My text won't appear

[mattalexprice]

I'm designing images with multiple layers.  Some layers have illustrations with text, some layers are just text.  After selecting the "Text" tool, my text often does not appear.  This *seems* to be happening after I've done the "Lasso Select", and copy-pasted the selection.  The selection was a graphic, and included transparent/invisible pixels in the selected area.  I noted, oddly, that a bit of the text would appear in the "invisible" portion of the lasso'ed image, but then the rest would be invisible.  If I tried to go to another layer (e.g., the text only layer), it would still be invisible.  I don't want to create another, third layer.

 

I've not yet figured it out: I've been forced to save, quit, and re-enter the program.  Then I can select the illustration-with-text layer, and entering text works fine.  But the lasso-select followed by copy paste seems to tinker with my ability to add text after...?  This is a recently downloaded copy of Paint.NET: v3.5.11 (Final Release build 3.511.4977.23443)

 

A recent post talks about this "disappearing text" too, but the answer doesn't seem to apply to what I'm doing.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[BoltBait]

Since you can only change pixels that are selected, be sure to press Ctrl-D before using the text tool.

[mattalexprice]

Ah ha!  That worked.  I was wondering why changing layers didn't do the same thing as ctrl-D, but this does work.

 

Thank you.

[BoltBait]

Selecting something on one layer, switching layers, then applying an effect to the selected area is VERY handy. That's why changing layers doesn't cancel the selection.