Straightening Tool

[J.B.]

Hi all

I am new to the forum and to paint.net. I have just downloaded and installed on my XP machine and had a quick look and from what I see I am going to have a lot of fun getting to know Paint.Net.

As a user of Photoshop Elements 4, which I am familiar with and all it's tools the one thing that I cannot find in Paint is a straightening tool. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

You may ask why I am using Paint.net, well my XP machine is rather old and Elements 4 just comes to virtual halt when I use it to edit photo's, so hence the use of Paint. Hope you can help, thanks. J.B.

[david.atwell]

I don't know what the straightening tool does. If it rotates the image slightly to make lines straight, you can find a similar (albeit manual) tool in Layers > Rotate/Zoom.

Hope this helps! Welcome to the forums.

[Leif]

I dont know what a straightening tool is either. But maybe it is something like this.

Draw a straight line. Before you release the mouse button, press shift. The line will snap to the nearest of a series of predefined angels.

[J.B.]

Thanks for the quick reply. In Photoshop Elements the straightening tool makes lines straight if you just so happen to get the framing a bit off, and for me I am constantly doing that very same thing. I guess age is catching up with me. I will do as you said and see if it will do the trick. J.B.

[Crazy Man Dan]

I believe the Straightening tool allows one to draw a line following a reference of the object in question (such as the roof of a house that's slightly crooked), measures the angle, and automatically rotates the image according to that angle to straighten the subject.

There is no automatic tool in Paint.NET that can accomplish this, but one can create a new layer, draw a straight horizontal / vertical line (hold Shift while dragging) on that layer at approximately the proper place to be used as a reference, and use the Rotate / Zoom adjustment (Layers -> Rotate Zoom or [Ctrl]+[shift]+[Z]) to rotate and pan the image layer until it lines up with the line on the scratch layer.

[J.B.]

Thanks again, I will try out all your suggestions later tonight and let you know how I get on. J.B.

[spike 121]

truly, i dont recommend using PdN to do this

[david.atwell]

It'd be fine....

1. New layer.

2. Choose the line tool.

3. Drag the line across the line you want straightened.

4. Before you release, hold shift, release the mouse button, and then release shift.

5. Open Layers > Rotate/Zoom and move the rotate slider until the line you want straightened is parallel to your guide line.

6. Delete the layer with the line on it.

It would be pretty simple, really... I WOULD recommend using PdN to do this! :-D

[J.B.]

I did a few straightening edits this morning and everything worked out well. Thanks to all of you who helped. J.B.