Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I have a desktop wallpaper that has an irritating sloping line as part of it's image.
Here is that image:

This line is not vertical and sits right where the normal puppy icons are and I would really like to be able to skew the left side of my image to make this line vertical so it does not detract from the column of icons. (Then I would backfill the gap with grey or similar)

I tried mtpaint for this and was able to skew the left edge by 4 degrees and i am pretty happy with the result as follows:

However - you can see that the right side of the image is now skewed also.

Does anyone know if mtpaint (or any other program) has the ability to skew just one edge?

Thanks!

Hi @greengeek :

As you know, MTPAINT is a very, very simple editor, so I think you can't do this, but dont worry because it is not impossible but you must use another program.

One of this programs is Adobe Photoshop, which offers a "Perspective Warp" tool that allows you to manipulate the perspective and skew different parts of an image independently.

But I recomend to u use The Gimp, free and without problems when it is used in Puppy.

You open the image you want to work with and select the layer you want to apply the perspective warp to.
If you only have one layer, it will be selected by default, then you must go to the "Tools" menu and choose "Transform Tools." And then select "Perspective Warp" from the submenu.

A grid will appear over your image, with several control points on the corners and sides and with these control points you can manipulate the perspective of the image.

Hope it helps.

If you have gimp installed, you can try the perspective tool.

GIMP Menu -> Tools -> Transform Tools -> Perspective:
drag the top left corner to the left until the line is straight. It'll slightly distort the whole image but not too much.

That thing in the middle needs a cleaning.

You could use an online tool, e.g. https://pixlr.com/e/
Menu Edit => Free distortion

Cut the image in half, skew the left piece and reattach to the right piece..... might be something that would work....

rockedge wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 5:06 am

Cut the image in half, skew the left piece and reattach to the right piece..... might be something that would work....

Thanks. Just gave this idea a try but there are too many straight lines throughout the centre of the image for this to work. End up with conflicting angles when I stitch the two halves back together.
Tried a horizontal split too but just couldnt get a proper join.

MochiMoppel wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:44 am

You could use an online tool, e.g. https://pixlr.com/e/
Menu Edit => Free distortionone-sided-skew.jpg

Thanks that is a very useful site. Good to know about.
Was easy to skew one side - and then I managed to fill the gaps with mtpaint.
Cheers!

pp4mnklinux wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:14 am

But I recomend to u use The Gimp, free and without problems when it is used in Puppy.
You open the image you want to work with and select the layer you want to apply the perspective warp to.
If you only have one layer, it will be selected by default, then you must go to the "Tools" menu and choose "Transform Tools." And then select "Perspective Warp" from the submenu.
A grid will appear over your image, with several control points on the corners and sides and with these control points you can manipulate the perspective of the image.
Hope it helps.

Burunduk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:19 am

If you have gimp installed, you can try the perspective tool.
GIMP Menu -> Tools -> Transform Tools -> Perspective:
drag the top left corner to the left until the line is straight. It'll slightly distort the whole image but not too much.

That thing in the middle needs a cleaning.

Haha yes - I think it is supposed to be some sort of futuristic organic spacedome life support system. Perhaps an example of our future cities...

Thank you both for the GIMP suggestion. Will have to look for a 64bit version and give it a whirl.
Thx!

Not perfect but better than it was originally...
Before:

After:

hi greengeek,
there is a simple way in MtPaint itself to make the annoying line 'disappear':
use the 'Smudge' tool to blot it away.
It should be easy to do that with your picture.
cheers

Opened the original from here:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... inment.jpg

in GIMP. The original is reverse to your image, so flipped it 180 degrees, then skewed the top left corner outward until the offending item looked vertical.

Hi greengeek, I don't recall which Puppy you are running. If 64-bit, Mikewalsh's portable gimp works fine, https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 465#p32465. If 32bit, shinobar's slightly older gimp-portable can be used, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 426#464426, Both don't waste RAM: when not in use the only RAM they use are that necessary to create menu-entries.

mikeslr wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 4:11 pm

Hi greengeek, I don't recall which Puppy you are running. If 64-bit, Mikewalsh's portable gimp works fine, https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 465#p32465. If 32bit, shinobar's slightly older gimp-portable can be used, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 426#464426, Both don't waste RAM: when not in use the only RAM they use are that necessary to create menu-entries.

Thanks Mike. I am using Oxsouth's FossaBasic64 so am trying to download the portable from the link you provided. Will give that version a try.

EDIT: Seemed to have errors with the download initially but was successful in the end.
And yes - this version works perfectly on FossaBasic64.
Thank you to both Mikes!

p310don wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 2:37 pm

Opened the original from here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... inment.jpg
in GIMP. The original is reverse to your image, so flipped it 180 degrees, then skewed the top left corner outward until the offending item looked vertical.

Excellent - looks very good.
(I had flipped it horizontally to make more room for the Puppy icons at the left hand side...)
Incidentally - how did you manage to identify and locate the original??

Would still love to be able to do a similar "single side skew" from mtpaint one day but for now I will mark this as solved.

Thank you for all the replies. Looks like a win for the Gimp and for https://pixlr.com/e/

greengeek wrote

Incidentally - how did you manage to identify and locate the original??

I used reverse image search. First time I've actually had success with it!

p310don wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 3:15 am

I used reverse image search. First time I've actually had success with it!

Keen to know how this is done. Any tips please?

rockedge wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 5:06 am

Cut the image in half, skew the left piece and reattach to the right piece..... might be something that would work....

I can't get past the thought that this concept should be doable.
But thinking that "halving" the image is not the right way.
If I can crop off the left hand side and reverse it or skew it slightly- then reglue to the remainder of the RHS - it may be possible to fudge it into place.
Still working on this.

There is probably a way to change the "red" background into a "transparent background. If so that would let me blend them more easily.

I have a copy of the image and will try with the method using a sliver of the image.

I will try it with Photofiltre 7 or studio X

I tried quickly with Photofiltre Studio X running in WINE on F96-CE_4

Two stages, first selected the vertical line and used Free Transform to skew the selected sliver vertically. The program preserves the original background via transparency. Then found that the horizontal lines below no longer lined up.

Stage 2 I selected the area of the horizontal lines and used Distort to pull the lines back in alignment. result is this:

But the top red arrow shows that this line is no longer in position. I can address this as well plus make the original line more precisely vertical. Bottom 2 arrows show the horizontal lines that with the Distort tool I was able to line up again.

better vertical positioning with less distortion of the horizontal lines

With a test on the desktop.....

rockedge wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 4:25 pm

With a test on the desktop.....

Do you still have that final image on hand by any chance? Keen to use that instead of my previous attempts.

Absolutely you can have a copy

That version I modified is at https://rockedge.org/kernels under Backgrounds->Collection-3
or direct :
Nuclear_containment-2-mod2.jpg
and a bonus:
NIRCam-3-Carina-Nebula.jpg.pc-adaptive.1920.jpeg

@Sofiya your version is the best! Good idea to fade the line.....skillfully done to make it disappear

keeping original image size 4096x2560xRGBx1.8mib

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AswfI7 ... sp=sharing