# UrDesign

UrDesign is a user-experience-led creative suite that unifies professional
photo development, vector illustration, layout design, motion graphics, and
automation into a single, cohesive workspace. The project reimagines GIMP's
core with tactile feedback, modern interaction patterns, and a roadmap aimed at
feature parity with industry-standard multidisciplinary studios—while remaining
open, extensible, and community-driven.

## Experience pillars

* **Flow-first UX** – panels, palettes, and command surfaces adapt to task
  context, enabling frictionless transitions between sketching, compositing,
  typography, and export preparation.
* **Predictable transforms** – bounding boxes, proportional constraints, smart
  snapping, and pivot controls deliver immediate feedback for scale, rotate,
  shear, perspective, and warp operations.
* **Living documents** – combined raster/vector layers, non-destructive effect
  stacks, reusable styles, linked assets, and collaborative presets ensure
  parity across imaging, illustration, and layout workflows.
* **Studio-ready delivery** – export pipelines ship with gamut warnings, motion
  previews, packaging templates, metadata tooling, and batch automation for
  both digital and print campaigns.

## Transform canvas enhancements

The current development cycle introduces a refreshed on-canvas transform UI:

* **Dedicated rotation handle** – a floating, guide-connected control sits
  beyond the active bounds for precise angular sweeps without occluding the
  artwork.
* **Handle scaling preferences** – configurable sizing keeps corner, edge, and
  pivot handles comfortable across high-resolution and HiDPI canvases.
* **Proportional resize by default** – corner drags preserve aspect ratios and
  can be toggled per interaction with the standard modifier workflow.
* **Responsive indicator line** – a connective stroke between pivot and
  rotation handle clarifies active axes and helps the eye track adjustments.
* **Context-aware highlighting** – hover states and snapping feedback respond to
  the upgraded handle geometry for confident manipulation.

These refinements lay the groundwork for additional transform overlays such as
constraint widgets, numerical popovers, and tablet-friendly gesture ribbons.

## Creative tool additions

The latest iteration introduces dedicated tooling to accelerate hybrid raster
and vector workflows:

* **Corner Sculpt Tool** – interactively round or chamfer Bezier corners on any
  path or vector layer using radius presets, preserving undo history and path
  topology.
* **Shape Fusion Tool** – merges multiple paths with live boolean operations
  (union, subtract, intersect) while keeping a clean undo stack and optional
  source preservation.
* **Intelli Select Tool** – generates context-aware selections from a single
  click, applying local color clustering and refinement. The bundled SAM2
  vendor modules enable accelerated, model-driven segmentation once compatible
  checkpoints are supplied.

These tools surface in the toolbox alongside the existing selection and path
entries and can be configured via new option panels.

## Feature completeness roadmap

UrDesign pursues parity across raster, vector, and layout disciplines. Active
milestones include:

| Pillar | In-Progress Focus | Placeholder Modules |
| ------ | ----------------- | ------------------- |
| Raster Lab | Non-destructive adjustments, live masks, unified tone mapper | `app/tools/` painting updates, GPU-accelerated filters |
| Vector Studio | Parametric shapes, boolean operations, adaptive stroke profile panel | `app/vectors/` overlay scaffolding |
| Layout Board | Artboard management, typography grids, responsive export presets | `app/display/` multi-surface shell enhancements |
| Motion & Automation | Keyframe timelines, scripted batch operations, reusable macros | `plug-ins/` animation runners, action API extensions |

Many modules expose placeholder widgets and configuration toggles today so
contributors can iterate feature-by-feature without destabilizing the broader
application.

## Getting started

UrDesign tracks the 3.1 development branch and uses the Meson build system.

```bash
meson setup build
ninja -C build
ninja -C build install
```

Detailed platform notes and dependency requirements live in
[`INSTALL.in`](INSTALL.in). The default build type is `debugoptimized`, which
balances runtime performance with approachable debugging.

## Configuration & customization

UrDesign honors GTK theming and offers granular tuning in the user preferences
file (`~/.config/UrDesign/3.0/gimprc`). Notable additions include:

* `transform-handle-scale` – enlarges or shrinks transform handles globally for
  touch and HiDPI workflows.
* `transform-rotation-handle-offset` – positions the dedicated rotation handle
  further from or closer to the active bounding box.
* `transform-uniform-scale` – locks transform handles to proportional scaling
  unless a modifier key temporarily disables it.
* `transform-scale-from-center` – expands or contracts from the pivot point by
  default when enabled.

Additional personalization options:

* Global tweaks via `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/gtk-3.0/` (e.g. `settings.ini`,
  `gtk.css`).
* Application overrides via `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/UrDesign/3.0/urdesign.css`.
* Custom shortcuts in `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/UrDesign/3.0/shortcutsrc`.
* IntelliSelect SAM2 integration by downloading the recommended checkpoints for
  the bundled [`facebookresearch/sam2`](https://github.com/facebookresearch/sam2)
  package and placing them under `plug-ins/intelleselect/vendor/sam2/checkpoints`
  (see `plug-ins/intelleselect/vendor/README.md`).

## Contributing

We welcome contributions across design, engineering, documentation, and quality
assurance.

1. Review the coding guidelines in `devel-docs/README.md` and roadmap briefs in
   the issue tracker.
2. Use feature branches and follow Meson formatting conventions.
3. Submit merge requests with before/after context, UX rationale, and relevant
   tests.

New contributors can explore open issues labeled "good first task" and join
community syncs announced in `NEWS` and on the project portal. A detailed
multi-disciplinary roadmap lives in [`docs/ROADMAP.md`](docs/ROADMAP.md).

## Community

Real-time chat, forums, and project announcements are coordinated through our
community portal. Links to discussion channels, archived conversations, and
contributor meetings are published in `NEWS` and on the website.

Experiment, iterate, and share your findings—UrDesign grows through its
community of creators.