Questions for line tool, zoom, short-cuts and color picking

[NoName91]

Greetings!

 

I have a few questions:

 

1) In the line tool, after I click, drag then release my left mouse button (MB hereafter), we get a sort of confirmation phase where the line has circles around it.  We can finish the line by hitting Enter or starting a new line. Would it be possible to just have the tool draw the line and finish it automatically without any prompt (just like how it is in classic Ms Paint)?

 

2) Is there a way to zoom to default? Also, when zooming-out, how do we zoom-out by a large magnitude? When zooming-in with the left MB, the smaller the area, the larger the zoom, but this doesn't work when zooming-out with the right MB. Anyway to do a "big" zoom-out other than hitting the right MB repeatedly?

 

3) Does Paint.net allow us to reconfigure short-cut keys? I doubt it but would like to ask for confirmation.

 

4) This is more of a "feature" question and is related to q.3. Is there anyway to bind a particular color to a specific key or combination? If not, would such a feature be a good suggestion for future updates? As someone who enjoys making pixel art and pixel shading, something like this would massively improve workflows imo. ALSO: Would anyone know if some other program would have this feature? I've tried looking around but have found a feature like this to be non-existent. Additionally, if someone has suggestions to improve workflows with pixel shading, particularly with respect to selecting colors, I'd like to hear it.

 

Thanks for any kind of input!

 

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

1. No. Hitting enter becomes second nature after a while. You'll come to appreciate the ability to edit the line before committing it to the canvas.
2. Ctrl + 0. For big zooms use Ctrl and mouse wheel.
3. You can't customize the shortcuts. Sorry.
4. Make yourself a custom palette. Select a color by clicking on the color swatch in the Colors Window. Ref http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/ColorsWindow.html

[NoName91]

Thanks for the reply Ego!

 

1. I shall heed your advice.

2. Noice.

3. Dammit!

4. Great! Though I was more hoping that I could select a color on a color swatch by pressing a key as opposed to clicking but I'm assuming that the limitation of not having custom short-cuts comes into play here.

 

In any case, your input is much appreciated!

[BoltBait]

If you don't like to have the color window open, or it doesn't have enough spaces for the colors you need, try this way:

 

1. Create your palette as part of your drawing (off to the side)

2. Select the Eye Dropper tool and setup the options as shown:

3. When using the pencil tool to draw, press the letter 'K' to switch to the Eye Dropper tool, click your color palette to select your next color, and continue drawing.

[NoName91]

Thanks for that tip BoltBait!

 

What you've suggested is actually what I am currently doing with a sprite sheet I'm working on using classic MS Paint. However, since its a "factory" sheet which requires a massive canvas to work with, I was thinking that a palette window with the colors I want should be accessible on the call without having to copy and move an in-canvas palette throughout the canvas.

 

I therefore present one more question which hopefully you, Ego or anyone else could answer. Is it possible to change the size of the colors window? Its a pretty useful window and works good but the window size is bothersome.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Please note that I'm aware of the "More >>" and "Less <<" options which increase the size but do so by adding extra things rather than enlarging the size of the colors. I would just like to have the colors appear a bit more bigger like in BoltBait's image, only inside a window (I'm only using about 35 colors btw).

Edited March 18, 2017 by NoName91

[BoltBait]

Nope. Sorry, there is no way to do that.  Your best bet would be to move your palette section around your image as you work.

[NoName91]

Ahh.. bloody potato.

 

Anyway, hopefully these are some things that will be considered for future updates.

[Charles from VA]

16 hours ago, NoName91 said:

3) Does Paint.net allow us to reconfigure short-cut keys? I doubt it but would like to ask for confirmation.

 

4) This is more of a "feature" question and is related to q.3. Is there anyway to bind a particular color to a specific key or combination? If not, would such a feature be a good suggestion for future updates? As someone who enjoys making pixel art and pixel shading, something like this would massively improve workflows imo. ALSO: Would anyone know if some other program would have this feature? I've tried looking around but have found a feature like this to be non-existent. Additionally, if someone has suggestions to improve workflows with pixel shading, particularly with respect to selecting colors, I'd like to hear it.

 

Take a look at AutoHotKeys at https://autohotkey.com/ - it's a very powerful keyboard scripting tool which should allow you to do both these things. It's fairly easy to learn and has great documentation and a live help forum via IRC. Good luck!

[Djisves]

21 hours ago, NoName91 said:

...

... I would just like to have the colors appear a bit more bigger like in BoltBait's image, only inside a window (I'm only using about 35 colors btw).  ...

You can dot it yourself with a custom palette like I did in the example below: 

As you can see, I used four colour "places" for each of the colours in my palette, so I made a larger "target", much like the example by BoltBait.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

^^ Nice trick @Djisves +1