because it simple don’t have the horse power behind it, but it can be the second best and the best free tool we will have.

Strictly talking about UI, i find Procreate to be the gold standard, it’s the main reason people go to it, its so simple and straightforward for beginners. Clip Studio, as good as it is, have a outdated interface that could throw new people off, with all it’s greyness and sharp corners, but looks aside it works really well, and it have a mobile and a smartphone version that are really customizable layout wise, almost as same as Krita. Now Krita, luckily we can customize it and everything, change it’s colors, etc, but i find the default krita interface to be bad in a lot of places, there’s a lot of people discussing how to improve it in some corners, but i bet that a Mobile UI will take years to come so we will have to be content on using the current one, maybe a little improved in the future. But Krita have this kind of freedom that no other software have, that i love.

Krita 5.1 is scheduled to officially launch around June, by there i will try to make a full Mobile Guide, with emphasis on making it work on Smartphones in a separated video, hope we can gather more people to the platform with it.
The new gestures features can be huge to bring people to it.

[Reitei17]

Firstly I have to explain that I am not a professional artist, so art is just a hobby for me and maybe can make it as a living in the future. So this is my thought as a non-prof artist.

Csp is obviously the best overall art app of right now. I did not deny it. But subscription is the problem. For me and to many people out there. Especially diff country, people value money differently. Also, i dont know, i hate subscription because i feel burden, leeching every month haha…

I know that csp need that money but why mobile is subs while pc is not. I at least prefer rebelle way if want to make users keep paying in the future, one time purchase every new big update or every small new features. The reason that procreate is so booming right now mainly is the price of $10 one time payment. Then many people can afford it, play with it and have huge community. Procreate also make it so nice and ipad friendly and maybe apple support funds as well.

I was thinking IF samsung funds krita and strictly forbidden krita to go to ipad , then maybe krita can catch up to csp and be great for professionals also can have mobile UI faster and tablet friendly and still the price for users FREE. By then, procreate will lose with price and features.

Also, for samsung to defeat ipad in art app (procreate), samsung has to have exclusive art app that strictly on samsung that can defeat procreate so people go to samsung tab. Having csp on both ipad and samsung is not defeating that purpose. I would still go to ipad since ipad has csp and others.

For now, If I were a professional artist who have the money, i would pick using screen tablet on computer with csp one time payment and have ipad by my side with artstudio pro and procreate.

As someone who dont have ipad I dont know why im more interested in art studio pro. I like the latest ui and what their roadmaps. I dont care about procreate 3d thing. And procreate also wont touch vector they say. Also I am interested to just try artstudio pro, art set 4, realistic paint studio, vectornator, callipeg, etc. Also im quite confuse if in the future i stick with samsung tab, will new developer still not going to make art app for android and only on ipad? I only still in samsung tablet for krita.

[AxelFar]

Understood your point about “Samsung funding Krita” now, yeah it would certainly help a lot, we can dream haha. But i think Samsung don’t need a exclusive app, their advantage is already the price of their tablets compared to IPad.
Also we don’t need to worry about Krita going to IOS, apparently App Store don’t allow GNU Public licensed software, we can joke that Apple don’t like free software, so it will keep being a “Android exclusive” on mobile.
Now realistically to accelerate the Krita mobile development thing we can spread the word about Krita on mobile and try to bring more people to it. The main selling point of Krita is it being the best affordable option on a combo of Samsung tablets with wacom technology and it, it will be the paradise of broke artists haha.
My idea would be to add a buying/donating button on the app to help it’s developing. If more people find about it and get involved in it, more can be contributed in terms of community work and faster it can be developed.
Also the Android artist dev community is only getting bigger and i think that more and more alternatives to the apps you mentioned will come, and Samsung is closing the gap more and more with each Tab it launchs, although Apples M1 Chip is REALLY hard to top hardware wise, but this other topic.

The Artstudio Pro app you mentioned looks great, didn’t heard of it before, looks like a procreate competitor and very much like it, i will add it to the IPad apps list, looks really great.
Infinite Painter is the closest we have to it in Android, with a lot o things just like them, including that sweet procreate brush smoothing (that Artstudio looks to have too) that i wished every other app had, and that do a circle and hold it to be a perfect circle, and do a straight line and hold it to be a perfect line thing, check It out if you haven’t already.

[Reitei17]

Krita already goes to the right direction competing with csp. If only krita got funding from corporation like blender does, it will be really awesome. But yea well… hopefully in the future. We, users can only do so much. I sometimes recommend to people in instagram but yea, they all go to csp, understandable since they use pc too so no subs payment anyway.

Artstudio pro can import photoshop brushes perfectly thou u could try. For infinite painter, that is my first art app and i love it too but recently too many bugs, now still some bugs and i kinda like krita better now. Krita has great community, many features improvement and great brushes for shared.