Re-implementation of Arrow Key Move Functionality in Transform Tool (Free Transform)

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Hello. New to Krita-Artists, so apologies in advance if this is in the wrong place.

Did also look at https://discuss.kde.org/, but was not certain where to post there, so wanted to start here and discuss potentially submitting a request to the Krita development team regarding a feature.

Details:

There is a feature in Krita 5.0.x which allows a selection to be moved by using arrow (and optionally, SHIFT) keys while the selection is being modified using the Transform Tool (Free Transform mode). Its discussion and eventual implementation is documented in a previous post from a few years back:

Ability to move a selection with the arrow keys in the Transform Tool

This feature does not appear to be present in 5.1.x versions, as pressing arrow keys while in Free Transform using the Transform Tool does not move the selection. Switching to the Move Tool does maintain the selection and allow for movement using the arrow keys and/or SHIFT. However, as mentioned in the previous post, being able to move a selection without switching between the Transform and Move tools can be helpful, as it keeps focus on positioning and transforming the selection and not on which tool is currently active.

Would like to see this feature re-implemented, but would also welcome feedback from the community to see if this is be a feature that is or could potentially be helpful.

Additionally, if this feature is actually still present in 5.1.x and there is a setting/configuration change that enables it, would definitely be interested as well. Had looked for information on this, but was unsuccessful.

Thank you in advance for the assistance and consideration, and look forward to hearing back from the community.

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Oh wow that’s weird, just tested it now and it seems to not move those pixels, until one click somewhere, THEN it moves. I see the numbers “move” in the “position” section on the Tool Options, but not on canvas. Seems like the feature is there but is bugged so that it doesn’t show. At least for me.
I would also love to see this fixed, I am the one from the feature request after all :smile:

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Hello @krita_art and welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

Strange things started happening in this area some time ago:

395866 – Animation Timeline & Transform Tool: Krita does two things at once (move layer, navigate on timeline)

436060 – The horizontal Move shortcuts (cursor keys) do not work on animated frames

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It is a bug that has already been solved, it remains to be seen if it is in the nightly compilations:

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Thank you for the quick responses!

Rakurri - Did not realize that the canvas would update if clicked after using the arrow keys - usually hit ESC when it seemed as though it wasn’t working, so never saw it. Confirmed, and thank you for the heads-up.

AhabGreybeard - Thank you for the welcome, and for the links to the issues. With that and Rakkuri’s information, things actually make a lot more sense - it seemed sort of strange that that one specific feature would disappear or be removed between versions, but more general issues seem a lot more plausible.

SchrodingerCat - Thank you for the link to the merge request - really great to see that it’s already in the works, and something to look forward to in future releases - much appreciated.

For the time being, am fine using 5.0.6 (latest 5.0.x version), and will keep an eye out for the bug fix in future versions and their release notes - looking forward to moving up to 5.1.x.

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