Crazy Man Dan

Select Bilinear resampling on resize. Check out this old tutorial for an example.

I know I'm a little late to the party, but this is relevant to your question above. In Paint.NET, all layers are set up to be the size of the canvas as a whole, unlike other programs such as PhotoShop or The GIMP which have layers independent from the canvas in that regard. As a result, there is no way to "crop" a layer per sé, because you can't make the layer smaller, but you can remove the pixels on that layer that are outside of the selection you want. Also, notice the Move tool. When you click on a layer when there is no selection active, Paint.NET automatically selects the entire layer. This is because of the forced layer size-canvas size correlation - Paint.NET cannot actually move the layer, so it lifts the pixels, then drops whatever pixels are still within the canvas boundary on the layer when the move is finalized. The general rule of thumb is commands in the Image menu affect all layer, and commands in the Layers, Adjustments, and Effects menus affect only the currently selected layer. Sorry for being late, but I hope it was informative enough to still matter. :wink: Cheers, and happy editing!

The site wasn't down for maintenance, it was down because Forumer was broken, again. We couldn't get in either.

The current Pictorium very much allows creations using stock images. I believe those would fall under the proposed Image Modification umbrella.

Yes already, there is a moderator-only board. Forums with more than one moderator need boards such as these to discuss things between all concerned parties. It's not really a "lounge" per sé, but a place where we conduct official business. Y'know, things like clam-bakes, fondue dips, and all-night pizza parties and Call of Duty 4 marathons. The moderators began discussion of implementing this new PictoriBoard in the mod-only discussion area - we wanted to discuss feasibility without getting everyone's hopes up, in the case that we decided it wouldn't work. Rest assured that I wouldn't go announcing official board modifications unless Rick promised me somewhere beforehand that he wouldn't hang me for doing so. :wink:

Right now, we don't see too many images posted in The Pictorium that have been created solely in other applications (if any in recent times), and I doubt there will be a dramatic increase with the new board. There are a few users here who use multiple programs (heck, I'm one of them :wink: ), but they respect the board and keep their programs separate. People looking to tout another editor's prowess usually just bash and move on, instead of launching a delicate campaign of subterfuge and deception. Mandatory .PDN checking will not be enacted on the new board any more than it is now. Meaning "not at all." Maybe I'm crazy, but I trust you guys.

That's the main reason for the Galleria Discussion, wherein all y'alls can suggest images for inclusion into the Galleria, along with why you feel it deserves the nomination (artistic merit, technical proficiency, notable artist improvement, et cetera). Granted, I'm certain not every image suggested will always make it in, but if there's a valid reason and/or a general consensus, it probably will. My personal idea for the Galleria is to be somewhat like ClubPaint.NET on deviantART, where the image is included along with a link to the original post, the reasons why it was considered, and possibly a personal message from the artist who made it. I know we could probably just make a Galleria of Ash, Ash, Ash, Ash, Ash... :wink: But we too want to avoid any perceived elitism. I'm hoping that having the public discussion will help keep things broad and diverse.

Alrighty, happy people. We've talked it over, and we feel it's at least worth a shot to go about reorganizing things a little better. We have a preliminary plan in mind, and we'd like your input. It's all spelled out here: New Pictorium Discussion We're open to questions and suggestions. Come add your voice to the discussion!

Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. But don't knock it until you've tried it. :wink: After re-discussing the proposal to make a new PictoriBoard, we've come to a consensus - We may as well at least give it a shot, right? There's room for improvement in our current method, and, though a forum will never be as good as a dedicated service such as deviantART, we'd like to facilitate you guys as much as we can. dA is nice (deviantART, david.atwell, whichever... ), but sometimes PDN users just want to post for other PDN users. So, I'm happy to announce that we're currently in the planning stages for creating a new Pictorium. That being said, we want to plan this ahead of time so it can start working smoothly as soon as possible. To that end, we'd like your input as to how you think it should be laid out. After all, you're the ones who are going to be using it. I will post below what our current thoughts are, then open the floor to all you user-types to make comments, suggestions, and cookies. Any and every user is welcomed and encouraged to add their voice to the discussion - it doesn't matter if you have 3 posts or if you're usedHONDA ( :wink: ), your input is valuable. This is the current thought as to how the new Pictorium will function: The Pictorium would become it's own board under the Paint.NET Discussion banner of topics, titled, of course, "The Pictorium". It would have established threads in it resembling the following structure: Board - The Pictorium [*:3e85fx4l][a][l] Galleria - This thread would be an announcement thread which would serve as a gallery of the best of the best. It would be locked to user posting so as to keep it a true gallery, and would be managed by one of our mods who would handle adding new images. [*:3e85fx4l][a][l] Pictorium Guidelines - These would be the Rules of the Pictorium, providing information as to appropriate and inappropriate content, thread creation guidelines, and established category directions. [*:3e85fx4l] Galleria Discussion - This thread would be the user discussion thread for the Galleria. In this thread, users would comment on Galleria images and nominate images for our moderator to add the Galleria. [*:3e85fx4l] The Image Hospital - This would be the thread to post image questions. If you're stuck, can't choose the right font, or need desperate color scheme assistance, take your image to the Hospital. [*:3e85fx4l] Image Umbrella - (Multiple categories) - There would be multiple stickied threads, each relating to a particular art style. These threads would serve as umbrella threads for that class of image. Possible styles include, but are not limited to: Realism, Surrealism, Abstract, Image Modification, Interfaces, Desktop Art, and Sigs and Avatars. [a] = announcement = sticky [l] = locked In addition to the stickied image style threads, users would be allowed to create their own threads for their own images (not limited in number, but please, be reasonable ), but none would be stickied. For maximum exposure, users could cross-post images in their own threads and in the appropriate style category. Also, if the need should arise, a thread to discuss Pictorium Suggestions could be opened - for example, if a user thinks a new type of image category is needed. So, that's the current thought direction. Now, we want it to be organized so it runs smoothly, but we don't want to organize it to death. As such, I now open the floor to you for your suggestions. See something in that plan that will spell disaster? Point it out. Have suggestions as to which image styles should have dedicated threads? Post 'em. Any questions, comments, criticisms, or cookies are welcome. We're here to serve, and we want to make sure we're letting you: Have It Your Way. :wink:

In my opinion, having pre-set responses for image rating is a cop-out, both for the image creator and the reviewer. Real criticism takes review. Constructive criticism is very difficult to convey with a Yes-Okay-Meh-Bad-Terrible response pool. For instance, what if an image is otherwise excellent, but uses a horridly inappropriate font style and color - what option would fit? The image itself isn't terrible, but the font choice ruins it. A poll response of "Bad" says a heck of a lot less than "Your background image is amazing, but dang, you need a serious change of font. Can I suggest Futurist Fixed Width in white? It would fit with the overall style and theme of the image, and wouldn't give me a headache anymore." I find that when constructive criticism is the only option, the responses are fewer, but the information therein is far more meaningful. Also, it'd be a pain to standardize. One image uses the Yes-Okay-Meh-Bad-Terrible scale, where the other uses Great-Good-Plain-Bad-Eyesore scale, where the next uses You're Awesome-You Rock-You're my Favorite-I Love You-Marry Me scale. Not to mention this would require a new thread for every image. Rather obnoxious, in my opinion.

Alrighty, happy people, voting is open! Look to the first post for voting details.

Silly me... I grabbed the wrong date again. The competition runs through Sunday the 13th. I wrote Sunday but posted a date of the 12th, which was Saturday. The competition closes in about 9 hours. Voting will commence shortly thereafter. I apologize for any confusion.

Moved to Troubleshooting & Bug Reports According to the Ulead Photo Explorer 8.5 user manual (PDF available on their site here, with pertinent information found on page 19), Ulead employs thumbnail caching to speed up the browsing process - instead of having to read and shrink every image down to thumbnail size each time you browse a folder, they make the thumbnail once and store it in a temporary area, then load the smaller image the next time you browse that folder to speed things up. However, since it's loading the previously saved thumbnail instead of the image itself, there can be a latency period after an edit in an external program (such as Paint.NET) before the viewer checks for modifications to the file, during which time the browser uses the saved thumbnail of the old image. To fix this, select View -> Refresh (or strike F5) in the browser to force it to check for image modifications and recreate any necessary thumbnails. According to the manual, you can also disable thumbnail caching (at the cost of some speed) if constant refreshing becomes a problem.

It seems like you've used the Alpha Mask plugin to remove a shape. With the Alpha Mask (and BB's Transparency plugin), it just sets the Alpha bits to 00, leaving the RRGGBB values the same. MS Paint is ignoring the transparency information and so it's displaying the color that's hidden in Paint.NET. Using the OptiPNG plugin as Dave suggested in RGB-Only mode would remove the transparency from the image. You'd get the proper MS Paint result, but you'd completely lose transparency in the image. This basically functions the same as adding a new layer, moving down so it's the last layer of the image, filling it with white, and saving the image. I'm still trying to come up with a reliable way to remove the color based upon the Alpha. I thought that pyro's Curves + plugin might be able to help, but I've been unable to find the necessary settings. Using the Delete key on a Selection sets the Alpha to 00 and the background color to FFFFFF (white, as you desire), but doing so would remove any anti-aliasing in the final image. I'll try and wrap my head around something, and I'll let you know when I find it. In the mean time, perhaps another user will come along and point out that something I'm missing. :wink: Best of luck!

The GIMP supports layers that have sizes different from the overall canvas size (larger or smaller), but any irregularly-shaped layer cropping results in the smallest possible rectangular layer to contain all layer content. I've heard that Photoshop supports non-rectangular pixels, but I've had no experience with this feature. Still, as far as I know there's no way to completely remove all RGB information from transparent pixels in most* flat-image formats. If you could post a screenshot of the error as it occurs in Paint, we may be able to figure out a way around it. * I say "most" because it may be possible in some format or another. I'm just not aware of any.

Ah, global element-level CSS declarations. They'll get ya' every time. :wink: Perchance, do you have the Firebug extension for Firefox? If you inspect the element, it'll show you any style rules that effect that element and where they are in the linked stylesheets. (Though, I guess if one thought it was simply an error with the image transparency, there'd be little prompt to check it... Still, though, Firebug's an awesome extension... )

Y'know, The GIMP supports tablet pressure-sensitivity, so you can get the sensitivity you desire without resorting to pirating software. The GIMP has a daunting interface that is very not-Photoshop-esque, but it's certainly learnable if you're up to it. For Paint.NET, though, no pressure sensitivity on XP.

A few competitions ago, I made a slight change to the SOTW rules: Sometimes, people make mistakes - be they grammatical, BBCode, or explanation omission - and they shouldn't be locked out of making corrections. To remedy this, I restricted the no-editing rule to the image alone. So, this is to say: "Fear not, for thou art still eligible for the competition." :wink:

BoltBait has put together a tutorial on where to put the plugin files so they show up in Paint.NET. You can find it here: http://boltbait.googlepages.com/install Did you try using either of the search methods to find the answer? A topic similar to this one was posted a few days ago. I know the search can be rather hit-or-miss, as it depends completely on whether or not one uses the same keywords as the people who have posted before, but there are a few instances out there.

My guess is because of the 15-day delay between the choosing of the topic and the creation of the submission thread... I was a bad boy. *CMD takes a time-out in the corner*

The code is not ours to control. It's the PHPBB3 forum software, hosted on a Forumer.com server.

Perfectly acceptable. Actually, I have a sig I made a long time ago that used Polar Inversion for the background as well: I'll have to make a new one, though. This one's 520 pixels wide... >_>

Alrighty peoples, Number 13 is on! I apologize for the delay. The Holidays were a very busy time for me, and my day job occupied my time for the first part of today. :wink: Enjoi!

This weeks theme, as chosen by last weeks winner cjmcguinness, is Polar Inversion. The Winners: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Woot! A huge "Thank You" to everyone who voted! We had 31 individual voters with a total of 53 votes cast! Y'know what this means? We have real first, second, and third place winners with no ties! So, now I'm sure you all want to know the results. Well: 1st: aile (17 votes (32%)) 2nd: olav.k.m (7 votes) 3rd: usedHONDA (5 votes) Honorary "Good-Sport" Award: BoltBait ( Nominated by oma ) :wink: As you can see, most people flocked to aile's entry (myself included). There were two others with four votes each, TheVoid and IntelMan, along with many others who won over a voter or two. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who participated. You're the ones who make these competitions great! Also, a big thanks to david.atwell for assisting in the competition management duties for this one. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Alrighty, happy people, it's voting time again! Because there are so many entries, you are allowed to vote for up to two people! Both votes carry the same weight, so you needn't label first or second in your submitted ballot. See the amalgamated submission list below. Voting will be open until 23:59 (11:59pm) (PST) on Thursday, January 17th. To see the current time in PST to compare it with your local time, click here (WorldTimeServer.com). New for this comp, check the Voting Guidelines! ------------------------------------------------------------------ [*:2i8yi5ru] To vote, compose a Private Message to Crazy Man Dan with the name of the person you'd like to win. [*:2i8yi5ru] Voting is open to everyone, entrants and non-entrants alike. [*:2i8yi5ru] If you did enter the competition, please do not vote for yourself. [*:2i8yi5ru] Once you have submitted your vote, it is final and cannot be changed by any power known to man. [*:2i8yi5ru] Note that, as this competition allows for multiple votes, you are permitted to send in an auxiliary ballot if you accidentally exclude a vote from your original. ------------------------------------------------------------------ This week's entries: New! In alphabetical order thanks to david.atwell. Thanks Dave! :wink: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Ace Jon: ------------------------------------------------------------------ aile: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Andrew D: ------------------------------------------------------------------ BadKitty: ------------------------------------------------------------------ BoltBait: ------------------------------------------------------------------ cjmcguinness: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Crazy Ninja: ------------------------------------------------------------------ DAU: ------------------------------------------------------------------ david.atwell: ------------------------------------------------------------------ DoWnLoAd: ------------------------------------------------------------------ GeminiS: ------------------------------------------------------------------ HaPK: ------------------------------------------------------------------ IntelMan: ------------------------------------------------------------------ jake2k: ------------------------------------------------------------------ johnlaws2005: ------------------------------------------------------------------ JS92: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Knowitall66: ------------------------------------------------------------------ luckymurari: ------------------------------------------------------------------ MadJik: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mastriani: ------------------------------------------------------------------ MattBlackLamb: ------------------------------------------------------------------ MiguelPereira: ------------------------------------------------------------------ mistress-gaia: ------------------------------------------------------------------ ncfan51: ------------------------------------------------------------------ olav.k.m: ------------------------------------------------------------------ oma: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Proshu: ------------------------------------------------------------------ R3VENGE: ------------------------------------------------------------------ salu: ------------------------------------------------------------------ someone2016: ------------------------------------------------------------------ TheVoid: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Trek: ------------------------------------------------------------------ usedHONDA: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Wither: ------------------------------------------------------------------ xBLack SmoKe: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Polar inversion creates a very interesting effect with very little effort, and because of this, those new to graphic design have a tendency to overuse it. Because of this, the effect is often looked down upon. Some, however, pioneer new ways of thinking about polar inversion, seeing it as not a means to a quick "abstract", but as a key to their creativity. That is your mission this week - impress those Polar Inversion Intrepids with your creative Polar Inversion application. If you have any questions, or you wish to comment on an entry, then the discussion thread is where you'll want to be. The deadline for this competition is 23:59 (11:59pm) (PST) on Sunday, January 13th. To see the current time in PST to compare it with your local time, click here (WorldTimeServer.com). Check the SOTW Rules! If your entry breaks any of the rules it will be disqualified. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [*:2i8yi5ru] Max sig dimensions follow the board's max sig dimensions, 500x150. [*:2i8yi5ru] No crude / offensive language, pics, et cetera. [*:2i8yi5ru] Sig must follow the set theme. [*:2i8yi5ru] Only one entry per person and no modifications to your image are allowed after submitting your entry. [*:2i8yi5ru] You must post the URLs to any and all stock images used in your sig. [*:2i8yi5ru] You are allowed one post in this topic. That post should include your sig, links to your source images, and, if you feel so inclined, a hearty bowl of soup to keep me warm 'n toasty. Placeholders (empty-posting now, editing in a link to your sig later) are not permitted. ------------------------------------------------------------------ This thread is for posting your entries only! If you wish to talk about one of the entries you can do so here. If a comment or other non-entry post is mistakenly made in this thread, it will be moved without penalty to the discussion thread. Just don't be surprised when it magically jumps over there. :wink: Good luck all, and thanks for playing! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Happy voting!

That part is fantastic to hear. Anti-pirate! :wink: