Requested Selection grid more configurable

[hogart]

Hello,

first of all, I love this program and use it every now and then since many years.

Here is my request: Would it be possible to make the "show selection grid" (under the menu "Edit") more configurable? The options available are: Golden Ratio, Thirds, Fourths. My wish would be the option to select how many horizontal and/or vertical lines shall be displayed in the selection area.

Thanks for the great work!

Hogart

[Mij]

I can understand why you might want to select how many horizontal and vertical lines are shown in the "Show fixed grid" option, but cannot see why you want more control of the "Show selection grid" options. The selection grid options I treat as being for Photography Geeks and IMHO do not have much relevance in Image viewers.

What tasks do you want to use these more configurable options for?

[hogart]

Lets take for example your Avatar: Measuring the distance between the trees. Are the distances random or are the wider gaps an exact multiple of one of the smaller gaps?

Of course in my case it's not trees, but architecture. By using the "fixed grid" I would have to make a lot of adjustment to get the reference line of the object in the picture exactly arranged to the grid and variating the picture size until it fits to the grid. So it would be very easy when starting with the lines just at the point where I want.

Yeah, Photo Geeks. I know that this is an image viewer, but why not ask? It has a lot of options you don't need for viewing pictures, so this would be another one that has a nice usecase, at least for geeks like me, addicted to symmetry and balance...

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I suggest reading the sticky thread — A Word for the Over-eager

[Mij]

I used to have a strong interest in Architecture myself at one time, and you have a lot of useful tools available to you already. The selection box is particularly useful firstly to crop the image to a size and shape that looks right to you. If you are a fan of Golden ratios or Thirds then you do already have those to give you guidance as you know. I find it hard to imagine that much else would be valued by most users. Should you want to make measurements draw a box and drag the sides to align with the edges of buildings or other features you want to measure. The height and width of the enclosed area (in pixels) and the size of the unenclosed area above and to the left of the box can all be read from the information on the Caption bar at the top.

Save the size and position of the box if you want to, using Custom crop selection (Shift+C) so that you can quickly return it to that position whenever you want to. You can then drag one of the sides of the box across the opposite one to an edge to display height and width of any of the areas adjacent to the box. At the same time the box also shows you if any of the buildings appear to be leaning or converging too much towards the top, and you can correct that using the excellent Perspective transformations Adobe8bf filter, now part of the basic program. I used to use the Wireworm Adobe 8bf filter also to remove unwanted traffic signs or vehicles in front of the buildings. It is a lot easier to use than the clone tool in the Paint dialog.