(Forum discussion here)
This update includes full support for AV1 (*.avif) images, courtesy of @null54‘s AvifFileType plugin, which is now bundled.
In addition, I’ve spent a lot of time optimizing various parts of the canvas rendering engine. Memory usage and CPU usage are both lower across the board, which should help when working with large images, as well as images (large or small) with many layers. I’ve also made several bug fixes and improvements to the Move Selected Pixels, Magic Wand, Paint Bucket, and Ellipse Select tools.
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 update sooner by going to ⚙ Settings → Updates → Check Now. You can also download and install it directly from the website.
Changes since 4.2.13:
- New: AV1 (*.avif) images can now be saved (not just opened), due to bundling of @null54‘s AvifFileType plugin (v1.1.4.0). Installation of Microsoft’s codec from the Microsoft Store is no longer necessary, which means this also works on Windows 7 and 8.1.
- Improved performance and memory usage in the canvas rendering engine, especially when working with large images or images with many layers. This is most noticeable when scrolling and zooming.
- Improved CPU usage when a selection is active and when GPU accelerated rendering is disabled
- Improved CPU/GPU usage when a selection is active but the app is not (the animation is disabled)
- Reduced memory usage when working with images that have regions of solid color
- Fixed the Magic Wand and Paint Bucket tools so that they do calculations in the premultiplied alpha color space. This ensures that transparent colors (alpha=0) with different RGB values are treated as equal, and do not create borders.
- Fixed the Move Selected Pixels tool so that it fills the uncovered region with 0 (transparent), instead of a transparent version of the secondary color.
- Fixed: Backspace now works correctly in the Colors form: it does not execute Edit -> Fill Selection
- Fixed an issue where saving an image at 4-bit color depth (usually pixel art) was using an incorrect palette (reduced color count/quality). This was due to a bug in Windows Imaging Component (WIC).
- Greatly improved performance when saving images at 8-bit color depth
- Fixed an issue where very large images (e.g. 50000 x 50000 px) couldn’t be saved at indexed bit-depths (8-bit or less) due to a bug in Windows Imaging Component (WIC). More information on the forum: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/116950-error-when-saving-a-big-file/
- Fixed an issue where BMP images couldn’t be loaded if they had the .PNG extension (there’s an Android screenshot utility out there which does this …)
- Improved: Ellipse Selection Tool’s now tessellates at a higher resolution, resulting in smoother circles at small sizes
- Fixed a rare crash in the Gradient tool (“The tool must be in the Drawing state …”)
- New: Added a list of the DLLs that are loaded into the process on the Settings → Diagnostics page. This is to help troubleshooting scenarios.
- Fixed an issue with copying large images to the clipboard: if an image would take up more than 4GB, it could not be copied because the DIB and DIBV5 formats cannot be larger than that. Now, the DIB and DIBV5 formats are not placed on the clipboard if this happens.
- Fixed an issue with Effect plugin tooltips which was preventing the menu item from being easily clicked (thanks @toe_head2001 for the fix!)
- Fixed an issue that was preventing Effect configuration dialogs from working correctly in the Visual Studio designer (thanks @toe_head2001 for the fix!)
- Added diagnostics information to most error dialogs. This is to help with troubleshooting.
- Fixed: Scanning will now apply the DPI (resolution) from the scanner to the image, if possible
- Updated bundled DdsFileTypePlus plugin to v1.10.7.0. See the pdn-ddsfiletype-plus change log on GitHub for more information. Thanks @null54!
Enjoy!
paint.net blog 
Hello, Rick. I have a question. You publish Paint.net to Microsoft Store. Is it particularly difficult?
I’m seeing a lot of traditional apps that got published to Microsoft Store in the past, but their developers stopped doing so, even though they continue to update their MSI versions. I wonder what happened.
It’s not that difficult. Microsoft really improved the speed at which they approve and publish the app — usually happens within an hour for me now. Getting the first publication done is a bit of work, but after that it’s incrementally easy.
I made sure that generating the APPX package was part of my build process. I don’t use the built-in Visual Studio project stuff for this, I use my own script (combination of C# and batch files) which also does all of the signing w/ my code-signing certificate. I think it helps a lot that I’m responsible for publishing both the Classic and Store app, I do them at the same time, and it’s just another set of items in my checklist of things I do every time I publish an update.
why is it called paint.net?
I guess because the project was completely developed in .NET using C# and wanted to show that you also can create a nice paint app (which replaces Microsoft Paint writeen in C/C++).
I just wanted to mention that this has been a pet peeve of mine for many years and I am glad it’s been fixed!
Hi! I was just curious if it would be possible to add waifu2x as an option for upscaling images.
Waifu2x is a behemoth. Its repo is 692 MB in size. And it is written for Linux… in Lua. Bringing it to Paint.net is a torture both for the developer and the end-user.
AaronFeng753 has already brought it to Windows, but it is a 748 MB download. Deriving from that project, however, is impossible, because that project is under a copyleft license, which ensures closed-source apps like Paint.net can never use its code.
I would love for a future update to allow you to lock the Primary/Secondary options in the colours panel. Hate when these start switching themselves. I just want left click to always use/replace/pick the Primary colour, and right click to use/replace/pick the Secondary colour I always end up getting the panel switched to the Secondary Colour I’m trying to save and losing it because I’m trying to adjust the Primary Colour.
Hello, I’m using your app and noticed a very annoying thing. When you go to the app and change the brush size for the first time with the mouse wheel hovering over the brush size, it does not change smoothly – 70,69,68. It is always reset to one. After this reset, the brush size changes smoothly. But if you close the app and go back in, it always resets the first time you change it.
I have an even bigger request to separate the brush size parameters and the eraser size parameter. Or you can enable a separate size for each tool in the settings.
Hi Rick.
Thanks for your work. A few people in our organisation are using the Paint.net.
Commenting so I can select to receive updates notifications via ‘Notify me of new posts via email’ so I can download and automate updates within our company.
Guys, I do like the auto update facility a lot. I do not like, that you determine yourself where to install it. In the next release, please add the option to install it on a different location.
You can choose where the app is installed if you re-run the installer and choose the Custom path.
Hi! Would it be very much of a trouble to add an option in settings to select the default image save format? (the one that will be selected in the dropbox when saving an unnamed image/saving as…). For example, I usually use Paint.NET to scan, retouch and clean packs of drawings and I save them in my preferred format that is not the default PNG, which makes quite cumbersome selecting that format every time I save each image, 20-30 times in a scanning row…
Hello, just stopping by to say that I have been using Paint.net for YEARS now and really really like it. It’s such a nice tradeoff between the over-simple Windows Paint and over-kill Photoshop et al. Happily downloaded the paid version from the M$ store to chip in!
One addition that would be amazing is to add some minimal ‘object’ support, for editing some shape/text we created within the app (as oppose to something we copy/pasted). I.E. sometimes I would create some text on a new layer, say, and then realize I made a small mistake, and have to erase it and redo the text. Probably a relatively big thing for that kind of app but I don’t know, doesn’t hurt to ask…
Cheers!
Hello, I’ve known this great app for many years. Thanks for this great job and happy new year.