Graphite/docs/editor/1-overview.md

Overview

Key concepts

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Glossary of terminology

TODO: Add more to make a comprehensive list, finish writing definitions, separate into categories, alphabetize

• Asset
  A GDD or GRD file. Can be shared and embedded in another layer graph. Useful for providing custom nodes that perform some useful functionality. Tangible examples include custom procedural effects, shape generators, and image filters. Many of the Graphite editor's built-in layers are also assets that provide useful functionality through a group of nodes rather than being implemented directly in code. The Asset Manager panel helps maintain these assets from various sources. The Asset Store can be used to share and sell assets for easily inclusion in projects.
• Document
  A design source file created and edited in the Graphite editor. When saved to disk as GDD files (Graphite Design Document), they are one of the two types of assets. Documents can be included as layers inside other documents, and in doing so they take the form of groups. The layer graph contents of a group actually belong to the embedded document's subgraph. Because a document is a group which is a layer in the layer graph, documents have properties such as the (optional) pixel bounds of the canvas. Documents are composed of a layer graph, a defined set of properties of set data types that are imported and exported, and the properties of the root layer.
• Render graph
  A read-only "compiled" document in a format that is immediately ready for rendering. When saved to disk as GRD files (Graphite Render Data), they are one of the two types of assets. The Graphite editor internally maintains a render graph based on the open document in order to display it live in the viewport, but this can also be saved to disk for the purposes of sharing as an asset.
• GDD file
  Graphite Design Document. A binary serialization of a document source file. The format includes a chain of operations that describe changes to the layer graph and the properties of layers throughout the history of the document since its creation. It also stores certain metadata and embedded file data. GDD files, along with GRD files, represent assets when shared. Because GDD files are editable (unlike GRD files), the layers of GDD assets may be expanded in the layer graph to reveal and modify their contents using a copy-on-write scheme stored to the asset's layer.
• GRD file
  Graphite Render Data. A binary serialization of a render graph file. The format includes a single directed acyclic graph (DAG) compiled from the layer graph of a document as well as certain properties of set data types that are imported and exported. GRD files, along with GDD files, represent assets when shared. Because GRD files are read-only and can't be edited (unlike GDD files), the layers of GRD assets do not offer an ability to be expanded in the layer graph. GRD files are useful for sharing assets when their authors do not wish to provide the source documents used for their authoring. They are also the input format included in games that utilize the Graphite Renderer Core Library to render graphical content at runtime, as well as similar applications like headless renderers on web servers and image processing pipelines.
• Window
• Main window
• Popout window
• Title bar
• Status bar
• Workspace
  The part of the Graphite editor's UI that houses the panels in a window. The workspace occupies the large space below the title bar and above the status bar of the main window. It occupies the entirety of popout windows (window buttons are added in the tab bar).
• Workspace layout
  The specific configuration of panels in the main window and any popout windows. Workspace layout presets are provided by the Graphite editor and users may customize and save their own.
• Tab bar
  The bar at the top of a panel group which includes a clickable tab for each panel that is docked there. Each tab bar has at least one tab and one active tab.
• Active tab
  The one tab in a tab bar that is currently active. The user can click any inactive tab to make it become the active tab. The active tab shows the panel content beneath it unless it is a folded panel.
• Folded panel
  A shrunken panel showing only the tab bar. A panel consists of the tab bar and panel body except when the latter is folded away. The user may click the active tab to fold and restore a panel, however a panel cannot be folded if there are no other unfolded panels in its column.
• Panel
• Panel body
• Panel content
• Editor
• Layer graph
  A (directed acyclic) graph structure composed of layers with connections between their input and output ports. This is commonly referred to as a "node graph" in other software, but Graphite's layer graph is more suited towards layer-based compositing compared to traditional compositor node graphs.
• Layer
  Any instance of a node that lives in the layer graph. Layers (usually) take input data, then they transform it or synthesize new data, then they provide it as output. Layers have properties as well as exposed input and output ports for sending and receiving data.
• Node
  A definition of a
• Group
• Raster
• Vector
• Mask
• Data type
• Subgraph
• Port
• Connection
• Pixel bounds
• Canvas
• Core Libraries
• Editor Core Library
• Document Core Library
• Renderer Core Library