Requesting better feedback on non-RGB imports

[Brad Brighton]

I've attached a file and the nondescript error message that caused me to lose some time when attempting to Tone Map an import (because I was experimenting with the local contrast values). I figured the situation out fairly quickly but still, error messages are (in the best cases) not just a description of the bare fact of what went wrong but are a guide to remedy when the solution is reasonably knowable. in this case, the system clearly understands that it's not an RGB file, and while the pertinent color profile information is staring at the user, it's not the sort of thing one would think to look at and indeed, takes a bit of savvy to grok the what/where needed to fix this.

The request is (at a minimum) to highlight in more specific detail that the embedded profile doesn't allow Tone Mapping (after all, this is exactly the same generic error message that pops up when the wrong layer is selected and tone mapping is attempted which doesn't give the user much help in resolving). I think offering a list of appropriate conversions right on the dialog would be more appropriate (with a button for advanced/custom corrections that leads into the complete "convert format/profile" path if the user is sophisticated/desires a different conversion). 

EDIT: This specific request dovetails with a more general request that I periodically think about writing up -- pretty much everywhere an alert like this shows up ("wrong layer selected") could use either a list of target layers or, in the case where there is only one target layer, "do you want to do this on layer 'blah'?" There are so many wasted clicks on uncomplicated documents because there's really only one valid target but I (the user) has to do the work when the app could have unambiguously done so itself.

trees_1.tif

Edited August 3, 2019 by Brad Brighton
Added more detail about a general case situation with layer selection error dialogs

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, Brad Brighton said:

I've attached a file and the nondescript error message

Back at you,

[Brad Brighton]

@Old Bruce Turns out, Preview isn't going to open it (I get the same error locally).

I don't need a workaround -- I can open the file with APh and I can adapt as needed now that I know that the embedded profile is the source of my original issue (Grey/16 rather than RGB) for this specific case.

The request is to make the software response to the unsupported characteristics clearer and, in the cases that are realistically deterministic/determinable, easier to resolve for those who may not realize what the real error is. It's likely that there are several conditions involved in the check (but not all of the conditions, I'm sure) that pops up that dialog for which there is a single, known approach to "fixing" -- taking the user there automatically, IMO, is good form.

This specific file is an example of one generated off a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED (original Nikon scanner software, not VueScan) and the embedded profile would have come from there.