I pressed some shortcut and now my masks and other tools are green.
How do I get them back to white?
I searched for this too, but unfortunately didn’t find anything.
That was quick. Thank you very much, I would never have found this on my own!
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overlay color
The color of the overlay lines. Note that this impacts any lines that are drawn directly over the image, for example, drawn masks.
Reading the manual is often very helpful …
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I am a big fan of the RTFM philosophy, but for something like this one shouldn’t have to read the manual.
<rant>
Indeed, and it’s not your fault. This is a UX design issue, the current arrangement violates the principle of proximity and at least the following Wilson’s heuristics:
- Match Between System and Real World: Information should appear in a natural and logical order. Placing settings for one item inside a completely different item is illogical.
- Consistency and Standards: Users expect controls to be in consistent, predictable locations (like near the item or in a central “Settings” area).
- Recognition Rather Than Recall: Users should not have to remember an arbitrary, hidden location for a setting. Controls should be visible and recognizable where they are needed.
If you want to change the color of the map element overlays, you would first look for a settings/options control in the mask controls. Failing to to that, you would look for an option in its container, i.e., the module widget. Failing to do that, you would look for some general settings in the module list UI, as masks apply to all modules. Failing to do that, you would look for some general settings in the preferences view. Failing to find it there, almost everybody would assume that the option just does not exist.
Nobody who doesn’t know already would click on an unrelated widget in another part of the UI and expect to find the control there.
As the same option controls the behavior of at least two different things (mask elements and grid lines) there are three ways to implement this correctly that I can think of:
- One centralized option in the preferences window.
- No centralized option, but the same option is accessible from within all the widgets that it affects (i.e., the masks widget and the grids widget).
- Both (1) and (2).
</rant>
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A centralised option wouldn’t be ideal, as, depending on image contents, you may want to set this without digging into the preferences. E.g. red overlays on a red-dominated image will be hard to see, but would be OK e.g. on a dark background.
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Agreed. In fact my favorite option would be (2).
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The current manual is helpful for people who are (well) familiar with Darktable and want to look something up.
However, you also need to know what to search for, which new users find very difficult, especially since important functions aren’t immediately obvious.
For experienced users, almost everything is clear. From this perspective, referring to the manual makes sense.
But there are other perspectives, especially for those who are less experienced.
I don’t like the fact that everyone is automatically suspected of not having informed themselves. A culture where everyone can ask even silly questions without being roasted is much more pleasant than one where someone has to wonder whether they should even ask and is afraid of getting reprimanded.
I assume that the vast majority of people inform themselves first and then ask a question if they get stuck. There are certainly exceptions, but even these should be treated respectfully.
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I 100% agree. When getting into darktable and studying the manuals entries for the modules I wanted to get to know I felt like actually studying. Reminded me a lot of my time in medschool.
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Yeah, I agree, but…
There are more perspectives. There is only a few people here really knowing the ins and outs. And they get a lot of questions / idea’s thrown at (them). It is simply not possible to manage all of this given the amount of time and energy.
If you regard this forum as a kind of help-desk then you’ll want a kind of first line support for basic easy questions and only have the experts being bothered with more difficult situations.
So I guess behind your message which I agree on probably lays an organizational challenge too.
Kind regards, Jetze
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Well said.
Yeah, RTFM works when the manual is short, easy to understand and exhaustive. Unfortunately this is not the case of DT’s manual. It is an excellent resource, but it’s not easy to find answers to every little doubt such as the one in the OP.
And regardless, I think it’s not very reasonable to expect that one would read tens of pages of documentation just because they cannot find a configuration option.
BTW, this is one of the problems that LLMs solve quite well. If you ask Gemini or whatever there are good chances that you would get a correct answer, or at least be pointed somewhat in the right direction. It would be nice to fine tune a model on all available DT docs to answer such questions. I believe that Aurelien Pierre did something along these lines for Ansel, I think it’s a very good idea.
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I’m aware of this difficulty, however, no one is forced to answer a question.
In my example, priort reacted “perfectly” by showing me a small screenshot of where I could find the help I needed.
Someone who is annoyed by such a question can simply do “nothing.”
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I only recently discovered how brilliant the manual is. You can click on any element in Darktable using the “?” symbol and it takes you directly to the manual. It’s incredibly helpful.
As I said before, it’s an excellent reference work.
What’s missing (and what others are trying to contribute) are tutorials. I’m a big fan of written tutorials, even better with lots of pictures laughs. I also find videos interesting, but it’s much harder to find something quickly.
By the way, your idea of using AI to answer these kinds of questions is excellent.
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Maybe,
The love must come from both sides. And it is easy to disturb a good relation. Even more so when - such as on this forum - we do not know each other at all and only a few written words are used to communicate. We cannot easily smile or wink at each other to make clear our real intentions.
We all know dt is not a perfect project being perfectly documented. It is easy to point at imperfections because they are there. So if we start pointing at imperfections - which I consider to be very much OK - we must be either a) prepared to help solve it or b) make clear we think it is not the end of the world. Failing to do so would turn upside down the FOSS game we all seem to like and put way too much pressure on a very small group of persons.
I consider it a matter of mutual respect not to over-ask or overstate. There is only a very small gap between being helpful and being a nuisance unfortunately.
Kind regards, Jetze
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I completely agree with you.
It’s very easy to point the finger at a problem that might not actually be one because you don’t understand it well enough or there isn’t (currently) a better solution.
The people who make Darktable possible put a lot of energy and dedication into the project. Criticism can therefore be hurtful, that’s human nature.
Personally, I think that most people don’t criticize the developers and contributors personally, nor the project itself. However, this point isn’t always obvious.
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True,
And it goes a step further then criticizing - it often is simply over-asking/asking too much which does the trick. Hence my thought about need for a kind of first line help-desk function here.
Kind regards, Jetze
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Chat-GPT or other AI not required.
mask outline colour in darktable And guess which site it points to :). The same search here also gives the answer.
Grumpy Old Guy mode:
I might start using AI chat if and when I can’t get an answer with a simple search.
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You’re confirming exactly what I described above: if you know precisely what you’re looking for, you’ll find it. Even in the manual.
But how do you know how to phrase something precisely if you don’t yet know it?
You can’t always just rely on yourself and your own level of knowledge.
is this the mask color?
or is this the mask color?
No, but this part of how we learn. If I had been the person in your example, at the end of that day I might have learnt the answer to my question and discovered how to display the mask area. Bonus!
But… this morning, I googled for a AC mains box that I know exists, or did, into which one can safely insert three bare wires. I could not find it. I’ve asked on a hifi forum, where I know there are electrical engineers and tinkerers. One of them may well know what that thing is called! So I have the right words to search for the product.
You mentioned the in-built darktable-help “?”. It’s wonderful … and I didn’t even know about it until a few months ago.
Life has lots of options.
Yes very much. I have trouble finding answers to certain questions quite often. So I do very much recognize the wish for ‘easy’ answers. But not yet I’ve found the solution for it without putting more weight on shoulders already bearing some.
But actually the solution might be very simple: the - among dt users (and elsewhere) - so much dreaded tags must be applied on the internet too 
.
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