Improving look of nodes, paths and handles
the pen tool is one of the core features of inkscape, and it should be treated respectfully. I think there is a lot of little things that can be improved in the design of the node handles.
- Bigger targets
I think the should be a little bit bigger. the user shouldn't struggle so much to click on the right spot. I know its a balance thing. because when it comes to complex shapes with a lot of nodes, bigger handles can make it unreadable and nodes can be overlapping. so I think its really need to be a subtle change.
- better collors
I think the default colors are a little bit too saturated and not pleasing. maybe more light, pastel colors will work better. they shouldn't grab the user attention. just to inform him. also there is to much use of the red color. where its need to be used just when something goes wrong. that's what's this color representing. its global design convention.
- Anti-aliased
there is a little bit of mess when it comes to anti-aliasing. the path on the canvas Anti-aliased well. but the node and the handles are pixelated. its look bad.
- Problematic outline
in dark mode, the lines that being controlled (the red, blue and green ones) have a weird grey outline. its make them less readable.
- fully painted nodes
you can see the line through the node and the handles. and I think its looks bad and confusing. the circle (or rectangle) should be filled by white or dark grey (in light or dark mode, respectively). they can be half transparent when they are not selected, but more in direction of 80% opacity. and the selected one can be pastel blue with 100% opacity. e.g.
- Outline nodes
also, there should be a small (like, 1 pixel) transparent stroke around the selected handles to make them more readable and separated from the line. here are example of this from figma:
- don't show the selection clue box
Turn of selection clues is not useful since you can see that object is selected by showing nodes it also adds visual notice.
- No more XOR and ugly gray node colors they they look ugly and do not help visibility that much
Proposed redesign:
