[CodeLab v6.12 for Paint.NET 5.0.12 (Updated February 11, 2024)]

Hi! So, I've been a happy user of CodeLab in the past (I created the Grim Color Reaper effect). However, updating Paint.net to 4.0.5 and CodeLab to 2.5, there are some puzzling issues:

 

1. Undo (Ctrl+Z) doesn't seem to work, it just moves the cursor back to the place of the last edit. This makes any editing final and is quite frustrating.

 

2. Code completion / Intellisense was announced but I can't seem to trigger it in any way (tried: hover text, select text, right click, tab, Ctrl+Enter).

 

3. If your filename is "Untitled.cs", CodeLab says you must save your file before compiling to dll (minor issue but can be quite confusing if you're firing up CodeLab for the first time and doing a quick test, giving the impression that it doesn't work).

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

I didn't use the color wheel because I think that, for most color removal jobs, you probably prefer to use the Color Picker, to choose a color that already exists in the image. Because of that I gave the option of primary/secondary color (and black and white which are very common backgrounds). But if you want to share a version with the color wheel it's ok by me, I'm sure some folks will find it useful

[Color to Alpha]

Hey this is really cool Was the Grim Color Reaper code useful to you? Any ideas about where to take this next?

About ignoring some regions when removing colors, it's really easy if your plugin only operates inside the selection (like the Reaper does). Just select the areas you want, invert selection, then run it. So for example, you can remove black outside an object but not inside.

Cheers!

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

@Djisves: That's always great to hear Regarding the incompatibility, there was this report:

When I loaded the old code in the new CodeLab release it wouldn't compile anymore, so I had to make a few fixes. Dunno if the DLL fared any better, but anyway as APIs evolve there's always some fixin' to do...

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

@Yellowman: Thanks for the support, I'm glad you found it useful!

@Ego Eram Reputo: Weird, it worked now! Before it would give me an error, even when zipped. You can check the top post for the attachment.

[Shade respecting recolor-updated?]

I know it might be a bit late, but I fixed the Grim Color Reaper plug-in so it works with the latest PDN version. There's a download link here:

I'm watching that thread so I'll be notified of any new posts there; hopefully it won't take months for me to reply again

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

Thanks for all the nice words guys I'm sorry I didn't reply for a long time. I enabled e-mail notification when someone replies here, so hopefully this won't happen a lot in the future.

So, it turns out that the original plug-in is no longer compatible with PDN. I fixed it, and also decided to make it open-source! This way I can take contributions to improve this, and maybe it will also help improve other plug-ins with this sort of alpha handling.

Unfortunately the forum doesn't let me attach any files (!) so I put it in a file hosting site that I've used for some time and find tolerable:

Edit: Attachments magically started working again, go figure! You can just check the top post of this thread to download the attachment.

This includes the DLL and source code (you can open it with CodeLab). Of course I'd prefer to attach the files here, if anyone has any idea about what's happening...

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

EER: That is a 16x16 image, thanks! Where did you get it? I found the skull online but had to re-paint over it in order to not steal it, and also because when simply resizing the original it looked funkay!

(Since teh pixels change, tis not the same!!1 )

Stuart: Color Reaper is a bit... fanboyish, don't you think? Like your 10-yr-old makes a drawing of a robot with missiles and calls it Color Reaper. Oh well it might be just my imagination! Grim Color Reaper is a nice name IMO, but I'm sure it's not for everyone's taste (what is?).

Also, you're welcome gingerfreak, I'm glad you find it useful!

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

does this plugin merely isolate or completely extinguish the color?

The idea is that it completely extinguishes the color, not only through alpha but through color modification also. So I tried to convey that through the naming too

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I went with Grim Color Reaper out of a whim mostly (thanks EER!), and also because I didn't wanna waste the cool icon. Unless most of you think it's too silly or there's an even better name around. Oh and it looks good next to a skull icon

The code is pretty small, you'll be surprised! What's really special are the formulas for correcting the color, although they're not rocket science. Is there a real interest in seeing the code? If there is, I'll post it whenever I get back to a place with net access again (summer vacations are when I get to detox myself from the internet addiction!).

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

The index has them listed by name and author.

BTW: a revision is due out this weekend.

Grim Color Reaper ?

Hey thanks for the tip! That would be a pimpin' name too, since we're talking about taking that poor color's life.

Backgroundless?

This is a bit more serious so I'll have to consider it too

Feel free to add any more suggestions, I'm afraid I'll be silent for about a week but when I get back I'll change the name to one of those (unless another one pops up in the meanwhile!).

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

Let me just leave you with a couple more pics, I hope it's ok :wink:

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

I would suggest a slightly deferent name, as there is another plugin with that name. Right now I have two plugins with the same name.

Damn, that's unfortunate. I thought it was original enough. Any suggestions?

how about Color Murderer?

Good, good. Color Sniper?

("I was thinking about something a bit less blasphemous." -Ned Flanders)

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

Thank you yy10 and yellowman, and everyone else for the feedback!

You're already using IndirectUI, so why not use the Color Wheel control instead of a dropdown?

I considered it, but then found that for this application it's a waste of space. Most of the time you'll choose the color with the color picker or use a predefined one like black or white; so why would you need the color wheel to adjust it? It would just be ignored. (IMO; unless you guys argue otherwise...)

I would suggest a slightly deferent name, as there is another plugin with that name. Right now I have two plugins with the same name.

Damn, that's unfortunate. I thought it was original enough. Any suggestions?

nice plug in. just downloaded it. the problem is, after you kill the colour, there will be some lines around the edges of the images. you should kill those lines too. like the feather plug in

Hm, I don't really know what you mean. It's supposed to eliminate those kinds of artifacts. If some transparent colors remain (ie, small patches of very transparent pixels), you can cut them off automatically with the second slider.

Can somebody confirm if this is similar to a Color to Alpha plugin?

It's similar to all those plugins, the main advantage is the color correction that prettifies a lot the pixels with modified alpha. See the screenshot (the "no color correction" shot is what you'd get with other plugins).

[Grim Color Reaper plugin]

This plugin has been updated by @Pratyush. Find the new version here

 

Updated 9/10/2011:

Right, it turns out that the original plug-in is no longer compatible with PDN. I fixed it, and also decided to make it open-source! This way I can take contributions to improve this, and maybe it will also help improve other plug-ins with this sort of alpha handling.

The code is only a few lines of code long, but it uses (*gasp!*) MATH! Check it out if you're the coder type.

The attached zip file includes both the DLL and source code (which you can open with CodeLab).

Original post:

Hi there! Long time lurker, first time poster. PDN has been my favorite graphics tool for quite some time.

There's the old problem of recovering alpha information lost in compositing, for example when you *ahem* borrow images from the web. Say, smooth edge pixels on a black background; you'd prefer if they were transparent. A few plugins are available, and they do OK 90% of the time, but they fall short in recovering the original color information...

See, it's not enough to figure out the alpha channel. You also have to use it to change the colors so they will look good when compositing again. Otherwise, there would be a visible halo (the color of the background) around the edge. AFAIK this happens with all existing plugins to eliminate backgrounds. So, I decided to make this one.

I've got some pictures to demonstrate the effect and illustrate what I mean about the color correction

GrimColorReaper.zip