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    Requested Options related to drawing a selection box

    Hello, since IrfanView 4.27 was released, the selection box on an image no longer disappears after drawing and cutting (CTRL-X) that selection. I can see where leaving the box on the image can be useful in certain situations. However, can that be an optional feature in IrfanView's properties, perhaps under the Browsing/Editing section? Making the box disappear speeds up the cleaning process when you are selecting several areas on an image and cutting them out.

    Also, IrfanView 4.28 introduced this new feature regarding selections: "hold CTRL key pressed during drawing to make a proportional selection with the ratio from "Create Custom selection" dialog." This new feature is quite frustrating, especially when you are regularly drawing and cutting selections on an image. This is because it causes your selection to flip horizontally. Could it become optional as well? Before, holding the CTRL button while drawing a box did not affect the size and position of the selection. When you are regularly selecting and cutting with CTRL-X, the CTRL button will get in the way during selection and flip the selection window.
    Last edited by mc2000; 31.01.2011, 07:23 PM.

    #2
    Originally posted by mc2000 View Post
    Making the box disappear speeds up the cleaning process when you are selecting several areas on an image and cutting them out.
    Use the eraser, clone, flood-fill, or paintbrush tools in IrfanPaint (F12)
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      #3
      Leaving the selection box showing in v4.28 was in response to requests from many users who wanted it to do just that. I think it is a massive improvement over the old behavior where you were constantly having to save the position and size of a selection using the Custom selection dialog. A big time saver for most people.

      Is it really that much of a hardship to click somewhere outside the selection to close the box (or Ctrl+A if the selection is full screen). The old selection disappears anyway if you start drawing a new one from outside the box. Yes, I know it is annoying when you forget and try to start drawing another from inside the box and the image area within the box zooms to full screen. An option not to do that is one I would certainly support.

      I do not understand your point about using the Ctrl key to retain the image proportions when dragging a side of the box. That is not new actually. It was the same on previous editions. The box only "flips" if you drag the side right across the opposite one. Why would you do that unless you actually wanted to flip the box?

      I have never before come across anyone who uses Cut to clean up an image so have difficulty imagining why you need to maintain the aspect ratio of your selection to do this job. I would have thought that you would be just dragging the selection around with the right mouse button pressed to a new position for each cut and would be grateful that you do not have to draw a new one each time.

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        #4
        I'm not working with color images or photos. Photographers and Graphic Artists aren't the only ones using IrfanView. Myself and several others I've met use IrfanView in the document capture/conversion industry. I'm dealing with monochrome documents (black text, white background) that have been scanned as 300 DPI TIFF Fax4 images. I scan several thousands of these a day and I review them in IrfanView. Depending on what I'm scanning, sometimes I need to improve the quality of the scan by cleaning off debris that was created in the capture/conversion process. When there is a page to clean, it's much faster to just draw a box and and click CTRL-X to clean my selection. I have my "Background color for cut" in my properties set to white.

        The documents I have to deal with are of different sizes and are formatted on the page differently. If you were in my situation, you would understand how much faster this method is rather then moving a box that I would constantly have to resize to fit in the areas I need to clean. All I am asking is to make these new "features" optional rather then forcing them upon every user. I love the flexibility of IrfanView and I think this would only enhance the product.

        PS - I've found IrfanPaint (F12) isn't the best tool for working with monochrome images. Believe me, I did extensive testing and I've found the "drawing selection & cutting" method to be the fastest and easiest way to perform this clean-up work, outside of automatic despeckling using other tools (which isn't always reliable).

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          #5
          I have re-read your first post and can now understand the problem related in the second paragraph, mc2000. I had not noticed the new feature that you are troubled by and thought that you were referring to the old feature of dragging a side of the selection while pressing the Ctrl key.
          I assume that you like to keep the Ctrl key held down so that you only need to press X after drawing each selection.
          I cannot recall that feature, "Hold CTRL key pressed during drawing to make a proportional selection with the ratio from Create Custom selection dialog", being requested on this forum, so perhaps it was just a "good idea" that the program author, Irfan Skiljan, thought up. If you dislike a new feature it is worth writing direct to him and saying so (e-mail address on the Irfanview website). He has been known to take a feature out again if someone objects or, if he is unconvinced, he may offer you a special version of 4.28 with just that one feature taken out.

          Sorry but I still cannot understand your problem in the first paragraph though. I appreciate that it may not be convenient to drag the selection to a new location, but as soon as you start to draw a new selection box the old one vanishes. How is that slower than what you did in the previous version?

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            #6
            When you are cleaning a page quickly using this method, sometimes you accidentally click on the selection box, thus zooming in on the selection. I've learned to be more careful and avoid this as much as possible but when you are working at a good pace, it's bound to happen on occasion. My second issue that developed with this latest release is my biggest concern. The option to make the window disappear is more of a "nice to have" then a necessity.
            Last edited by mc2000; 31.01.2011, 07:20 PM.

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              #7
              I posted a video on Youtube explaining the problem I am experiencing...

              Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

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                #8
                It is much easier to use IrfanPaint for this task. You can resize the brush, and use flood-fill or clone tools.
                Before you post ... Edit your profile • IrfanView 4.62 • Windows 10 Home 19045.2486

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                  #9
                  Quite apart from the issue that the OP raises there are multiple problems with the Custom selection changes that have been made in v4.28

                  I tried using this new "Hold CTRL key pressed during drawing to make a proportional selection with the ratio from Create Custom selection dialog" feature and then tried to remove the selection by clicking outside the box. Many times when I did this the display suddenly jumped into fullscreen view.

                  It might also be argued that if the ratio "None" is selected in the Custom selection dialog then this new feature should not alter the ratio of the selection at all even when Ctrl is pressed. That would effectively provide the option to disable the feature, which is what the OP requests. In fact what it seems to do is change the selection to a ratio determined by the last saved width and height settings - sometimes. At other times though it uses some other ratio which I think may be an earlier saved setting of width and height.

                  This could be related to how you use the two buttons that have now been renamed "Save values and Exit" and "Save and apply to image" whose functions have presumably also been changed. Personally I was quite happy with how they worked before. Now I am confused. Sometimes I do not want to save the settings. Can I still do that?
                  Oh dear!

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                    #10
                    Bhikkhu, it may be easier to use the F12 functions at first, but to stop and re-size your brush sizes actually takes longer. Besides, drawing boxes is quicker once you get a good rhythm going.

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                      #11
                      I'd also love having some option to turn that on or off

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