Line/Curve tool looks thinner on transparent background

[GoyangiStudios32]

I've noticed with the most recent update that the Line/Curve tool looks thinner on a transparent background. It's not the same with a colored background, even a white one. On a colored background, the lines look like how they used to look on a transparent background. I don't know if this is a change, or if I'm just seeing things. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Rick Brewster]

They might appear lighter or darker because the canvas is using linear gamma to blend the rendering layers (background, shadow, checkerboard, image, selection/UI overlay). Before, gamma correct blending was not being used, which always results in a darker look with boosted contrast.

 

However, the pixels in the image aren't actually any different. That's why it looks familiar when you place an opaque background underneath.

 

So 5.1 draws this correctly now, whereas previous versions did not, but everyone was accustomed to it. It also has better performance because it doesn't have to bounce back and forth between sRGB and scRGB several times.

[Rick Brewster]

You can also see linear gamma "at work" with the selection itself. The blue highlight looks different than it did in previous versions, but only because the blending is being done in linear gamma space.

 

However, if you disable hardware acceleration, all this goes out the window. In order to maintain reasonable performance, linear / gamma-correct rendering is not used. So you can use that setting for comparison's sake.

[Tactilis]

7 hours ago, GoyangiStudios32 said:

I've noticed with the most recent update that the Line/Curve tool looks thinner on a transparent background. It's not the same with a colored background, even a white one.

@GoyangiStudios32  👍to everything that @Rick Brewster said, plus see this comment and the answer that immediately follows it as they also relate to the difference in appearance between 5.0.13 and 5.1
 

 

[GoyangiStudios32]

14 hours ago, Rick Brewster said:

You can also see linear gamma "at work" with the selection itself. The blue highlight looks different than it did in previous versions, but only because the blending is being done in linear gamma space.

 

However, if you disable hardware acceleration, all this goes out the window. In order to maintain reasonable performance, linear / gamma-correct rendering is not used. So you can use that setting for comparison's sake.

Thank you so much.