This update adds JPEG XL (*.jxl) support, improves quantization color quality, updates AVIF loading to better handle mapping HDR images to SDR, and fixes some bugs.
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 β Settings -> Updates -> Check Now.
- Offline Installers and Portable ZIPs are available over on GitHub.
Change Log
Changes since 5.1.4:
- New: JPEG XL (*.jxl) images are now supported by way of bundling @null54‘s JpegXLFileType plugin
- Fixed the Levels adjustment not honoring the active selection.
- Fixed some more mouse cursor issues when completing certain actions with certain tools.
- Fixed some keyboard shortcuts in the Adjustments menu not working reliably.
- Fixed most cases of tooltips blinking on/off when drawn near the bottom of the screen (thanks @toe_head2001!).
- Fixed some new high-DPI scaling issues in toolbar dropdowns.
- Improved quantization quality for Effects->Color-Quantize and when saving an image at 8-bit depth and below. This was done by merging octree node colors in linear gamma space.
- Fixed some incorrect background text color rendering in the status bar.
- Updated the bundled AvifFileType plugin to v3.12.1, which improves conversion from HDR images utilizing the Rec. 2020 PQ color space (thanks @null54).
- Updated the bundled WebpFileType plugin to v1.5.0 (thanks @null54!).
Paint.NET Blog 
Woohoo, nice little update!
Crossing my fingers for one day getting the ability to manipulate/move multiple layers at the same time! π€
Thanks.π
Thank you for JXL support and high-DPI UI bug cleaning, mr. Rick! BTW XnView MP provides lesser
PNG size than Paint.NET so some reason. I thought Paint.NET strips bloat data.
Your comment doesn’t make (grammatical) sense? Also, PDN does not “strips bloat data.”
Sorry Mr. Rick, my browser crashed and only first part of the message got delivered. I then tried to add the second part of the message as a different message, but the typo ruined it. My bad!
Anyway, what I was trying to tell is the following. Once I save a file to PNG from Paint.NET and re-save it with XnView MP (with same bit depth), the file gets noticeably smaller. Probably that is because I use Compression setting of 9 for PNG in XnView MP (I couldn’t find the same setting in Paint.NET). In example, I get PNG file size of 24.8 MB (XnView MP) VS 26.7 MB (Paint.NET). This roughly calculates to about 10% smaller size of XnView-produced PNG.
Sorry again for convoluted explanation, Mr. Dev.
Ahh, that clears things up π PDN doesn’t have a compression level setting for PNG, as you noticed. I would add one, but the WIC (Windows Imaging Component) codec doesn’t provide the ability to do that. My general advice has been to use an external tool to “crush” PNGs, if you need that. I use PNG Gauntlet, which is a multithreaded UI front-end to PNGOut, OptiPNG, and DeflOpt.
Thank you kindly for through explanation, Mr. Rick, I got it regarding WIC and options, as well as why XnView MP works differently!
Please contact Microsoft to ask them to add/provide one.
I’m not doing that