Feature Request - Option to Cut Selection vs only "Crop To Selection"

[cathie28]

AFAIK, only current way to cut a selected area OUT, is select area you want to cut, then choose Invert Selection, then Crop to Selection.
That's extra steps for something I find myself doing quite often - selecting random areas I want to CUT, not keep.  There are many uses for option to have either a "Cut Selected Area" (maybe also  "Cut OUTSIDE Selected Area"), as well as Crop.  But  mainly Cut Selected Area.

The Crop function in SSC & most editors (incl. IrfanView) cut outside selected area, then recenter remainder.
But in SSC, if select an area you want to cut (not Crop to), then invert selection, then Crop, it does NOT recenter remainder.  That's not the only reason to have a Cut Selection option.

Even very old editors as in FastStone Capture 5.3 & others, have both crop & cut (selection) functions.  I use both quite a bit, in a lot of prgms & pretty sure the other prgm devs thought it was a good idea and / or got requests for it.  I use Cut Selection enough that I think it'd be a worthwhile addition to SSC.

Thanks.

[cathie28]

Still like to see "Cut Selected Area" option added.  It's all the rage - everyone's doing it !

[mouser]

I'm happy to report that SC has a DELUXE ability to do this -- it's just hidden away a bit in the menus.

What you are looking for is the SPLICE OUT feature at the bottom of the SpecialFX2 menu.
(perhaps i should put it in the edit menu?)

You can see a screencast video demonstrating it in action here:

http://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/sc16/sc16.html

Let me know what you think.

[cathie28]

The splice or splice deluxe tool is very nice, useful for specific purpose, but isn't what I meant.  Not sure there's a way to do what I mean, other than method described below.

Meant  a few possible things.  If just want to cut off one corner - not a vertical / horiz. slice off one side of image.  I guess you could use obfuscate, but I'm talking about actually removing a square or small rectangle from the image (& removing data that must be stored) - but not a strip across the entire width / length.  Don't always want to take a slice off entire width.  Many screenshot / image editors do that.

Or select what I want to cut out of the middle & keep the area around it - the opposite of cropping.  Many apps allow that.

W/ SSC, to cut section(s) out of middle or picture, can make selection (rect., circle, lasso), then invert selection, then crop & it removes selected (inside) area, not crop TO the selected area.
That's OK on a couple of image or couple of areas, but gets old fast on lot of images or numerous cuts on one image.  I'm not sure why "cut selection" or cut outside selection was left out, since it's a common feature in others.  SSC goes well beyond just a screen capture app, more into the editor category.

Maybe if I could read the Options / Preferences screens, I'd figure it out? 

[tomos]

I'm talking about actually removing a square or small rectangle from the image (& removing data that must be stored)

Or select what I want to cut out of the middle & keep the area around it - the opposite of cropping.  Many apps allow that.

You cant actually physically remove e.g. a square in the middle of an image - you can remove the pixels in that area, but you have to replace them with *something*.
In SC the only options I know of are:
you can replace them with a blurred or pixelated version of whatever is removed,
or delete to background colour - this option is under "SpecialFX2" menu (works best with simple images in my experience).

[cmpm]

Why not use the highlight rectangle/circle tool? (yellow square tool)
Then you can put a rectangle or circle any where in the shot, and change it to any color, white or whatever. That would "cut" any thing you want to cut.

[mouser]

As tomos was saying i think, the SpecialFx2 menu item "Patch contents" was made to do this kind of thing.
Let me know if you guys think that i need to add something that lets user choose color instead of having the program guess it automatically.

[tomos]

As tomos was saying i think, the SpecialFx2 menu item "Patch contents" was made to do this kind of thing.
Let me know if you guys think that i need to add something that lets user choose color instead of having the program guess it automatically.

sometimes it does give odd results:

[attachthumb=#]

(but I guess cmpm's suggestion would work anyway?)

[mouser]

Maybe i'll combine some of these effects into one dialog: patch, interlace, pixelate, etc. and add an option to simply fill the region with a specific color.

[tomos]

Maybe i'll combine some of these effects into one dialog: patch, interlace, pixelate, etc. and add an option to simply fill the region with a specific color.

that sounds good - would make the options more accessible too

[cathie28]

I'll reply in more detail later, when have time.  Either some don't understand (I'm not making clear) the simplicity of what I'm talking about, or got way off track.  What I mean isn't complicated.  Several capture apps have "cut" feature & almost? all half decent image editors.  SSC is way more than screen capture app.

Yes, you can "remove data."  What takes more KB - complicated foliage background or black?  Just an example - took a 564KB pic & cut it all (extreme experiment) - left black background.  Resulting file took 46 KB.  You can remove data.

If want to remove certain interior parts of an image, to make smaller size for emailing, posting (other reasons), or just cut some parts away, then "cut selection" tool has a place.
MAYBE using pixilate tool wouldn't use much more data than black (after cutting) - dunno.  Not tested.

It IS very nice that there's a lasso selection tool, to outline then crop.  Can eliminate lot of data.  Maybe I want to cut out the girl next to me at some party - who knows?
 Guess can then apply ragged / fancy border, or is that another app?  
There ARE ways to do it in SSC now.  Some may be lot more trouble than a simple "cut selection" & "cut outside selection" button w/ shortcuts.
Only diff in "cut outside selection" & "crop to selection" is former doesn't recenter image.

When is not centering after cut (or crop) useful?  When have RULERS in many apps - even word processors (I requested heap many moons ago.  Ugg).  And if you want remaining object aligned w/ rulers.  That goes for any kind of cutting, cropping, chopping, dicing.  

W/ rulers, after any kind of cut / removal (or crop, but NOT recenter), can continue work using actual measurements (on a ruler w/ moving cursor marks at horiz. / vertical rulers - also suggested), rather than trying to focus on the image & position of selection lines / cursor AND reading the tiny, tiny  coordinate values way down at bottom of screen.

Don't get me wrong - BOTH values at screen bottom (or somewhere) AND rulers are useful / needed.  One wrench doesn't fit every nut.
I just prayin' that Mr. Mouser von Traps makes 'em numbers (& Options font) so th' looks bigger on my Commodore 64 screen.

I have problems looking at 2 objects - on opposite sides of the screen, at once - especially if nearly need hand lens to see one of them (x, y coord. / total area,etc.).

[tomos]

I'll reply in more detail later, when have time.  Either some don't understand (I'm not making clear) the simplicity of what I'm talking about, or got way off track.

I'm afraid it's still not clear to me what you want to be able to do with SC - do you want to cut in order to be able to paste; or do you want to cut in order to change the area that is cut?

[mouser]

Cathie,

It can be hard for me to follow/reply when there are a lot of points in one post.

Let me try to reply to a couple and then encourage separate threads for separate issues -- it's easier for others to add on in those cases too, and say "i would also like this" when each request is on it's own thread.

So let's leave the rulers and values showing selection size issue for another thread -- i'm not opposed to considering such things.

For now i'm more interested in the "cut out area" request.

As has been pointed out above, unlike the case of cropping, we can't really "remove" an interior area -- we can only fill it with something.

Right now SC has a few ways to do this:

• It can pixelate or blur, which leaves the contents partially visible.
• It can fill in the area with black interlaced lines, meant to draw attention to the idea that the contents are being redacted.
• It can "patch", which attempts to smartly fill in the contents based on the background of nearby pixels.
• It can "splicte out" a horizontal of vertical area (with ragged edge effects if desired).

It is perhaps an oversite that there is no easy way to tell SC to fill the contents with an arbitrary solid color (or even mark it as transparent); the patch action is meant to do that but doesn't give you the choice of manually specifying the background color.

So my question for you is, when you want to "remove" some interior area, is what you want covered by something i've mentioned here -- or do you have in mind something different?

[edit: looks like tomos beat me to the reply and said in one sentence what it took me a page to say]