Month: February 2025

Paint.NET 5.1.4 is now available

5 Comments

This update is mostly a hotfix that fixes installation on Windows Server systems.

Get the Update

There are two releases of Paint.NET:

  • Microsoft Store release (recommended)
    • You can purchase it here. This helps fund development and is an alternative or supplement to sending in a donation. In addition, updates happen automatically in the background when you’re not using the app.
    • If you already have it installed, the update should happen automatically once Microsoft certifies the update, usually within the next day or so. To get the update immediately (once it’s certified), you can follow the instructions listed here.
  • Classic Desktop release
    • Download the installer from the website. This is the recommended download if you don’t have Paint.NET installed. It can also be used to update the app.
    • If you already have it installed, you should be offered the update automatically within the next few days, but you can also get it immediately by going to ⚙ Settings -> Updates -> Check Now.
    • Offline Installers and Portable ZIPs are available over on GitHub.

Change Log

Changes since 5.1.3:

  • Fixed: Installation on Windows Server will no longer fail with an error about a missing srclient DLL.
  • Improved: When saving an image fails due to Windows Defender’s “Controlled Folder Access” setting, the error message will mention that instead of being a generic “I/O failure” message.
  • New: GIF Comment metadata is now preserved. It maps to EXIF Photo.UserComment tags.
  • Improved: Consolidated the number of threads used for Async Present from 3 per image (canvas, left ruler, top ruler) to 3 total.
  • Improved: ColorManagementEffect now supports DxgiColorSpace color contexts (for plugin developers).

    Paint.NET 5.1.3 is now available

    2 Comments

    This is a maintenance release with a big heaping of performance improvements, bug fixes, and other small changes.

    Get the Update

    There are two releases of Paint.NET:

    • Microsoft Store release (recommended)
      • You can purchase it here. This helps fund development and is an alternative or supplement to sending in a donation. In addition, updates happen automatically in the background when you’re not using the app.
      • If you already have it installed, the update should happen automatically once Microsoft certifies the update, usually within the next day or so. To get the update immediately (once it’s certified), you can follow the instructions listed here.
    • Classic Desktop release
      • Download the installer from the website. This is the recommended download if you don’t have Paint.NET installed. It can also be used to update the app.
      • If you already have it installed, you should be offered the update automatically within the next few days, but you can also get it immediately by going to ⚙ Settings -> Updates -> Check Now.
      • Offline Installers and Portable ZIPs are available over on GitHub.

    Change Log

    Changes since 5.1.2:

    • Fixed: Some PNG metadata from text chunks is now preserved (Author, Comment, Copyright, and Description).
    • Fixed some issues with snapping tool windows when there are multiple monitors with different scaling levels. Sometimes the snapping boundaries would be calculated in the wrong coordinate space and cause snapping to happen at seemingly arbitrary (and weird) locations.
    • Improved frame rate, frame pacing, and responsiveness of the canvas when using CPU- or GPU-intensive tools such as Move Selected Pixels.
    • Fixed an off-by-1 error in the Median Blur effect that was producing incorrect results, especially with radius=1.
    • Fixed a crash in the Levels adjustment’s UI due to some improper value clamping.
    • Fixed the Red Eye Removal effect so it no longer crashes if the canvas zoom level does not show the whole image.
    • Fixed the Red Eye Removal effect so that it properly clips to the active selection.
    • Fixed: View -> Zoom to Selection no longer adjusts the zoom level slightly if used twice in a row.
    • Improved: The Color properties for the Clouds effect now have Reset buttons, which will reset them to the current Primary and Secondary colors.
    • Fixed: When opening an image with a CMYK color profile, it will be ignored and removed if the image is actually RGB.
    • Fixed some issues with the mouse cursor briefly being a generic arrow instead of the tool’s requested cursor.
    • Fixed: The installer will no longer silently die on Windows 10 pre-v21H2. It will now correctly show an error message stating that Windows 10 v21H2 is required, and the exit code will be ERROR_OLD_WIN_VERSION.
    • Substantially improved UI responsiveness when modifying a complex selection with a combine mode other than Replace
    • Fixed: Tooltips now respect dark mode (thanks @toe_head2001!)
    • Fixed: The Text tool’s “Sharp (Modern)” rendering mode has been reverted to use Natural Symmetric rendering instead of Natural Symmetric Downsampled. (See discussion here. cc @Leahsarah)
    • Reduced the performance cost of the circle “preview cursor” that all of the brush tools use.
    • Fixed PdnZoomBlurEffect when the AlphaMode property was set to Straight.
    • Fixed PdnZoomBlurEffect when the BorderMode was set to Soft.
    • New: HlslUnaryFunctionEffect (for GPU effect plugin developers) now has FrexpMantissaPortion, FrexpExponentPortion, ModfIntegerPortion, and ModfFractionalPortion. These provide access to the Frexp and Modf HLSL instructions.
    • New: Plugins may now implement custom DirectWrite IInlineObjects.
    • New: IEffectConfigForm.Close() is now public, and may be used by plugins that are hosting other effects via IEffectsService2.
    • New: Added an accelerator key for Image -> Rotate 90° Counter-clockwise.
    • New: Added accelerator keys to the View menu for the Inches, Centimeters, and Pixels choices.
    • Changed to use the Windows thread pool instead of the .NET portable thread pool.

    Paint.NET 5.1.3 Beta (build 9168)

    2 Comments

    This is a maintenance release with a big heaping of performance improvements, bug fixes, and other small changes.

    Change Log

    Changes since 5.1.2:

    • Fixed: Some PNG metadata from text chunks is now preserved (Author, Comment, Copyright, and Description).
    • Fixed some issues with snapping tool window when there are multiple monitors with different scaling levels. Sometimes the snapping boundaries would be calculated in the wrong coordinate space and cause snapping to happen at seemingly arbitrary (and weird) locations.
    • Fixed an off-by-1 error in the Median Blur effect that was producing incorrect results, especially with radius=1
    • Fixed a crash in the Levels adjustment’s UI due to some improper value clamping.
    • Fixed the Red Eye Removal effect so it no longer crashes if the canvas zoom level does not show the whole image.
    • Fixed the Red Eye Removal effect so that it properly clips to the active selection.
    • Fixed: View -> Zoom to Selection no longer adjusts the zoom level slightly if used twice in a row.
    • Improved: The Color properties for the Clouds effect now have Reset buttons, which will reset them to the current Primary and Secondary colors.
    • Fixed some issues with the mouse cursor briefly being a generic arrow instead of the tool’s requested cursor.
    • Fixed: The installer will no longer silently die on Windows 10 pre-v21H2. It will now correctly show an error message stating that Windows 10 v21H2 is required, and the exit code will be ERROR_OLD_WIN_VERSION.
    • Improved framerate and responsiveness of the canvas when using CPU- or GPU-intensive tools such as Move Selected Pixels
    • Substantially improved UI responsiveness when modifying a complex selection with a combine mode other than Replace
    • Fixed: Tooltips now respect dark mode (thanks @toe_head2001!)
    • Fixed: The Text tool’s “Sharp (Modern)” rendering mode has been reverted to use Natural Symmetric rendering instead of Natural Symmetric Downsampled. (See discussion here. cc @Leahsarah)
    • Reduced the performance cost of the circle “preview cursor” that all of the brush tools use.
    • New: HlslUnaryFunctionEffect (for GPU effect plugin developers) now has FrexpMantissaPortion, FrexpExponentPortion, ModfIntegerPortion, and ModfFractionalPortion. These provide access to the Frexp and Modf HLSL instructions.
    • New: Plugins may now implement custom DirectWrite IInlineObjects.
    • New: IEffectConfigForm.Close() is now public, and may be used by plugins that are hosting other effects via IEffectsService2.
    • New: Added an accelerator key for Image -> Rotate 90° Counter-clockwise.
    • New: Added accelerator keys to the View menu for the Inches, Centimeters, and Pixels choices.
    • Changed to use the Windows threadpool instead of the .NET portable threadpool.

    Download and Install

    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.

    image.png

    You can also download the installer here (for any supported CPU and OS), which is also where you can find downloads for offline installers, portable ZIPs, and deployable MSIs.