Clipboard - using the clipboard through the custom brush and other means in PD Artist

Clipboard Tools
Working with images and other applications through the Clipboard

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Let's say you've created a work of art in PD Artist such as this one shown here. And you want to send it to another application running at this time too. We would normaly recommend that you save it to a lossless file such as Targa, Tiff, Bmp or Png format.

But if you're in a hurry, you may prefer to temporarily prefer to copy the image to the clipboard and from the other application paste it from the clipboard to its image buffer or whatever.

Or you might see an image on a website copy it to the Clipboard. Then how to you import it from Clipboard to PD Artist?

< click for larger screenshot

PD Pro has a menu item in the Image menu (Buffer menu in earlier versions) which lets you send an image to the Clipboard, or load and image from the Clipboard to Dogwaffle.

PD Artist doesn't have that feature.

However, there are a few other ways to work with the Clipboard than just through the Image buffer menu.

Since Project Dogwaffle is brush centric, more things can be done through the custom brush system.

Using the Custom Brush

Sending an image from the main image buffer to the Clipboard

Instead of thinking through the image buffer, think through the brush.

Under the Brush menu, you'll find the Clipboard menu, and the Copy and Paste submenu options.

So how do you use that to copy your artwork from the image buffer to the clipboard?

How do we get the image into the custom brush so we may then copy it to the Clipboard?

That's easy: At the top of the Brush menu, use the menu item:

menu:
Brush> Use selected as brush.

By default, the entire image buffer is selected, so the entire image will define the custom brush image.

Here's how you can verify that the image is now in the custom brush.

For one, you can paint with it or stamp it all over the image buffer. Set the Opacity to 100% in that case.

Plus, look at the 3 larger icons at the top of the Tools panel:

The thumbnail in the upper right shows the content in the image buffer
The middle one shows paper texture and a small orange triangle in its upper left corner if paper texture is enabled.
And the thumbnail in the upper left corner shows the image used by the brush. It should now show the sale as the image in the upper right thumbnail.

And voila, that's pretty much it. You can now use this option:

menu:
Brush> Clipboard> Copy to clipboard

and you image is ready to be pasted into other applications such as Powerpoint slides, Office document etc... without saving to file first.

Pasting an image from the Clipboard into the Clipboard

Likewise, if you have an image coming from another program, such as Irfanview, and you copied it into the Clipboard, you can immediately have it in the custom brush using

menu:
Brush> Clipboard> Paste from clipboard

Note that this doesn't paste it into the image buffer of Dogwaffle, it copies it into the custom brush's image placeholder.

Now that the image was pasted from the Clipboard into the brush, you can paint with it or stamp it down in the center area of a blank image buffer.

You may need to manipulate the image buffer (or the brush). In this case we're using

menu:
Brush> Rotate> 90 degrees

while you can use 'x' or 'y' as shortcuts to flip the brush image horizontall or vertically, the shortcut 'z' can be used to rotate it clockwise by 90 degrees.

Here's a screenshot of what that might look like. Notice we still have a few of the prior images in thumbnails (stored images) in the lower left.

This new image which came in through the Clipboard and through the brush shows a composition which was created a while back in Project Dogwaffle too.

< click to enlarge

Removing the blank border (whitespace) around the image

The image which we pasted from the Clipboard into the brush was smaller in size than the main image buffer. When we stamped down the brush image it left a white border around it. We will want to remove thyat white board.

One quick way to do this is to work with selections (alpha buffer).

- select the white border with the magic wand
- invert the selection, to select the inner part with the image
- crop to the selection

Click the Magic want tool. It's the right most of the four icons of the second row of mini icons. Those are all selection tools into the alpha channel. In some versions of PD like PD Artit you can also right-click the alpha tols and open the alpha tools panel.

Click somewhere in the white space around the picture.

You'll see animated dashed lines indicating the selected region. We call them marching ants.

Invert the selection - use

menu:
Alpha> Invert alpha

or the keyboard shortcut "|" (vertical bar)

The marching ants have now disappeared from the outer band and are only containing the image we want.

Now go to the Image/Buffer menu, and select:

menu:
Buffer> Crop to selection

(or Image> Crop to selection (on some newer versions))

If you need to rotate the image buffer (instead of the brush image as shown earlier) you can do so too.

menu:
Buffer> Rotate> ...

Clearing the Alpha mask (selection)

After cropping or other operations you might still have something in the alpha channel. You can tell usually by looking at the text in the window's title (above the menubar). It will usually show (Main) or (Swap) as well as (Alpha is there is alpha channel data. (Paper) indicates that the paper texture engine is enabled.

Clear the alpha with the Ctrl-D standard shortcut.

Or use

menu:
Alpha> Clear alpha

Using Special Plugins with Clipboard support

There are other ways to work with the clipboard. There are several plugins available which also offer access to the Clipboard. This plugin includes several options for importing images: from files, from Dogwaffle's main buffer, and from the Clipboard.

Opening the Plugins panel

Open the plugins panel from the Window menu.

menu: Window> Plugins panel (k)

You can also use the keyboard shortcut 'k' (as in 'killer plugins')

Select the 'Misc' tab. It contains miscellaneous plugins, many from 3rd party developers if you've installed them too.

There are also a few free plugins from us right here. Some may also work with PD Artist. Have a look and give it a try if you see something in there which you need.

Plugin: Frame from Clipboard

One way to import an image from the Clipboard into PD Artist is through a plugin named

Misc: FrameFromClipboard_pm.exe

The limitation with this plugin is that it doesn't resize the image buffer. It overlays the image over the existing one. The reason is that this plugin is really meant to be a tool to add a (wooden or other) frame image over your artwork.

Nonetheless, you can use this also to import an image from the clipboard and then trim (crop) it to remove any blank parts if there's any. Or, if the image from the Clipboard you'll want to first resize the image buffer.

Using the Multiprint plugin

The multiprint plugin can be found here

The Multiprint plugin also exists as standalone program. It was developed by Martin Wright. Many of his plugins' file names start with mwgfx_ (Martin Wright Graphics)

If you've installed it, look for this plugin in the Misc tab:

mwgfx_MultiPrint_pm.exe

Double-click it, or select it and click 'Execute'

In the Multiprint plugin's control panel, you'll find that you can load an image from the Clipboard:

menu:
File> Load Image from Clipboard (Ctrl+V)

The image you had copied into the Clipboard may be too small or too large to fit exactly into the Multiprint page. You may want to zoom it to fit to the maximum page size.

You can then send the image from Multiprint into Dogwaffle:

menu:
Dogwaffle> Send current image to Dogwaffle for editing

The image will now also be found in Dogwaffle's or PD Artists Main image Buffer (or Swap buffer, whichever you're currently working on)

Using ArtWeaver

Another tool you could use is the free imaging program called Artweaver, created by Boris Eyrich.

From the File menu, you can import images from the Clipboard or from Dogwaffle and PD Particles.

menu:
File> Import> Clipboard

This will import an image from the Clipboard into Artweaver.

Now you can directly send it (export it) from Artweaver to Dogwaffle.

The Export menu is now available, and shows an option to send it to Dogwaffle.

menu:
File> Export> To Dogwaffle...

<<< click to enlarge

Artweaver's export options gives you a choice of what to send over to Dogwaffle. Since in this case there's no layers, just use the top choice (Active Document).

Click Ok.

And voila! the image which was originally copied into the Clipboard from another application went from the Clipboard to Artweaver and further on to Dogwaffle's image buffer.

<<< click to enlarge

More plugins and examples may be added over time. Be sure to bookmark and visit the Dogwaffle and PD Artist webpages regularly.

www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle
www.thebest3d.com/pda