Opinions on 4.0 from someone who exclusively uses a touchscreen computer

[chimericOdium]

Hey! Ok, so 4.0's been out for like, 2 weeks? So now that I think I've gotten a good feel for everything I'll ever really be using, I want to share what I like and dislike about this update.

 

But before I get into the meat of this post, I want to say a few things.

 

First: I am not even remotely a professional at either artistic things or technical things. I use Paint.net for casual/hobby purposes(almost all of it being in the kind of aliased style of Homestuck) and rarely, if ever, utilize the full potential of it. I have been using it for probably around four years now(from back before I started using touchscreens). I absolutely adore it, and I truly appreciate all the work the developer has put into it.

 

Second: I have been using a touchscreen computer for... I think about two years? mostly out of habit after i was stuck with only an android tablet for a few months. I've had a Windows 8 computer for at least a year, and I've found that Paint.net works exceptionally well on it compared to most image editing programs, even if the lack of a mouse and keyboard barred some features off from me.

 

Though it most likely wasn't intentional(most of the relevant features probably having been added for tablet users), for the most part the 4.0 update massively increased its functionality for me. However, some of it has been giving me trouble.

 

 

What I like:

• The changes to selection tool have been a godsend. Before, it was impossible for me to rotate images, without a mouse or keyboard. Now with the uh... rotatey icon there, it's been made so much easier. Also, I think the "nubs" have larger areas where they can be selected? That's great too. Although, I still can't scale the selection, which is a problem, though one that was already there.
• The bucket and magic wand updates have been fantastic as well. You don't know how many times I've attempted to fill/select a spot and my finger accidentally hitting five pixels to the left. Letting me move the origin point afterwards is brilliant.
• Dragging vertically making the screen scroll and dragging horizontally activating the tool has been useful a number of times, but it's also been a problem, as I talk about below.
• Moving outside the touchscreen-specific things, I really enjoy: the new gradient features; the antialiased selections; the roll/zoom feature; the window options being readily available; the "sample by image" fill/select/color pick feature; the persistent tool settings; the image previews in the taskbar; and pretty much just the whole rearrangement of the UI. I basically like almost everything about it.

But... there's problems:

• As I said above, the change in function based on what direction you drag can be helpful in some situations, but not most of them. It's most frustrating in the paintbrush, pencil, and eraser tools, where I'm required to drag slightly to the side before I can draw a vertical line. It'd be great if this could be removed, at least for those tools(and whichever other ones leave a mark as they're moved). It's probably still fine for the gradient, bucket, and selection-type tools.
• Somehow I've lost the ability to right-click. Previously I could hold down to use right-click functions(as I can do anywhere else), but this update removed that. So now the secondary color is a lot less usable, and there are probably some other functions of it that I'm not remembering right now.
• It's probably because of my computer's lack of memory but I can't seem to open fairly large images without Paint.net crashing? I remember being able to before but that might just be due to MY lack of memory ahaha
• I have a few other issues but they're not touchscreen-specific so they've all been said before and are presumably already being worked on.

 

I understand that I'm most likely a very small minority of Paint.net users, and so I understand if these aren't going addressed for a bit. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if I've missed something incredibly obvious that would make my life a whole lot easier I'd love if it was pointed out to me eheheh

 

alright, that's all I have to say i think. though i might edit this later if i remember something else. but until then, uh. yeah oh my god i couldn't stand writing like this i feel so pretentious. god

[BoltBait]

It's probably because of my computer's lack of memory but I can't seem to open fairly large images without Paint.net crashing?

If Paint.NET is crashing, please post the crash log here.

[Rick Brewster]

Touch input should be improved in 4.0.1. Single-finger panning will now be disabled so that you can draw without all that weirdness.