Adrian Isbiceanu
Master Thesis Student
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Was a master student at the RWTH Aachen University.
supervisor: Jan-Peter Krämer
Versioning Control System for Graphic Design – A layered approach
Abstract
Revisionary control systems are common in the world of software development; sites like GitHub and BitBucket have become the go-to place for any developer to learn, to explore and to contribute. This is not the case when it comes to design; normally these kinds of files are harder to manage than text files.
We initiated the study with an analysis of designers’ completing of routine tasks which led to the observation that, when using Photoshop, they had a strong tendency of organizing their work into groups of layers, and only working on small parts of the file. We have thus proposed a new Version Control solution, which tracks the history changes on a layer based system,instead of using the whole document history.
With this approach we showcase an innovative model of navigating the history. We propose and explain filters that increase the speed and enable finding a desired version. We present a viable option for live collaboration between designers through the use of branches and how layer-based merges can also be accomplished. In conclusion we propose a solution by integrating the traditional ’undo’ system into the Version Control System, thus removing the limitations that come with the linear ’undo’ System.