Cyberherbalist

Holy Cow! I've been using Paint.net for years and this is new to me! I really feel stupid now. I really should do some more exploration of how to use it.\ Thanks!

This is a feature I could really love... I have a YouTube channel (A Yank in Sussex), and I frequently need to crop images to specific dimensions, mainly 1.777 to 1 (or the equivalent to 1920x1080), and when I draw a selection box, I need to make the crop scale to that ratio. For example, if I have a photo or graphic that is, say, 1920x720, I may want to crop it to 1280x720 in order to get to the desired proportions. This is a bit ticklish, because while in this case I can easily capture the 720 by just drawing around it, getting the 1280 width right (and then moving the selection) I have to be very delicate on the mouse, using the Move selection tool, to get the width correct. In general, what I currently have to do is find either the width or the height that will work, and then use my calculator to determine the other dimension by either multiplying the dimension by 1.777 or dividing by it. And then mouse the selection box around until I get the right value for the other dimension. What I would like to see is a feature where I could specify the dimensions of the selection box in pixels and have the box magically appear -- without fiddling around for a few minutes to get the selection exactly the dimensions I need. This would be like the New Image specification box. I have put together a little video illustrating the process I have to go through, and how having a selection size specification tool would be an asset. For me at least.

Thanks! Looks interesting, and I might try this in the future, but someone not on the board clued me in to an application called Recuva. I installed and tried it just a few minutes ago, and Recuva reported that the file in question was in poor condition and had been partially overwritten by a Steam file. It was basically unrecoverable. But it turns out that I had forgotten about my backup software (Acronis) that has been working in the background. In the last backup, taken four days ago, there was a somewhat newer version than the 10 day old copy I had saved on my archive disk. So I'll be able to recover that version and won't have quite so much work to catch up on. This screwup is a definite reminder to keep backups! I have 17 TB of external drives, most of which is free space, why am I not backing up every day? Or hour? This actually gives me an idea for a new Paint.net feature. I seem to recall that some software (word processor I think) I've used in the past had the option of creating backups of files as they were opened. Or maybe I'm imagining it.

I've been working on a very complex graphic image with over 20 layers, and have put many hours into it over the past few weeks. Well, last night before taking a break I mistakenly saved a similar file on top of it. I didn't realize what I had done until an hour later when I started working on the graphic again. Talk about being jaw-droppingly dismayed! The newest backup I have of the file is 10 days old, and while it's definitely better than starting over from scratch, it is still quite a setback. Does anyone know how one might recover an overwritten file? I know that deleted files can be recovered because the file isn't actually deleted (it's in the recycle bin), but is this possible for an overwritten file? Yes, I know it won't be in the recycle bin, but I'm aware that the operating system may just have marked the overwritten image as gone in some way, but the actual bytes might still be there and potentially recoverable? Or does Paint.net take great pains to re-use the space that the overwritten image occupied? The overwritten file is much larger than the one overwriting it, by the way. Actually, I'm almost certain this is going to be impossible. I've already investigated online, and there's a Win10 feature of recovering an earlier version of a file, but this only works if "Windows Backup" service was active. If not, this feature can't be used to roll back to another version of a document. Add of course "Windows Backup" was not active. Perhaps I should activate it now! Like locking the barn door after the horses have escaped.

Where should bugs be reported?

I love Paint.net, and I'd love to be able to add alpha channel transparency without resorting to GIMP. I am assuming I can't do the following inside of Paint.net; if this is already possible, please let me know. But here's what I have been doing to work with transparency: bring up GIMP to add an alpha channel and set part of an image to transparent. Save and use in Paint.net. Today, for example, I wanted to create a M + W logo, and the result looked like this: I set the font to Engravers MT, put a red W on an image. Selected "All", copied to clipboard, then pasted to a new image. Vertically flipped the new image, making it an M, changed color to blue using Recolor tool. Saved it as PNG, closed image. Started GIMP, opened the blue M image. On GIMP menu, selected Layer --> Transparency --> Add Alpha Channel Used Fuzzy Select Tool to select the area outside the blue M Hit delete key to remove color of fuzzy selection (converting it to transparent) Save image as PNG and exit GIMP. Back in Paint.net, open the M image. Select All of Image, copy to clipboard. Paste into New Layer of W image. Adjust position of this transparent selection layer to achieve desired resutl as above. Save the completed image. I find GIMP to be very hard to work with, and prefer working with Paint.net. It would be so nice to be able to create an alpha channel and make a transparent area of an image inside of Paint.net. If this can be done already, I'd love to know how.

Wow! That actually works! Obviously I need to read the documentation all the way through one of these days. Thanks!

I love Paint.NET, but there seems to be a lack of ability to crop photos. For example, if I want to carve out a 4x6 image for printing out of an image that is not exactly 4x6, it seems my only option is to use the rectangle solution tool to set a corner, then try to define the rectange which is 4x6. Once I have the 4x6 rectangle, and it is doesn't quite frame the pic the way I want it, well, then, I have to start over from scratch, guessing at the best place for the first corner. I have Paint Shop Pro and it does this quite well, and even has several predefined crops (for 4x6, 8x10, and so on) to work with. I just select the crop size, and then I can move it around until I get the exact crop I need. The problem with PSP is that it takes too long to load, has so many features that I find it hard to use, and on top of all that it constantly blows up on me. I hate working with it. Paint.NET, on the other hand, is quick and it never blows up on me. If this crop feature doesn't exist in Paint.NET (I can't find it, anyway), then consider this a formal request for the feature. It's pretty much the only thing Paint.NET is missing, unless it might be a spraypoint tool.