Currently in PL4, when browsing folders in the source explorer, collapsing a folder or switching to a different folder unselects all images.
Desired behavior (Windows):
Copy and paste operations should be available when right-clicking an image: the contextual menu should offer “Copy to clipboard” in the same area as rename and delete.
When browsing folders in the source explorer, collapsing a folder or switching to a different folder does not have an effect on images referenced in the clipboard.
Desired behavior (Apple Mac): an equivalent principle of operation should be offered.
What is it that you’d like to copy to the clipboard, Pierre? And why? Is there another program that models this behavior you’d like PhotoLab to have?
My confusion is based on this: In a RAW developer, images aren’t fully processed until export, which requires a lot of computational work. File copy, on the other hand - I don’t think I’ve seen that done with the clipboard before.
I do some work with Picture Windows Pro and it handles clipboard operations on raster images. PWP 8 dropped support for raw files, but this feature was available in PWP 7. If you haven’t tried PWP 8, I suggest you try it. It is amazing and free ! You can also drag files from the windows file explorer to the editor.
PL should allow choosing files and unexported (in progress) images from the image browser, copying those images to the clipboard, and pasting the set in a folder shown in the source browser.
Currently PL4 allows to drag images from the image browser to the source explorer. Cut and paste would be similar, and would ease navigation.
One or more images can be operated upon. For simplicity, the scenarios below consider one image.
Operations within Photolab
Let us assume copy&paste or cut&paste is performed within Photolab, using the source browser and the image browser.
The image browser shows a collection of images (currently raw, jpeg, TIF, DNG files). Some of the images have a transformation in progress, that is, the result has not yet been exported.
If the user copies (control-C) or cuts (control-X) an image, it is recorded unchanged to the clipboard, transformation in progress or not.
When the user pastes an image from the clipboard, the destination folder now contains the pasted image, and this image is in an unchanged state, i.e. as it was before being put in the clipboard. An image and its transformation in progress are copied as a set.
** If the image was copied to the clipboard, the source folder is unchanged.
** If the image was cut to the clipboard, the image is removed from the source folder.
Pasting a raster image from the clipboard within Photolab
From outside of Photolab, an image can be put in the clipboard. – Using “print screen” or a pixel editor (e.g. MS-paint or a photo editor) for example.
Pasting a raster image sould work in Photolab – An “export” dialog could ask what filetype : a linear dng, a PNG or a TIF.
** refer to Clipboard operations for images