[krita] [Bug 344810] New: Need more instruction when failed exporting unsupported color space

[Tyson Tan]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344810

Bug ID: 344810
Summary: Need more instruction when failed exporting
unsupported color space
Product: krita
Version: 2.9
Platform: unspecified
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: normal
Priority: NOR
Component: usability
Assignee: krita-bugs-***@kde.org
Reporter: ***@mail.com

When exporting a document with certain color space (CMYK or 16-bit) to a
portable file format that doesn't support them (JPG/PNG), Krita returns a error
message:

"Cannot export images in this colorspace or channel depth to PNG"

The problem is that the message is neither very informative nor instructive
enough to many, especially new users. Many of them hit that message because
they would blindly choose CMYK at document creation, as if it is the more
"professional" choice. They probably don't know what colorspace or channel
depth are. They don't know JPG/PNG don't support CMYK or 16-bit by their
specifications. When they see that error message, they would automatically
blame Krita for not being able to export JPG/PNG. One of the laughable solution
they told me was to use screenshot!

There can be 2 different solution I would like to suggest:
1. When exporting to JPG/PNG/GIF, automatically convert & output as RGB 8-bit
without any user interaction, do not display any message;
2. Show the error message, but tell them to go Menu>>Image>>Convert... and
Choose RGB 8-bit.

Personally I think plan 1 sounds better because it hides out all the rough
edges, in Apple style.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a document with CMYK or 16-bit colorspace
2. Menu>>File>>Export>>to PNG

Actual Results:
Krita returns a error message: "Cannot export images in this colorspace or
channel depth to PNG"

Expected Results:
Krita either automatically convert & output RGB 8-bit JPG/PNG file, OR, in the
error message, tell the users to go Menu>>Image>>Convert... and Choose RGB
8-bit

I got many feedback like this from my DA, tumblr and other places. I guess this
is one of the many reasons that people decided to uninstall Krita. I reported
this because I got another one today! :b

[Tyson Tan]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344810

Tyson Tan <***@mail.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary|Need more instruction when |Need more smoothed solution
|failed exporting |when failed exporting
|unsupported color space |unsupported color space

[Boudewijn Rempt]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344810

Boudewijn Rempt <***@valdyas.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|UNCONFIRMED |CONFIRMED
CC| |***@valdyas.org
Ever confirmed|0 |1

--- Comment #1 from Boudewijn Rempt <***@valdyas.org> ---
I'm pretty sure this is a duplicate of another bug, but I cannot find it... I'm
not sure about not warning the user, though -- that's likely to lead to people
getting really confused about losing their precision or color information.

[Tyson Tan]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344810

--- Comment #2 from Tyson Tan <***@mail.com> ---
(In reply to Boudewijn Rempt from comment #1)

Post by Boudewijn Rempt
I'm pretty sure this is a duplicate of another bug, but I cannot find it...
I'm not sure about not warning the user, though -- that's likely to lead to
people getting really confused about losing their precision or color
information.

Yes, I agree with you. I do think letting the user to control color conversion
is very important. However, showing error messages that terrifies new user and
completely blocks save/export function without any instruction is confusing. I
suggest we show a YES/NO dialogue like this:

"
The {target file format} your are saving does not support the {incompatible
colorspace} / {incompatible channel} by its specification. It will be
automatically converted into {fallback colorspace} (Note: You can convert
manually in Menu>>Image>>Convert Colorspace. Do you want to continue?
[Yes] [No]
"

[Boudewijn Rempt via KDE Bugzilla]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344810

Boudewijn Rempt <***@valdyas.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|CONFIRMED |RESOLVED
Resolution|--- |DUPLICATE

--- Comment #3 from Boudewijn Rempt <***@valdyas.org> ---


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 342141 ***