Ability to change "desktop" (background?) color independent of light/dark mode.

[CrownSprings]

Here's the portion of the window I'm referring to:

 

 

When cropping scanned images, one frequent issue is that the image is just ever-so-slightly misaligned. 

 

 

These flaws leap out at a glance when using image viewers with a dark background:

 

 

It would be really great if PDN allowed me to change the "desktop" color. The capability is clearly there, as the color changes when switching to "dark mode". However, dark mode hurts my eyes to work with, so it's not really a solution. I would love some way of changing this color by itself.

Edited April 14 by CrownSprings

[Rick Brewster]

(The term you're looking for is "canvas")

 

This isn't currently possible but is something I'm considering for the upcoming 5.1 release. Maybe not the color but at least the brightness.

[Tactilis]

What I do when I want accurate cropping of a scanned photo that might be misaligned by a few pixels is to quickly check each of the 4 corners and adjust the selection as necessary.

 

Here's the sequence I follow:

1. Press M M to activate the Move Selection tool

2. Press Ctrl+A  to Select All

3. Press Ctrl+B to Zoom to Window

 

4. Move the mouse pointer to the top left corner of the photo.

5. Ctrl+Mouse Wheel or hold down Ctrl++ to quickly Zoom In on the corner.

6. Position the mouse pointer over the selection edge (the pointer changes to a hand) and adjust the selection by a couple of pixels to exclude the misalignment.

7. Press Ctrl+B to Zoom to Window

 

Repeat steps 4-7 for the top right / bottom left / bottom right corners, then press Ctrl+Shift+X to Crop to Selection

Note that at step 6, it is not necessary to grab the circular selection 'nub'; you can adjust the selection by grabbing anywhere along its edge.

The above may seem like a lot of steps but it's actually really fast once you get into the swing of it.

 

[Tactilis]

21 minutes ago, Rick Brewster said:

(The term you're looking for is "canvas")

Or maybe "Editing Window", which is the terminology used in the Docs: https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/MainWindow.html#7

 

 

[CrownSprings]

On 4/14/2024 at 12:33 PM, Rick Brewster said:

(The term you're looking for is "canvas")

 

This isn't currently possible but is something I'm considering for the upcoming 5.1 release. Maybe not the color but at least the brightness.

 

"Canvas" was actually the first word that came to mind! Then I thought about the literal metaphor and worried it might not be clear - [i]technically[/i], if we treat an image editing program as a direct analogy to ink-and-paint, the "canvas" would be almost synonymous with "image", since one paints on the canvas. But...

 

And that's exciting news! I agree that color is probably less-essential - though on the other hand, it might also easily be filed under "no good reason not to". I can think of scenarios where it might be nice having a primary-color canvas, but at the same time, they're not scenarios I envision myself ever being in. But shading would be critical, there are times where I almost find myself wanting to load GIMP, and that's an experience no human being should ever have to go through  

 

On 4/14/2024 at 12:50 PM, Tactilis said:

What I do when I want accurate cropping of a scanned photo that might be misaligned by a few pixels is to quickly check each of the 4 corners and adjust the selection as necessary.

(snip)

 

I think our workflows are actually pretty similar. After a while, though, I actually feel mild tendonitis in my right middle finger from all the scrollwheeling around. 

 

(really unrelated, but given the workflow discussion, I feel I should also give a shoutout to toe_head2001's "Quadrilateral Correction", which is invaluable with scanned images)