Does PDN delete picture once saved?

[Jellyboots]

I seem to notice that sometimes, once a picture has had its layers merged, and then the picture is saved, that if you open a new picture, or start a new one, then the saved picture is removed..Is this so?

If that is so, I wonder why, because if you didn't save the pictures in layer form, then there is no way to get back to layers to do some more editing, if you want to.

Is this done because of memory issues?

[pyrochild]

I'm going to answer your questions in reverse order.

Is this done because of memory issues?

No, it looks like you've found a bug.

Moved to Troubleshooting & Bug Reports

I seem to notice that sometimes, once a picture has had its layers merged, and then the picture is saved, that if you open a new picture, or start a new one, then the saved picture is removed..Is this so?

It certainly seems to be so.

If that is so, I wonder why, because if you didn't save the pictures in layer form, then there is no way to get back to layers to do some more editing, if you want to.

If you are saving a multi-layered image to a single-layered format like PNG, JPG, BMP, you should always have a "working copy" in PDN format. Only when you're ready to publish/share/use the image should you perform a Flatten and save to the other format. That way, you don't have to worry about losing work and you can always go back and change the original if you want.

[Rick Brewster]

Without a good list of repro steps, I have no idea if this is a bug or just a misunderstanding. Please list exactly the steps you can perform to get this to hapen.

[pyrochild]

1. Open Paint.NET
   
2. Create an image with multiple layers
   
3. Save it as a PNG
   
4. Accept the flatten prompt
   
5. Open another image, or create a new one
   

If you haven't unflattened the image or made other changes, it will be closed. If you forgot to keep a multilayered PDN version of the file, you're screwed.

[Sarkut]

I've noticed this also.

An open file without any unsaved changes will often be closed without warning

when opening a new file or opening another pre-existing file.

This results in the loss of History for that file.

I haven't observed this happening if there are unsaved changes.

It doesn't have to be a flattened file for this to happen.

[Rick Brewster]

Repros. Thanks.

Looks like there will be a v3.5.6 update after all.

[Rick Brewster]

There is now a v3.5.6 Beta which has a fix for this: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/20222-paintnet-v356-beta-build-3955/

[barbieq25]

Thanks Rick. I'll be trying it out.

I had noticed this but I thought it must have been me doing something silly.

[BlueKey]

I think I'm having a similar problem.

When I add layers, save as PNG and then try to *close* PDN, it closes without asking me if I want to save my changes. Since the changes have only been saved to a format that doesn't support layers, I'm losing the newly created layer information.

[Rick Brewster]

BlueKey, can you give some specific step-by-step instructions to reproduce that? Starting from, Step 1: Start Paint.NET

[BlueKey]

1) Start Paint.NET

2) Draw something, e.g. use the paintbrush to draw a line

3) Add a second layer

4) Draw a line on the second layer

5) Choose File-Save As and save as Untitled.png

6) In the "Save Configuration" window, click OK

7) Now it asks if we want to flatten the image - yes

8) If we close the Paint.NET main window we're losing the layers

I guess this happens because after the image has been flattened, the program thinks there are no layers... which is technically correct, because at this point there are no layers unless we unflatten the image.

So it's probably not really an error within the program logic, but it seems a little counterintuitive to me (as a new user). When you choose to flatten the image from the menu (Image -> Flatten) it's more obvious you're changing the whole project, but when you flatten while saving, I would expect the changes to be applied to the output file only. For example, when you save as PNG it first asks you for "Bit Depth", "Dithering level" and "Transparency treshold" and, as far as I can tell, these settings have no effect on the main project.

In my opinion, it would more intuitive to either do the flattening in the background instead of flattening the visible layers, or to do a temporary flattening by automatically unflattening the image after the PNG has been saved. In both cases, saving as PNG would not change the contents of the image editor, and Paint.NET would remain aware of the unsaved layers.

[Rick Brewster]

This is behaving exactly as designed. If you want to preserve layering, save as .PDN.