Auto-fill checkered rectangle area with pure white color after DEL rectangle area?

[pstein]

Assume I load a PNG image, then select a rectangle area and press DEL key.
The rectangle area is checkered now.
Now I select another rectangle area or another tool.

I expected that the previous rectangle area is automatically adjusted to the default pure white background.
But it isn't.

Unfortunately sub menus like

• Layer-->Merge Down
  or
• Image--->Flatten Image
  are greyed out/disabled.

How can I (at least) manually or automatically (preferred) switch checkered area to pure white?

[tannerhelland]

Hello @pstein . It sounds like you are new to working with layers in an image editor.

When you erase a region of an image, that region is now transparent (empty). All image editors use a checkerboard to convey that a region is "empty". Think of it as cutting a hole in the image.

To fill that region, you have many options.

• You can use the Layer > Transparency > Remove Transparency command to remove transparency without saving the file.
  

• You can place a new background layer (in whatever color you want) via Layer > Add > Basic Layer . Just make sure the layer is below the current layer and it will fill in any transparent regions.
  

• If you save the image to a format that does not support transparency (like JPG), PhotoDemon will automatically provide an option for background color.
  

• If you save the image to a format that does support transparency (like PNG), but you don't want transparency, you can use the advanced save options to turn off transparency and replace it with a background color.
  

Hope that helps!

[pstein]

Thank you.

So it seems there is no option to let PD AUTOMATICALLY remove transparency when I select something else?
Can this be added (at least as an option)?

[hi5]

Perhaps as a suggestion, keep DEL as it currently is as it is established behaviour, but say when pressing ctrl+del the area is filled with the foreground colour?

[pstein]

Seems not to help.
After pressing CTRL+DEL the background is still checkered.

How do I find out the current foreground and background color?

[hi5]

That was my suggestion for a new feature, so it isn't possible yet, but should the developer consider it, using a modifier key + del might be a way to implement it without the need for "settings" or additional buttons/dialogs.

As far as I know PD just uses foreground color and has no foreground/background color as most other editors do. (Something I do miss at times) as it is tempting to paint with the right mouse button to paint with the "background color" for quick(er) colour fills)