Idea: Snapshot Entry "Paste Action"

Software darktable
1

Hey folks,
I wanted to share an idea I had for a while.

When working with multiple images of adjacent scenes I often paste settings from one image to another and then want to check if the pastes settings actually look better. This can be achieved with snapshots but feels somewhat cumbersome to me. Also because snapshots are lost upon restart.

Would it be feasable to generate a purely informative history-stack-item “pasted settings from XXX”? This would allow one to have a better overview in longer history stacks.

I unfortunately completely lack the programming skills to tackle this myself so I wanted to share it here.

2

Hi @mino,

Could you rephrase what you mean? I couldn’t understand very well.

Do you mean, have a way to automate the process of:

  1. Create duplicate of current image
  2. Paste or selective-paste on duplicate
  3. Compare duplicate and current image side by side?
3

I understood the request in a different way and would like to add an idea for a more generic approach. What about the possibility to add purely informative history-stack items with arbitrary title? I am regularly using a 3D EM field simulation software which is also using a history stack and there it is possible to add history items that just consist of comment text which are serving a similar purpose as comments in code. This is a really useful feature in this software, and likely it would be useful in darktable as well. The solution to the request of the OP could then utilize this feature to add a “begin (partially) pasted settings from image 12345” and “end (partially) pasted settings from image 12345” history item below and above the pasted content automatically once the infrastructure is there.

2 Likes
4

Ah, thanks, now I understand.

The feature request is to be able to add fictous history stack items, purely for the purpose of book keeping.

Or rather, being able to group and annotate groups of items?

In the special case of the OP, it would be to annotate the items added when edits are pasted.

Either way, it seems like a useful thing to have. The 2nd option probably more principled conceptually.

1 Like
5

Exactly, thanks @chris and @Masterpiga for making sense of my unfinished thoughts.

Concerning automated history stack “notes” I think initial import (and auto applied modules), exports and pasted setting would be worth marking with a note.

Compression of the history stack would probably need to wipe all the notes for the sake of consistency.