History Brush?

[Wayland]

Every time I've asked a question like this I've been quickly shown that I am looking in the wrong place so I hope this is the case here as well.

PS has a useful tool called the "History Brush" which allows you to paint back to a selected previous state in the history panel. (Their version of the Undo List.)

I don't use it often but it's very useful when I do.

Is there a similar tool anywhere in PhotoLine?

[bkh]

PL doesn't have a history brush (and since I am not a PS user, I'm not exactly sure what it does, especially if you have changed several layers or an adjustment layer).

Anyhow, in PL, you can use the Undo List to go back in history, and then use copy and paste to copy past versions of layers into the current PL document. If I wanted to "paint" the past version into the current PL document, I'd probably put the old version under the new version and use the eraser to bring back the old bits which I want (or use a layer mask instead of the eraser).

Cheers

Burkhard.

[Wayland]

Ooh.. That's very interesting... PS doesn't let you do that and that's actually much more useful.

I do like this program, it's just full of new opportunities. There are some very clever ways of doing things.

Thanks for pointing that out for me.

[ellhel]

Hello,

I do not know if that also helps. But is another nice feature.
If you are on a level with transparency, and has erased some, then you can bring it back.
Take a brush tool and disable all channels except the alpha channel.
Then you just paint the parts deleted back. Then do not forget to activate the RGB or CMYK channels again.

Regards
Helmut

[Herbert123]

Wow, that is subtle, but very useful. I also noticed that "Merged Copy" copies the entire visible document state of any given undo step, and returning to the "present" pastes a fully merged version as a layer.

Very interesting - and indeed, this does not work in Photoshop (unless you use history snapshots, which can save a layer). I am just guessing here, but it seems that Photoshop adds the masking behind the scenes when using the history brush, while in Photoline you will have to add your own layer mask.

The final results seem to be identical - the main difference is that copied history states in Photoline remain accessible, while in Photoshop the history is completely forgotten. That is, unless you remember to take a snapshot, and copy that snapshot to a new document or layer.

At first glance Photoshop seems to offer more in the history brush department, but a closer look reveals that one can achieve the same in Photoline with a less convoluted interface, using existing tools. To be fair, snapshots in Photoshop seem less hidden than Photoline's copy history state option. The Photoshop devs seems to have decided to create an entirely new "history brush function", which is just the same thing wearing different clothes!

[Herbert123]

Hello,

I do not know if that also helps. But is another nice feature.
If you are on a level with transparency, and has erased some, then you can bring it back.
Take a brush tool and disable all channels except the alpha channel.
Then you just paint the parts deleted back. Then do not forget to activate the RGB or CMYK channels again.

Regards
Helmut

Yes, I noticed how useful this can be sometimes with imported png images: removing the alpha "unhides" all sorts of hidden information, often.

[Wayland]

Another very interesting feature, thank you Helmut.