Distort With Grid -- Tool Improvement Request

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Koyaanis
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Distort With Grid -- Tool Improvement Request

Beitrag von Koyaanis »

I like all the various features of the shape distortion tools. But I'd like to see the "Distort With Grid" tool improved a bit if possible.

1) Make the preview window zoom-able, so I can zoom in on finer grid-lines to work on a small area of the image with much more precision.

2) Allow use of CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT keys to select how a grid line, multiple lines, node or multiple nodes are moved. Say for example, if I want to move a complete grid line to the left, right, up, or down, then hold down the shift key while dragging a line. Or when using the CTRL key, then I could BEND a whole line in any direction. Things like that.

There have been instances in the past where I would photograph some old newspaper article that might have some bad bends in the paper, and I wished there was an easy way to remove those bends in the text in a uniform manner. Having those extra controls where a whole line, or groups of lines (or nodes) could be shifted at the same time, in a linear direction or as a uniform curve could make a task like that a tad bit easier.

Possible?

Thanks if you can!
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Gerhard Huber
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Re: Distort With Grid -- Tool Improvement Request

Beitrag von Gerhard Huber »

Koyaanis hat geschrieben:1) Make the preview window zoom-able, so I can zoom in on finer grid-lines to work on a small area of the image with much more precision.
the dialog is zoomable, it's little help I think.
Koyaanis hat geschrieben:2) Allow use of CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT keys to select how a grid line, multiple lines, node or multiple nodes are moved. Say for example, if I want to move a complete grid line to the left, right, up, or down, then hold down the shift key while dragging a line. Or when using the CTRL key, then I could BEND a whole line in any direction. Things like that.
That's much work and I don't think that there are many users of the grid distort function. I will set it to our wish list.

Gerhard
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Koyaanis
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Beitrag von Koyaanis »

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I found the window to be resize-able, and that can help, but I am limited to the 1:1 resolution of the image. It helps, but ...

Thanks for considering these suggestions for the wish-list. It's not often that I need those extra capabilities, but when I do ... boy I sure wish they were there. Nothing harder than to straighten out text on some bended paper. I have a hobby of sometimes photographing interesting National Forest & Park signs. Sometimes they are just paper stapled to a bumpy tree trunk. It's extremly difficult to "unbend" them. :-)
carrozza
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Beitrag von carrozza »

Koyaanis, I think that outline warping with the right shape and settings should make the bend easier to manage.
Just an idea...
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Kooyanis

I am learning the program and I can't see how to do what you are doing here. Could you give me the menu directions for it, please?

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Got this working. Made my niece and nephew look like something that came from the black lagoon ...

Fun stuff.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
Michael Roek-Ramirez
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Distort with image

Beitrag von Michael Roek-Ramirez »

Hello greenmorpher,

check as well the "Effects"-"Shape"-"Distort with image" function.
This allows to shift parts of any shape horizontally and/or vertically.
In order to define the part to be shifted, you should draw an additionally grey layer, with grey-to-white or grey-to-black transistions.
Use this for shifting the original image.
Help files helps really ;-)

Regards

Michael
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Hiya Michael

You said:
you should draw an additionally grey layer, with grey-to-white or grey-to-black transistions
Thanks for that tip -- I'll try it.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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Koyaanis
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Re: Distort with image

Beitrag von Koyaanis »

Michael Roek-Ramirez hat geschrieben:Hello greenmorpher,

check as well the "Effects"-"Shape"-"Distort with image" function.
This allows to shift parts of any shape horizontally and/or vertically.
In order to define the part to be shifted, you should draw an additionally grey layer, with grey-to-white or grey-to-black transistions.
Use this for shifting the original image.
Help files helps really ;-)

Regards

Michael
This is a nice idea and feature of PL32, but with the odd page bending and crinkles that I run into in trying to flatten out some images, it would really need to be done with a real-time preview. This is why that distort-with-grid feature would be more helpful if I could shift a whole line linearly, or as a curve, or between selectable control points, shifting whole sections of a page to modify the bends and folds they might contain. Using PSP's "Mesh Warp" tool does this to some extent (holding down the CTRL or SHIFT keys changes the behavior of how the control points get shifted, as a whole line, tilted, or bent, etc.), but it's not as nice as I'd like, so I use that one when I run into this problem.

A simple example (real-life problems are rarely this tidy), say you have to flatten out this central peak and also unbend the paper too ( /\ = sharp peak, UuuU = downward bend):

---/\---UuuU---
---/\---UuuU---
---/\---UuuU---
---/\---UuuU---

I could shift a whole line on peaked section downward with a linear shift, and then also select a range of lines to distort as a curved bend to undo the UuuU portion. With the right tools that could be done in any direction, and between any selectable set of control points or control lines.

I don't run into this often, but when I do, what a nightmare to try to repair it.