Being able to cut and paste between images is a powerful feature that XNView MP already supports. But sometimes the paste also needs to be scaled larger or smaller while preserving the ratio. XNView MP supports this too, but it is a bit awkward when the often non-standard image ratio of a clipboard item is pending insertion. I believe it would be helpful to many for XNView to have access to the image ratio of the clipboard, perhaps as an addition to the "Set selection ratio" menu item, and/or as a enhancement key, just as using the shift key automatically squares the selected area during the selection process. i.e. the control key could automatically use the image ratio of the clipboard item. The result is that the image ratio of the pasted item is always preserved, regardless of how it much it was scaled.
Another possibly interesting improvement is depopulating the "Set selection size" menu with some of the presets and adding some programmable selections. The menu should also display the programmed value of the presets if they exist, maybe in a box so a person types them in or corrects them as required.
Thanks for developing an excellent program... ed
Set selection ratio & size menu improvements
Moderator: xnview
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JohnD
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2026 5:30 pm
Re: Set selection ratio & size menu improvements
⬆ I agree, I also need a custom selection ratio option.-
jkm
- Posts: 504
- Joined: Sat May 11, 2024 12:43 am
Re: Set selection ratio & size menu improvements
Welcome to the forums (both of you)...
Perhaps you can explain why you feel pasting while scaling and preserving aspect ratio is "awkward"... I do not see any problem whatsoever; XnViewMP already makes this possible in a trivially easy way.
After paste, use Shift-LeftMouseButton to scale the pasted content, preserving the aspect ratio. What could be easier? It works like this:
1. Make an arbitrary selection in your source image, of any aspect ratio, even a freehand non-standard one. Hit Ctrl-C Copy.
2. Go to your destination image. Hit Ctrl-V Paste
3. The content is pasted into the image preserving the weird aspect ratio.
4. The content has a selection box around it. You can hold the left mouse button in the middle of the box to drag the pasted content anywhere in the image.
5. You can use Shift-LeftMouseButton to drag on any of the control points on the selection box to scale the image, preserving the aspect ratio.
6. When done moving and scaling, click outside the box, and you're done.
If you use the Left Mouse Button without shift on the control points, you will scale without preserving aspect ratio - stretching the content.
The paste generates its own selection box in the correct aspect ratio. You only have an issue if you try and define the selection box in the destination image BEFORE pasting.
So what is the shortcoming or awkwardness here?
If you don't have this paste functionality, make sure you've upgraded to the latest version, and that you do NOT have "pasteOldMethod=true" in the [Viewer] section of your xnview.ini file. "pasteOldMethod=true" disables the newer paste functionality as I describe above.
Perhaps you can explain why you feel pasting while scaling and preserving aspect ratio is "awkward"... I do not see any problem whatsoever; XnViewMP already makes this possible in a trivially easy way.
After paste, use Shift-LeftMouseButton to scale the pasted content, preserving the aspect ratio. What could be easier? It works like this:
1. Make an arbitrary selection in your source image, of any aspect ratio, even a freehand non-standard one. Hit Ctrl-C Copy.
2. Go to your destination image. Hit Ctrl-V Paste
3. The content is pasted into the image preserving the weird aspect ratio.
4. The content has a selection box around it. You can hold the left mouse button in the middle of the box to drag the pasted content anywhere in the image.
5. You can use Shift-LeftMouseButton to drag on any of the control points on the selection box to scale the image, preserving the aspect ratio.
6. When done moving and scaling, click outside the box, and you're done.
If you use the Left Mouse Button without shift on the control points, you will scale without preserving aspect ratio - stretching the content.
The paste generates its own selection box in the correct aspect ratio. You only have an issue if you try and define the selection box in the destination image BEFORE pasting.
So what is the shortcoming or awkwardness here?
If you don't have this paste functionality, make sure you've upgraded to the latest version, and that you do NOT have "pasteOldMethod=true" in the [Viewer] section of your xnview.ini file. "pasteOldMethod=true" disables the newer paste functionality as I describe above.