Ego Eram Reputo

Verbose mode ON: You have a window located by default in the lower right hand corner of the Paint.NET workspace. This window is entitled Layers. This window shows the layer structure of your image, which might have one layer, or it might have many layers. Think of layers as clear plastic sheets - each can have a part of your image on it - so editing just that specific part is easier if you confine the edit to a single layer. To swap the editing focus between layers, you just need to click on the layer name in the Layers window. The active layer is highlighted to show you which layer is currently recieving the editing focus. For more on layers and layering: http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/WorkingWithLayers.html

Polar Inversion is a cool effect. It's use is not considered 'bad' unless the user is using the effect to hide deficiencies in their artistic abilities. Case #1: The user creates a nice but not exceptional image. "Oh well, back to the drawing board..." they think. Then they wonder if they can turn this image into something really cool by applying a randomly chosen effect (this is like composing a symphony by randomly assembling notes). Applying the PI effect transforms the image into something radically different. "Oh WOW - I'm an artist!" they think and post the image everywhere they can, drawing bemused reactions from the people who can tell at a glance exactly what the user has done. [inappropriate Overuse] Case #2: Experienced Paint.NET user is almost completed their latest masterpiece. It's something like a photo-realistic Sci-Fi street scene from the future. The image lacks a final touch - a cool looking futuristic watch face for the guy in the scene. PI creates something interesting and sufficiently clock-like to shrink down and paste into the small watch face. [Appropriate Use] IMHO: Polar Inversion is a transformation that should be understood before it is used. If you apply it hoping for something nice to happen then good luck & I wish you all the best. This approach to making art is like a builder who randomly nails bits of wood together and hopes for a house. If you apply Polar Inversion knowing what the result will be then you have used it as a tool. Which is what it is.

Please read these Tutorial Posting Guidelines. I'll quote the relevant parts: <closed>

If users don't know how to use the effects they should be reading the online documentation. Press F1 in Paint.NET or point your browser here: http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/

Upload both images to a hosting site and post the links here. I think we need to see whats going on with your images in order to help you.

Pixellate is not strictly a blur. Here's how you should be blurring: 1. Activate the correct layer by clicking on the name in the Layers Window. 2. Select the Ellipse Selection tool 3. Create an ellipse over the area you wish to blur. 4. Go to Effects | Blurs and click on Gaussian Blur (or one of the other blurs - I recommend this one for its ease of use and predictability of the result) 5. Adjust the Radius to a level that you like for your blur. 6. Click OK.

Nicely put together. The trouble you have aligning the sides can be resolved using the Shape3D plugin. Here's a tutorial: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/12246-lets-make-a-software-box/

Exactly! This is how to confine an editing operation to one region - make it a selection. Think of a selection as a subgroup of the active layer.

You're using the wrong tool, Bobbin. But that's OK - it's an often made mistake! To make an elliptical selection use the Ellipse Selection Tool and not the Ellipse Tool . The tutorials section of the forum (http://forums.getpai...ublishing-only/) is broken up into subsections. The name of the subsection indicates what type of tutorials you'll find there. For example, the Beginners Tutorials can be entered by clicking on that name (after you have clicked on the above link). You'll be taken to this section: http://forums.getpai...nner-tutorials/ which contains a number of very helpful tutorials designed for beginners. Click on any tutorial title to open the thread. Oh - and welcome to the forum!

Dark blue is the selection region. Press the Esc key to deselect.

IMHO: It's a very large job suitable for an experienced professional artist. The only way I'd attempt something like that is to individually create each element as a separate image and assemble the scene as a final step.

@Arbu: Have you tried enabled or disabled the anti-aliasing? You'll find it in the Tool Bar when the Text Tool is active. The only other thing I can think of is that your image is small and you're printing at low DPI setting. This will always degrade the image. How big is your image (in pixels) and what is the print size (inches)?

1. Activate the heart layer by clicking on it in the Layers Window. 2. Select the Magic Wand tool 3. Hold the Shift key down and click on the white background. Note: if the entire background is not selected - fine tune the Tolerance setting in the Tool Bar and select again. 4. press Delete.

Once the text has been committed to the layer is is not re-editable using the text tool. The characters are converted to pixels and stored along with the rest of the image data.

Paint.NET has seven different blurs in the default Effects | Blurs menu. To use one of them select the region you wish to blur and then click on the effect name in the Effects | Blur sub menu.

Ok. I suspected as much. It was just a thought. Thanks for the replies.

Hi Jacob - welcome to the forum! It sounds like you're simply getting the layer order wrong. You will need two layers - one for the face and one for the heart. You want the heart with the transparent background in the layer below the one with the face. Activate the Heart layer (by clicking on it in the Layers window) and move it down using the :MoveLayerDown: icon in the Layers Window. RE: Saving it to MAC: Not transparent? - that sounds like a Mac issue. There is no problem with the image (as you have found it, correctly has transparent areas when opened in the appropriate software). Try asking this one on a Mac forum. I don't know what image files the Mac supports or what you're saving it as - bear in mind that JPG does not support transparency. PNG does. <Moved to Paint.NET Discussion & Questions>

The extension APNG is used by Paint.NET in order to avoid a conflict with the existing (non animated) PNG format. For external use the APNG files can be safely returned to the PNG extension as BoltBait said.

FYI: the spacing between characters is called kerning

Brand new plugin might help: Text+.

Glad I could help. Have you met the online documentation? http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/FileMenu.html There's a lot of great information in there to help get you started.

Rick are you planning any blend mode changes for 4.0? I am in a discussion with Barbieq25 and a few days ago and the subject of Alpha Masking came up. I was wondering if Alpha Mask would make a good blend mode?

Paint Shop Pro?? Try this: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=22817

Don't forget the Magic Wand tool ! You can force the rectangle to be square by holding down the Shift key as you cast the selection. Similarly, the Shift key forces the Ellipse Select tool to be circular. The general workaround to creating these types of selections is to create the shape on a separate layer and use the Magic Wand to select the shape. Once the selection has been cast, clicking on another layer reactivates it - the selection will persist across the layers (so you can create it on one layer and use it on another). To help you with shapes try these plugins: Stars Polygon/Stars

Like this? http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/15319-vampire-teeth-this-one-is-really-long-sorry-xd/