Fix T71999: Expose text object kerning in menu
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Authored by Arvind R (r-arvind) on Feb 16 2020, 10:19 PM.

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Reviewers

Bastien Montagne (mont29)
William Reynish (billreynish)
Harley Acheson (harley)
Campbell Barton (campbellbarton)

Summary

This is a patch for task T71999.

The option to change a font's kern is now available in the menu
under the "Fonts" section. The user can increase, decrease or
reset the kerning. These options only work in the edit mode.
Previously this could only be achieved by knowing the
shortcut Alt+Left/Right. Also supports selecting text and
changing its spacing.

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Repository: rB Blender

Event Timeline

Arvind R (r-arvind) created this revision.Feb 16 2020, 10:19 PM

Arvind R (r-arvind) edited the summary of this revision. (Show Details)Feb 16 2020, 10:21 PM

would it work if you select the whole text? So that you can change the spacing between all characters? Also see people in https://developer.blender.org/project/view/12/

Yes @Ankit Meel (ankitm) , it also works on selected text. I have attached a video demonstrating the same.

Also, you mentioned the User Interface team in your previous comment. What should I do regarding the panel UI, whom should I contact?

used arc

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B6650: Diff 21785.Feb 17 2020, 10:29 AM

Ankit Meel (ankitm) retitled this revision from Expose text object kerning in menu to Fix T71999: Expose text object kerning in menu.Feb 17 2020, 10:33 AM

Ankit Meel (ankitm) edited the summary of this revision. (Show Details)

Ankit Meel (ankitm) edited reviewers, added: Bastien Montagne (mont29), William Reynish (billreynish), Harley Acheson (harley); removed: Aaron Carlisle (Blendify), Campbell Barton (campbellbarton), Evan Wilson (EAW).

Ankit Meel (ankitm) added a project: User Interface.

Evan Wilson (EAW) added a reviewer: Campbell Barton (campbellbarton).Feb 21 2020, 2:10 AM

I like the idea of exposing this, but does it need to have a non-standard interface?

Start editing a text object, then hit alt-arrow to change the kerning. You'll see "Change Spacing" at bottom-left, open that up and see that we can continue to alter the kerning with an interface that is more like all the rest. I'd rather just have a scrolling input like that in Properties:

Further, I don't think this belongs under "Font" as that seems far too broad as that contains thing that affect everything drawn in that font. Most likely under Paragraph / Spacing would make more sense. It is similar to "Character Spacing", with that one affecting all characters. I find the organization of everything in Properties / text to be pretty messy and confusing though.

What would also help greatly would be to have some more menu items available when a text object is selected. Right now we get a "Font" menu with silly things like "Toggle Bold". Might be nice to have menu and items where we can increase/decrease the font size, etc. And also increase and decrease the letter kerning. Although not convenient on a menu it would at least advertise the key binding.

Thanks for looking into this.

The way kerning of changes looks quite awkward, although I can see why you did it this way, it looks like a number button without a number that can be dragged.

Currently the properties editor isn't setup for adjusting properties on the selection.

We could handle this in T68887: Text object editing rich text and UI/UX.

As for this patch, I think it would be best to expose this in the "Font" menu, until there is a well defined way of operating on the selection for other font properties such as bold/italic... etc.

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Feb 21 2020, 2:54 AM

Duarte Farrajota Ramos (duarteframos) awarded a token.Feb 21 2020, 10:30 AM

Duarte Farrajota Ramos (duarteframos) added a subscriber: Duarte Farrajota Ramos (duarteframos).

I went through all the issues related to text objects ( T68887 T71484 T71529 T68887). There is much work to be done related to fonts and their implementations in blender.
I am actually planning to apply for GSOC this summer , maybe I can take this up as my task. I am already pretty familiar with how the fonts and the APIs work. If you can mentor this project then over the course of next few weeks, we can discuss and streamline all these issues and come up with a proper problem statement to fix these issues ( or at least some of these ). What do you think?

@Campbell Barton (campbellbarton) Any suggestions about my proposal to take this up for GSOC?

@Arvind R (r-arvind) - I am actually planning to apply for GSOC this summer , maybe I can take this up as my task

I have such a nice long wish list for text handling improvements...

Go ahead, fire away!
Thanks for the help 🙂
I actually wanted some info regarding the issues related to the font. I'll try to come up with something.

Committed this in the menu rBd95dbd1f4f1c: UI: add kerning menu for 3D text editing since this is mostly a way to expose the key shortcuts, adjusting kerning with menu items isn't that handy.

Revision Contents
Changeset List

Path

Size

release/

scripts/

startup/

bl_ui/

properties_data_curve.py

20 lines

Diff 21775

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release/scripts/startup/bl_ui/properties_data_curve.py

Fix T71999: Expose text object kerning in menuAbandonedPublicActions