This update fixes a few longstanding issues with copy/paste, tool shortcut keys, and tooltips in the Tools window. I’ve also changed the capitalization of “paint.net” to be “Paint.NET.”

Change Log

Changes since 5.1 beta (build 9066):

• Fixed: Copy/Paste has been hardened against short-term intermittent errors and should no longer show spurious error dialogs (e.g. ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED) except in legitimate cases.
• Fixed: Certain shortcut keys, especially for switching tools, will no longer stop functioning if a floating window (e.g. Tools) is hidden and then shown by clicking on the button at the top right of the main window.
• Fixed: Tooltips in the Tools window will no longer stop functioning if a floating window (e.g. Tools) is hidden and then shown by clicking on the button at the top right of the main window.
• Removed the “Scrolling past the edge of the image (overscroll)” checkbox from Settings. This was enabled by default, and now it is always enabled.
• Fixed: The installer was occasionally showing an error about an InvalidGraphConfigurationException on some systems
• Added a KnownColorSpace API for plugins so they can create IColorContexts and IDeviceColorContexts for the Display P3 and ProPhoto RGB color spaces

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.

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.

This is a hotfix that fixes a plugin, @BoltBait‘s Text Fun Factory, that was broken in the previous beta build.

Change Log

Changes since 5.1 beta (build 9064):

• Fixed: @BoltBait‘s TextFunFactory plugin was not working on Windows 10 due to the lack of support for IDWriteFontFace6 (despite what Microsoft’s documentation states)

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.

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.

This is a hotfix for the bugs that were discovered in the previous build (5.1 beta build 9063).

Change Log

Changes since 5.1 beta (build 9063):

• Fixed: Clicking in the color wheel was not setting the active color
• Fixed: Retrieving an 8-bit bitmap from the clipboard with IClipboardService.TryGetImageBgra32() was not working

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.

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.

This build fixes some issues reported with the previous build, namely with pasting or loading images of certain types (e.g. 8-bit PNGs) or with certain types of color profiles (XYB/LUT). Input latency for the canvas has also been further reduced a little.

Change Log

Changes since 5.1 beta (build 9056):

• Fixed: Right-clicking in the Colors window’s palette will now correctly set the inactive color (regression from 5.0)
• Improved input latency further by using a dedicated per-Control thread for asynchronously calling IDXGISwapChain[1]::Present[1]() instead of using the shared threadpool. This also fixes some weirdness at startup with canvas redrawing when a lot of plugins are installed, especially if antivirus decides to do a more in-depth security scan.
• Fixed: Could not copy 8-bit-or-less bit-depth images from Explorer into Paint.NET.
• Fixed: Copying a 4-bit PNG from Explorer into Paint.NET would have extremely bad performance.
• Fixed: Images with XYB LUT color profiles were not loading, or were loading incorrectly
• Fixed: GPU effect plugins will not default to Float32 precision when using IDeviceContext.CreateImageFromBitmap(). This was otherwise resulting in inconsistent rendering output or analysis results.
• Fixed: IImagingFactory.CreateColorTransformedBitmap() and IBitmapSource.CreateColorTransformer() are now available for plugins to make use of for color management purposes.
• New: Plugins may now use PixelFormat.[Try]CreateDefaultColorContext(), IImagingFactory.[Try]CreateDefaultColorContext(), and IDeviceContext.[Try]CreateDefaultColorContext() extension methods. These will create the default color context (color profile) for the given PixelFormat.
• New: Plugins may now use the PixelFormat.GetInfo() extension method to retrieve the corresponding IPixelFormatInfo object
• New: Plugins may now implement the managed ITextRenderer interface (corresponds to the native IDWriteTextRenderer1 interface), and use it when calling ITextLayout::Draw(…)
• New: Added ITextLayout methods Get/SetCharacterSpacing and Get/SetPairKerning
• New: Added ITextFormat properties LastLineWrapping, OpticalAlignment, and VerticalGlyphOrientation

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.

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.

Just a few more changes and fixes before the stable release next month, including some tweaks to clipboard handling with respect to color management.

Change Log

Changes since 5.1 beta (build 9038):

• Updated clipboard handling with respect to color management: instead of being converted to sRGB, PNGs copied to the clipboard now contain the image’s color profile. When pasting a PNG from the clipboard, the color profile is used if it’s available. For plugins using IClipboardService, there are now methods for including the color profile when copying, and obtaining the color profile when pasting.
• Fixed Edit->Paste into New Layer and Layers->Import from File so they fill with transparent black instead of the secondary color when expanding the canvas size
• Fixed some flickering in the toolbar when undoing certain commands
• Slightly improved overall performance by switching to .NET 9’s System.Threading.Lock
• Fixed a few small performance bugs with the new Direct2D Flip Mode code
• Updated to .NET 9.0-rc2, which fixes a small visual glitch in window titlebars

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.

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.

I haven’t been updating the blog lately, partly due to … honestly I kind of just forgot about the blog (do people still read blogs? Let me know if it’s still important to you so I don’t forget again!). I kept meaning to update it for the new 5.1 pre-release builds I’ve been releasing, but life got quite busy, work was really interesting, etc. When I was away from my PC I’d often think, “oh yeah I need to update the blog,” but then I never remembered by the time I got back to my PC. Too many other things going on.

Anyway! Version 5.1 is introducing some important functionality and some amazing performance improvements, described in depth in following forum posts:

• 5.1 alpha build 8900
• 5.1 alpha build 8929
• 5.1 beta build 8980
• 5.1 beta build 9000

tl;dr: COLOR MANAGEMENT (support for color profiles), including support for HDR and WCG (Wide Color Gamut) displays. Performance improvements. Input latency reductions. Enormous reductions in memory usage (both CPU and GPU). New and revamped blur effects.

Please head to the forum post for the newest build (5.1 beta build 9000) for download links and information.

And like I said, if you still read this blog, please post a comment to remind me that it’s still important to you. This will help me to remember to update it in the future.