Alpha only gradiants not working in Alpha3 build

[BoltBait]

Steps to reproduce:

1) Open Paint.NET

2) Create a new layer and select it.

3) Fill that layer with a color (black)

4) In the color window, set your secondary color alpha to 0

5) Draw a gradient with alpha only selected.

Notice that the entire layer goes transparent.

[Rick Brewster]

By design.

Skip step 4 and you will be happier.

[BoltBait]

Hmmm...

So, you don't look at the alpha of the selected colors. That's ok, I guess. But, if they're set funny, it doesn't work?

Bah!

[Rick Brewster]

Some more explanation is in order though. I've optimized the UI to minimize the number of clicks it takes to draw an alpha gradient. By default, opauqe black is the Primary color and opaque white is the Secondary color. A naive attempt at drawing a transparent gradient will be futile, and I believe many users would give up.

So I experimented with various ways to calculate the starting and ending alpha values for transparent gradients. The first one was to use the color's intensity. This worked great because black yields 0 and white yields 255. However, I felt at that point it was unintuitive that changing the color on the color wheel would have seemingly random changes in the realized alpha values. I also tried using maximum value of the red, green, and blue channels. This just make this all 255 all the time when clicking on the color wheel.

I finally settled on using the inverse of the alpha value of the primary color for the starting alpha value, and the unchanged secondary color's alpha value for the ending alpha value. This has the effect of requiring very few clicks to start drawing a transparent gradient, and also requires you to adjust the alpha of the primary/secondary colors in order to affect the alpha of the gradient that is drawn.

[BoltBait]

OK, *NOW* I understand.

I can live with that. I'll just have to retrain my brain.

[Rick Brewster]

So I guess you can think of it this way: the gradient always starts at 0 alpha and ends at 255 alpha. You can then adjust the primary and secondary color's alpha values to change how each side of the gradient is blended into the existing pixels on the layer.

[Rick Brewster]

OK, *NOW* I understand.

I can live with that. I'll just have to retrain my brain.

Yes, this will definitely be in the help file Like I said though, it's optimized for someone being able to go, "Oh what's alpha mode? OH COOL" as opposed to "Oh what's alpha mode? Nothings happening. Wtf. Back to my pirated photoshop." Plus it reduces clicking for someone who knows what's happening too.

[Alph Tech / STUART]

So what's wrong with just setting up the same color with 2 different opacities and just turning off alpha blending?

Edit: just in general what is wrong with alpha colors

[BoltBait]

For me, it was, "WTF, Rick broke the alpha only gradient... back to *my* gradient plugin. "

[Rick Brewster]

So what's wrong with just setting up the same color with 2 different opacities and just turning off alpha blending?

Edit: just in general what is wrong with alpha colors

I have no idea what you're asking here. Your question doesn't make any sense.

[Alph Tech / STUART]

What is the point of the Alpha gradient tool? It seems like, to me, the only thing it does is creates a "white to black-with-the-opposite-alpha-value-of-the-primary-color". Why not just make a gradient with white and a black with the desired opacity? I thought the point of Paint.NET was to remove options like these that clutter up the UI.

EDIT: If you're looking for an alpha-replace type effect I believe the thing to do would be something like a black/white gradient with one of the layer filters on. I'm a bit pressed for time so I can't check which.

[mickiscoole]

So Images Like that can be done easily.

While removing this option would reduce "clutter", options like this are far easier than fiddling around with alpha values and so on.

[Rick Brewster]

Alph, there is no blending mode which allows you to do this. What you're thinking of is a layer mask, which PDN does not have.