underdog

I suppose that pressing four keys (or combination thereof - depending on how many were originally opened!) is good to know. But yeah, having a single keystroke would be cool. Thanks for the information.

I should have explained that I tried that. I tried several things that I didn't go into detail on that post. I felt I had been running on a bit as it was. I tried manually choosing Alpha Mask, saving the mask, running Ink Sketch, then loading the mask. Even without the ScriptLab it was doing odd things with the transparency. I would see a semi-circular shape appear in the mask that I can't explain. What I need to do is get over to the Alpha Mask forum and figure out how to use that tool first. The concern I have is that this will be a bit of time spent for a possible dead-end. But such are the risks. I do want to emphasize that having a checkbox that says something like 'preserve transparency? (Y/N)' on the Ink Sketch. That would tell the code to either skip 100% transparent pixels or apply the algorithm differently for semi-transparent pixels. Anyway that was the original suggestion.

Thanks, Simon. That alpha mask plugin looked like a great suggestion. Unfortunately, I tried it and I can't figure it out. I tried using it with the ScriptLab. What I did was install the Alpha Mask plugin and restart Paint.Net I loaded my images and for the first image I started ScriptLab, then I selected Alpha Mask and saved the alpha mask as "temp.bmp" in the current directory. Then I selected Ink Sketch with 20% / 45% for the settings and applied that. Then I reselected Alpha mask and loaded the "temp.bmp" that I had saved previously. That didn't work right for some reason. The mask was wrong.... So, I tried it again but this time when I got to the part where I reloaded the Alpha Mask, I applied the filter without pulling the mask from the saved file and that worked! So, I was pretty happy but.... when I tried the same on next file, it trashed the alpha mask for some reason and used the first images alpha mask... Drat! Foiled again. I tried several other variations on this theme and so far I haven't figured out how to actually use a combination of the Alpha Mask tool with the Ink Sketch filter to preserve the original alpha channel... What you suggested makes perfect sense, and I was pretty sure you were onto something there, but I haven't been able to get it to work right. I am linking to an HTML page showing some more details. http://www.wizardchat.com/colors/forum- ... tails.html Export an alpha mask of the image, run the effect, then re-import it. Plugin to do this: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=24191 (I linked to this as I have not tried the other plugins and this is the only one that am sure can export a mask as well.)

No. Here's what I said: "I would LOVE to have a checkbox that allowed me to preserve the transparency in an image when applying these effects." The current Artistic->Ink Sketch filter makes the entire image opaque. I want to preserve the transparency in an image when using the Ink Sketch effect such that the transparency is not removed. It is, in short, preserved.

Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned in my other post that I have installed ScriptLab. It is a great plugin and there are several good effects that are bundled with the download, but it doesn't allow me the flexibility I need. Somehow I need to select the non-transparent area (select transparent then invert). Sadly, ScriptLab doesn't appear to have a way to recreate mouse clicks. That would be way awesome.

If there is a keyboard shortcut for this already I haven't found it. I use Photoshop all the time and I miss being able to get rid of all the tool windows then bring them back with a single keystroke. Pretty please?

My first post here so first off: THANK YOU FOR A FANTASTIC PRODUCT! WOW. Ahem. Now for my suggestion? I would LOVE to have a checkbox that allowed me to preserve the transparency in an image when applying these effects. I am processing hundreds of PNG images for avatars (poses) in a web chat. I want a cartoon like image. To get the proper effect, I have to do the following: First select the transparent background using the wand (global flood mode) then press CTRL-I (invert selection) then the first time choose Effects->Artistic->Ink Sketch and subsequent times press CTRL-F (repeat effect). If I don't do it this way, the Ink Sketch effect flattens the PNG first. I also would like to have scripting / macro capabilities, which would allow me to automate these steps, but that is a separate suggestion, I suppose.