Opening files by reference

[MW001]

Is it possible to open files into Paint.net such that they aren't contained in the project, but their address is saved instead?

.pdn files are generally big files, presumably because they contain copies of the imported images.

 

[BoltBait]

No

[otuncelli]

This is only possible (not exactly but very close) with a file type plugin. You can develop one for your own needs,

 

Or use this plugin maybe? (each layer is a reference to an image in the zip archive):

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by otuncelli

[Rick Brewster]

1 hour ago, otuncelli said:

This is only possible (not exactly but very close) with a file type plugin. You can develop one for your own needs,

 

Or use this plugin maybe? (each layer is a reference to an image in the zip archive):

 

 

 

I don't think that's what @MW001means

 

Images are always opened "by value" (by copy) in Paint.NET. You can't have a PDN image that encodes something like, "layer 4 is actually sourced from ThisOtherFile.png" or whatever.

[midora]

As @otuncellisaid, a file type plugin may do this if you do not care about the memory size while the 'file' is loaded in paint.net.

 

So define your on file type plugin REFI' and use a text file with the extension .refi to store the image references.

There should be a specification describing the REFI file format. I.e.

 

REFI specification:

REFI files are text files using UTF-8 character set. Line separator should be CR LF.

The first line must start with the signature #REFI#. Characters after the signature will be ignored.

Lines starting with # are comment lines.

Lines not starting with # describing layers (in the order bottom layer to top layer).

The syntax of a layer line is: layername,visible,blendmode,opcity

where

  'layername' is the fullpathname of the referenced image embedded in double quotes

  'visible' can be true or false

  'blendmode' is one of the layer blendmodes (i.e. normal) Ilist of amodes)llowed

  'opacity' is an integer in the range 0..255.

 

#REFI#
"c:\myimage\file1.png", true, normal, 255
"c:\myimage\file2.jpg", false, normal, 128

 

Load and save are easy to implement (assuming you restrict the allowed file types to simple ones).

 

BUT

I would expect that Rick says no. Because you are not just writing to the provided output stream. Cancel or errors during save are difficult to handle. You may destroy the original images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[otuncelli]

@midora I would do this with HTML/CSS/JS so the output can be viewable on any browser or can be served on web. CSS already supports most blend modes in Paint.NET.

 

59 minutes ago, midora said:

I would expect that Rick says no

 

I kinda hear Rick saying "in your dreams" 

[midora]

For sure @otuncellia more structured base language would be better but much more difficult to describe as an example.

The only issue that it is always difficult to define a simple signature you can match fast. And file types w/o signature are horror 😉