1.11.5: grid, divisions, square fails

[KarelT]

XnView: MP 1.11.5 - 64 bit
OS: Windows 10 64bit

IMHO the behavior of the Square checkbox in Grid settings is inconsistent. If so, very minor bug at worst IMHO, just reporting.

Effect: inconsistent behavior, minor annoyance

To reproduce:
1. In Grid Settings...
2. When using Horizontal Spacing (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square creates square grid.
3. When using Horizontal Divisions (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square does not create square grid (see the attached image).

Actual behaviour (bug): see step 3. above

Expected behaviour: In Grid Settings, when using Horizontal Divisions (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square CREATES square grid.

Best!
K

edited (strikethrough) for clarity

[jkm]

2. When using Horizontal Spacing (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square creates square grid.
3. When using Horizontal Divisions (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square does not create square grid (see the attached image).

Please fix your post. #2 and #3 are duplicates (and contradictory).

When using Vertical spacing, checking "Square" disables Vertical and no grid is produced at all!

When using Horizontal spacing, a non-square grid is created.


I agree that the action of the "Square" option is at least bad behavior, or a bug.

All "Square" does not is duplicate the Horizontal parameter as the Vertical parameter. This has almost no value, because it is trivially easy to do manually.

Better behavior would be for it to actually produce a grid that has SQUARE sections, and save users doing the math of calculating the needed grid size to create square sections for the aspect ratio of the current image (which would have to be changed on a per-image basis).

Suggested behavior:

-Square only applies to DIVISIONS based grids

-If Horizontal is used, the number of Vertical bands is adjusted as necessary to keep the grid square
-If Vertical is used, the number of Horizontal bands is adjusted as necessary to keep the grid square

Example:
On an image that is 1600x1200, with a 10-division Horizontal grid:
Grid is 160x160 pixels, with 10 bands horizontally and 7.5 bands vertically

[KarelT]

perhaps i wasn't describing the issue well enough (i have edited the original post with strikethroughs where i was dubious about using numbered list in the first place).
please see the attached images.
i am curious whether i am wrong in my observation or description manner.

"When using Horizontal Spacing (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square creates square grid." is visible on spacing.png
"When using Horizontal Divisions (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square does not create square grid (see the attached image)." is visible on divisions.png.

you wrote:

When using Vertical spacing, checking "Square" disables Vertical and no grid is produced at all!

i see that too, when horizontal spacing is checked out

[jkm]

"When using Horizontal Spacing (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square creates square grid." is visible on spacing.png
"When using Horizontal Divisions (Vertical can be in any state), checking the checkbox Square does not create square grid (see the attached image)." is visible on divisions.png.

I'm very sorry! I misread your #2 as also starting "When using Horizontal Spacing..." I thought you were trying to contrast Horizontal/Vertical but had mistyped; but you were contrasting pixel-Spacing vs Division. What you said is correct.

I completely agree with you that "Square" should make the grid square.

I still think the most important thing is to get Square to properly apply to Divisions.

Without any changes in the app, it is already trivial for the user to create a square grid now using the Pixel spacing settings: just set H and V the same.

But it is impossible to achieve a square grid with Divisions (for anything other than a square aspect ratio image of course).

A change to make Square work "correctly" for Pixel-Spacing provides no real value... It's making it apply to Divisions that matters.

Again, my apologies for misreading your post...

[KarelT]

No apologies needed. It was a joy to exchange observations with you! Glad we can make the bug report better together for Pierre.
Best,
K