Requested free-form select

[PeaceMaker]

It is simple and well known within long time in many grafic software, even Paint.
Is it hard to provide in IV?

Or maybe already available and i missed ?

[Sam_Zen]

It's not there. Yet.

The tool may be simple, but this doesn't mean that the programming to make it is simple too.

[j7n]

Such a tool to work acceptably would require the dreadful alpha channel, the issue about which is brought up here every now and then. Complex freeform selection would produce considerable aliasing around the edges at 1-bit depth (i.e. without alpha).

Is the goal of IrfanView to become yet another Paint Shop?

[PeaceMaker]

If it is a viewer with selecting areas - the free-form selecting is very needed to select something in the picture being viewed.

And if the latest IV version has Paint's edition functions - let's go ahead to clone Paint more exact

But sure - it's only a request, if possible to find free time for it and possibility to make....

Is the goal of IrfanView to become yet another Paint Shop?

[Sam_Zen]

I don't think the maker of IrfanPaint has the goal to make a clone of some paint program.
Silly anyway. It would IrfanView also turn into a bulky app, and that's far away from the essence of IV.
IP is a very useful add-on as a plugin, but it shouldn't 'take over control'.
But sure, you can make a request. In the meantime, if you're looking for a simple paint-app to make a polygon selection :

http://www.xs4all.nl/~samzen/download/mtpaint231.zip

Then you can set it in IV as external editor, so you can switch easily to do a free-form.

@ 7jn
Is a 'floating selection' also part of an alpha channel ?

[j7n]

No, floating selection is like another layer, with either 1-bit or more detailed transparency: it can have alphachannel but doesn't need to. Actually I'm not sure if a single bit mask can be called Alpha or not.

Disregard what I said. An anti-aliased selection would look much nicer, but doesn't have to.

[Sjef]

I don't think Alpha channels or layers has anything to do with freehand selections. An example is to see in screendump-programs. I use the free FS-Capture where you can make freehand selections. Maybe this kind of source could be build in IrfanPaint.

[kburton]

Elipse/Circle Selection...

For the more complex stuff - I whole heartly agree - External Editing. But for "simple" selection and fixups (like RED EYE), it would sure be VERY nice to be able to select a round area rather than a square area to apply the filter to.

[Sam_Zen]

A circle is a preset shape, so the formula, to make such a selection, is very different from a free point-to-point selection.
Would be two different tools.

2 Sjef
Nice, so far I ignored FS-Capture, but this freehand selection makes it quite interesting.

[Sjef]

Yes, and don't forget the Draw-option (D-key). That's a nice one too. Most of my screendumps are made with printscreen > Ctrl+V in IrfanView), but for some special jobs FS-Capture is a nice alternative.

[Fred S]

Round Selection for Redeye

This feature would be a wonderful addition to Irfanview.

[MItaly]

As already stated, floating/freehand selection means adding a layer to the image, and adding layers to IrfanPaint is really a mess. I'd have to paint them by myself over the original layer (which is painted by IV) making sure they are exactly pixel-aligned with the background, and I'd have to merge them on the background when the image is saved; moreover IV wouldn't now how to handle the IrfanPaint's freehand selections (it wouldn't actually know that they exist), unless I'd say to IV that they are normal rectangular selection, so the advantage of freehand selections would be lost using the normal IV functions.
Practically speaking, I'll be able to add freehand selections support to IrfanPaint when IV will support them and layers by itself.