UI: Linux & Mac Support for Clipboard Copy/Paste Images #111404

New Issue

Harley Acheson · 2023-08-22T20:46:12+02:00

Harley Acheson commented

2023-08-22 20:46:12 +02:00

As of the merge of #105833 Windows users can copy and paste images between Blender and other applications. That PR should have made it fairly easy to add similar support for other platforms.

Platform Support

MS-Windows !105833.
Unix/Wayland !119117.
Unix/X11.
macOS.

Not shown in #105833 (added later) is that each platform has a "Capabilities" flag that indicates that some optional features are supported. For Mac, for example, you can open up intern/ghost/intern/GHOST_SystemCocoa.mm. There is a getCapabilities() function and you can just remove GHOST_kCapabilityClipboardImages from that list of things not supported.

Then you are going to declare a few functions in GHOST_WindowCocoa.hh and define them in GHOST_WindowCocoa.mm, using #105833 as a guide. GHOST_hasClipboardImage is meant to return true if the system clipboard contains a format that you are able to read and use. In the unlikely event that your platform does not provide this information you could just return true as that is only used to enable/disable the menu item.

putClipboardImage gives you an array of bytes in RGBA order, and a width and height of the image buffer. The data will be without padding, so 4 X width X height of bytes (0-255 per channel). You just need to massage it into whatever format your platform wants and put it on the system clipboard. Returning true if you are able to do so.

With getClipboardImage you need to confirm that there is indeed an image available, get that image from the system clipboard. Set *r_width and *r_height to the dimensions of the image. Then return a pointer to the image data as an array of RGBA bytes without padding. Use 255 for Alpha if your image does not support it. The memory that you malloc for the buffer will be managed by the caller of the function.

Note that the Windows implementation in GHOST_SystemWin32.cc is probably much more complicated that you will probably have to write. Windows has a long and strange history with clipboard formats and support for alpha. Implementations on other platforms could be extremely trivial in comparison.

As of the merge of #105833 Windows users can copy and paste images between Blender and other applications. That PR should have made it fairly easy to add similar support for other platforms. ### Platform Support - [x] MS-Windows !105833. - [x] Unix/Wayland !119117. - [ ] Unix/X11. - [ ] macOS. --- Not shown in #105833 (added later) is that each platform has a "Capabilities" flag that indicates that some optional features are supported. For Mac, for example, you can open up intern/ghost/intern/GHOST_SystemCocoa.mm. There is a getCapabilities() function and you can just remove `GHOST_kCapabilityClipboardImages` from that list of things not supported. Then you are going to declare a few functions in `GHOST_WindowCocoa.hh` and define them in `GHOST_WindowCocoa.mm`, using #105833 as a guide. `GHOST_hasClipboardImage` is meant to return true if the system clipboard contains a format that you are able to read and use. In the unlikely event that your platform does not provide this information you could just return true as that is only used to enable/disable the menu item. `putClipboardImage` gives you an array of bytes in RGBA order, and a width and height of the image buffer. The data will be without padding, so 4 X width X height of bytes (0-255 per channel). You just need to massage it into whatever format your platform wants and put it on the system clipboard. Returning true if you are able to do so. With `getClipboardImage` you need to confirm that there is indeed an image available, get that image from the system clipboard. Set *r_width and *r_height to the dimensions of the image. Then return a pointer to the image data as an array of RGBA bytes without padding. Use 255 for Alpha if your image does not support it. The memory that you malloc for the buffer will be managed by the caller of the function. Note that the Windows implementation in `GHOST_SystemWin32.cc` is probably much more complicated that you will probably have to write. Windows has a long and strange history with clipboard formats and support for alpha. Implementations on other platforms could be extremely trivial in comparison.

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Harley Acheson added the

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To Do

label 2023-08-22 20:46:12 +02:00

Harley Acheson added this to the User Interface project 2023-08-22 20:46:14 +02:00

Harley Acheson added the

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Good First Issue

label 2023-08-22 20:46:35 +02:00

nikolas111 commented

2023-08-23 03:15:04 +02:00

Hello @Harley,

I'd like to ask you if it is necessary to have both Linux and Mac for this todo If so, can I use virtual machine for the Mac part ?

Thank you very much

Hello @Harley, I'd like to ask you if it is necessary to have both Linux and Mac for this todo If so, can I use virtual machine for the Mac part ? Thank you very much

Harley Acheson commented

2023-08-23 04:08:59 +02:00

Hi @nikolas111 !

I'd like to ask you if it is necessary to have both Linux and Mac for this todo

Not at all. I would expect two different people to do these two different platforms. If you want to do one, probably best to make a comment here though in case others want to try.

If so, can I use virtual machine for the Mac part ?

You can use any means, but this would probably require native debugging, where you can stop execution in an IDE and examine the state to make sure it is working as you expect. This wouldn't be quite simple enough where everything will likely go smoothly, mostly because you'll probably have to transform the color data buffers as they come in and out of the system clipboard.

Note that Mac probably does have support for copy/pasting text data so there probably is some code to open the clipboard, check for available formats, etc. Probably using https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nspasteboard#//apple_ref/occ/cl/NSPasteboard

Hi @nikolas111 ! > I'd like to ask you if it is necessary to have both Linux and Mac for this todo Not at all. I would expect two different people to do these two different platforms. If you want to do one, probably best to make a comment here though in case others want to try. > If so, can I use virtual machine for the Mac part ? You can use any means, but this would probably require native debugging, where you can stop execution in an IDE and examine the state to make sure it is working as you expect. This wouldn't be quite simple enough where everything will likely go smoothly, mostly because you'll probably have to transform the color data buffers as they come in and out of the system clipboard. Note that Mac probably does have support for copy/pasting text data so there probably is some code to open the clipboard, check for available formats, etc. Probably using https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nspasteboard#//apple_ref/occ/cl/NSPasteboard

nikolas111 commented

2023-08-23 11:59:20 +02:00

Okay, then i would take the Linux part of this task @Harley .

Thank you very much

Okay, then i would take the Linux part of this task @Harley . Thank you very much

Harley Acheson commented

2023-08-23 20:58:58 +02:00

@nikolas111 - Okay, then i would take the Linux part of this task @Harley .

Awesome! Note that if you get stuck, ask for help. But if you have only bad luck, find you have no time, etc and want to give up please add notes here if they might help others.

> @nikolas111 - Okay, then i would take the Linux part of this task @Harley . Awesome! Note that if you get stuck, ask for help. But if you have only bad luck, find you have no time, etc and want to give up please add notes here if they might help others.

Jim-Snavely commented

2023-09-04 17:37:22 +02:00

So I took a crack at this for OSX. I was able to get it to compile and run, but I'm having trouble testing it. Neither the "Image Copy" nor the "Image Paste" option ever shows up in the Image dropdown in the Image Editor, and I'm not sure why. here's what I tried:

Took a screenshot
Opened Screenshot in Preview, made a selection and copied it with command-c
Made sure I could paste the image into other apps (gimp)
Opened newly compiled Blender
Opened the Image Editor and created a new image.
Clicked on the Image menu, hoping to see the "Paste Image" option. (but did not see it!)

What would be the next steps to debugging this?

Here's a link to my branch and its diffs from main:

https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/compare/main...Jim-Snavely/blender:osx-clipboard-111404

So I took a crack at this for OSX. I was able to get it to compile and run, but I'm having trouble testing it. Neither the "Image Copy" nor the "Image Paste" option ever shows up in the Image dropdown in the Image Editor, and I'm not sure why. here's what I tried: 1. Took a screenshot 2. Opened Screenshot in Preview, made a selection and copied it with command-c 3. Made sure I could paste the image into other apps (gimp) 4. Opened newly compiled Blender 5. Opened the Image Editor and created a new image. 6. Clicked on the Image menu, hoping to see the "Paste Image" option. (but did not see it!) What would be the next steps to debugging this? Here's a link to my branch and its diffs from main: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/compare/main...Jim-Snavely/blender:osx-clipboard-111404

Jim-Snavely commented

2023-09-05 22:19:21 +02:00

@Harley am I even working in the right direction?

Jesse Yurkovich commented

2023-09-05 22:26:11 +02:00

@Jim-Snavely You will need to modify the UI files so that the operators are added when running Mac (sys.platform == "darwin"). Take a look here: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/src/branch/main/scripts/startup/bl_ui/space_image.py#L214

@Jim-Snavely You will need to modify the UI files so that the operators are added when running Mac (`sys.platform == "darwin"`). Take a look here: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/src/branch/main/scripts/startup/bl_ui/space_image.py#L214

Harley Acheson commented

2023-09-05 22:37:44 +02:00

@deadpin - Thanks, I totally forgot about that.

Jim-Snavely commented

2023-09-06 14:49:49 +02:00

thanks @deadpin and @Harley - now I'm in business

Iliya Katushenock referenced this issue

2023-09-09 22:32:53 +02:00

WIP: Add OSX support for Image copy/paste in the Image Editor osx-clipboard #112189

Jim-Snavely commented

2023-09-09 22:35:04 +02:00

Alright! Got it working and was able to test it locally. Also tested to make sure I didn't break the drag & drop. #112189

Alright! Got it working and was able to test it locally. Also tested to make sure I didn't break the drag & drop. https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/112189

Jim-Snavely commented

2023-09-10 21:13:58 +02:00

@Harley Can I put you down as a reviewer on my PR? Or is there someone else you would suggest?

José Vicente Barrachina commented

2024-02-25 21:26:07 +01:00

Hi, everybody.
If @nikolas111 don't mind, I'll be working on a possible solution for linux, starting with Wayland.

Please, @nikolas111, if it's not too much trouble, let me know if you're still working on this issue.

Thanks.

Hi, everybody. If @nikolas111 don't mind, I'll be working on a possible solution for **linux**, starting with **Wayland**. Please, @nikolas111, if it's not too much trouble, let me know if you're still working on this issue. Thanks.

nikolas111 commented

2024-02-26 05:38:03 +01:00

@Jose-Vicente-Barrachina

Hello,

I was working on it, I almost completed the task but then and I simply lost the accumulated time I had for it and interest. For me the main problem was and probably still is that not all changes showed up in the executable after the build which made it a very time consuming task because I had to make a new clone to get really the changes I made to the executable. I don't know If it was my fault or if I was doing something wrong. I can provide you my progress. Personally I would like to complete it but after so much time spent just with the builds I lost the interest. So feel free to ask if you need any info for your start.

Thanks in advance

@Jose-Vicente-Barrachina Hello, I was working on it, I almost completed the task but then and I simply lost the accumulated time I had for it and interest. For me the main problem was and probably still is that not all changes showed up in the executable after the build which made it a very time consuming task because I had to make a new clone to get really the changes I made to the executable. I don't know If it was my fault or if I was doing something wrong. I can provide you my progress. Personally I would like to complete it but after so much time spent just with the builds I lost the interest. So feel free to ask if you need any info for your start. Thanks in advance

José Vicente Barrachina commented

2024-02-26 07:33:06 +01:00

Ey, @nikolas111 , thank you for answering so quickly and for offering help.

I've already figured it out but, if you don't mind, I'll contact you in case I get stuck.

Ey, @nikolas111 , thank you for answering so quickly and for offering help. I've already figured it out but, if you don't mind, I'll contact you in case I get stuck.

Harley Acheson referenced this issue

2024-03-01 00:06:42 +01:00

Roadmap #118940

José Vicente Barrachina referenced this issue

2024-03-06 10:03:50 +01:00

UI: Allow copy & paste images in linux/Wayland #119117

José Vicente Barrachina commented

2024-03-06 10:12:45 +01:00

Hi, everybody.

@Harley, PR that adds linux/Wayland support in #119117 waiting for review.

Thanks.

Hi, everybody. @Harley, PR that adds linux/Wayland support in #119117 waiting for review. Thanks.

Pascal Berndt commented

2024-04-07 13:25:47 +02:00

Hi, everybody.
I would like to work on the Unix/X11 task.

Is it free to do or is someone already working on it?

Cheers,

Pascal

Hi, everybody. I would like to work on the Unix/X11 task. Is it free to do or is someone already working on it? Cheers, Pascal

Harley Acheson commented

2024-04-07 19:37:10 +02:00

@Pascal-Berndt - I would like to work on the Unix/X11 task...Is it free to do or is someone already working on it?

@Jose-Vicente-Barrachina added support for Wayland (#119117) and mentioned (on March 6th 2024) that he was also going to work on supporting X11. But he could also be busy.

> @Pascal-Berndt - I would like to work on the Unix/X11 task...Is it free to do or is someone already working on it? @Jose-Vicente-Barrachina added support for Wayland (#119117) and [mentioned](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/119117#issuecomment-1140205) (on March 6th 2024) that he was also going to work on supporting X11. But he could also be busy.

Pascal Berndt commented

2024-04-07 21:20:04 +02:00

@Harley Thanks for the quick reply :)

Ok so I will wait for him to answer.

@Harley Thanks for the quick reply :) Ok so I will wait for him to answer.

José Vicente Barrachina commented

2024-04-09 07:26:52 +02:00

Hi.

I'm pretty busy right now with my final year project at the university, and I've also been away from home for a few days, so I haven't been able to make much progress.
@Pascal-Berndt, feel free to work on it if you want.

Thanks.

Hi. I'm pretty busy right now with my final year project at the university, and I've also been away from home for a few days, so I haven't been able to make much progress. @Pascal-Berndt, feel free to work on it if you want. Thanks.

Pascal Berndt commented

2024-04-10 21:15:55 +02:00

Hi @Jose-Vicente-Barrachina ,
thanks for the reply. Wish you all luck.

Ok so I will start by now.

Cheers.

Hi @Jose-Vicente-Barrachina , thanks for the reply. Wish you all luck. Ok so I will start by now. Cheers.

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UI: Linux & Mac Support for Clipboard Copy/Paste Images #111404

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