The new Text and Font dialog (No. 1 in a series)

This is what Inkscape looks like with the Dock/Notebook/whatever-we're-calling-it-today open on a 1366x768 monitor...

How can anybody work like that? 48% of the Canvas area is eaten by a Text and Font dialog. It's a constant toggling of F12. It's time we had a long look at dialog layout and how to compact as much information into the smallest space as possible.

My (semi-interactive) proposal for a new Text and Font dialog.

Note: open the svg in a new browser window to see the limited interactivity.

Explanation:

Look at all that room!

• Panel text reduced to 10px -- GIMP drops the size down to still-legible ~8px in its panels and it's also GTK-based. That's something I could never understand about Inkscape's dialogs/panels..why the need to occupy so much real estate?
• Active tabs are Fill 80% black, bold face. Inactive sub-tabs are Fill 50% black, normal face.
• Removed the inessential preview area: that's what the canvas is for.
• Removed the inessential Apply button and substituted it with a Revert button for the squeamish.
  • Revert would be based on Canvas focus: when the focus is on the T&F panel, any and all changes are volatile until either Revert is pressed or focus is returned to the Canvas. If a user started with text styled Times New Roman Bold 12pt/14pt, they could experiment with modifying the text in the T&F panel. If a suitable style is not found, Revert would set the text back to Times New Roman Bold 12pt/14pt -- the last style applied before the focus changed fromthe Canvas to the T&F panel.
  • Once focus is returned to the Canvas, the last set style from the T&F panel is the new Revert point.
  • If by chance the user wants to return to Times New Roman Bold 12pt/14pt, they may do so by...
    • reassigning it in the T&F panel
    • (losing any edits made between the two points in time) ctrl/cmd-Z or use the Undo History panel
• Font Family and Font Style drop-down may also include a preview (not included in this illustration).
• Added a Size/Linespacing lock and a Unit of Measurement drop-down selector. This area could probably be reduced further horizontally.
• Added the dreaded "hamburger" menu for tab/notebook manipulation (close tab, etc.)
  • Added a Minify Tab to replace "Iconify" (R.I.P.). Minify would "windowshade" the tab or tab set without obscuring any other tab sets.

MINIFY!

There's now plenty of real estate for docking other panels, nested or not.

Questions, observations and opinions are always welcome.

Version Info:

- Inkscape Version: 1.1 final
- Operating System: all

Related:

• #3937
• #2037