While i am normally an heavy supporter of backward compatability, and would say uses a switch to preform a new color passing method, I would really wonder who wouldnt want that happening by defualt, here would be a simple method of pleasing both camps

/filter.properties -fw

now any filters done with out being expcitly set to -ff or -wf or -ww well be -fw, this of course expands out to any switch that might be needed such as -c for transfer color (actual -c in uses so somethings else), this idea could infact be used for all commands.