UI - reduce the area that triggers the docking of UI elements [Solved in a different way]

[cgidesign]

Krita 5.2.9, 5.3 prealpha, 6.0.0 prealpha on Windows.

While practicing with Krita, I more and more like to change the UI layout. Even though Krita already offers a lot of functionality for that, there are some limitations.

I know there are a lot of threads about “Krita UI Redesign”. This is not about a redesign, because I think Krita’s UI is already quite good with respect to Windows desktop use.

The request:
Moving UI elements (dockers, toolbars etc.) to the edge of other UI elements or the canvas borders triggers the snapping to early. It’s difficult to explain this in writing so I hope the screenshots help with this:

I used the Toolbar as an example but the request is valid for any UI element that “snaps”.

This is also related to my other feature request that is related to vertical Toolbar orientation vs. horizontal orientation and / or cutomizing the Toolbox.

Let me cutomize the Toolbox or replace it with a Toolbar in vertical layout

Krita on Windows: Goal: I want a custom Toolbox in vertical layout. What I tried: Created a custom Toolbar with the buttons I need Idea: This Toolbar A replaces the Toolbox B [UI-1] BUT: It does not work, because the Toolbars can only be docked at the outer edges of the main window. [UI-2] Next Idea: Finding a way to customize the Toolbox itself (removing buttons, adding other buttons, reordering buttons). BUT: It does not work - there is no feature to customize the Toolbox. N…

As written, this is not a redesing request but one to make the customization a bit more flexible.

[general-avalanche-43]

This plugin will let you configure where dockers go when docked. You must have dockers in those areas, and they must be visible for any changes to become clear

Docker related plugins

I’m going to edit the title of this topic to “Docker related plugins” Here is another plugin, it should allow straight forward editing of where dockers go, it creates a window with 4 regions you can click to toggle how the “corners” are configured. Made by Gemini. [tmpzezf334f] [tmponxarois] Install in the normal way indicated in previous posts Test the action by searching for the action with ctrl+enter [tmppt43kivj] Or add it to a toolbar [tmpfcw2naur]

[cgidesign]

Interesting but:
This is only for dockers but not toolbars, right?
It does not change the “big” snapping area, right?

[general-avalanche-43]

Yeah it is for dockers only In the toolbar configuration window you could try putting expanding spacers at the “top” of your toolbar.

Here is a script to configure where the toolbar can be docked, then you can position it in the spot you want without it wanting to dock Make sure to change the name of the toolbar you’re using (found in xmlgui). Obviously if you resize Krita away from top/left or put a docker there it will mess up

from krita import *
inst = Krita.instance()
win = inst.activeWindow()
qmwin = win.qwindow()
toolbar = qmwin.findChild(QToolBar, "BrushesAndStuff")

area = Qt.NoToolBarArea
#area = Qt.BottomToolBarArea
#area = Qt.TopToolBarArea
#area = Qt.AllToolBarAreas
toolbar.setAllowedAreas(area)

So janky but if it works…

It’s probably possible to have it update the position when the user resize the window so it stays in that corner next to the left/top dockers…

[cgidesign]

I tried in 5.3.

I don’t know what the script is supposed to do, but the floating toolbar still wants to dock to the top with the big snapping area.
And it is not really a solution to use scripts.
The request is about standard Krita allowing to place the toolbar more freely without the snapping kicking in to early.

But thanks for the help.

I already tried with a spacer the other day, but that gave me issues if the spacer was at the beginning of the toolbar. So I gave up on that.

I expect this feature request will not get much votes - It’s to niche. But I thought I post it anyway.

[YRH]

Yeah, this is one of the annoying quirks of the UI.

With Dockers (at least on Windows) you can press down CTRL before dragging the docker with the left mouse button, and then it won’t snap/dock to anything.

However, this method does not work with toolbars, which always try to snap.

[cgidesign]

Even though the request is still valid, I solved the underlying requirement in a different way.

Krita offers more than I thought - or how to solve my own "toolbox feature requests"

I solved my two recent feature requests by finding something in Krita I didn’t notice before. The requests were both about getting a customizable toolbox. I use Krita in a way where I hold the pen tablet with the left hand and the pen with the right hand. The notebook is slightly out of reach. In this “workspace,” neither hand is free, and the keyboard is difficult to reach. So I searched for a way to add the functions, I use the most, to buttons. First Idea: Customize a toolbar. But it di…