Paint.NET is an image and photo manipulation application. Every feature and user interface element was designed to be immediately intuitive and quickly learnable without assistance. In order to handle multiple images easily, Paint.NET uses a tabbed document interface. The tabs display a live thumbnail of the image instead of a text description. This makes navigation very simple and fast.
Usually only found on expensive or complicated professional software, layers form the basis for a rich image composition experience. You may think of them as a stack of transparency slides that, when viewed together at the same time, form one image.
Many special effects are included for enhancing and perfecting your images. Everything from blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise, and embossing are included. Also included is our unique 3D Rotate/Zoom effect that makes it very easy to add perspective and tilting.
Adjustments are also included which help you tweak an image"s brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, curves, and levels. You can also convert an image to black and white, or sepia-toned.
Paint.NET 4.0.18 release notes:
This update has two main changes: a big improvement for startup performance, and availability on the Windows Store. The “Classic” release is still available, of course, and will continue to be updated and maintained on roughly the same schedule as the Store release.
The Store release of Paint.NET is not distributed free-of-charge. The “Classic” release will still be available and kept up-to-date on the same schedule as the Store release.
The standard price is currently $8.99, but right now is on sale for $5.99 until the end of October. You can also make use of the 30-day free trial to get started.
There are some important advantages that the Store release comes with:
Automatic background updating. Now whenever you launch Paint.NET it will definitely be the latest version. No more procrastinating the update because you’re already busy with other stuff. The Classic version checks about once every 10 days for updates, so if you move to the Store release then you’ll probably have updates several days sooner than usual (on average).
Easy Installation. The second advantage is that, once purchased, it’s really easy to get Paint.NET installed onto any new device from the Store” app in Windows 10.
Reliability. The Paint.NET installer and updater are based on Windows Installer (“MSI files”). Over the years this has proven to be an unreliable foundation. The problem goes away completely with the Windows Store release because of the way the package manager and application model works.
Plugins are supported for the Store release. You just have to install them in a different location. Go to your Documents folder, create a folder called “paint.net App Files” (no quotes though), and then create a folder for each plugin type: Effects, FileTypes, and Shapes. And then put your plugins into each folder just like you’re used to with the Classic release. This does mean that plugins are installed per-user, mind you.
Paint.NET 4.0.18 changelog:
- Improved: Startup performance has been improved by about 25%
- New: Now available on the Windows Store!
- Improved: Plugins can now be installed per-user into "Documents\paint.net App Files" into folders named Effects, FileTypes, and Shapes. This is required for using plugins with the Store release. To disable this (e.g. for administrators), set the "Plugins/AllowLoadingPluginsFromUserLocations" key to "false" (HKLM\Software\paint.net).
- Improved: When using Portable Mode, custom palette files are stored next to the EXE instead of in Documents
- Fixed: There was a crash on some systems that may have prevented the app from starting up (MissingMethodException for "System.GC.Collect")
Download: Paint.NET 4.0.18 | 6.9 MB (Freeware)
View: Paint.NET Website | Release Announcement