Paint.NET

Paint.NET v3.5 (Final) is now available!

November 6, 2009 – 10:21 pm
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the extensive alpha and beta releases with all the bug reports, crash log submissions, and feedback. It has all been a huge help in creating the best Paint.NET release ever. As usual, there are two ways to get the new version: Preferred: Use the built-in updater from within Paint.NET. If you are using version v3.36, simply go to the Help menu and click on “Check for Updates.” For v3.5 alpha/beta, go to the Utilities menu instead of the Help menu. Or, just wait for the update prompt to come up automatically within the next week or so. Download directly from the website: http://www.getpaint.net/ . There is no need to uninstall the old version; that will be taken care of automatically. Changes since version 3.36: New: Refreshed user interface with new icons and visual styling. On Windows 7 ...

Posted in Update News | 1 Comment »

A new license for Paint.NET v3.5

November 6, 2009 – 5:20 pm
Over the years I’ve had to put up with several individuals, and companies, trying to plagiarize Paint.NET by recompiling the program under a different product name and with their own name stamped into the credits. Sometimes they charge money for it. I even came up with my own term for it: “backspaceware.” Additionally, every once in awhile Paint.NET is spotted being sold on eBay. And, as many of you know, Paint.NET used to be open source. Or rather, it was “released source” – the source code was released, but it was never an open and collaborative project that accepted unsolicited code submissions. I liked releasing the source code this because I felt there was value in allowing others to study it. About a year ago I decided I was tired of seeing plagiarized versions of Paint.NET and I yanked the source code from the website. However, the source code was still ...

Posted in Boring | 7 Comments »

Paint.NET v3.5 Beta 4 (Build 3591) is now available

October 31, 2009 – 7:50 pm
The translations are done, the last bugs have been ironed out, and Paint.NET v3.5 is a few steps away from prime time. Officially this is a beta, but the final release is imminent. Update: Looks like I mixed up the Russian translation, and it comes up in English. That will be fixed of course! :) Anyway you can grab it over at the website. If you want the list of changes since Beta 3, you can get those at the forum. Happy Halloween!

Posted in Update News | 12 Comments »

Paint.NET v3.5 Beta 3 (Build 3572) is now available

October 14, 2009 – 10:18 am
This update is focused on fixing a lot of small issues, ranging from performance to selection clipping. The full changelist, as usual, is over at the forum. Of note, the compression for .PDN files has been improved. For the tech-minded, I switched from the .NET-supplied GZipStream over to SharpZipLib’s GZipInputStream and GZipOutputStream. At this point, the bar for fixing a bug is quite high. I’m waiting for a few translations to be finalized, but other than that the only bugs I plan to fix are for crashes and data loss. If you’re seeing a bug that still hasn’t been fixed, and you haven’t reported it, then you should report it. Please don’t assume everyone or anyone else will see it too. I once had someone, after the v2.1 release, post on the forum that some bug still wasn’t fixed after the betas. I asked him if he’d ever reported it. “No, I ...

Posted in Update News | 25 Comments »

Paint.NET v3.5 Beta 2 (Build 3561) is now available

October 2, 2009 – 12:18 am
This update fixes a whole swath of small issues, and even a few larger ones. The full change list is at the forum. As usual, you can either download it over at the forum, or use the built-in updater. For those new to Paint.NET v3.5 with Beta 1, this is your first chance to try out the new background updater – you can have it download the update without sitting around and waiting for it as a foreground task! Of note, there’s a new option in the Window menu called “Glass Dialog Buttons.” I really like the glass footers for dialogs and don’t want to give them up, but just enough people have expressed a strong dislike that I decided to make it an option.

Posted in Update News | 14 Comments »

Paint.NET v3.5 Beta 1 (Build 3550) is now available!

September 21, 2009 – 1:33 am
It’s finally time for the beta, which means things are mostly done and stabilization is now the highest priority. Go download it at the forum, or get it via the built-in updater from any Paint.NET version. Make sure “Also check for pre-release versions” is enabled – you can ensure this by first clicking Check for Updates (from the Help or Utilities menus), then clicking the Options button. This beta is the first to include the newly refreshed user interface, with new icons and enhancements for Aero and “glass” (Windows 7 and Vista only). Here’s a taste of that: (Click for full-size version.) You can get the full changelist over at the forum. In addition to the glass in the image thumbnail list, I have added it to the footer of many dialogs. This includes the setup wizard, and dialogs for File->New, Image->Resize, Image->Canvas Size, ...

Posted in Update News | 43 Comments »

Leftover Domain Names - “The Lambda Closure”

September 20, 2009 – 7:38 pm
If anyone is interested in purchasing this block of domain names, please contact me -- either in the comments here (leave a valid e-mail!), or via "contact ...at... getpaint.net" The domains are named for "the lambda closure", a computer science and programming term. I bought it on a whim because I thought it was a cool name, but not sure if I was going to do anything with it. Well, I haven’t, and I don’t want to renew them. But I’d rather sell them to someone who will use them then let the domain squatting vulture robots snatch them all up. I always thought it’d make a good name for a website similar to Stack Overflow, but maybe more oriented toward academia and/or functional programming. Variants are included with “the” prefix and without, and with correct (lambda) and incorrect (lamda) spelling. Top-level domain suffixes for biz, com, info, net, and org. ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

A real glass prototype for Paint.NET v3.5

September 15, 2009 – 1:19 am
In a much older post, I talked about how I did a small experiment with glass. And, just the other day I talked about the latest visual refresh for Paint.NET. Since then, I’ve decided that the free icons available from http://www.pinvoke.com, by Yusuke Kamiyamane, are a much better fit than those from the Oxygen or Crystal sets. I’m also playing a bit more with glass. Check it out, Now, of course there are still a few things to work out, such as the left edge of the menu being offset by 1 pixel. Unfortunately, a JPEG just can’t do it justice (nor could the PNG, even at 5x the file size). It looks much cooler “in real life,” when it’s drawn over your actual desktop.

Posted in Uncategorized | 36 Comments »

DirectWrite for Windows Vista

September 11, 2009 – 11:29 am
Paint.NET v3.5 has added support for DirectWrite, a new component in Windows 7. It improves performance, text rendering quality, and reliability when compared to GDI+ or GDI. DirectWrite is also coming for Windows Vista. Microsoft just released a beta version of the "Platform Update for Windows Vista", which includes Direct3D 11, Direct2D, and DirectWrite. Check it out here: http://blogs.msdn.com/DirectX/ Paint.NET will automatically use DirectWrite if it is installed on a Windows Vista system. The code for enabling DirectWrite does not limit itself to Windows 7. You don't even have to wait for the next update, you can do this now! This is all pre-release beta stuff though, so the usual warnings apply. The next update after Paint.NET v3.5 (let's call it v3.5.1) should automatically install this for you, so that'll be one less thing to have to remember (computers are good at automating and remembering things, right?).

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Paint.NET v3.5 prepares for beta and gets a visual refresh

September 10, 2009 – 5:57 pm
I’ve been chipping away at the last changes and fixes for Paint.NET before I stamp it as beta and release it to the larger, hungrier “Beta crowd.” This update will be published to users of previous stable versions who’ve opted into public beta updates, and made available via the built-in updater. Hopefully I can finalize and push the stable version out the door to all users by the time Windows 7 hits retail shelves (October 22nd). Now, the visual styling of an application does not affect its functionality. However, it is a key ingredient for a positive, even enjoyable, user experience. Up through version 2.5, Paint.NET used a 16-color “Windows 95” icon styling. The icons were free, and the style and color palette were very easy to emulate for any custom icons: For version 2.6, I upgraded the whole application to .NET 2.0, 64-bit, and “Windows XP” / ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 41 Comments »