How to change default canvas size?

[dryicezero]

Hey everyone, I looked under the settings menu/dialogue, and I can't find where to change the default canvas size. I found a bunch of other things to change, like the font, brush size, etc. I primarily work in the video media world, and need to create all of my graphics in 16:9 format - preferably in 1920x1080. I would very much love for PDN to open with a 1920x1080 canvas every time so I can get to editing immediately, instead of having to change it every time. If this doesn't exist, how do I request it as a feature, or contribute some code to make it happen?

 

Thanks!

[HyReZ]

I am not aware of any place in the app where after changing the canvas size, you can make that change a default setting.

My work-around is to create a blank canvas of the desired dimensions and save it as a .PDN file and then launch it with a double

click to open Paint.NET when it starts. Then you can have a series of custom sized PDN templates to launch as needed.

You can assign them meaningful names such as 1920x1080.pdn or 5000x5000.pdn.

Edited March 4, 2019 by HyReZ

[toe_head2001]

If you're going to use named template files, you should also mark the files as Read-only.

[HyReZ]

10 hours ago, toe_head2001 said:

If you're going to use named template files, you should also mark the files as Read-only.

Great point!

[dryicezero]

20 hours ago, HyReZ said:

I am not aware of any place in the app where after changing the canvas size, you can make that change a default setting.

My work-around is to create a blank canvas of the desired dimensions and save it as a .PDN file and then launch it with a double

click to open Paint.NET when it starts. Then you can have a series of custom sized PDN templates to launch as needed.

You can assign them meaningful names such as 1920x1080.pdn or 5000x5000.pdn.

 

Yes, this is what I have resorted to for now. It works fine. It would just be a little easier to open it to a preset size every time. 

 

Thanks!

[dryicezero]

17 hours ago, toe_head2001 said:

If you're going to use named template files, you should also mark the files as Read-only.

 

Is this done at the OS level, or within PDN? I am new to PDN so not sure on this.

 

Thanks!

[HyReZ]

This is a Windows feature. Right click on the image icon, when the menu opens, go down to Properties and select it, then check the Read Only Attribute. 

[HyReZ]

1 hour ago, dryicezero said:

 

Yes, this is what I have resorted to for now. It works fine. It would just be a little easier to open it to a preset size every time. 

 

Thanks!

What's a few milliseconds among friends? 🙂

[chesscanoe]

I also desire a 1920x1080 default canvas size. Why must the design be 800x600 with only a work-around as a change solution? I am on v4.2.4 and still cannot find a simple efficient permanent way to do this. Any other ideas or a permanent feature addition would be appreciated.

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The solution is given in the second (and third) posts in this thread.

[IHaveNoName]

Wouldn't a solution be simply to create the desired template then send a shortcut to the desktop and/or start menu replacing or used alongside the default PDN shortcut? You would then have the choice of launching either as required. Apart from having to create and store the template its no different to how you launch PDN normally either from a desktop or start menu shortcut. 

 

I use a similar shortcut to template 'workaround' for Windows Wordpad which otherwise, annoyingly, always resets to the default font/size, line spacing and paragraph indent every time it is launched.  

[Walter Gonzalez]

Down below is my commentary! I wanted to quote the joint answers, I'm very pleased!

Edited September 15, 2020 by Walter Gonzalez

[Walter Gonzalez]

On 3/3/2019 at 5:29 PM, HyReZ said:

I am not aware of any place in the app where after changing the canvas size, you can make that change a default setting.

My work-around is to create a blank canvas of the desired dimensions and save it as a .PDN file and then launch it with a double

click to open Paint.NET when it starts. Then you can have a series of custom sized PDN templates to launch as needed.

You can assign them meaningful names such as 1920x1080.pdn or 5000x5000.pdn.

 

On 3/3/2019 at 8:33 PM, toe_head2001 said:

If you're going to use named template files, you should also mark the files as Read-only.

Wow! Awesome solution! You're just great, thanks God for this community!

[mikiqex]

On 9/21/2019 at 6:45 AM, Ego Eram Reputo said:

The solution is given in the second (and third) posts in this thread.

 

I wouldn't call it a solution, it's a workaround:

• You can't pin a file to taskbar to start Paint.NET from there.
• You can't use your muscle memory for Ctrl+S (like I'm used to for years) for the new image, you get "Access denied" error message. Ctrl+Shift+S doesn't work me that well, I keep pressing Ctrl+Shift+D. As I wrote - it's a muscle memory.
• The latest file in "Most Recent" is changed to the template file.

The only change required for it to work as described is ability to pick a file as default template in app's settings, everything else would remain the same. I can imagine it's easier said than done though.

 

The "template" system have some added benefits, like you can rename the initial layer or have it transparent. Or there could be an extra option to open the last opened file instead (umm... that's probably a feature rabbit hole, as the following instant request would be to open all the files opened upon exit).

[midora]

6 minutes ago, mikiqex said:

You can't pin a file to taskbar to start Paint.NET from there.

 

If paint.net itself is pinned to the taskbar, you can drag the template file to this icon and pin it to paint.net.

Right click to the taskbar icon will then show the template file in the 'pinned' section of the context menu.

 

This may be a win10 only feature, I don't know. But it works great if you are using the same template regularly and it saves space on the taskbar.

 

I'm not aware about the programming interface. But it may be possible to add this pin feature to paint.net (maybe in the context menu of the image in the image bar where you can find functions like 'Open Containg Folder').