Request: Change "save as" behaviour

[songohanssj]

Hi there

 

I really love Paint.Net, it's my favorite painting tool.

But there is one very annoying thing.

 

If I work on a Paint.Net File (.pdn) and I want to save it as jpeg or whatelse, the behaviour of Paint.Net is not ideal.

It saves the drawing as jpeg, but the original .pdn file is not saved, and even closed. The remaning File in Paint.Net is the saved jpeg, and the pdn file is gone. So if you don't save your work before "saving as", your changes are lost.

Also, if you want to make lots of changes and try out your results, you always have to save your pdn fist, then save it as jpeg, close the jpeg, and finally reopen the pdn file.

 

So I whish that you change the "save as" behaviour.

It should not close the current pdn file.

Or maybe you could add an "Export" function which does exactly this.

 

Thank you so much and keep up the good work.

 

Regards,

songohanssj

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HyReZ]

My experience with Paint.NET has been; if my project has more than 1 layer, it will as a default 'Save as' a PDN file.
I habitually save all of work first as a .PDN file. Next I save my merged files as a .TIFF, and anything going to the web as a .JPEG.
This habitual practice has save me a bunch of grief. Those that don't have time for developing a 'save habit' are too busy and may need to slow down!

Edited March 26, 2019 by HyReZ

[MJW]

I think I agree with the original comment (and appreciate the fact that the first sentence didn't begin with "So...").

 

What I do to save a flattened version of an image, and what I think is a good idea, is to Copy Merged then Paste Into New Image; then I save the flattened version as a JPEG or whatever.

 

The shortcuts are Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Alt+V.

[BoltBait]

Rick is considering a "Save as a copy" feature for a future release.

 

This feature would leave the project in layers even if the saved copy was a single layer format (jpg, png, etc.)

 

 

[TrevorOutlaw]

@BoltBait I definitely would like that feature.  Kill two birds with a stone.

 

However, the OP really need to get in the habit of saving as PDN to keep layers intact, and then use Save As... to export as .PNG, .JPG, etc.  It is a learning habit, though.

[BoltBait]

With the "Save as a copy" feature, the file would remain "dirty" if in a changed, unsaved state.

 

This would remind you to save the layered file if you go to exit PdN before saving.

[TrevorOutlaw]

Even better.

[songohanssj]

Thank you all for your responses.

 

I get the extra steps and that's also what I'm doing, but the fact that the original pdn file is closed with "save as" is annoying because I have to reopen it every time. This file should stay open at least.

 

1+ for the "Save as a copy" feature, think that would be great. It's like export function in other drawing Tools like Corel Photo-Paint for example.

 

[Rick Brewster]

The PDN is not "closed" when you Save As. I don't know why you keep saying that. You're misinterpreting what's actually happening.

[songohanssj]

Yes it is closed.

1. Open Paint.Net
2. Add some drawings and a new layer
3. Save it as pdn
4. Save it as jpeg
5. You'll be asked for the quality, and you get a message that the layers will be combined
6. You hit "Combine" (not sure what it says in english)
7. Now you have the jpeg file open and the pdn file is not opened in Paint.Net anymore

Please test this and tell me if I'm doing something wrong 😁

 

 

[TrevorOutlaw]

Ok, what you need to do is when you finish saving as JPEG, you can hit undo (CTRL + Z) and it will restore your layers, then save again as PDN.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

57 minutes ago, songohanssj said:

Yes it is closed.

 

No it isn't.

 

57 minutes ago, songohanssj said:

• Open Paint.Net
• Add some drawings and a new layer
• Save it as pdn
• Save it as jpeg
• You'll be asked for the quality, and you get a message that the layers will be combined
• You hit "Combine" (not sure what it says in english)
• Now you have the jpeg file open and the pdn file is not opened in Paint.Net anymore

 

You've flattened it in order to save it as a jpg. As @TrevorOutlaw said, press Ctrl+Z to undo the flattening and use Save As to specify .PDN format.

[songohanssj]

Yes everything is manageable, but all these additional steps are not handy.

I've lost some work a few times because I didn't think of it.

Thats why I opened the request, because everything else is pretty perfect 😊

I just like to have an "export" or "save as a copy" function as suggested, so that the pdn file just stayes open as a pdn file.

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

My personal technique is this:

 

Ctrl + Shift + C (copy the merged [i.e "flattened"] image)

Ctrl + Alt + V (paste it into a new image)

 

Now save the new image as a jpg without needing to close the PDN, or undo steps, or rename anything.

 

[IHaveNoName]

I do not understand the complaint about the "Save As" behaviour.

 

If you're working on an image the primary "Save As" option is .pdn. It won't save the history but will save any unflattened layers, that's the important thing.

 

You can save it as a JPG or whatever else you want too or instead but it'll have to be flattened first and for any format other than .pdn you're required to do this as part of the save process.

 

But I don't see any reason for that if it is an image you're still working on. Use the .pdn save format until you've finalised the image. I often save  a new work in progress .pdn file of an image at different stages of its creation so I can go back to an earlier point if I mess up.

 

If you must save it as a JPG for some reason as long as you remember to undo the flattening afterwards ie. PDN is not closed, you can continue working on your image, all layers intact and the whole history of 'undoes' still available. 

 

BTW you're likely reducing the picture quality too if you save it as a JPG. 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by IHaveNoName
punctuation

[songohanssj]

19 hours ago, IHaveNoName said:

But I don't see any reason for that if it is an image you're still working on. Use the .pdn save format until you've finalised the image. I often save  a new work in progress .pdn file of an image at different stages of its creation so I can go back to an earlier point if I mess up.

 

If you must save it as a JPG for some reason as long as you remember to undo the flattening afterwards ie. PDN is not closed, you can continue working on your image, all layers intact and the whole history of 'undoes' still available. 

 

BTW you're likely reducing the picture quality too if you save it as a JPG. 

 

 

Hmm, not sure what you're all doing with your drawings 😄

In the end I want to use the images on the web or word or print them or whatever.

So I have to save them as jpeg, png, gif whatever, maybe try different options, sizes, quality, modify the image and so on.

So it's really not possible to just do all the work in pdn file and "at the end" save it as flattened. Because I repeat this process a lot.

 

Therefore, my request still stands 😁

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Therefore I repeat my suggestion 😁

 

21 hours ago, Ego Eram Reputo said:

Ctrl + Shift + C (copy the merged [i.e "flattened"] image)

Ctrl + Alt + V (paste it into a new image)

 

 

[MJW]

Or if you do it repeatedly, Copy Merged then paste into the flattened version of the image with Ctrl+V, Ctrl+D (to deselect). I suppose can I understand why you might prefer a slightly more direct method, and it is annoying to have it switch to the Move tool, but it seems like a pretty minor inconvenience.

[IHaveNoName]

6 hours ago, songohanssj said:

 

Hmm, not sure what you're all doing with your drawings 😄

In the end I want to use the images on the web or word or print them or whatever.

So I have to save them as jpeg, png, gif whatever, maybe try different options, sizes, quality, modify the image and so on.

So it's really not possible to just do all the work in pdn file and "at the end" save it as flattened. Because I repeat this process a lot.

 

Therefore, my request still stands 😁

 

I think I'm pretty much doing the same sort of thing as you except I do not print the images. Admittedly most of the stuff I'm creating using PDN are relatively small  projects involving mostly 256x256 images for icon use with a games' console. So far I've done at least 150 with, typically, three versions or three completely different ideas all of which have to be tested at various stages to make sure they're actually usable on a 480p display.

 

That requires regular saving as PNG or JPG for work in progress testing. However the PDN file is saved first every time as backup with its layers unflattened. I've been doing this for 8+ years.

 

The default, Save As option (.pdn) has actually accidentally saved me from exactly the same mistake you described in the OP.  If I'd just saved as a PNG or JPG flattening in the process and closed PDN I'd have lost hours of work on a particular layer I needed to or wanted to keep separate.

 

What I'm saying is that if you discipline yourself to save the unflattened PDN file first as a master backup before saving as PNG or JPG then you won't lose any work if you accidentally close PDN. It doesn't take much extra time whatever method you use to do it.

 

     

 

[songohanssj]

33 minutes ago, IHaveNoName said:

What I'm saying is that if you discipline yourself to save the unflattened PDN file first as a master backup before saving as PNG or JPG then you won't lose any work if you accidentally close PDN. It doesn't take much extra time whatever method you use to do it.

 

Yes as I said, it's manageable. I just want to say that most of the other programs out there work as I whish Paint.net would work with save as.

My request is also for all other users, who maybe expect the same behaviour, because we just know the "save as" function from tons of other programs: if I save a word file as PDF, then the word file is not closed, work lost and the PDF opened instead. You know what I mean? Same with Adobe, Corel, etc.

It's just that "save as" in Paint.net is not working as people expect IMHO, respectively it's ok but there should be a "export" function.

 

We don't have to discuss this any further, I just wanted to place the request in hope that the function get's changed or the "export" features is added, so that Paint.net is behaving more like other programs.

 

Thanks and kind regards

[lifeday]

 

@songohanssj

 

I don't understand the problem with paint.net! You can simply press "Save", you stay on the Paint.net page.  

Then go to "Save As" and select the folder where you want to save the image, the file extension. Paint.net stays open. 

 

I am sometimes in Gimp and when I go to Export, the process is almost identical, I just enter the filename in Gimp,

specify the filing folder, specify the extension and click Export. 
(This kind of handling in Gimp was strange for now.)

 

I don't find any significant difference between the two systems.  Both are very easy to use!
Changes should only be made to improve things. Effort-relation-result.

 

I hope my English translation of deepl-translator is understandable :-))))))))))))))))

 

Have a nice day!

 

[HyReZ]

On 3/27/2019 at 4:09 PM, songohanssj said:

Yes it is closed.

1. Open Paint.Net
2. Add some drawings and a new layer
3. Save it as pdn
4. Save it as jpeg
5. You'll be asked for the quality, and you get a message that the layers will be combined
6. You hit "Combine" (not sure what it says in english)
7. Now you have the jpeg file open and the pdn file is not opened in Paint.Net anymore

Please test this and tell me if I'm doing something wrong 😁

 

 

Yes the Layered files are merged and the result is JPEG, but after the save all you need do is immediately goto 'Undo' and all is restored, your layers reappear and you can go back to work.

Edited March 29, 2019 by HyReZ

[toe_head2001]

This was answered within the first few replies.

Plus several work arounds have been given multiple times.

This dead horse has been beaten enough. Locking.

Edited March 29, 2019 by toe_head2001