BradC

Thanks, Rick!

Well, in a larger picture, you might be able to drag from "anywhere on the canvas", as you put it. But in my scenario (a 24x24 pixel picture at 1600%), you get the stretch tool no matter where you point on the canvas. You literally have to point OFF the canvas--way out to the edge of the Paint.Net application window to get the Move cursor.

I did a search and saw some other postings on the same topic. I know there is a workaround (point way out to the side when dragging), but is a fix for this planned? In the 3.x timeframe, or at least by 4.x?

Make a new 500x500 image, and select a rectangular portion of the image while at 100% zoom. When you choose the "Move Selected Pixels" tool, you get two different cursors, depending on where you point: the black arrow cursor (which allows you to grab and move the selection), and the "hand" cursor (which allows you to stretch or resize the selected pixels). The hand cursor is visible only when you point to one of the "resize handles" of the selected rectangle. That works as expected. Now make a new 24x24 pixel picture, and zoom in to 1200% or 1600%. Select a rectangle, and switch to "Move Selected Pixels". Anywhere you point on the picture, you get the "resize hand". To get the black "move cursor", you have to point way off the page somewhere. It took me a long time to even figure out that you could get the black arrow cursor--I thought the Move Selected Pixels was completely broken when zoomed in this tight. I don't know if it is using a fixed-pixel margin, rather than a screen dimension, but this makes working with small icons-sized images somewhat difficult.