Aligning Anchor Points to Grid When Using Line Tool

[Miles401]

When using the line tool the start and end points always start off perfectly aligned to the grid, but the two anchor points in the middle aren't aligned to the grid and can be placed anywhere you like. Is there a way to get the middle ones to snap to the grid? It would be really useful to be able to recreate curves in the exact same way without having to fiddle around and get them centered on the grid lines.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Your best bet here is the ShapeMaker plugin. It has a Snap-to-grid feature so control nubs are always aligned to the grid.

 

There's a link to the plugin in my signature.

[Tactilis]

Welcome to the forum @Miles401

 

14 hours ago, Miles401 said:

When using the line tool the start and end points always start off perfectly aligned to the grid, but the two anchor points in the middle aren't aligned to the grid

 

The above is not always a correct statement in relation to the end point if you are drawing a line at a defined angle.

It is necessary for the accurate drawing of these lines that the control nubs at the end (and in the middle) are not constrained to be aligned to the pixel grid.

 

Below I held down Shift while drawing lines to constrain them to 0° / 15° / 30° / 45° / 90° and have shown the position of the control nubs.

 

 

It would not be possible to draw lines at exactly 15° and 30° if their end points had to be centred on a pixel.

Note that it is possible for 45° though, as you can see above.

Similarly, the mid control nubs cannot be constrained to being centred on a pixel, otherwise the lines would have a small kinks in them rather than being mathematically straight.

As you have observed, when you initially draw a straight line that is not angle-constrained (i.e. when not using Shift), paint.net does snap the end point to the centre of a pixel*. But for the reason described above, the mid control nubs necessarily cannot be pixel centred. It then follows that when you adjust the mid control nubs to create a curve, it should be possible to move them freely, rather than have them snap to the centre of pixels as you desire.

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* As an aside, I would argue that it would be preferable that when drawing the initial straight line (when not using Shift), paint.net should not snap the end point to the centre of a pixel because it makes it impossible to place the end point of a straight line exactly where you want it to be.

 

The only justification I can see for pixel-snapping the end point is that it makes the drawing of horizontal or vertical lines marginally easier, although these can be even more easily drawn by holding down Shift.