Objective

Improve the quality of the painting experience in Artbox

Design Revisions

Current Design: The Tool Cursor can be turned off in Preferences, and the pointer, leaving the only the brush outline. This is good, but causes issues.
Issues: A small and minimal cursor can be hard to locate.
Changes: There is a minimum screen size for the cursor, and a small ‘filled’ ‘contact’ circle is always drawn.
How to Use:
- Introduced a new function gimp_draw_brush_cursor that ensures a minimum cursor size
- Defined constants FINDER_SIZE and CORE_SIZE to ensure a small ‘filled’ contact circle is always drawn
- If the brush outline is too small, should_locate triggers a fallback locator circle
Benefits: Makes the cursor easier to locate, even when the brush is very small or not visible.

Current Design: New Feature
Issues: It’s not possible to tell if the paintbrush is about to erase whilst looking at the cursor.
Changes: Detect the ‘Eraser Tool’ and ‘Erase Paint’ mode, change the cursor to a dashed circle.
How to Use:
- The new gimp_is_erasing_paint function detects when the user is in ‘Eraser Tool’ mode or the ‘Erase Paint’ blending mode
- When erasing is active, the cursor switches to a dashed circle by invoking gimp_draw_arc_circle
- A small filled circle is also drawn at the center to help users identify the brush’s contact point
Benefits: Provides clear visual feedback about erase mode, preventing accidental erasure.

Current Design: Image brushes are drawn as complex outlines based on the image.
Issues: They can make a distracting paintbrush when the image is large and noisy.
Changes: Draw a simple circular boundary if the ‘Simple Brush Boundary’ option is checked in the Paintbrush Options.
How to Use: Enable ‘Simple Brush Boundary’ option in the Paintbrush Options for cleaner cursor display.
Benefits: Reduces visual distraction from complex brush outlines, providing a cleaner painting experience.

Current Design: Eraser uses the background colour, usually white on a mask.
Issues: This is the opposite of erasing on a mask.
Changes: The Eraser uses black on a mask.
How to Use: Eraser tool automatically uses appropriate color when working on layer masks.
Benefits: Proper erasing behavior on layer masks, making mask editing more intuitive.