Why does MS paint make circles wrong?
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=997
Printed Date: 10 September 2025 at 11:53am
Topic: Why does MS paint make circles wrong?
Posted By: Pixel_Outlaw
Subject: Why does MS paint make circles wrong?
Date Posted: 23 October 2005 at 6:23pm
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Hello
Has anyone else noticed that ms paint makes circles wrong at some sizes? They arn't very symmetrical at certin sizes. For example if you make a circle without an outline just the inside colored you get a huge mess with sizes like 18x18. http://imageshack.us"> That's what i mean. Notice the edges are wrong on the left side! |
Replies:
Posted By: Nitron City
Date Posted: 23 October 2005 at 6:34pm
lol nice spot  i havent quite noticed it myself though ------------- NitronCity.com Managing Director |
Posted By: Pixel_Outlaw
Date Posted: 23 October 2005 at 8:08pm
Well I would inform Microsoft but I doubt they care.
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Posted By: pixelblink
Date Posted: 23 October 2005 at 8:12pm
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that's why you should learn to make circles freehand. ------------- |
Posted By: Blueberry_pie
Date Posted: 24 October 2005 at 2:14am
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The program I use for pixelling also messes up with circles often... I'm not all that good at making circles completely by hand, so I always first make a circle using the circle tool and then clean it up, make it symmetrical etc. ------------- |
Posted By: Pixel_Outlaw
Date Posted: 24 October 2005 at 7:13pm
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I wonder why mathmatically this happens? Unless all the drawing programs use the same function. I know CAd does this but that's because it uses such fine precision that the lines are too thick to represent the shape accurately. And it isn't practical to hand draw circles.(at least for me.) Can anyone shed some light on this? |
Posted By: Shark
Date Posted: 25 October 2005 at 3:15am
adobe photshop 
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Posted By: Vidd
Date Posted: 25 October 2005 at 9:12am
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I've noticed it too yet when you use the normal tool it doesn't do that. Create the circle and then fill it. |
Posted By: 1ucas
Date Posted: 27 October 2005 at 9:26am
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That's a flaw on the Windows API to draw circles, so using other programs are hardly going to help, since they all tend to use the same API (even Photoshop). Anti-aliasing is another case, so not relevant here. Also, a filled circle and a countour circle all work the same way.
Mathematically speaking, the problem lies on the fact that a good programmer would have coded it using the floor function and drawing only 1/4 of the circle and then mirroring the rest. (that CAD stuff you said is kinda nonsense) This is the most effective way, and the floor function is MATHEMATICALLY CORRECT to deal with the aliasing of the circle points. (the circle has infinite detail, you have to represent it in pixels that have finite frequency, hence you gotta represent infinite information on a finite way) But on WinXP they decided to draw it using the round* function, and drawing the whole circle instead of only 1/4. The floating point fluctuations are usually not a problem, but since they're using round they are maximized, and since they are not mirroring, they're inconsistent and create assymetrical circles. There's nothing you can do about it though, except using WinMe or older. So, all you can really do is just draw the circle and correct it yourself. * Yes they used round. I can easily tell because of the behavior of the pixels when you make a wide ellipse. Open MS paint, zoom in and use the circle tool. Draw a circle of 49x27 (note that this number is incorrect in MS Paint, 1 pixel in excess in both axis), then still holding the mouse, move it to the right to make it 50x27. See how the left size pops out abruptly? That's because of the round function. --- And since this sucks so much ass, that's why I coded my own circle-making program to output (usually bigger), symmetrical circles in BMP form so I can use. Ha-hah, I feel bad for having to be so drastical. f**k it. ------------- http://toxicdump.org/labs/frameviewer/viewer.php - Online Animated GIF Frame Viewer |
Posted By: Pixel_Outlaw
Date Posted: 27 October 2005 at 6:25pm
| Is that program freeware? |
Posted By: inkspot
Date Posted: 28 October 2005 at 8:50am
| I usually make circles by hand.. I know that Paint skrews in many things but at least it is simple-functioned and not overflooded with useless functions. I love Paint! |
Posted By: Helix
Date Posted: 01 November 2005 at 1:06pm
I'm with pixelblink, be a pirate and make your circles free hand!
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Posted By: Pixel_Outlaw
Date Posted: 01 November 2005 at 8:22pm
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Originally posted by Helix
I'm with pixelblink, be a pirate and make your circles free hand! Hrmmmm... A pirate has a mojor advantsge, using his peg leg as a centering point and placing the pencil in his toes, he need only pivot on his hips to draw a perfect circle. A pirate compass if you will! |
