Providing a clear âlabel,â a wording, or a tooltip is not a simple thing. Indeed, everyone, depending on their culture, language, and training, gives different meanings to words.
Letâs take words like âhighlights,â âshadows,â âtone mapping,â although everyone has a sense of what they might mean, but everyone interprets them differently.
As soon as the designers, either for convenience or because it makes sense to them, calls a method by a certain name, or groups different methods together⌠understanding, or misunderstanding, inevitably arises.
Letâs take the example of highlights. Everyone understands that these are highlights⌠but beyond this obvious fact, what lies behind them?
What do the following have in common:
- highlight reconstruction â color propagation;
- a highlight slider in âexposureâ;
- the EV-based or Gamma-based method in âSource Data adjustmentâ;
- etc.
Technically and mathematically, none.
Same question if we talk about âTone mappingâ⌠Itâs a somewhat catch-all concept that hides enormous differences in mathematical terms and algorithms. Once the differences are understood (not easy), how do we translate them for the user?
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If, for example, I had called âTone mappingâ (tab exposure) by its mathematical name âCholesky factorizationâ⌠what would the reactions have been?
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If âSigmoidâ, which is mathematically a symmetric hyperbolic function (a function that approaches a maximum, or a minimum, without ever reaching it), hadnât appeared in Darktable about 4 years ago, but would appear for the first time in Rawtherapee in 2024, what would the reactions have been? Who knew about the Sigmoid hyperbolic function? Today, its usage has almost entered common parlance⌠but whatâs behind it?
Another example is âWaveletâ. Iâm often told that the way Gimp handles Wavelets is simpler than Rawtherapeeâs. Weâre comparing a carp and a rabbit⌠The only common points are the name and the notion of decomposition (if we admit that this concept is simple !!). Beyond that, everything is different: Gimp composes decomposition levels with layers, without (or almost without) worrying about signal processing. Rawtherapee does the opposite⌠Hence the really different approaches and functionalities.
If I had to rank Rawtherapeeâs most complex/innovative algorithms, I would list them in alphabetical order (there are others, of courseâŚ):
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Capture sharpening;
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Generalized hyperbolic stretch (GHS) â just look at the debate surrounding the Chinese translationâŚwhat a rich debate (thanks to @syyrmb )
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Highlight reconstruction â Color propagation;
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Tone mapping with Choselky factorization;
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Wavelets;
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White balance auto â temperature correlation
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etc.
Developing labels and tooltips is a complex process, especially for these concepts and methods in the broadest sense. At the very least, it takes two people to develop something understandable and coherent. Beyond that, it becomes extremely complex.
But of course, I remain open to any suggestions.
And, excuse my bad englishâŚ
Jacques
