As art reference board

[fanixa]

Hiii, I'm an artist and designer, and i came here for using this awesome app as art reference board, like pureref app on windows, or mobile analogy refCanvas. Another one is droidref here on githab, but it lacks grayscale.

Currently I'm using Butterfly on android tablet.

I was really happy to see the grayscale mode and flip horizontal features, they are the most important for art, but really sadly they don't work properly on my end:

1. Pictures load really bad, in last stable release 2.4.1 they are grayed out until I save and reopen the file :(
   In previous version all was fine with it.

When I select multiple pictures, and try to edit them, tools doubles, triples etc. Depends on how much I select.

There is no support for drag and drop pictures from browser or gallery to canvas.
Also would've useful if we could import multiple pictures at a time.

No support of gif file format, or videos. (Would've bring animators, video editors, motion designers to app).

2. Grayscale mode: it's not reversible at all, idk if this a bug, but in all other apps it's reversible cause in art we use it to check tone, and then go back to color.

In last version as I said until u save and reopen the file u don't see the changes.

In previous version, it was changing only after I scale the image. So not straightway result.

3. With flip horizontal features same thing. Not working until reopening in last version. And in previous working only after rescaling.

4. I see that u can drag and drop tools to menu for fast access, but there is no feature for ones that u use to edit pictures sadly, cause it takes like 5 clicks to get there.

5. Double tap to edit weirdly works, it's changing from edit to paste icon, and there is no control of it or i just can't understand.
   Also will be cool if we can use gestures like tap with two fingers to undo, and three to redo.

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Also a question, I read that the app has infinite canvas, but on my end it's not, it's limited zoom. Or I just can't find it? Working with pictures, it's really important to have ability to zoom as close as u wish.

Another question, is there any Alignment tools?

**Main issues are not reversible grayscale, and a bug with needing to reopen file or scaling the images to see the changes of editing. And double tap mixing with paste icon.
**

I see a big potential here, and i will recommend it to all artist, 3dmodelers and designers that I know.

If this stuff will change it's really-really great and full application for work.

Thank you for making it 💛

[CodeDoctorDE]

Nice to see my app being used for cool things.

To the image bug: Sorry for this bug, this wasn't noticed during testing. Will publish a hotfix in the coming weeks for this.
The grayscale option and the flip system are currently destructive. I'm currently thinking of changing that to have it like the pdf so you just have a checkbox for that:

Drag and drop is also a good feature I haven't thought about yet but could be a good feature.

GIF and video are currently a bit tricky. My app currently works like a drawing board where you have static things that doesn't change. I'm not really sure how GIFs and videos should work here. Theoretically I could add it but from the user experience point or the principals of the app it is currently a bit tricky.
How should export work? Videos have controls, how should these be customizable? For controlling videos, should this be done with the hand tool or should there be an extra tool? Should the videos be played in loop?
Feel free to make a design proposals :)

What do you mean with edit images? There is currently no real image editor in butterfly. Feel free to also make a design proposal here, I'm open for changes.

For the double tap I'm not sure what you mean. To select you draw what you want to select. If you double tap, you have the context menu to edit these selection. If you don't have a selection and double tap you can paste your clipboard. Customizing two tabs gesture would probably conflict with this context menu.

The app is truly infinite in position (-x, -y, +x, +y). In the previous versions of the app it was also possible to zoom without being limited but some people didn't like it since you can quickly lose track of where you are. If you care, I could make a setting for that.

Alignment tools aren't there currently. What do you need exactly? If you want you can also make a request for that. I'm open for requests.

I started working on the app to use in the school, but my goal is to make a drawing app for all kinds of use cases. Thanks for your detailed text, I hope I didn't forget anything :)

[JerryMerweather]

Hello fanixa,

Thank you for writing your opinion on the app.

I do want to know, what makes you choose butterfly?

Also, there is a discord server for linwood butterfly. If you would like to join.

Thanks 🤍

[CodeDoctorDE]

Yesterday i fixed the image problem, should be released as 2.4.2-rc.0 and as 2.4.2 in final stable