Wanted to draw a straight line with a brush

[idiotsquared]

Infrequent user of paint.net, but once again I needed to do this.  There was a undocumented solution posted on July 13, 2018.  I tried it, but it doesn't work.  I was unable to find a "Fluid Mouse Input" setting in paint.net or Windows settings.  Does paint.net now support something like the gimp does for all tools?  Any help would be appreciated.

 

This thread explains the issue and the undocumented solution.

 

TIA

[Rick Brewster]

"Fluid mouse input" was renamed to "Native pointer input", and does not do that you think it does. It's only applicable for drawing tablets and pens.

 

The brush tool does not currently support something like holding shift to limit drawing to a straight line (horizontal/vertical/diagonal). I'm looking at adding that for 4.4. However, it sounds like you want point-to-point drawing with the brush, which is not currently supported, but might be something I can add for 4.4.

[NinthDesertDude]

I'm amazed that linked thread even has as much interest as it does. If you remember O and B you can do this in a split-second
Press O -> draw line and confirm -> press B

This is actually a feature I don't think is necessary to be honest since the output is identical. If the brush tool gets custom images or other functionality in the future, then it would make more sense as the output would be unique.

[Rick Brewster]

The output isn't necessarily identical because the brush tools draw with a circular stamp and support hardness (0% results in a rather soft brush), whereas the line tool draws a straight line, without any softening, and with configurable end caps (squared versus round, or arrows).

 

Put another way, the line/curve tool draws a filled geometric object -- for a straight line with the default properties it's essentially a rotated rectangle. The brush tools repeatedly draw a bitmap of a filled circle (that has been "softened" unless Hardness=100%) at small intervals along the brush stroke path.