Paint.NET depends on Microsoft's.NET Framework 4.7.2, which is automatically installed if it isn't already on the system. Paint.NET will automatically run in 64-bit mode if possible. You must have a 64-bit capable CPU and an x64 edition of Windows.
Software Version | Release Date | Size |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Paint XP | Aug 21, 2001 | 427.00 KB |
Microsoft Paint Windows 98 | Jun 25, 1998 | 336.00 KB |
Microsoft Paint is not the Photoshop for the poor, nor is it a powerful image editor. I've always used it as a simple screen shot capturing tool where I can quickly screen capture, save as GIF (Windows 98 versions of MS Paint could only save as BMP) and upload it to show someone a bug I'm experiencing on a web platform. Are there truly any other uses for this program? Well, yes -- I do recall seeing some really fantastic MS Paint drawings. Search for 'MS Paint drawings' and you'll see what I mean -- the Venice one is truly fantastic, although the guy cheated and used Photoshop for some filters afterward so I don't know if we can truly count that ;).
MS Paint has been bundled with Windows since 1.0, although it has evolved greatly to its current iteration (I haven't yet played around with Windows 8 Paint) and Windows XP versions of Paint can apparently be used to scan documents (although I've never used it for that purpose). Windows 7 Paint doesn't feel like Paint. It feels as if I'm using the new version of Microsoft Office, but the problem with that is, MS Paint is not an Office product, hence the Graphics category you see above.
So to start off our MS Paint section, below you will find the version of MS Paint that came with Windows XP. It will work on Windows 7. In fact, you can even replace your Windows 7 Version with MS Paint, by replacing mspaint.exe (probably in c:windowssystem32) with the file you download below. Of course, you need to rename it to mspaint.exe as well. Windows 7 Paint is 6.2MB compared to Windows XP Paint being a mere 427KB. Oops!
Paint.NET has got to be one of the nicest surprises for a freeware image editing program. It comes packed with all of the most essential tools needed in a modern image editing suite and completely blows Microsoft Paint out of the water. Despite the name, the two programs are not comparable at all.
If you're a Photoshop user who's used to using layers within a working document, then you won't be disappointed when using this freeware application because layers remain the foundation of Paint.NET along with applying filters and effects to specific layers. Transparency is also supported.
The community around this program is definitely a plus because users help users and provide tutorials and a growing list of addons, the addons make applying unique and cool effects easy as pie.
Like Adobe Photoshop, Paint.NET can also apply adjustments to your images such as auto-levels, contrast, invert, colour levels, hues, posterize and many others. Standard effects available out-of-the-box are standard blurs, sharpening, photo effects (red-eye removal, photo softening), a list of various distortions and more. To be clear, Paint.NET includes almost all of the standard Photoshop effects and adjustments in a very familiar places.
Performance-wise, this program has been optimized for systems running Windows 7 (but older platforms are also supported) and works flawlessly on some of the slowest systems (like netbooks) to some of the fastest systems with multiple cores. The fact that it contains so many features and tools, yet runs so much faster than paid-for rivals is very impressive. The program ran when we tested it along with many other applications and the executable used virtually no unneeded memory or CPU power.
Another point worth mentioning is the fact that Paint.NET offers users the ability to undo and redo any action from within the history window.
Paint.NET's online community has a wide range of different Paint.NET tutorials available on different forums and newsgroups.
Paint.NET is definitely better than Corel Draw and certainly rivals Adobe Photoshop when it comes to standard and basic features. If you're not a professional and don't require the absolute power of Photoshop, this image editor is definitely worth installing before forking out hundreds of dollars for a commercial image editing suite.
Paint.NET can add text to an image, apply special effects to a picture, create PNG graphics and create web graphics.
This download is licensed as freeware for the Windows (32-bit and 64-bit) operating system on a laptop or desktop PC from graphics editors without restrictions. Paint.NET 4.2.13 is available to all software users as a free download for Windows 10 PCs but also without a hitch on Windows 7 and Windows 8.
The program was created by the developer as a freeware product, but donations for the continued development are highly appreciated. You may generally make a donation via the developer's main web site.
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