Katzenfreund

Thanks again Red ochre, I find your comments well thought and constructive. Same goes for Cc4FuzzyGuggles, friendly yet objective. I shall follow the advice of you both. Well, the new version had to be rather different and more conservative (a euphemism for unimaginative), to hopefully also meet with more subdued reaction by those against. Not forgetting the main topic, it seems I’m the only one still locked out, I wonder if it has anything to do with anything I did. And yes, I did try clearing my cache. But next to google, proxies are my friends.

Well guys, the highly respected Red Ochre found it hypnotizing (hence soothing) and his opinion has a lot of weight for me. It’s not flashing or even blinking, just going round, which is a common view in real life. Are you irritated when you see a rotating wheel of any vehicle or machine? If it were against the rules, a mod would have told me. But your views are also taken into account. Anyway, I put some work in it, so I’m leaving it for another day or so, then I’ll try something milder, I’m working on it right now. But it will still be going round. A circle is the perfect figure and rotation the perfect motion.

As above. It’s not where you download it to that matters but in what format. Anyway and for the record, there is a single-click Auto-Level adjustment under Adjustments that may bring improvement in some cases (or deterioration in others), but of course it’s much better if the image is good to start with. If the colors are flat, you might try increasing color saturation as well as contrast.

A favorable comment from an accomplished top expert is a compliment much valued. And particularly welcome, since I was afraid it was too loud and irritating. But being hypnotic should have a desirable pacifying effect in our stressful times. EDIT: Deleted some extraneous script that crept of its own in the message. First time this happens to me.

OK, thanks for the feedback, I'm currently working on a dampened down version. Hopefully my IP will be accepted then.

No problems logging on here, just blocked (forbidden) altogether. On the bright side, proxies now continue to function and don't need renewal every so often, which is almost as good as direct access.

Just for the sake of the argument, leaving the virus issue aside, it may seem appealing to get all the plug-ins in one go. And for experienced and ambitious users it might be, always if it weren’t for the virus. But the ordinary user relies much on Paint.NET’s simplicity and friendly, uncluttered interface. Suddenly facing all that lot of puzzling effects and having to navigate thru them would be daunting, off-putting and confusing. Gone is the appeal of this simple yet powerful tool, the purpose has been defeated. In my opinion, it would be more productive to start with the basic set of plug-ins and install more one at a time ad hoc, that is as the need for a special effect arises and after the user has given thought to it. He’d then be much more motivated to read and learn the proper use of the plug-in. It’s a classic case of adopting the logistically correct learning process, as we were taught at school. Personally, though I’ve been using Paint.NET for some time now, I haven’t installed more plug-ins than I have needed, nor do I intend to. And a relevant question. Wouldn’t installing a large number of plug-ins slow down the opening of Paint.NET, since it has to load them?

Entering the internet to surf is like sitting at the table to eat - whatever appeals to you is at some stage deemed harmful. (Katzenfreund) Informative article, even if it would exaggerate the risk of free proxies as it aims at selling VPN. Probably most illegal activities are committed by users rather than operators of proxies and that’s why I think many such proxies are supplied by authorities like the FBI for monitoring purposes, what is known as “honey pots”. My opinion is that, though proxies are indeed more dangerous than people think, and that included me, if you’re suitably careful, as you should always be on the web, their use in the right circumstances overweighs their potential risk. Different from normal free proxies and probably safer is the more convenient, if equally slow, Tor. I’d advise you to use that.

Just tried with my normal IP. Though I can get to getpaint.net, the forum continues to be "Forbidden".

There exists another thread on the problem http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/31386-thank-you-moderators/ Accessibility seems to depend on location and duration of login status. Thus, people with the problem use proxies. I have to keep changing them every so often as they get blocked. Direct access thru with my own IP has been impossible all along.

Err…wouldn’t using my clarification be endorsing…nit-picking? It may be added that in some cases you can plan so as to avoid the creation of layers, in which case you may be able to save in the desired format without flattening. That’s just what I did in generating the frames of my signature gif, thus avoiding 4 operations for each of the 36 frames, a total of 144 operations avoided, not counting the associated swearing spared.

In the interests of accuracy this is not quite so, sir. Although you probably meant the same thing, you didn’t say it in so many words. As a result it did not clarify the matter for me, hence my (unnecessary) suggestion and subsequent experiment to clarify the situation. In fact, someone else even commented that what I was asking was probably not possible, which means he didn’t understand either. Ego Eram Reputo, on 30 Dec 2014 - 6:57 PM, said: “PDN is the default format used when saving a multilayered image. Paint.net uses this format to save the layer structure. If you flatten the layers prior to saving, the format will default to PNG.” As expressed, this is not quite correct. It will not default to PNG but to whatever you started with. You probably meant “If you start off with a PNG image…” Ego Eram Reputo, on 31 Dec 2014 - 6:40 PM, said: “If you're editing an existing jpg and create a new layer in the process, then flatten prior to invoking Save, paint.net should reuse the original filename and format.” This is correct, but only refers to jpg and one layer. I accept however that it is reasonable to extend it to other formats and more layers. Hence my experiment that did just that.

IMPORTANT Here I am again, but with good news this time that may also interest other members facing my problem as repeated below: Reminder: Paint.NET’s default format is PDN, which preserves the layers when saving. However, some users who no longer need the layers, prefer to save in PNG or GIF or JPG, which are directly usable e.g. for posting in forums, and also have considerably smaller file size. These users want to avoid the extra operations for changing the format each time before saving. Acting on Ego Eram Reputo’s idea of flattening the layers before saving, and after doing a number of experiments, I made the following important observation: If you start with an image of format PNG, GIF or JPG and add several layers to it, not necessarily of the same format, and even do work on the layers, then: if you flatten before saving, the format defaults to that of the original image. Of course, if you don’t flatten before saving, the format will be PDN which preserves the layers. This is exactly what I really wanted and what my previous suggestion was about. So it seems that the Paint.NET developers put more thoughtful planning into it that I thought and I take my hat off to them. Conclusion and advice: If you want to save in the PDN format and preserve the layers, just save directly without flattening before saving. If you want to save in PNG, GIF or JPG, then open the first image in the desired format and flatten the layers before saving. Notes: 1. Flattening the image does not constitute an additional operation, since it is required anyway for saving in a non-PDN format. 2. Three additional operations are avoided in saving, namely clicking for the dropdown menu, selecting the desired format and clicking on it, plus any associated waiting. 3. This method is particularly useful in producing the individual GIF images of muli-frame animated GIFs. 4. The above observationd were made on Paint.NET v. 3.5.11. I’d request that someone else confirms my conclusions for version 4, so that they can become standard advice.

Firstly I inform that I"m still unable to access the site and have to use proxies. Not a good start to the new year. Now, as regards bots and spammers, the solution adopted by another board with suceess was not to require login to view the board, as spammers and bots have to log in anyway in order to post.. Instead, a CAPTCHA was introduced for the first 10 posts of a new member, with clarifying notice that it will disappear as soon as the 10 posts are reached so as not to discourage genuine newcomers. But the bots and spammers find this too much trouble and go elsewhere.

For changing any color to another, not necessarily text, on any background, not necessarily transparent, you can simply use the Recolor tool, 8th down the right hand side. I haven't tried the Object2colour, but I will now that I've read about it, with thanks to Red ochre.

It is indeed annoying but also perplexing why spammers would choose this board - three others I participate in right now are working fine. What I don’t understand about the DDoS attack is why the board is accessible from some places but not from others. Also why it is permanently (and not intermittently) inaccessible from where I am. For me, accessibility depends on the proxy I use (see my above post).

While I appreciate the effort (and patience) put in the replies, and realize the advantages of preserving the layers, I keep coming back, with due apologies, because I feel my main point has not yet been understood. The alternative defaults I'm talking about would only come into effect after you intentionally flatten the layers yourself. Consequently you know, accept and want the loss of the layers. If you want to preserve them, you'll just save without flattening.

The site has been inaccessible all day for me, I get the permanent message: So I used a proxy, which worked for some time and then got the same message. Since then, I’ve been switching proxies constantly that get blocked after a while.

Thanks again. It seems the program is already doing part of what I'm suggesting above and it should thus be possible, if not actually easy, to extend this behavior to ideally apply to all formats. That is, when flattening before saving, it should reuse the original (filename and) format.in all cases, as it does for png & jpg, and irrespective of the number of layers added. After all, if a user wants it otherwise, he can always change the format. But I feel that as a rule, the user will want it this way.

Thanks Pixey and Ego Eram Reputo for the useful replies, even if what I ask does not seem quite possible. But knowing that if I flatten the layers prior to saving, the format will default to PNG is already something useful. It would make more sense and be of more usefulness, if flattening the layers prior to saving would default to whatever format one was working on, or the layers (or top layer) consisted of. Thus, if one was working in GIF or JPG, after flattening the layers, saving should default to GIF or JPG respectively, and similarly for other formats. In fact this is a suggestion I would like to make to the developers, as I think it would suit all users. PDN would preserve the layer structure, if not flattened. At the same time, those who prefer a directly usable image of smaller file size, would just flatten the layers and save. Would the above be sufficient for making the suggestion, or should I start another ad hoc topic?

When trying to save an image after some non-trivial work on it, Paint.NET reverts to its own PDN format. While this is understandable and probably liked by most users, my problem is that I prefer to work with GIF (usually) or PNG (when I need partial transparency), which also have a smaller file size. So I have to keep changing the default every time I try to save. My question: Is there a way to set the default image saving format to something else, e.g. GIF? I'm using version 3.5.11 on Windows XP.

It certainly is, it’s turbo charged now, the improvement is impressive. A great tool made perfect by capably removing its few weaknesses. And it’s good to know that users’ comments are listened to, that’s the formula for software perfection. It is also particularly appreciated that it works with Paint.NET v3.5.11 for us stuck on Windows XP which does not support version 4. Thanks and kudos again.

A very useful plugin that’s well worth installing, thanks and kudos to TechnoRobbo. In the past I was using the Fade Edge plugin by KrisVDM. It does a good job on the entire (rectangular) image, but not where parts are cut off. Here’s a comparison of the two plugins. Original image: To demonstrate the difference between the two plugins, I first applied the Radius Fill Corners plugin to round off the corners: Now applied the Fade Edge. It doesn’t work on the rounded corners: Now applied instead the Edge Fader Extreme, which works all round: To be fair, the Fade Edge also has its advantages: Has a preview. Works faster. Has two control parameters: width and power as compared to only fade amount (but which does the job). Is more convenient to apply on entire rectangular image (I had to add the image to a transparent background to get the Edge Fader Extreme to work). And a small bug/annoyance? Cancelling the Edge Fader Extreme without applying it still takes a long time (Panit.NET v3.5.1). As a final remark, there’s a slight difference in philosophy between the two, as the Fade Edge is under Photo menu, whereas the Edge Fader Extreme is under Object menu. Since they do similar work, one would logically expect to find them under the same menu.

OK, as you're one of the most respected - and useful - people around here, I've followed your advice and edited out the illegitimate link. Glad to have made your acquaintance by the way. As a matter of coincidence, only today I was using your bezncurve plugin to do the work of the missing polygon selection tool. It worked fine, compliments.

OK, thanks Red ochre, now I know and avoid it. But unfortunately, I fear that as it appears in Google search and its url looks genuine, many users will fall for it, as I nearly did myself. If you want, I'll edit the link out of my post, or leave it to warn others, or wait for a mod to take appropriate action. It may also be an idea if this forum had a sticky warning about it.