This update focuses on refreshing the app’s theming with new high-res icons and improved support for high-DPI configurations. Some new menu commands have been added, such as File -> Save All, and a Turkish translation has been added.
If you’re using the Windows Store release, you should get the update automatically within the next 24 hours. You can also force an update check by following these instructions.
For the Classic release, you should be offered the update automatically within the next week or so. You can get the updater soon by going to ⚙ Settings → Updates → Check Now. You can also download and install it directly from the website.
- New: Completely redone high-res icons throughout the app which match the Microsoft Office style guidelines, with native support for up to 400% scaling (384 DPI)
- New: File -> Save All (thanks @Bruce Bowyer-Smyth!)
- New: Turkish language
- New: Move Layer commands are now present in the Layers menu, not just on the Layers window
- New: Layers -> Rotate 180 (thanks @null54!)
- New: Plugins can now use the UIScaleFactor class, which simplifies making decisions about DPI and scaling
- Improved: Image thumbnail list at the top of the main window now reacts to horizontal mouse wheel or trackpad swiping
- Improved: The Text Tool’s "Font Size Metric" button now has a tooltip explaining it
- Improved: When many images are open, Paint.NET now closes significantly faster (thanks @Bruce Bowyer-Smyth for the fix!)
- Improved: File -> Open Recent now has up to 10 images (up from 8 )
- Changed: Ctrl+Shift+F6 and +F7 will now also reset the floating window sizes for History and Layers, respectively (same if you Ctrl+Shift+Click on the button at the top-right of the main window)
- Changed: (for plugins) EffectFlags.SingleRenderCall is deprecated. Plugins should use the new EffectRenderingSchedule.None option instead.
- Changed: Settings -> Plugin Errors now shows up even if there are no plugin errors. This ensures consistency, especially with the newly asynchronous nature of plugin loading (otherwise there’s no way to distinguish "no errors" from "not done loading plugins").
- Fixed: Items in the File -> Open Recent menu will no longer get bigger or smaller when moving between monitors with different DPIs
- Fixed: An icon handle was being leaked every time a dialog was opened (thanks @null54 for the fix!)
- Fixed a crash when running GPU effects (e.g. Black & White) on very large, very tall images
- Fixed: "Bad" plugins can no longer ruin the undo system by rendering outside of the selection (thanks @BoltBait for helping out with this!)
Enjoy!
paint.net blog 
I believe you meant March 18th, 2019, not February 18th, 2019 🙂
I did … fixed. Thanks!
Very cool visual! thanks for the work put in
I recommend that you can change the color or pattern of the transparent background, because it is kind of difficult when doing pixel art that requires the light gray and white. Maybe in the next update?
I wasn’t planning on it. You can always add in a background layer that gives you the exact color you need.
This is what I have done for a long time. My fav is that bright fuschia like colour as I never paint with it. It also makes pixel errors show really well. Plus it is on the default colour wheel!
DA ESPERTO, CON 60 ANNI DI ESPERIENZA IN H.& S. APPENA HO CONOSCIUTO E USATO PAINT.NET, HO RISCONTRATO LA SUA SEMPLICITA’ E PRATICITA’, AL CONTRARIO DI PRECEDENTI PROGRAMMI PER I FOTOGRAFI.
MI CONGRATULO CON LO STAFF DI PAINT.NET, PER I CONTINUI AGGIORNAMENTI.
NON SOLO; SPERO CHE TUTTI COLORO CHE RICEVANO GLI AGGIORNAMENTI, FACCIANO UNA DONAZIONE.
NB: ANCHE SE E’ PICCOLA, E’ SEMPRE UN GESTO DI GRATITUDINE.
Loving the “Save all” feature
Very nice update. Thanks a lot, Rick!
PS. If the PDN would be mine, I would call this release as 4.2, because UI changes are significant 😉
It’s a lot harder nowadays to decide when to increment that part of the version number, because my release process is more granular. These UI changes don’t add any new functionality, but they are certainly a major change as you point out. In the end, I decided to save the “4.2” moniker for other, more functional, changes.
Love Paint.net, quick question. Id love to have re-editable vector based shapes and text just like that of Adobe Fireworks, is this a consideration or is there a plugin to do it?
This is the reason why I have to use use both Fireworks and Paint.net, I’d love to use just one in future to do everything 🙂
Keep up the good work!!
If you want vector editing, you should check out Inkscape. What you’re asking for really is an entirely different program — it’s not something that can just be added with a plugin, nor is it a small feature to be cranked out in a weekend (or a quarter, for that matter) ! I wish it were though, that’d be fun
Thank you for your work on Paint.NET. I always love trying out new interfaces, but the consistent interface over the years is appreciated. It’s similar to how the macOS interface doesn’t change much.
One particular thing that you may not have even done on purpose was to allow PDN to display the system title bar colors, which I find so helpful. There are too many apps now that use their own color scheme, which doesn’t adjust to let the user know whether or not the app is in focus. Microsoft Office apps are terrible about this. The dark theme is great for my work environment, as well.
And, the automatic updating from the Windows Store is perfect.
The title bar coloring is very much on purpose, and was a big huge pain in the keester to get right 🙂
Are there any plans to add .HEIF support? Would be very useful!
Yes, although it may require Windows 10.
I’m planning on an update that upgrades a number of file type related things. Better JPG support, improved DDS, addition of HEIF, faster TGA (it’s really slow), maybe even more?
There’s a WIC (Windows Imaging Component) codec for HEIF, and it’s built-in to Windows, but it does require a recent version of Windows 10.
Sounds great, can’t wait. Thank you.
Would love this. Even being able to save and open all supported WIC codecs on the system even if all the options aren’t exposed would be nice. Heck, I can’t actually find any useful documentation on the HEIF codec but through experimentation I know it supports the same quality settings as JPEG. But my main reason would be for the native Jpeg-XR support, which would be lovely.
Encoding options and metadata support make this a very difficult thing to comfortably support.
“I installed the RANDOM CODEC and Paint.NET says it works, but it just produces ugly output and doesn’t preserve any metadata!”
Yeah, it sucks. Most of the code for supporting WIC codecs in PDN is going to be metadata related. I only just now, after a few weeks of grinding away at it, got EXIF metadata roundtripping, and only with JPEG so far. Progress should speed up now, though.
There’s already a WIC plugin out there, but it doesn’t bother with any metadata loading or saving.
Is there any chance a future version can have the option to disable the ctrl+p shortcut? I keep hitting it by accident when trying to zoom, and 90% of the time that causes Paint.net to crash.
If the Paint.net team put editable text the program will be perfect
Is there a way to enable the old icons?
I’ll also second Darthvitrial’s comment on disabling the ctrl+p shortcut.
Nope
Could you add the option to revert to the old icons?
Nope
Fantastic for free but would really appreciate native 32bit BMP support built-in.
(see my reply to the very next comment)
Could you add native 32bit bmp support please? I
Wow, two requests for the same thing right in a row (see previous comment!)
I’m planning to do a bunch of improvements to file type support for 4.1.7 / 4.1.8. I’ll look into this, too.
to follow up on this: 4.1.7 will support 32-bit BMP w/ alpha. I landed this about 2 weeks ago 🙂
Hi Rick, thanks for the reply. Didn’t mean to appear pushy or impatient with two posts. It might be the browser on this iPhone or my incompetence (likely the latter) but it appeared to me that my original post had disappeared. 32bit would be useful for me as I dabble with FlightSim aircraft repaints where 32bit support would be useful. I am aware and use the bmpx plugin which is really good. However, I also use a utility called FSRepaint that can pass and receive textures from external editors but requires the selected editor to have in-built 32bit bmp support to work properly. I really appreciate you giving it your kind consideration. And thanks for an already fantastic image editor. Regards, Richard.
No worries — I was actually referring to the comment above yours. Two different people requested the same thing at exactly the same time. That’s all!
Thanks for describing how you’d use this. It should help.
Just a clarification: I think he’s saying that TAFF == RICHARD, and they are one person, not two. Notice he signed off his last TAFF post as “Richard”. 😊
Update: 4.1.7 will have 32-bit BMP w/ Alpha support
Thanks Rick, that’s much appreciated. Many thanks,
Richard
Wow, I really like how you guys explicitly thank contributors for their specific contributions! That’s really cool. Kudos for that! It bodes well for the strength of the community surrounding this project.
Would it be possible to add layer groups? This would allow management and identification of associated layers much easier. I often get confused when scrolling through numerous layers even when I’ve created them 🙂
Is there a way to change shortcut keys? I constantly hit the magnifying glass key by mistake every time I try to undo an edit.
It is looking amazing :))) really good update!
Paint.Net in portable mode (PaintDotNet.EnablePortableMode” value=”true”) will still create a AppData\Local\paint.net folder. Could this be avoided or the folder location specified in PaintDotNet.exe.config?
There’s been discussion about it but it just hasn’t been a high enough priority yet. The only files in there are crash logs, optimization data, and temporary files for history. Always safe to delete.
Error at install in Windwos 10 enterprise 2015 LTSB
paint.net
Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 (version 1607) is required.
You need to have 2016 LTSB installed. 2015 LTSB will not work.
See here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/whats-new-windows-10-2016
“Features in Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSC are equivalent to Windows 10, version 1607.”