[Fixed] Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

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porg
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[Fixed] Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by porg »

Environment: GraphicConverter 11.6 (trial version) on macOS 11.6.5

Reproduction
- Select a file. For testing purposes one which has colored varying content everywhere, no large blank/white areas.
- Open the "Quick Conversion" dropdown menu
- Under section "Format" choose a format which is lossy (e.g. JPEG) or has a lossy option (e.g. webP)
- Under section "Options" choose "Of selected Format…"
- The format specific dialog opens

Expected: The Before and After preview boxes show the image content of the selected image (or the first/last when multiple images were selected) in the respective quality.

Actual: Both the Before and After preview boxes are blank white squares.
- Also when dragging the quality slider (to trigger a refresh) they still remain white.
- Also regardless of which format you chose: JPEG and also webP showed the same bug.

Quality preview before after boxes remain totally blank in GraphicConverter 11.jpg
Quality preview before after boxes remain totally blank in GraphicConverter 11.jpg (435.02 KiB) Viewed 3544 times
Last edited by porg on Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by forum_adm »

The preview is only available for a single opened file. So, not a bug.
So, just open a file and select save as.

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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by forum_adm »

I modified now the display of the dialog for the batch conversion.
So, that should avoid the confusion:
Screen Shot 2022-04-06 at 08.12.57.jpg
Screen Shot 2022-04-06 at 08.12.57.jpg (137.77 KiB) Viewed 3539 times
porg
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by porg »

Thanks for the answer.

Usability issue of confusion closed indeed.

But: It nevertheless would be desireable, if you select a bunch of images for resizing and/or conversion, potentially with differing visual style/type to see what quality is the optimal middle ground for all of them, to get a preview on the first/last in that selection, and optionally maybe add another 1-2 previews.

Here is a series of mockups how I envision this:

Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 1a.jpg
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 1a.jpg (109.14 KiB) Viewed 3536 times
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 1b.jpg
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 1b.jpg (103.18 KiB) Viewed 3536 times
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 2a.jpg
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 2a.jpg (118.14 KiB) Viewed 3536 times
porg
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by porg »

Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 2b.jpg
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 2b.jpg (146.48 KiB) Viewed 3536 times
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 2c.jpg
Graphic Converter Mockup Quality Preview Dialog for Batch 2c.jpg (157.04 KiB) Viewed 3536 times
Also note this usability / design recommendation:

In section "Metadata (if available)" there is currently an option "Don't embed sRGB profile"

- For layout purposes I shortened it to "sRGB profile, so that the Quality Window is split in two halfs, left the options, right the preview.

- Nevertheless independently of this you should rename it to this!

Why? Because boolean options should always be in a "positive verbal form"

- To avoid double negation, which many people have problems with, i.e. if you untick it, this literally means "Not don't embed sRGB profile" which equates then to "embed sRGB profile". Already problematic for some. It is especially problematic with verbs/adjectives which have a negative and positive form such as show/hide. The option should never be named "Hide XXX" ("hiding" in itself being a negative form) to avoid "Not hide XXX" (negated negative form). Because in the experience of our physical world things usually "show", so this is the positive norm. So instead better use "Show XXX" (positive form) which has a better understandable negated form of "Don't show XXX".

- This is a classical example of implementation model as the developer has it vs. mental model as the user has it, which designers optimize for, and developers should strive for too. Implementation model usability pitfall: Something was hardcoded. One day it get's an option/preference. The label in the frondend simply keeps the original adjective/verb/noun as in the code plus a negation. Recommendation: When this situation happens ALWAYS use the opportunity to transform the label into a positive verbal form.

- Verbal form: Better than just simply a noun form like "sRGB profile embedding". An adjective or noun in a short label is often a bit vague. Whereas a verbal form always clearly indicates what the "app does" actively. B/c with a noun there's the ambiguity whether it describes the state it is in, or which it shall get to. And similar understanding issues in that direction.

Hope that UX design advice helps.
porg
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by porg »

Btw your 500kB attachment limit is already quite low for nowadays.
Even worse it seems not to be per attachment as the hint says, but actually per the total of all attachments in one post.
I had to split my image series into two posts therefore.
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by forum_adm »

The current coding does not allow previews for multiple files/batch.
So, this is not possible, yet.
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by forum_adm »

A checkbox sRGB Profile is confusing. The user may think: the image gets converted to sRGB.

So, here Don't embed sRGB is much better. Because only if the profile is sRGB than it will not be embedded.
porg
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by porg »

1) I disagree regarding the nomenclature:
- The section headline reads Embed Metadata (if available). This is the context.
- And then lists a lot of metadata which shall get embedded or not: EXIF, ICC profile, etc.
- "sRGB profile" is one of those metadata entries to integrate or not (suppress if existing).
- That is how I would interpret it then. But maybe I misunderstand the nature of this functionality and hence cannot propose a proper terminology.
porg
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Re: [Closed] Bug: Quality Preview Before / After remains totally blank

Post by porg »

2) Thanks for letting me know about GC's capabilities.
- As a workaround, manually open some selected files first individually and check their "save as" or "save for web" previews to determine a good value. Then select your intended batch and apply the parameter which you found acceptable for the whole range of files.
- Of course you have to remember that mentaly. Cannot visually compare side by side in a preview. Only the end results. If unsatisifed another run (with override to spare you clutter if you want).
- Already thought creatively: E.g. open representative 3 files of your batch of 50 as individual windows. Then trigger "Save for web" for each of them.
- Sadly not possible, as GC's windows are still mostly modal.


3) Honest feedback: The modal windows provide very much of a 1990ies UX. Already noticed modal window on top of modal window as annoying at multiple occassions while evaluating GC. Is this design by choice? Or is this legacy code which is hard to refactor?
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