OK. Yet another inconsistency in the UI. Well, let it be.
If they only could implement Solo mode and let the Workspace menu live in the Library mode, this would be a big progress. I can’t really understand why they couldn’t code this feature after so many requests and time. I can’t imagine any kind of technical problem about this. If I were the owner of this code and if a customer asked me to implement this Solo mode, I would estimate the development time at a few hours (+ testing). We are here talking about years. The first request for Solo Mode was made 5 years ago. I’m curious about the counter arguments they could present.
indeed. In comparison to Lightroom’s solo mode, the filter switches feel clumsy because they necessitate extra mouse movement and clicks and consume space in the right dock, where it hurts, specially on small screens.
Exactly…and I notice this again and again, whether on MAC or Win11, when I switch from Affinity to DPL. The readability and presentation of the tools and controls are worlds worse in DPL…also one of the topics we have been discussing, proposing and hoping for implementation for years.
Yes, it’s curious. I’m wondering whether Adobe may have put a patent on the Solo mode. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Anyway, UI design has always been the weak side of the DxO products and UI consistency in the first place. Consistency among products and consistency within products. Not talking about the way settings, files and executables are spread over the user’s disk (although Adobe are much worse in this area).
DxO’s algorithms are pretty good but I have learned since a long time that good algorithms don’t make a full marketing success, especially nowadays where users no longer read any documentation. The UI design team must be as good as the team coding the image computations. There’s room for progress, no doubt.
I work with 2 screens and have my tools all arranged on the one but when I have to work on my laptop the cluttered interface becomes extremely frustrating. One needs solo mode for laptop or single screen use.
Did Adobe patent it or is it another example of DXO’s user-unfriendly quirks?
A down side of having all my tools on the secondary display is that it leaves no room for the image browser. Does anyone know of a keyboard short-cut that allows one to switch to and from the image browser?
That helps with switching between the different groups of tools and the Active Corrections toggle is great but it still uses up about 20% of the display real estate. I don’t see a shortcut for it.
This suggestion is valid for both dual and single display configurations. As for the Solo mode, I don’t see any technical difficulty to implement this feature. This can be coded in a few hours.
I really enjoyed Apple Apertures implementation of the full screen mode for working on small screens:
Basically you have a floating user interface over your full image, that you could always hide with a simple short cut. When you used any tool, all other tools completely disappeared, except the single slider that was being used. That was so clean. Also every tool had their own shortcut. So you could hide the user interface completely and only show up each one individually that was needed, e.g. only curves etc.
There were so many things I loved about Aperture. I was very disappointed when they stopped development and I had to find a replacement – a search that continues to this day.
