First, check out the post for the first 5.0 alpha build to read about all the latest changes, additions, and fixes. There’s a lot!

We’re now at the beta stage for this release, which means 5.0 is feature complete, translations are complete, and all that’s left is to squash any outstanding bugs. If you find any bugs it is very important for you to report them! Do not assume that the bug has already been noticed or will be fixed.

This build is available via the built-in updater as long as you have opted-in to pre-release updates. From within Settings -> Updates, enable “Also check for pre-release (beta) versions of paint.net” and then click on the Check Now button. You can also use the links below to download an offline installer or portable ZIP.

Here’s what’s been fixed or changed since the previous build (5.0 alpha build 8368):

• Fixed many long-standing issues with keyboard/mouse focus, whereby tool shortcuts would not work when the mouse was in certain places (e.g. over the Tools or History window)
• Fixed a bug in the Brush Size, Corner Radius, and Font Size drop-downs where the value would be missing from the drop-down list
• Fixed a bug in the Bokeh blur effect where the image would be sharpened or blank when the radius was less than 1.0
• Fixed a few translation-related bugs
• Fixed a rare crash in the canvas rendering code
• Fixed the Move Selected Pixel tool’s rendering when pixelated selection quality was chosen in the toolbar. The outermost edges were being incorrectly antialiased.
• Fixed the Move Selected Pixel tool’s rendering when using Nearest Neighbor and antialiased selection quality. It was sampling pixels outside the selection.
• Optimized startup performance a bit
• New: Added a Direct2D ShadowEffect2 which supports the same HighQuality mode as GaussianBlurEffect2. Plugins can use these for higher quality rendering when it’s necessary to avoid certain types of rendering artifacts.
• Changed: The wrappers for Direct2D’s built-in Directional Blur, Gaussian Blur, and Shadow effects now defaults to Quality instead of Balanced
• Removed “Preserve Background” from Rotate/Zoom

System Requirements

• Windows 10 v1809+ or Windows 11
  • NOTE: Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1 are no longer supported.
• 64-bit CPU and 64-bit version of Windows
  • Both Intel/AMD x64 and ARM64 are natively supported.
  • NOTE: 32-bit x86 is no longer supported.
• Optional:
  • A pen or drawing tablet that supports Windows Ink
• Recommended:
  • A CPU that supports AVX2, which includes most CPUs released since 2013.
    • Note that AVX2 is not required. It simply helps performance, especially at app startup.
  • A discrete GPU such as an NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon, or Intel Arc
    • or an AMD Radeon APU (a type of integrated GPU)
    • or an Intel Iris Plus or Iris Xe integrated GPU
  • The GPU must support Direct3D 11. Otherwise the CPU will be used for rendering, which will have poor performance.
  • An Intel CPU with an Intel “HD” or “UHD” iGPU works fine but will probably not show much, if any, performance improvement over previous versions of Paint.NET (which used the CPU for most rendering). The default quality used across the app (e.g. in distortion effects, and the Move Selected Pixels tool) will be automatically lowered to compensate.

Downloads

Offline installers, portable ZIPs, and deployable MSIs are available over on GitHub. The “web installer” will be available at a later date.