Color layer panel improvements

Glyphs
1

Hi there,

First off, thanks for the improvements on the color layer panel over the past years, It has made work quite a bit more doable!

But currently, as my color fonts get more and more complex (and expanded) I’m running into a few workflow hiccups that scripting aids in, but cannot really overcome, and I wonder how you (or other people) think about these adjustments to the panel, if there is interest or if they can be done at all (or perhaps there are workarounds I haven’t thought of!)

Collapsable masters
Sometimes I want to focus on working on just a single master , and with 30-50 color layers in each glyph the list gets quite cluttered, especially if the font has about 4 masters. I know I could split the files, but I like to keep them combined as many parts are shared.
What would help while drawing is the ability to collapse the layer-list of a master so you can choose which color layers are shown.

See similar color layers
If you currently select multiple glyphs with color layers, the layers are not shown. While it’s logical to not show them if the layers are different, it would be nice to show them when the layers and order are the same (similarly to the LSB/RSB showing up when glyphs with the same values are selected), and also edit them as you go along (swap colours, add layers, so on).

Would love to hear from you.

Thanks in advance!
Arthur

2

We are working on a much-expanded color system which will be part of the next major release and should address both of these needs. If you have any specific desires, feel free to share and I’ll see how best to address it.

3

Great to hear and looking forward to it, thanks for letting me know. I suspect this also will introduce COLRv1 support?

About further specific desires (which I expect are part of the overhaul already) are improvements of the Color palette panel, mostly for the rearrangement of colours: I usually rearrange through scripts, but with sometimes over 50 colours hex codes can become confusing. (and it also pops up once in a while in my color font lessons).

To be clear: This shouldn’t have any impact on the layers, just a way you can rearrange later added colours to their logical place in the palette order. (for instance by keeping hues or shadows together).