UX for reference images is bad. There is no idication that reference image is selected.

[ludrol]

Pixelorama version:
1.1.7

Where did you download Pixelorama from?
flatpak

OS/device including version:
OS: Bazzite x86_64
Host: 82JU (Legion 5 15ACH6H)
Kernel: Linux 6.17.7-ba20.fc43.x86_64
Uptime: 13 hours, 6 mins
Packages: 2766 (rpm), 140 (flatpak), 4 (brew)
Shell: bash 5.3.0
Display (BOE08E8): 1920x1080 @ 120 Hz in 16" [Built-in]
DE: KDE Plasma 6.5.3
WM: KWin (Wayland)
WM Theme: Breeze
Theme: Breeze (Vapor) [Qt], Vapor [GTK2/3]
Icons: breeze-dark [Qt], breeze-dark [GTK3/4]
Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [Qt], Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK3/4]
Cursor: Teto (32px)
Terminal: Ptyxis 49.2
Terminal Font: Fira Code (10pt)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H (12) @ 4.28 GHz
GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q [Discrete]
GPU 2: AMD Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series [Integrated]
Memory: 9.99 GiB / 13.49 GiB (74%)
Swap: 4.33 GiB / 32.84 GiB (13%)
Disk (/): 41.71 MiB / 41.71 MiB (100%) - overlay [Read-only]
Disk (/etc): 745.93 GiB / 929.93 GiB (80%) - btrfs
Local IP (wlp4s0): 172.30.205.49/22
Battery (L20M4PC0): 58% [AC Connected]
Locale: pl_PL.UTF-8
Tablet: Huion H640p
Driver: Open Tablet Driver v0.6.6.2

Issue description:

I am trying to turn logos into pixel art and I am keep having to jump through hoops to use reference images.

There is no indication if I am in draw mode or reference image mode. I would expect here to draw but I will scale the reference image.

There is no way to quickly peek at current state of the drawing.

There is no way to lock the reference image position and scale to not accidentally nudge it out of alignment

Steps to reproduce:

open image as reference image

try as new user to adjust position and draw a silhouette

Proposed Solutions

1. Remove "Reference Image panel" and make "Reference Image Tool", remove ability to have multiple reference layers. All settings would be under the tool options.
   Lock and Peek would be as a new options.

2. Remove "Reference Image panel" and make "Reference Layer" for Animation Timeline. We get lock and visibility buttons for free. We get familiar workflow with editing selected layer. There would need to be a rotate and scale tool to work. Filters would need to go to layer effects.

Hacky and bad: Gray out the tool selector bar if reference image is selected. Deselect reference image if panel is not active. Add lock and peek as new features.

Other

I was infuriated so I labelled this as bug. Thanks for making such cool software.