Paint.NET v.2.0: Freeware Image and Photo Manipulation Software

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/index.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP...Paint.NET has many of the powerful features that expensive commercial applications have, including the ability to use layers. This is the second semester that Paint.NET has been a project at Washington State University, and we have the goal of adding as much functionality as expensive commercial applications provide, but of course, for free! In the spirit of all this freedom, we welcome any suggestions, as well as provide the source code free of charge for anyone who wishes to tinker with it. Please explore this website, download the software and try out many of the things you would do on those expensive commercial applications."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/bmw.jpg" /><br /><br />It might bear the humble name of "Paint", but add the .Net on there and you actually have a decently functional application! It's free, and you only need to have the .Net framework installed (which you can get free from Microsoft). This is the kind of thing I'm going to carry with me on my Verbatim USB Flash drive in case I'm at a PC that lacks an image editor.

[Paul Martin]

I was not aware of this. Thanks for the tip!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Ack, needs .NET. Not so great.

[Janak Parekh]

Ack, needs .NET. Not so great.
:confused totally: Are you saying you haven't installed the .NET Framework on your Windows PC? It's easily installed from Windows Update... and you'll need it sooner or later, as more and more apps are being written for it.

--janak

[Tim Williamson]

Very nice program (especially for free!).

[arebelspy]

Ack, needs .NET. Not so great.
:confused totally: Are you saying you haven't installed the .NET Framework on your Windows PC? It's easily installed from Windows Update... and you'll need it sooner or later, as more and more apps are being written for it.

It may be on MY PC, but not necessarily a PC I'm working on (ala a USB flash drive, as Jason suggests).

-arebelspy

[Janak Parekh]

It may be on MY PC, but not necessarily a PC I'm working on (ala a USB flash drive, as Jason suggests).
Ah, good point. I guess it'll take time before .NET becomes a bit more pervasive, but as MS themselves start to adopt it more aggressively this problem should go away.

--janak

[Kevin & Beth Remhof]

I started playing with this last night. Slick stuff. One thing that cracks me up though is this statement on the website:

"meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems"

This blows away Paint in every way. Paint.NET looks to be a decent photo editing tool. Paint... well... that's a different story. I can't remember the last time I actually used Paint to do anything.

[cyclwestks]

I'll have to play with this, looks really great, especially for the price.

[rlobrecht]

I can't remember the last time I actually used Paint to do anything.

I sometimes use Paint to crop screenshots that I'm pasting into documentation. Its way faster to start paint than it is to start PhotoShop.

[Paul Martin]

I sometimes use Paint to crop screenshots that I'm pasting into documentation. Its way faster to start paint than it is to start PhotoShop.

This is exactly what I use Paint for, especially when trying to write short documentation on a software procedure for those less computer-savy.

[Jason Kravitz]

For those who remember the old days of the Mac - MacPaint was a fairly decent image editor that came with the OS. The first version of Photoshop was not much more than an enhancement of MacPaint - some of the icons are still the same like the paint bucket and eraser.

I think when Microsoft was ripping off the Mac OS for Windows they realized they needed a MacPaint type app - although I don't think MacOS ships with MacPaint anymore and MSPaint is about the same as it was when it came out 10+ years ago!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

No, MSPaint can now open JPEGs and GIFs! =P

[the_rapture]

I've' been trying to download the program but the site is down?? ....for almost 24 hrs now. Is anyone else having a problem?

[Jason Dunn]

I've' been trying to download the program but the site is down?? ....for almost 24 hrs now. Is anyone else having a problem?

It got slashdotted, so their server was taking a beating. I'd try again in a day or two.

[the_rapture]

I used the Google cached pages and found their forum and it sounds like they are having bandwidth problems. They say next week but lets hope it dosen't take that long.

I'm hoping that they will add Inking to it for on a Tablet PC. I use ArtRage to paint on my Tablet and it's a free program as well, but this sounds great for my photos.

http://www.lightspeed.nu/paintdotnet/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&amp;BID=1&amp;TID=77&amp;SID=9649

26 Dec 04 - looks like they got their bandwidth back. I was able to get it downloaded last night.

[Bob_Katayama]

I have been using PhotoShop V6.0 for quite sometime now.
It's an excellent program but I found it to be difficult to locate tools for the first time. With Paint.NET, all the functionality is easily and intuatively located on the screen or in a menu selection.

This program rivals other commercial programs like Paintshop Pro.

Seems like I will be using this more often since I cannot stand the long load times for Photoshop. Specially when I need to do something straight forward and quick. MSPaint works but lacks the detailing and tools necessary.

Paint.NET is by far one of the better paint programs I have tried.
I would not recommend Photoshop for personal use when the cost is $600+. Paint.NET certainly has the professional features and image display quality that's needed to handle larger tif images for commercial editing.

You cannot beat the fact that this program is FREE and I hope the developers continue to enhance this application.

If MS is reading this, maybe you can work out a deal where a version will be included to replace MSPaint? LOL

Bob Katayama MVP

[James Fee]

The Paint.NET 2.1 Alpha is out.

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/milestones.html

Improvements
Lower memory usage
Getting rid of the "flicker" when a selection is under a floating window!
Jpeg quality selector (with preview of image and size it will be when saved)
Hex codes in the colors window
Ability to resize image by specifying percentage
"New file" size based on image in clipboard (doesn't default to 800x600 or 600x800)
Vastly improved performance for selections