GeorgeB

No edits were done in Qimage, so that didn't cause any issue. I noticed the issue prior to opening in Qimage, when I attempted to open it with Irfanview. There is no opRGB profile in Windows (\System32\spool\drivers\color\). Or anywhere else on the computer. Already looked there. I can switch between FSIV, OV3, Affinity, Topaz Studio, making edits, and this problem hasn't never come up. It's only after editing in PdN, although... I'm leaning towards the problem being in Topaz Studio. I'll have to test this in a day or two (i.e., go through my entire editing flow without TS) and see what I get. I'll also try the QU forum and see if they have any clues. Thanks for the reply, --George

I used PdN (currently v4.15) to make a layout of 4 images on a page, each on a separate layer. Started with all TIFFs, AdobeRGB (Olympus camera profile) then added white and brown-ish colored layers (blended). When I saved-as, the resultant TIFF shows the color space as opRGB (per Qimage Ultimate). The image loads fine in FastStone Image Viewer, but is corrupted/won't display in IrfanView, Olympus Viewer 3 (raw conversion), Nikon View NX-i, Topaz Studio, or Affinity Photo. A preview JPEG (?) does display in ExiftoolGUI. And, fortunately, it does open in Qimage, since it is for print purposes. (In FSIV, there is no EXIF data showing.) I tried to find info on opRGB, it's there, but way beyond my understanding. Any clues as to what is happening? It only occurs after using PdN. I tried to find way to change the export color profile in PdN, but there doesn't seem to be one. FWIW, I use FSIV for image management, but like to use Irfanview for higher quality viewing and EXIF viewing (FSIV shows limited EXIF data). --George

toe_head: Okay, now that makes sense. Even I can understand it. ? And I'm happy to live with following this topic and PDF plugin listing. EER: See my reply to toe_head, I now understand how this plugin works at the user level. (I haven't used the Plugin Browser in a long, long time. I may have known this back in olden times, it rings a tiny bell.). And now I wonder if MS will apply it's magic sauce to GitHub, make it work oh so much better? Thanks to you both for the quick, patient and useful replies. --George

Thanks, toe_head. Out of curiousity: how did I get the current list? I did a little research into Port 443, and while I have often been rather cavalier in messing around with such things, as I'm getting older, slightly wiser, I think I'll skip opening that port -- for the time being anyway. Thanks again, --George

Not sure if I need to post here, or in the Plugin Browser topic. If the other, just tell me, and I'll post there. I have v1.2.1.0 of the Plugin Browser. And v4.0.21 of PdN. When I launch the browser and try to get an updated index, I get the following error message: Network error. Unable to connect to the remote server. I'm getting a similar message when I check for updates for PdN itself. I checked my firewall, nothing related to anything "paint" or "forums" is being blocked. I don't suppose there's a manual method of downloading the Plugin index? Thanks, --JustGeorge

Just started testing PSFilterPdn with several Topaz Labs plug-ins, all 64-bit versions, and they all seem to be working just fine. The filters are Adjust, Clarity, Detail, DeNoise, InFocus and ReMask. .The last 3 in particular will be most useful to me. (FWIW, I just upgraded to v.1.0.5.8 today, the plug-ins were working with a previous version, unknown number; decided to check for update just in case.) My forum search didn't find any other reference to the use of Topaz in PdN, so I thought I'd share my experience. At this point, however, consider this just a very strong opinion and not gospel. And kudos to null54, and a big thanks. Now to go test lots of other 8bf filters! --GeorgeB (aka JustGeorge39)

My best guess is that this belongs in this forum, if not, let me know (and my apologies in advance). "This plugin has encountered an error and must be closed." (Details below) Paint.NET v3.5 (Final Release build 3.50.3596.41598) pyrochild.effects.REQUIRED.dll and Borders N' Shapes.dll both from pyrochild_plugins_2009-11-08r3.zip. .NET SP1. Playing with the following tutorial: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=31421&hilit=glass+border The problem occurs at the following step (2nd or 3rd step, depending on how you count): "Now select anything except the gray border (magic wand single click in the middle), Add new layer and press STRG+F to run the Tool again." I'm not positive, but relatively confident that "STRG+F" is the same as "Ctrl+F". Regardless, I also tried re-running the plugin direct from the menu (as opposed to pressing "Ctrl-F"). If I'm leaving out any info, let me know. --George Error Details: Hidden Content: File: K:\Programs2\PDN\Effects\Borders N' Shapes.dll Effect Name: pyrochild.effects.bordersnshapes.BordersNShapes Full error message: PaintDotNet.WorkerThreadException: Worker thread threw an exception ---> System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. Parameter name: source.Size=(382 x 190), newSize=384,192, but the new size must be smaller at PaintDotNet.Rendering.ResizeSuperSamplingRendererBgra..ctor(IRenderer`1 source, Int32 newWidth, Int32 newHeight) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Core\Rendering\ResizeSuperSamplingRenderer.cs:line 254 at PaintDotNet.Rendering.RendererBgraExtensions.ResizeSuperSampling(IRenderer`1 source, Int32 newWidth, Int32 newHeight) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Core\Rendering\RendererBgraExtensions.cs:line 172 at PaintDotNet.Rendering.RendererBgraExtensions.ResizeSuperSampling(IRenderer`1 source, Int32Size newSize) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Core\Rendering\RendererBgraExtensions.cs:line 156 at PaintDotNet.Surface.FitSurface(ResamplingAlgorithm algorithm, Surface source, Rectangle dstRoi) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Core\Surface.cs:line 1464 at PaintDotNet.Surface.FitSurface(ResamplingAlgorithm algorithm, Surface source) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Core\Surface.cs:line 1505 at pyrochild.effects.bordersnshapes.BordersNShapes.OnSetRenderInfo(PropertyBasedEffectConfigToken newToken, RenderArgs dstArgs, RenderArgs srcArgs) at PaintDotNet.Effects.Effect`1.OnSetRenderInfo(EffectConfigToken parameters, RenderArgs dstArgs, RenderArgs srcArgs) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Effects\Effect`1.cs:line 68 at PaintDotNet.Effects.Effect.SetRenderInfo(EffectConfigToken parameters, RenderArgs dstArgs, RenderArgs srcArgs) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\Effects\Effect.cs:line 140 at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.ThreadFunction() in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 150 --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.DrainExceptions() in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 332 at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.Join() in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 323 at PaintDotNet.Menus.EffectMenuBase.DoEffect(Effect effect, EffectConfigToken token, PdnRegion selectedRegion, PdnRegion regionToRender, Surface originalSurface, Exception& exception) in D:\src\pdn\paintdotnet\src\PaintDotNet\Menus\EffectMenuBase.cs:line 1254

I'm pretty certain this hasn't been mentioned before, apologies if it has. George Ou, Technical Director for ZDNet, posted in a blog dated Feb 6, 2008, a list of his 10 must have free programs, one of which is Paint.NET. The list contains programs he installs on every new computer, not just for himself, but for others. I'm pretty certain this is a serious endorsement! (But then, I'm easily impressed! :wink: ) Full review at http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=989. --GeorgeB

I'm still not getting it. I set the image and canvas size in PDN to 346x130, DPI 96; that automatically sets the print size to 3.6 in x 1.35 in. When I save that image in PNG format, I still get 346x130, but the DPI is 72, and the file size is 4.81" x 1.81". I see no means or method of adjusting the DPI when I save as PNG. And saving to .tif keeps the parameters as I originally set them. So maybe my question really is: why does PDN change the DPI from 96 to 72, and alter the print size? To my way of thinking, it would seem that if I set the image/canvas size before starting, it should save to those parameters regardless of format, PNG or JPG or TIF. I just tried an experiment: I opened a TIF in Irfanview, then saved it as a PNG file (.png). That PNG file has the same size and DPI as the TIF, and is different from the PNG saved via the PDN "save as" dialogue. I noticed something else: the PNG file saved directly from PDN at 4.81" x1.81" and 72 DPI has a file size of 74K; the PNG save from the TIF (which was saved directly from PDN) and is 3.6" x 1.35" and 96 DPI, has a file size of 135K. Which may or may not be relevant to this discussion, just thought I'd point it out. So either something is happening during the save process in PDN which I don't understand, or something's screwed up in my computer (and/or my brain! ) If nothing else, I can live with saving to TIF and then converting to other formats via Iview. I'm really floundering here, so any further elucidation would be most appreciated. --GeorgeB

No help in the forums, and couldn't find any help googling elsewhere. I've been trying to learn about various filetypes (image formats) and how they print and how they view on a computer. So I've been saving in various image formats. Starting with a new image, canvas set to 346x130 pixels, print size 3.6 x 1.35 inches, resolution at 96 px/in. Three layers, background, image, text. Flattened before saving. Following are my results: Filetypes comparison: FORMAT.......WIDTH.....HEIGHT.....DPI.....PX............CM PDN.............3.6"........1.35".........96.....346 x 130.....n/a PNG & GIF.....4.81"......1.81".........72.....346 x 130.....12.21 x 4.59 JPG & TIFF....3.60"......1.35".........96.....346 x 130.....9.15 x 3.44 (+BMP) The above are the sizes as reflected in Irfanview's Image Resize dialogue; same results in Xnview. Same results when printed out (unless I specify the image print size for the PNG/GIF formats, rather than the original image size). But, when I open the PNG into a new tab, it shows the dimensions I want. This might be a different issue: when I print that PNG through PDN, I don't see any options to print it at actual size. (Full page fax, 8x10, 5x7, etc. -- nothing that comes close to 3.6 x 1.35 in.) Which is why I rely on Irfanview for printing chores. Visually, in a browser, they all appear the same size. So am I doing something wrong? Just plain old misunderstanding image formats? And why am I getting two different sizes from the same PDN file? And as long as I'm here, are there any guidelines on how best to save for both print (desktop printer) and computer (web) uses? Obviously, I am so-o-o-o confused! --GeorgeB

Thanks for the quick reply. I looked through that, but I don't see which of the effects that you're referring to. Making my own palette sounds complicated, and if you meant the Effects Lab I don't see how to make that work. The rest of that thread seems to be about the Equations effect, and I know you don't mean that for me!! GeorgeB

A part-time newbie, still trying to get comfortable with PDN and graphics editing in general. I've been intrigued with the rotoscope effect as seen in the Chas. Schwab TV Commercial; it looks like they colorized a live sequence, so that it almost appears to be hand-painted or hand-drawn. It's almost, but not quite, like a very well-done paint-by-numbers effect. For example, the various skin-tones don't blend, there are distinct edges between each tone -- except you don't see the paint-by-numbers lines. I may be describing this completely wrong, and I don't know how to, nor have the capability of, screen grab off the telly. However, examples can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTsg9-JOogI. And there is always Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscope. I'm not looking to do animation, just applying the technique to still pix using PDN. I first noticed this commercial around the same time as the post appeared requesting a tutorial for an "Allen & Ginter baseball card". That was a start in the right direction. I tried playing with that, taking it to the next level, but I don't get anywhere close. I've also played with the various Artistic Effects, and get some interesting results, just not what I'm looking for. Any hints, tips, tricks or pointers would be appreciated. And keep in mind that I am a newbie, and while I'm comfortable with playing with PDN and making mistakes, there's still so much I don't know, so assume I know nothing. Thanks,

re: running multiple versions of PDN. Big thank you to both Leif and sabrown. Never thought about "portable", but that was exactly the answer I was looking for. I need to start thinking outside the box! GeorgeB

Just out of curiousity: could a v3.3 (beta and/or final) be installed concurrently with v3.22? If not the same drive, a different drive? I know it would violate the "update to new version rule" (at least for v3.30final), but as someone still going through many of the tutorials (including those in the plugins forum illustrating the use of the particular plugin), I would be at least somewhat reluctant to upgrade until I finish those. And at the rate I'm going (including getting lost in the forums, playing with PDN, and -- oh yeah, real life!), it might be quite a while. I did attempt a search, but found nothing one way or the other. If it is possible, any warnings? "Curious" GeorgeB

That seems to be exactly what I was looking for! Exactly. My mind is boggled that I didn't cross that page before, or even the page referenced by barkbark00 on that page. If I did, it sure didn't register. (I thought maybe the reason that page didn't come up was because I was restricting my searches to Tutorials & Plugins; but I just ran an un-restricted search with "fade white" and it still didn't come up. Just using "fade", it does, of course.) You have no idea how happy and relieved I am to finally know how to do this. Thank you, Tanel. barkbark00: I'm playing around with duplicating layers (your tut "Fade Edge to Transparent"). Looks like a useful additional modification. David Atwell: I had actually tried EDE Vignette on several different occasions, seemed like it should work. Back in December, "vignette" was what I started searching for, refining as I went along after that. But I still can't use Vignette to make fade-to-white or fade-to-transparency. Thanks again. I'm going to go play with my new toys now! GeorgeD

For the record: I've searched the forums, used searchpaint.net, and searched using Google restricting to "site:paint.net" and "site:forumer.com" with a paint modifer. I keep coming close, but can't find what I want. I'm not a graphic artist, just want to fiddle with fotos. Using PDN v3.22. I'm a newbie not just to PDN, but to graphics editing in general. This is also my first time including images (photobucket). Searching for "vignette", "blurred edge", "edge blur", "soft edge" or variations thereof gets me close. Using "fade" and "white" got me a little closer. So I know that there may be an answer already posted, but I cannot find it, or if I found it, didn't know what it was. For example, I start with: In another post, I found these instructions: 1. on a new layer make fill it white. :PaintBucketTool: 2. Click on gradient then radial. 3. Click transperent. :AlphaChannel: 4. From the center right click and pull to the edge or your likings Which gave me this: Very nice, but I want an oval, and Gradient -> Radial doesn't do ovals, as far as I can tell. (Once I've learned how to do this, I also want to do rectangle fades, but Gradient -> Diamond apparently only does squares, not rectangles.) I also managed to produce this: On a white background, it almost fades to white. On a new layer, I made a 30px oval, bucket-filled to white, GaussianBlur+ at 30 (I think, I've tried dozens of combinations). This would almost be acceptable, but the image layer (Object -> Feather set at 10) is still too distinct, not enough "fuzziness", or blending, or blurring or whatever; plus it really just doesn't fade. I even tried repeating Feather at 10 (Ctrl-F), but it seems you only get to feather an image once. (I even tried adding Distort -> Dents & Frosted Glass to the blurred white oval -- nice effects, even on an oval, but not a fade-to-white.) Now here's where I'm probably going to get cranky! Based on hours-upon-hours of reading forums (GD&Q, Plugins, Tutorials), I'm certain that at least one person is going to suggest Alpha Mask Import (AMI). Instead of getting cranky, maybe I'll just break down and cry. I've tried to figure out how to use that plugin, but there's apparently a short-circuit in my brain. If you still want to suggest that procedure, please provide very detailed instructions (and a link to a large bottle of aspirin :wink: ). (Another problem with the AMI is that I want to apply this "effect" to many different photos, with diferent oval/rectangular dimensions and sizes, and that would require lots of masks, right? But then since I don't understand AMI, maybe that's not true.) Bottom line: is there a (hopefully relatively simple) way of achieving a fade-to-white on ovals and rectangles? (In olden times, making a photo print, we'd hold an oval-shaped paper cut-out about halfway between the enlarger lens and the photo paper, and moving that "magic want", we''d burn out the edges. Wasted a lot of paper and chemicals, and, it turns out, wasn't very eco-friendly!) Thanks in advance for any help, GeorgeB

A small thing to many, possibly most, PDN users. For the rest of us, thank you. --GeorgeB

I know I'm a little late to the party, but this is relevant to your question above. Not too late for me. But you may regret jumping in, as it clarifies more of what I don't understand, so... So, for example, on a photographic print, the difference would be between cutting an oval out of the print (cropping, physically making the picture smaller), and masking out the wanted area and somehow bleaching out the unwanted area (removing pixels). If that is (somewhat) correct, then I may have just learned something. (I really hate when I do that, it makes my head hurt! ) Regardless, in digital photo editing, would this be a distinction that doesn't really matter in most cases? (As long as I continue to live in the world of PDN, that is.) I'm going to have to play with that some more, but I think I almost understand. Let me get back to you after playing around. And just to be sure: in the world of PDN, this is probably more than I want/need to know? That helps a lot, will cut down on the trial and error. And thanks for jumping in. I'm not sure how "late" you were, quite timely for me. Thanks again, --George

The crop tool affects the entire image. As does everything in the Image menu. All other tools/effects/adjustments affect only the active layer. Noted, and thank you. I think I'll remember that. Now I'll go back and see what else I can find that my brain can't process. Thanks to all who answered, much appreciated. hmmm, just noticed the upgraded interactive tutorial. I hope none of the above is in there! --George

Et, voila! That's what I wanted to do. But why does that work, and the crop tool doesn't? I think I'm anticipating that sometimes actions (edits, effects, etc) will be applied to all layers, and sometimes they won't. Is there a method to that madness, or is it just trial and error? (If it has to do with really technical stuff, programming, etc., just reply "Because we said so!" I will accept that. Truly.) And ... The default white canvas just provides a place to start. You can delete it as soon as you've added another one. :-) Okay, tried that (deletion), it's gone; I actually may understand this. (I also re-opened the same pic in a new session, but "Opened the file into new tab" (or something) and it didn't have the white layer. All is good. Thanks, all. --George

Total newbie here, pretty much to graphics editing in general, not just PDN. (I just finally "got" the difference between curves and curves! One is for lines, the other is for adjusting color. Close enough for now, we'll save that for the future.) I've tried searching both searchpaint.net and the forums, but I don't know what terms to search for; the responses are generally interesting, but do not seem to be relevant. I opened a photo in PDN. For whatever reason, I now have two layers, a white b/g and the photo. I duplicated the photo, de-activated the original and the b/g (unchecked them in the layers control window), so only the copy layer is active. Using the Ellipse Select tool, I cropped that picture layer. Did some playing with various controls/effects. Went back to the original photo, and it too is cropped, as well as the all-white b/g layer. I only want the active layer, which is on top, cropped, preserving the un-cropped original for playing with later. So what am I doing wrong? And how do I do it right? If there is a tutorial or other answer, please just point me in that direction. One other question: why did the program automatically include a white b/g layer? And do I need to keep it? Keep in mind my first paragraph above, i.e., please keep responses as simple as possible (but no simpler). Thanks, --GeorgeB

Thank you both for the quick replies. I thought it would be okay to download the help files, but I always like to ask first. I'm comfortable using wget, and it makes it (relatively) easy to keep the downloaded files up to date. As for searchpaint.net, well, that pre-supposes a level of familiarity with graphics editing that I have yet to achieve. I am not a newbie. I am a pre-newbie. Or you might say, a Newbie-In-Training, aka NIT. (Now y'all remember new rule #27 here! ) Once I've read a bit more, and punched a few buttons on PDN, I might be able to ask a sensible question. We'll see. And if it's not inappropriate, I'd like to add my voice to those who might favor a non-specific browser for F1 help. The Scrapbook add-on for FF will be quite useful on these here forums; there's so much stuff here that it's easy to lose my place, and merely bookmarking doesn't really tell me what I've got. FWIW. And thanks again, --George

It looks like there are no help files available for offline use -- is that correct? If so, is it permissable to download the complete help pages? (I need to access them from a usually non-connected notebook.) And, for when I do access them online, is there someway to avoid using MSIE? My default browser is Firefox, my standby is Opera, IE is here only because I don't want to mess with re-installing the stuff I have to have after uninstalling. I know I can access them with FF via http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/en/index.html, but sometimes a guy just hits F1 out of habit and having IE open is very annoying. Thanks, George