MJW

In order to make the edge look smooth and not jagged and stair-steppy, the pixels on the edge are a blend of the background and foreground colors. So if you have a white foreground and a black background, the edge pixels are various shades of gray. The problem is the edge pixels are partly background and partly foreground, so if you remove them, you remove some of the foreground, while if you leave them, you leave part of the background. One method is to: Use the Color Picker to set the Primary Color to the background color. Use the Magic Wand to select the background with a low tolerance so the edge pixels aren't selected. Add a new layer and make it the active layer. Fill the selection. (The foreground area of the added layer will be transparent; the background filled with a fixed color.) Make the new layer invisible. (This isn't necessary, but I think it makes it easier.) Activate the original layer. (This actually -- and unfortunately, IMHO! -- happens automatically when the new layer is made invisible). Erase the selection. You should have a foreground area surrounded by a halo. Activate the added layer. Apply a Gaussian Blur with a Radius around 5. (The best radius somewhat depends on the image.) Use the Magic Wand to select the background area of the added layer. Adjust the Tolerance to move the selection inside the edge. It will move smoothly. Activate the original layer. Run the Color Clearer plugin. Click the reset button on Color to Make Transparent to set the color to the current Primary Color. The Color Clearer will "remove" the background color from the edge pixels. Delete the added layer. Make sure at all times that the correct layer is the active layer. It's easy to have the wrong layer active. EDIT: Modified method. EDIT: Fixed error in specifying which area of the new layer will be filled with color and which will be transparent.

I have some ideas on how to do this. I'll try to put something together soon.

If you mean "How do I take an image with a logo and make it look like the logo wasn't there," it depends on the picture. There's no general solution. Often there's no easy or good solution. A common approach is to use the Clone Stamp to fill in the region with something similar. Another method (which I prefer) is to duplicate the image, erase the logo from the top layer so the other layer shows through, then use the Move Selected Pixels tool to move the lower layer around to replace in the missing region with something similar. This has the advantage of allowing the brightness, hue, etc. to be adjusted for a better match. Until someone writes an infilling plugin, that's the best I can suggest. (And even advanced infilling algorithms are a long way from perfect.) Generally, the bigger the logo, the more difficult the problem, Also, please edit the title. This is a Paint.net forum. The thread title "paint.net" is useless. Use something like "Removing logo from image."

Here's a plugin I wrote quite a while ago that might do what you want. The current version is very unpolished. I think maybe I'll make it into a finished pugin soon. It's called Split Hue and Brightness. It's in the Color submenu. It separates the hue from the brightness. Specifically, if you put the image in two layers, set the top layer's blend mode to Multiply, then run the plugin with Brightness selected for the lower layer, and Hue selected for the upper layer, it will produce the original image (more or less). In your case: Put the black-and-white version in the lower layer. Put the color version in the upper layer. Set the upper layer's Blend Mode to Multiply. Run the plugin on the upper layer, selecting the Hue option. Split Hue and Brightness (beta version): SplitHueAndBrightness.zip (Note: since multiplication is commutative, either the black-and-white or the color image can be the top layer, as long as the top layer's Blend Mode is Multiply.)

To answer the question, I'd need to see examples of what you're talking about.

I still don't understand. The only way I can see to change the original colors from blue on the left to yellow is to first convert it to grayscale. What does it mean to change green and red to blue? If you convert the image to grayscale, I can see at least two ways it can transition from blue to yellow: the colors can be considered replacements for white, and the value can match the value of the image; or the colors can be considered replacements for black, and the saturation can match the saturation of the original image -- or you might have something entirely different in mind. I suppose you could mean the color image looks like it was viewed through a blue-to-yellow filter. If you have an example of the effect you hope to achieve, that would help. (Each of the effects I mentioned would be achieved by using layers with different blending modes.)

Perhaps it's only me, but I don't know what you mean by "change the colors on it gradient style." Change the colors it what way? Make them darker? Change the hue? Maybe you could add a little more detail on what you hope to achieve.

I think the answer is, that's not how layers work. The effect of layers is cumulative: each higher layer is applied to the lower layers the same way it would be if the lower layers were merged into one.

Perhaps it's a misunderstanding of the way tools now work. If a region is selected with the Magic Wand in, say, Add mode, then a second region is selected, the mode of the second selection will change to Subtract if the Subtract mode is chosen before the second selection is completed by, for example, clicking Finish.

Though it might seem at first to be a good idea, I don't think it is. Suppose you save a multi-layer image as a PNG. Now the .png file name is associated with the image. If you make subsequent changes to the image, then exit PDN, you'll be asked if you want to save the changes. If you say Yes, it will be saved as the flattened PNG file. You might not be too happy the next time you open the image for editing. No doubt there are ways to avoid problems, but is the added complication really worth it to save you the effort of using Ctrl-Shift-C to copy the merged image, followed by Ctrl-Alt-V to paste it to a new image? In the second approach, you end up with two versions, each with an appropriate file type.

On the Resize dialog, there's a "Maintain aspect ratio" checkbox just above the size controls. It's checked by default. Uncheck it and you will be able to set the Width and Height controls independently. For most images, changing the aspect ratio will distort the image. You might be better off resizing to 851x515, then cropping the sides. To do so, after resizing, use Tool>Rectangle Select to make the selection. The selection size is displayed in the lower left. You can then use Tool>Move Selection, and move the selection left or right with the keyboard arrows. When you're satisfied, use Image>Crop to Selection.

I would like to get a good tree for decorating with engineering decorations. Are you looking for stock photos of trees, or do you want tutorials or ideas for creating Christmas tree images? EDIT: Looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't understand the question being asked.

Two SOTW sigs in a row based on my avatar -- but with the current theme, what choice did I have? Sacre bleu!

I would certainly recommend using Level Horizon for that purpose, but you can rotate a layer using Layer>Rotate/Zoom.

Thank you, ToastyKami. I didn't intend to be mean to a new poster (which is also against the rules), but if everyone uses generic titles, it becomes impossible to find threads on specific subjects.

Yes. Change it to something like, "NET Framework installation problem."

No matter how big!! your problem is, you should follow the forum rules: 6) Thread titles must be descriptive and specific -- NOT generic. You need to use descriptive thread titles. The following are examples of thread titles that are NOT ALLOWED: "Help" "Please help" "I need help" "Can you help" "HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!" (if you post like this you WILL be banned) "Tutorial request" "Feature request" "Plugin request" "Looking for..." "Looking for a tutorial / feature / plugin" "Can Paint.NET do this" ('this' is complete ambiguous here) "I'm a newbie" "Hello" "I'm new" If someone can't suggest what you need to do to solve your problem, you might post the log file mentioned in the error message.

That works very well, BoltBait! I'm sure I'll use that method many times in the future,

Ego Eram Reputo, that's something I didn't know (though the drop-down list does sometimes obscure the text).

I also wish there were some way of quickly cycling through fonts.

I would just create a new lower layer and put the new background in it. The transparency in the foreground image will take care of the rest.

Another option for softening the hairline is the Edge Expander. Use the Lasso tool to select the hairline region. Set the Edge Expander Maximum Distance very low, the Fade Rate to 1, and the Opacity Threshold to some value that gives the best result, probably mid-range. For either FurBlur or Edge Expander, I suggest duplicating the foreground image, then applying the effect to the lower layer. That way things like the contrast and brightness can be tweaked, and perhaps a small blur can be applied. A third option is the Zoom Blur. After duplicating the foreground layer, make the Lasso selection, then apply Zoom Blur to the lower layer. Set the zoom origin in the center of the head and apply a small zoom.

As an alternative to Surface Blur, you might try Laplacian Pyramid Filter with Detail handling set to greater than 1. One trick is to apply smoothing followed by Sharpen.

Angled Gradient draws a gradient in the current selection at the specified angle. It's in the Render submenu. The plugin: Angled Gradient.zip The user interface: The Help Menu description : Angled Gradient renders a gradient at a selected angle. The controls are: Angle: Specifies the angle of the gradient. Type of Gradient: Selects the method used to interpolate the gradient colors. The choices are: RGB: Interpolate the Red, Green, and Blue color components. HSV: Interpolate Hue, Saturation, and Value. HSV (Long Way): Interpolate Hue, Saturation, and Value, with Hue going the long way around the color wheel. 24-Bit Depth: Interpolate the 24-bit depth values. Reflect Gradient: Specifies that the gradient should go to the End Color then return to the Start Color. Midpoint Shift (Nonlinearity): Specifies the degree of nonlinearity. Negative values shift the midrange gradient value toward the starting point, while positive values shift it toward the ending point. Start Color: Specifies the beginning gradient color. Defaults to the Primary Color. Start Opacity: Specifies the beginning opacity. Defaults to the Primary Color opacity End Color: Specifies the ending gradient color. Defaults to the Secondary Color. End Opacity: Specifies the ending opacity. Defaults to the Secondary Color opacity. The one sort of weird gradient choice is 24-Bit Depth. It's intended for use with my Height Map plugins, Actually, it's more or less the reason I resurrected an old plugin I began working on and abandoned. I had a need for a ramp-shaped height map. However, I do think the plugin can be useful for other reasons -- though I realize that other than the depth gradients, Red ochre's Gradients galore can already do most anything this plugin can do, and a lot more. I'm not sure how useful the other non-RGB gradient types will be, but I can't resist adding features. Here's an example of a height gradient: This example will in many cases eliminate the need to download the plugin, since it can be used if a linear height gradient is needed with the Texture Merger. The nice thing about linear gradients is they can be scaled with little effect on quality, since the linear gradient is linearly interpolated (and with 24 bits, there's usually plenty of precision). If the gradient is in the clipboard, it can be rotated, and the slope can be changed by adjusting the height scale. EDIT: Fix typo in UI: replace RBG with RGB. EDIT 2: Fix typo in Help Menu. EDIT 3: Add correct website link in plugin.

Hello Si Borg! Glad to see you back. I'm eager to see what you can do with the Texture Merger.