Lauwers John Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Let me first say that I consider Paint.NET to be the best freeware that is available for photo manipulation: a lot more power than Picasa but also very userfriendly, which cannot be said about the GIMP, that maybe has more features but is as easy to learn as classic chinese. So I was very diappointed to find out that Paint.NET has no crop function that will preserve the aspect ratio of the original picture at 4/3. That is the aspect ratio of about 95 % of all pictures when they are transfered from the camera into th PC, and if the goal is to burn photos or slideshows on CD or DVD, that is the aspect ratio you want to keep all through this process. Many professionals will tell you that cropping and cutting away the bad parts at the borders is the most important step in the photo improvement process. So a flexible and easy to use tool is certainly needed here !!! So my question is (1) am I missing something and it's there but I don't see it, or if indeed it is not available today, (2) will it be made available in the next months ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SearedIce Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 The trick is the "Move Selection" tool. First, simply select the entire image by pressing "Ctrl-A". Then, click on the "Move Selection" button (it is next to the lasso). Now, hold Shift on your keyboard. Drag the corners of the selection box to change its size. Holding Shift keeps the aspect ratio the same as what you started with. Position the selection window around what you want to make the final image. Press Ctrl-Shift-X to crop the image to the selected area. I think that is all...let me know if there is anything else you need (or if you are confused about something). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauwers John Posted March 13, 2006 Author Share Posted March 13, 2006 Thanks a lot, it works !!! Why isn't this mentioned in the help pages??? A similar undocumented trick is also in Picasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SearedIce Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Each individual aspect of this method is documented (how to use each tool). However, you are right that the entire process, as a whole, is not explained in the help pages. I have answered the same exact question you had several times on this forum...perhaps it is time to include something in the help file. I will write a tutorial to put on the Tutorial forum page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Brewster Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Yeah, it's not that this isn't documented. It's just that Paint.NET focuses on providing tools to get stuff done, as opposed to providing what's called a "task-driven" UI. Software such as Microsoft Digital Image Suite uses task-driven UI, with wizards and whatnot, and that has not been our focus. Quote The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/ Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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