Growing/Shrinking selections

[Goonfella]

I was just wondering if there is a plugin that grows or shrinks your selections like in Gimp or Photoshop.

 

I have looked through the plugins and not seen any , but knowing me there is one, I just have not found it yet. If there isn`t one would such a plugin be possible in PDN? It would be very useful.

 

This Gimp video by Monsoonami was what made me wonder about it. If you don`t want to watch the whole thing he first uses the effect about 2.30 into the video.

[BoltBait]

Plugins can not change which pixels are selected.

[Goonfella]

Ah  - so it`s not possible to create a plugin such as this then. Shame.

 

Guess I will have to find a work around - or switch to Gimp! (only joking )

 

Thanks Boltbait.

[racerx]

I use gimp all the time on my laptop which runs on Linux. It's a pretty good image editor. I especially like how the iwarp tool can save frame sequence. You just enter number of frames and it creates them for you. That makes for some interesting distortion animations. I'd post a link to one I made, but it's not politically correct..... 

[MJW]

I, too, wish Paint.NET had an expand/shrink selection command (along with a smooth selection command).

 

I can suggest a somewhat complex workaround. After making the selection, create and select a new layer. Flood fill the selected area with the Paint Bucket. Deselect and do a command such as Gaussian Blur that modifies the boundary. Use the Magic Wand, with properly selected tolerance, to select an expanded or contracted region. Select the original layer, and use the modified selection. Sort of complicated, but in practice not too difficult. Whether it produces the desired result depends on the particular situation. It would be relatively easy to replace the blur with a plugin to expand or contract the filled region in a desired fashion.

Edited March 19, 2015 by MJW

[Goonfella]

Interesting suggestion MJW. Thanks.

Really if PDN wants to compete with the best something pretty basic like this should be possible. But as its not I guess its something we'll have to live with.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Really if PDN wants to compete with the best something pretty basic like this should be possible.

Completely disagree. You might consider it "pretty basic" but you don't know how paint.net is internally structured. I can guarantee the underlying architecture is a hell of a lot more complex than you imagine.

I also think this comment is quite disrespectful to Rick. Remember, he puts a huge amount of effort into paint.net and makes it available for free.

But as its not I guess its something we'll have to live with.

It's how paint.net functions. We've "lived with" this as long as paint.net has been around.

[Goonfella]

No disrespect intended at all EER.  I do appreciate the work Rick puts in. I am just a bit disappointed  that the way PDN is structured prevents this type of adjustment to the selections.  Once Boltbait mentioned why it was not possible that was fine by me. But you have to admit it is a limitation that it would be nice not to have .

 

Also you are quite right, the underlying architecture is probably more complex than I could ever imagine as I know nothing about coding. But that does not stop me from having my own opinions. 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Paint.net is evolving. Rick continues to make it break new ground with features and enhancements. Of course these often have much deeper ramifications than are immediately obvious.

For example: I once suggested that an Alpha Mask would make a fine layer blend mode. I could think of many applications for it off the top of my head. It was a winning idea. I thought everyone would love it. I would bask in the reflected glory of my cleverness once it was implemented. Then Rick pointed out that it would change the PDN filetype - quite possibly breaking previously created files. You can imagine how unpopular that would be. Slam dunk. Ouch (I still think it would be brilliant )

This incident made me realize how deeply these things must be thought through. I'm often astonished at the amount of planning Rick puts in. He is both extremely clever and VERY thorough. We benefit from a developer with this amount of devotion.

In summary - ideas are fine. Encouraged. Let's discuss them like here http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/31636-color-blindness-usability-issuerequest/.  If Rick likes an idea he might even put it on the wish list.  Critiquing* paint.net for not having feature xyz is just unhelpful.

 

 

 

* I'm not saying you did this.  It just came across a bit like that.

[Goonfella]

Sorry if it came across as critiquing PDN. That's not what was intended.

[MJW]

I'll add a few of what I hope are helpful (though perhaps obvious) details on the workaround method I suggested. After filling the selection in the new layer, use a fairly large Gaussian blur radius, like 20 or so. Then make the new layer invisible, but leave it selected, so only the original image is visible. Use the magic wand to (re-)select the desired areas. Now the tolerance can be adjusted to expand or contract the selection, and the results will be seen on the original image. Once the selection is the proper size, remember to switch the layer selection to the original image before attempting any modifications. (I sometimes forget, and can't figure out why it isn't working the way I expect it to.)

[stitlown]

On 3/19/2015 at 11:37 AM, MJW said:

I can suggest a somewhat complex workaround. After making the selection, create and select a new layer. Flood fill the selected area with the Paint Bucket. Deselect and do a command such as Gaussian Blur that modifies the boundary. Use the Magic Wand, with properly selected tolerance, to select an expanded or contracted region. Select the original layer, and use the modified selection. Sort of complicated, but in practice not too difficult. Whether it produces the desired result depends on the particular situation. It would be relatively easy to replace the blur with a plugin to expand or contract the filled region in a desired fashion.

Thanks heaps for this suggestion MJW. Does exactly what I needed. Cheers.