HCGS
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Posts
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Posts posted by HCGS
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Whoa, this is crazy. Paint.NET used to take a few minutes to open, now it's instant! That's awesome, thanks for the update!
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Wow @bEPIK, these actually look really nice!
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18 minutes ago, toe_head2001 said:
He means those obnoxious web pages that break proper scrolling with vertical "page sections".
Example: https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/
Oh wow, what a broken page. I expected more from the "1 trillion dollar company". Yeah, I don't think that PDN's site will be like that
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7 minutes ago, Joshua Lamusga said:
Oh, I took it that the screens were meant to be displayed in a vertical sequence. By demo, I'm referring to the fact most of those pages describe what you can do with paint.net, and it's phrased to sell, e.g. "lets you do more, for less!" or the download now! button.
I'm probably stupid, as I still don't quite get what you mean. Did you expect the page not to be presented in a vertical way? Are you against the "Download Now!" button?
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4 minutes ago, Joshua Lamusga said:
I was never a great fan of those scroll-down demos (in link), and I think they really aren't as suitable to freeware.
Well, the site on that image is just a draft. But what do you mean by a scroll-down demo?
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6 hours ago, welshblue said:
I like the second one but maybe not so much blur on the bottom clouds ?
It's an icon. It's meant to be seen from far away. Small details should not be present on icons. The blur smooths out the small details. And I barely changed it - just added a bit of median, really.
3 hours ago, GillFelis said:The present icon is iconic and should be kept in place in perpetuity.
Could you imagine if icons and logos never changed? Do you miss the original Apple logo? Or maybe the original Windows logo?
Everyone thought Google's logo was super iconic and eternal. They changed it anyway. They modernized it. They made it suitable for every occasion. The new Google icon is already iconic, and I admire them for that.
Also... I barely changed the current one (on my last image). Just cleaned it a bit.
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12 hours ago, Ego Eram Reputo said:
You've got quite a talent for this. I'm impressed with how you've put these alternatives together. Great job.
Thanks a lot!
10 hours ago, Rick Brewster said:that one looks pretty good, although it lost all of the mountains and clouds, which are iconic for Paint.NET.
I did include the mountains, albeit in more of a symbolic way - they're that slab in the bottom of the "picture". I didn't include the clouds because I wasn't sure how to. I do agree that they are quite iconic, though.
This was a quick attempt at adding them, but I'm not really sure.
To be honest, the only big problems I have with the current icon are the big dark shadows and lines it has, plus the shading on the brush. I tried making a version that is as similar to the original as possible, just with the problems fixed and with the new brush, that you mentioned liking:
And with a context background:
(this would look sweet on the website, eh?)
...and I think that might be the best I can do. Here's the .pdn:
Use as you wish! Thanks for the comments, everyone.
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I guess you are right. There shouldn't be such a drastic difference. How's this?
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Following the recent conversations regarding the modernization of Paint.NET (1,2), I realized that even if the icons and the website get updated, there will be an obvious update missing: an update to the logo. This is the current logo:
It's not that bad, right? It looks actually kind of nice and easily recognizable. However, it is a bit outdated. If the icons ever get changed to something more Office-like, and if the site ever gets modernized, I feel like a small update to the logo would be beneficial.
Just as an idea/concept art, I have recreated the logo both in the Microsoft Metro/Office style and in the Google Material style.
Microsoft Metro:
Google Material:
...and a comparison of the 3 logos, with a context background:
(in fact, those images are quite low res. The Material one is by far my favorite and I thought that it needed to be shown in full hd... here it is.)
What do you all think?
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Wow, these icons look amazing! Definitely should replace our current icon set, BUT... they are not perfect; here's my advice:
- Don't use gradients! They don't match the style, looking really out of place.
- Don't use blurred icons! They don't match the style, looking really out of place.
- Don't use photos! They don't match the style, looking really out of place.
- Don't use fractal renderings! They don't match the style, looking really out of place.
- Don't use super detailed icons! They don't match the style, looking really out of place.
- Don't use varying line widths! They don't match the style, looking really out of place.
In all seriousness, here's a list of things I reckon should change (numbers in the brackets are the reasons from list above):
- Black and White [1]
- Sepia [1]
- Hue/Saturation [1]
- Clouds [6]
- Dents [5,6]
- Emboss [5,6]
- Gaussian Blur [2,5,6]
- Fractal Julia [4]
- Fractal Mandelbrot [4]
- Motion Blur [2]
- Polarize [5]
- Soften [3]
- Vignette [2]
- Print [5]
- Global Flood [5]
- Canvas Size [5]
- Resize [5]
- Image Crop [5]
- Sampling Image [5]
- Gradient [1]
Also, special cases:
- Help icon [Weird bit in the tip of the '?']
- Drag [Oddly shaped fingers]
Please note that these changes are mostly nitpicks, and things to consider when making new icons. I've marked the real bad ones in red. Also a few important things to have in mind:
- You really, really should invest in using just these colors: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/design/add-in-icons#icon-colors
- You made extensive of a "50%" gray. You probably should use either lighter shades or pure white mostly.
- I know it can be tough to have little icons for effects. Try to avoid making an actual demonstration of the effect with an image, and instead use something that represents it.
- Don't forget that all of these will be resized to just 16px! Many of those icons have thin lines that might be hard to see in such a low resolution. Actually, it's a shame that so much detail will be lost. @Rick Brewster will icons have their size increased in order to look more similar to Office?
- Keep up the fantastic work. You did something amazing and I can see you've put a lot of work into it, better than anything I could've done myself.
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1 hour ago, Ego Eram Reputo said:
Wow, that looks really good! My main problem with is just the huge logo; it isn't really that... scalable. It looks a tad ugly when super zoomed in, and it looks even worse with half of it missing. (In fact, @Rick Brewster do you have any plans on updating the logo? It currently looks a bit outdated, with those dark lines and gradients. Also, it doesn't fit with the potential new icon set being made by @Zagna, in case that ever gets used).
Here's my bunch of nitpicks with the new look (don't take them super seriously; it's just minor improvements that my perfectionist brain would like to get done ?) :
- Italic text should usually be avoided. I feel like the "best" (in "the best free image editor") doesn't NEED to be italic, but it's fine.
- Try not to make the background too busy when there's text above it; for instance, in the banner, has a lot of white parts with white text above.
- "paint.net is a free image and photo editing application for PC with run the Windows OS". What a mouthful! Not only it's unnecessarily big, it also has writing mistakes ("for PCs with run the Windows OS"). Just sum it up with "paint.net is a free image editing application for Windows".
- I feel like the gray background on the header buttons could be a little more transparent. Looks a bit too dark.
- IMO, shading on those green buttons is a big no-no. Just keep them a solid color.
- The shadows on the same green buttons should be lighter, a little more spread and be moved a few pixels to the left. Also... they're GRAY! Shadows should never be gray; they should be translucent black. It's quite noticeable in the first green button, in the header, since it has a black background.
- I'm not sure the blue theme is a good choice for those screenshots, the default theme should be used. Also, the first screenshot is squished horizontally quite a lot.
- The "Get it on Windows 10" button is oddly positioned. Maybe it shouldn't be in one of those topics?
- I feel like the the second download button is dangerously close to ads. Confusing download buttons is the last thing anyone wants.
Overall, I really like the structure of the site. Nice colors and good font choice
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14 hours ago, welshblue said:
Most ? Not sure about that. Weird in what way ? I'm curious about those (in a nice way not a disparaging one)
@welshblue, I meant the plugins that fill the roles of the tools I mentioned are a bit weird. Not because they aren't well made, but because they always have to open a new window for edits and therefore undoing things and trying to make quick changes is a bit of a chore.
14 hours ago, welshblue said:BTW the did you use the Gimp or PS for your avatar ? (Joke - I like the surrealism of it)
Neither; it's actually a 3D rendering I made on blender. The background is from a cmd game I made a few years ago that somehow got super broken in a really cool way!
glitch art, anyone?5 hours ago, Rick Brewster said:I would not expect a radical departure from the current set of UI components, like you called out on the Colors form. Standard Win32 controls work, and the only reason I'd depart from them is if I were to rewrite everything in a new UI framework. I would not place any bets on that happening. It would be an insane amount of work for a very small subjective gain.
@Rick Brewster, I meant the colors of the components, sorry for not being clear. What I meant was, they are pretty much white on a black background, which is kind of hard to look at, IMO. Just changing the colors (whether that's even possible) to dark gray with white text would make it much, much better.
By the way, I did notice the great amount of updates that we've been receiving lately (I'm in love with some of the new 4.1 features!) and that's exactly why I wanted to make this topic; since it means the development isn't dead at all!
You mentioned getting help from other trusted users, such as @Ego Eram Reputo to make the new website. The community is full of very talented users, have you considering asking it for help? Surely donations are a really good way of supporting the project, but you are still mainly on your own. For instance, you mentioned how astronomical the job of remaking every single icon would be, but that's the case for a single person. Certainly, a couple of good designers could volunteer to finish those icons in no time.
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24 minutes ago, Ego Eram Reputo said:
I'll post a screenshot soon.
Looking forward to those screenshots @Ego Eram Reputo! I'm glad this has already been addressed. By the way, has the logo changed?
2 hours ago, toe_head2001 said:But come on... saying the contrast in the Color window is too radical. That one seemed a bit trollish.
@toe_head2001, I was being serious, but not just for the Color window, for all windows. I already came up with a mockup of what I was talking about back when the dark mode was first released:
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1 hour ago, BoltBait said:
Are you offering to help?
Why not redesign the web site?
Why not code a plugin so good that Rick has no option but to put it directly into Paint.NET itself?
Or, are you just here to complain about FREE software?
I apologize if I came out as rude. I was aware that Rick was a developer, but I wasn't sure he was the ONLY one. And I don't want to just complain for the sake of complaining, I wanted to bring to light the main issues with the software so Rick can focus on them on the next updates. But once again, sorry if I offended.
On the topic of redesigning the website...
If @Rick Brewster agrees, I'm fine with offering free help with it as it's a project I love. Here's a quick sketch of how it could look like...
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I'm not sure if this has been said before, but Paint.NET is very outdated. It is a great tool and I really really like it, have been using it for over 8 years now. But... it's starting to get... old. And that needs to be addressed. I want to share my view on the main problems:
1. Presentation
Let's look at the front pages of some of the more modern free image editors out there:
Gimp:
Krita:
Now let's compare those to the front page of Paint.NET...
Can you see the problem here? Paint.NET's site SCREAMS 2007. It looks really old, unappealing, and messy; exactly not the first thing you want people to see when they want to try an editor.
On both examples, the download button is very obvious and easy to find. Everything is straight forward. There is not a wall of text full of ugly blue links and unnecessary info (nobody uses that search bar, nobody wants a wall of 2007 awards as the first things they see and there's no need for all the languages supported by PDN to be listed under the hard to spot download link).
The site needs to be updated. If you want, I could help you with that.
2. UI
The UI has really old Windows 7-ish icons that could use a bit of love. Office icons and Material icons are good examples of modern icons that could replace the current ones.
Also, this...
Is just broken. The dialog text doesn't fit the top bar. Why not use icons for the tool dialogs (tools/colors/layers etc)?
Not to mention the new dark mode:
Come on. This looks really ugly. The contrast is too radical! The UI components need to change as well (buttons, text fields, scroll bars) and the icons are also a bit too light and saturated.
3. Lack of tools
The current tool set is good, but there are some really obvious things missing:
- Smudge
- Liquify
- Align
- Flip Horizontally/Vertically (for selections)
- Mask
I know what you might say: there are plenty of plugins that add those. And you are absolutely right, there are. But if we are going to rely only on plugins, PDN might as well just be an engine. Plus, most of these are kind of finicky and weird to use, since plugins can only be effects and not things in the tool box. Not to mention most people don't use plugins.
4. The brush tool
The following image kind of sums it well:
Also, there's only a single brush type. I can almost see not having custom brushes, but ONLY having circular brushes is kind of silly.
Conclusion
TL;DR: The website is ugly, the UI is ugly, the icons are ugly, there are not many tools and some of them need improvements.
My intention here is not to trash PDN, all I want is to improve this application so it gets more deserved love!
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So, this is a thing that's really annoying in paint.net. The shortcut for filling the screen with the secondary color (shift+backspace) is enabled even if you are writing something with the Text tool. So if you are in the middle of writing a bit of uppercase text by holding shift and you happen to press backspace, the entire text gets deleted and your layer is now a big solid color and you have to type everything again.
Please, this shortcut needs to be disabled (much like backspace, used to fill the layer with the primary color, already is) in the text tool!
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I'm having some small issues on windows 10. Only the top of the panel outlines is showing. Also, their close buttons seems to unaligned and too close to the right border. Also the "Tools" title text doesn't even fit in the window, and only shows "To...".
Also, I really think that the dark theme needs many improvements. Mainly, the reduction of the extreme contrast everything has, which is really, really weird. Like the contrast between the fully white window borders and the dark insides. The combo boxes share the exact same problem. Also, all the bright blue parts (like the selected layer, tool or the "Hardness" sliders) only look good on a white or really light background. I would also suggest to make the icons monochromatic. The image below is how it currently looks, and the second one is how I suggest it should look:
Or maybe, we could have a more radical change; for example, a complete overhaul of the interface, or at least all of the icons. Currently, it has the classic windows 7 style; something that is long outdated. Maybe we could have a more modern UI scheme, like the current Metro style, used by Windows 10 and most of Microsoft's products.
I love Paint.NET, and I'm glad that we still get updates. It's good to see that it's not an abandoned project! Although, I do think that it may be time for some bigger changes to it. Let's modernize PDN! More tools! More effects! More features!
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Try removing Paint.NET and reinstalling.
OMG! Now I can't download Paint.NET!
There is the details of the error message:
See the end of this message for details on invokingjust-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.************** Exception Text **************System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'Accessibility, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.File name: 'Accessibility, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmCreate(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ParkingWindow.WndProc(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)=== Informações sobre estado pré-ligação ===LOG: usuário = PCHENRIQUE\HenriqueLOG: DisplayName = Accessibility, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a(Fully-specified)LOG: Appbase = file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Henrique/CONFIG~1/Temp/PdnSetup/LOG: PrivatePath inicial = NULLChamando assembly: System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089.===LOG: esta ligação começa no contexto de carregamento default.LOG: usando arquivo de configuração de aplicativo: C:\DOCUME~1\Henrique\CONFIG~1\Temp\PdnSetup\SetupFrontEnd.exe.ConfigLOG: usando arquivo de configuração da máquina de C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\config\machine.config.LOG: referência pós-diretiva: Accessibility, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3aLOG: a mesma ligação foi vista antes e falhou com hr = 0x80131018.************** Loaded Assemblies **************mscorlibAssembly Version: 2.0.0.0Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3643 (GDR.050727-3600)CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll----------------------------------------SetupFrontEndAssembly Version: 3.510.4297.28968Win32 Version: 3.510.4297.28968CodeBase: file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Henrique/CONFIG~1/Temp/PdnSetup/SetupFrontEnd.exe----------------------------------------PaintDotNet.CoreAssembly Version: 3.510.4297.28965Win32 Version: 3.510.4297.28965CodeBase: file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Henrique/CONFIG~1/Temp/PdnSetup/PaintDotNet.Core.DLL----------------------------------------System.Windows.FormsAssembly Version: 2.0.0.0Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600)CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll----------------------------------------SystemAssembly Version: 2.0.0.0Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3643 (GDR.050727-3600)CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll----------------------------------------System.DrawingAssembly Version: 2.0.0.0Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3639 (GDR.050727-3600)CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll----------------------------------------PaintDotNet.BaseAssembly Version: 3.510.4297.28957Win32 Version: 3.510.4297.28957CodeBase: file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Henrique/CONFIG~1/Temp/PdnSetup/PaintDotNet.Base.DLL----------------------------------------PaintDotNet.SystemLayerAssembly Version: 3.510.4297.28964Win32 Version: 3.510.4297.28964CodeBase: file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Henrique/CONFIG~1/Temp/PdnSetup/PaintDotNet.SystemLayer.DLL----------------------------------------System.CoreAssembly Version: 3.5.0.0Win32 Version: 3.5.30729.1 built by: SPCodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/3.5.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll----------------------------------------PaintDotNet.ResourcesAssembly Version: 3.510.4297.28964Win32 Version: 3.510.4297.28964CodeBase: file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Henrique/CONFIG~1/Temp/PdnSetup/PaintDotNet.Resources.DLL----------------------------------------System.Windows.Forms.resourcesAssembly Version: 2.0.0.0Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms.resources/2.0.0.0_pt-BR_b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.resources.dll----------------------------------------mscorlib.resourcesAssembly Version: 2.0.0.0Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3643 (GDR.050727-3600)CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll----------------------------------------WindowsBaseAssembly Version: 3.0.0.0Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.4021 built by: GDRCodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/WindowsBase/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/WindowsBase.dll----------------------------------------************** JIT Debugging **************To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for thisapplication or computer (machine.config) must have thejitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.The application must also be compiled with debuggingenabled.For example:<configuration><system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" /></configuration>When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exceptionwill be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computerrather than be handled by this dialog box. -
Please don't bump your post like that. 2 bumps within 2 minutes even after I'd replied 10 hours earlier, c'mon.
sorry... i'm new in forums. ow... if an PDN developer can't solve my problem... who will solve?
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Firstly, the bit about "fusion" isn't going to get you anywhere, unfortunately. I've never seen anyone have any success with fusion stuff -- it's a developer thing, and you shouldn't ever have to worry about it (why it even shows up in stack traces like this is beyond me). Fortunately I don't think this registry setting will cause any harm.
I looked up 0x8013108, and I found this page: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11654193/cannot-load-assembly-hr-0x80131018
tl;dr: Perhaps you're using some antivirus that is confused. Try disabling it and see if things work.
Also, this is a general tip: 'hr' stands for "HRESULT" and is a simple error handling system for native code which interoperates well with exceptions and managed code. That part isn't useful for troubleshooting though
This is: often you can type in the hex value into your favorite search engine and find information and (sometimes!) solutions. Unless it's 0x80070005, aka E_FAIL, which could mean just about anything.Again, does not work. Nothing works!
I probably will never use again PDN -
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Anyone has a new reply? I really need an reply that works.
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Try it again. Follow Pyrochild's sugggestion first. THEN go to the thread nanettealsop directed you to and follow the directions in items 5) & 6).
Once you have tried EVERYTHING mentioned report back here.
edit: blindly fiddling with the registry is a silly thing to do. Unless you know what you're doing, leave it alone.
I tried all. Nothing happens.
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I probably will never use again PDN 
Align Object
in Plugins - Publishing ONLY!
Posted
By far, THE SINGLE MOST USEFUL PLUGIN ever made for Paint.NET. I use this literally all the time, I don't know how would I live without it.
This should be added to the base program.
Well done sir.