snap to pixel?

[verybadcat]

Is it possible to force drawing commands to snap to the center of the nearest pixel? For example, if I want to paint, and I want my brush to always hit the center of a pixel.

Also, the same question, but for corners -- i.e. if I want to force my brush to go to the place where four pixels meet.

Thanks

[csm725]

You have misunderstood. There is no center of a pixel. The pixel is the smallest unit, it has no center. To understand this open up a 1x1 image and zoom in to 3200%. Try grabbing the pencil tool and clicking on each corner of the pixel and the center - same result. And 4 pixels meet pretty much everywhere in the image.

So the answer is, no, it is not.

[verybadcat]

You have misunderstood. There is no center of a pixel. The pixel is the smallest unit, it has no center. To understand this open up a 1x1 image and zoom in to 3200%. Try grabbing the pencil tool and clicking on each corner of the pixel and the center - same result. And 4 pixels meet pretty much everywhere in the image.

So the answer is, no, it is not.

Perhaps I explained poorly. Right now, if I am working with a zoomed in image, one pixel in the image I am drawing corresponds to many pixels on my screen. And paint.net <i>does</i> behave differently depending on where in that region I click.

In order to explain, I need a definition. Since my image is zoomed in, one pixel of the image corresponds to a region of many pixels on my screen. Let's call this region the "pixel region."

Suppose I am in paint.net with a brush width of 1. If I click on the right side of the pixel region, what happens is that the corresponding pixel in my image gets recolored to a color closer to the primary color. However, the pixel to its immediate right is also recolored somewhat. It does not go all the way to the primary color, but it does go part way there. And the further to the right in the pixel region I click, the more the color changes.

It is difficult for me to click precisely in the center of the pixel region. I am wondering if there is any way to get paint.net to control for this.

[Sarkut]

You need to disable antialiasing.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Sarkut

[Lance McKnight]

In addition to what Sarkut said, I would use pencil tool since it does precisely what you are seeking to do.

[verybadcat]

Wow! Didn't realize about the pencil. That's great if I want to go pixel by pixel.

But what if I want a "pencil" that is many pixels wide? I.e, draw a circle centered at the center of a pixel.

I couldn't find the antialiasing setting. Where is it?

Thanks for your help.

[APShredder]

The pencil tool's size cannot be changed. However, you can use the paintbrush without antialiasing to to the same thing.

To remove antialiasing:

[Lance McKnight]

Again, as Sarkut said above me, you can use any of the tools with antialiasing turned off as APshredder said.

My question to you is this: what purpose are you trying to acheive? It sounds to me now, after rereading this thread for the 3rd time, that you are trying to create pixel art. If so, there are excellent tutorials on the web on how to make pixels image, we have Pixel Art umbrella in the Pictorium, and a competition for pixel arts. Also, I believe there might be a tutorial on pixel art, but I am not 100% certain.

Maybe I am jumping the gun here, but I do hope you will follow some of the tips given to you here. Happy PDNing!