Add crop feature to LXImage-Qt

[kenfallon]

Expected Behavior

There should be a crop feature.

Current Behavior

There is no crop feature.

Possible Solution

Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)

1. N//A

Context

The most common action for me at least is to send in a smaller portion of the image. It would be great to have this included as an option.

System Information

• Distribution & Version: Fedora release 30 (Thirty)
• Kernel: Linux 5.3.8-200.fc30.x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Qt Version: 5.12.5
• libfm-qt Version: 0.14.1
• libqtxdg Version: 3.3.1
• lxqt-build-tools Version: 0.6.0
• Package version: 0.14.1

[tsujan]

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to add image editing functionalities to an image viewer but cropping seems reasonable because it isn't more complex than rotation or flipping -- although, I don't mean that on the code level.

[agaida]

@tsujan - we should think about - cropping is very elementry - i try to describe a use case:

• one have n pictures and check them back in a row - which very basic functionality comes to mind, what will make this guy really happy?
  • cropping maybe
  • contrast etc
  • somethings i forget right now
  • some simple texts

[tsujan]

Yes, image editing functionalities aren't for an image viewer.

[agaida]

please have a short test of flameshot - cool functionality for a screengrabber - not what i would like for LXQt, but kind of impressive. And i know we could do some of this and better

[tsujan]

Hadn't heard of it. But Arch/Manjaro is so cool: sudo pacman -S flameshot, then flameshot.

Frankly, IMO it's counter-intuitive and bloated. I prefer screengrab: simple and efficient.

[agaida]

dependend of the use case - a very good friend and co-leader of siduction is journalist. He write about hard- and software world wide. Flameshot do basically all the things he need. We don't.

Short:

• he can do snapshots and blur sensitive things out before making the screenshot
• he can add a line of text - or two before he press the button
• he can add some arrows to point out what he means - in combinition with the text

ok, i don't want this in lximage-qt - but i want to be able to take a certain serie of screenshots, have a look in lxqtimage and do the dirty work in a editor of my choice.
and to be honest - most of the screenies with arrows and a line of text was taken with flameshot - the "only" disadvantage of flameshot right now is: delayed shots are not easily possible, perhaps they have the same discussions as we now.

Another point: nothing from the things pointed above are really needed. But some of them would ease the users life.

[agaida]

erm - and i forget: not all things should or has to be implemented in screengrab or lximage-qt - but it should be possible to have such an workflow as described easily.

[tsujan]

First, let's close this because lximage-qt isn't an image editor. Rotating/flipping is sometimes needed for viewing an image, but cropping isn't. (Annotation was merged by mistake.) Adding the "enhancement" label was my mistake.

My opinion about Flameshot: I don't use it because I want a fast and easy-to-use screenshot utility like screengrab, not a multi-purpose app. If I want to add arrows to a screenshot, I'll use GIMP because I could do the job without limitation -- I even won't use the buggy Annotation toolbar of lximage-qt. I also use GIMP for other kinds of image editing.

Moreover, adding image editing functionalities isn't a piece of cake (cropping code can be quite complex, for example). It can add bugs to an app, while it wasn't really needed in the first place (see lximage-qt's annotations).

So, IMHO, it's better to focus on image viewing with an image viewer and on taking screenshots with a screenshot utility. After all, don't we want to remove lximage-qt's screenshot code because...?

[agaida]

no problems right now - but in this case we should maybe refine some functionality later. Maybe it would be a good idea to think about some kind of plugin structure :D

Please take my opinion with a good grain of salt - we was in the functionality discussions before ;P

[tsujan]

You may not believe it that I liked EOG when I was a gnome2 user. lximage-qt is much better than EOG and is still uncluttered (again, apart from annotations). There are some image viewing functionalities that should be added to it (I haven't forgotten #192) and some bugs that should be fixed (I found one during our discussion).

I really prefer an app that does its job fully and correctly to an app that does various jobs but incompletely and sometimes incorrectly. That's my humble opinion and I won't tear out my hair if lximage-qt becomes the latter.

[tsujan]

BTW, a plugin structure is a great idea. It's also good for pcmafm-qt. I, for one, have no idea how to implement it.

[agaida]

it was only an idea - and to your surprise i prefer a very clean and tidy implementation as long we don't have a kind of plugin structure ready - but again - may not be now, but later ... 🗡️

PS: if you don't have a clue about a plugin structure - how should or could i have? :)

[tsujan]

if you don't have a clue about a plugin structure

I've never written an app with plugins :) Might try it at some point.