Paint Tool

[Marpel]

Hope everyone is having/will have happy holidays.

I often use the Paint Tool on images which are expanded to full screen.

However, I also use the Colour Picker quite a bit to either choose directly from the Colour Wheel or, by way of the sampler eyedropper, from the existing image or a second, or third image in the background. The problem I face in doing this is the repeated need to click on the main Paint Tool dialogue box, after choosing the colour, to make the colour "go live". This requires bringing the dialogue box to the fore, by clicking the appropriate button along the top bar, then clicking the box itself. This becomes quite tedious as I use this tool and different colours quite a bit during a job.

The question - Is there a more expedient way to choose and confirm a new colour without having to bring the dialogue box to the front and touch the box each time or, barring that, is there a way to keep the dialogue box in front of the image (I know, not the best option) so it doesn't disappear every time the tool is touched to the image??

Thanks,

Marv

[jsachs]

If instead of expanding the image you are working on to full screen you just resize the window to almost full screen and leave a little room left for the paint dialog to be visible then all you have to do is click on the paint dialog window to reselect the paint tool. Otherwise there is no shortcut that I know of.

[doug]

I know this sounds really elementary. But in my early days of using PWP over a decade ago, I didn't realize I could control the size of the window containing my image in order to make it as large as possible while still leaving room for other windows (including dialog boxes). And if I want to view a Preview window in an enlarged mode while toggling a transformation setting on-and-off, the same thing works there as well.

I'm sure that an old hand like Marpel already knows this. But for any newbies reading this thread, check out the operation of WINDOW, followed by ZOOM FACTOR from the drop-down menu that appears.

[MarkT]

... and don't forget you can use Ctrl+T to bring the paint (or any other) transformation window to the top of the pile.

[Dieter Mayr]

... and don't forget you can use Ctrl+T to bring the paint (or any other) transformation window to the top of the pile.

It would probably be nice if Ctrl+T (or a other shortcut) could open the color picker from within the transformation window (or bring both windows).
When both windows are hidden under the image, Ctrl+T brings the transformation window, but not the color picker.

[jsachs]

Good suggestion - in the next maintenance release, Ctrl-T will bring color pickers to the top as well as any active tool and transformation dialog boxes.

[Marpel]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I was aware that the image could be resized to allow the dialogue box to be visible/partially visible, however, I prefer to have the image fill the entire screen if possible.

Thanks for the info on Ctrl + T as I had not known this before and thanks to Jonathan for the upcoming change with the Ctrl + T. I think that is a great idea.

Also, in further reading up on the Paint Tool/Colour Picker, I actually discovered that Shift + Clicking on the image (or another image) will identify a colour that can then be used straight to the Paint Tool without the need to click on the dialogue box again (much unlike the eyedropper button which requires clicking on the Paint Tool to stop the cursor from continuing to choose colours and to paint with the tool).

Small point - There is a heading "Brush Display" partially down the Help page on the Paint Tool that holds a sentence or two that appears to be meant for the Clone Tool Help page (it is duplicated in that Help page and is not relevant to the Paint Tool, unless I am missing something).

Thanks,

Marv

[TTait]

How about multi-monitor support so that the dialogs and such can be parked on a 2nd screen while the photo is on the main (color profiled) screen?

Thanks-

Tim

[jsachs]

The main PWP window can span multiple monitors so you can arrange the various sub-windows as you wish. Since PWP is built using the standard Windows MDI (multiple document interface) framework, it would be hard to support splitting the interface across multiple windows in any other way.