- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: January 30, 2007
- Total Downloads: 3,314,678
- Downloads last week: 45,019
- See full specifications
A newer version of Paint.NET is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 872 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
If you just want to retouch images a bit, Photoshop is overkill. Check out Paint.NET, an open-source freeware editor with all the essential tools, including those for cropping, rotating, resizing, adjusting colors, and creating collages.
Paint.NET supports the most popular image formats--JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and others--but not superhigh resolution ones like RAW. However, you'll find such basic effects as Red Eye Removal, Emboss, Mosaic, and Oil Painting, and a few higher-end features such as Clone Stamp, Lasso Select, and Magic Wand. Like a full-fledged graphics package, Paint.NET even supports layers and an actions manager. The interface is very convenient, and the panels are semitransparent, so you won't need to hide them.
Version 3 fixes many old quibbles. Multiple-image editing is done through a convenient thumbnail manager in the upper-right corner of the app; blurry tool icons have been sharpened as well. Paint.NET is far better than Microsoft Paint, and given its free price, it's a no-brainer for anyone who does a lot of minor graphical tweaking.
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Publisher's description
From dotPDN :Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on Windows computers. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. It started development at Washington State University as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.
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