Paint.NET - In Depth Look at the Free Photo Editor

04/07/2007 10:17:30 PM · #1

Sometime back

Crayon made a thread on this editor but it's been awhile and as a software programmer i felt the need to bring a better look at it.

User Base
Do you not have a real imaged editor. Is Gimp too messy or complicated. Looking for Photoshop Elements capability with Photoshop CS2 Plugin expandability without paying a dime?

Overview

Adjustments:
Auto-Level, Black and White, Brightness/Contrast, Curves, Hue/Saturation, Invert Colors, Levels, Sepia

Built in Filters:
Blur - Gaussian Blur, Median, Motion Blur, Radial Blur, Unfocus, Zoom Blur.
Distort - Buldge, Polar Inversion, Tile Reflection, Twist
Add Noise, Clouds, Edge Detect, Emboss, Frosted Glass, Glow, Oil Painting, Outline, Pencil Sketch, Pixelate, Red Eye Removal, Relief, Sharpen.

It has the right stuff, what an image editor MUST have... but not all the tricks you may desire
Levels

Curves

And everything else you'd expect it to have....

Semi Unique Features

UNLIMITED HISTORY

Thumbnailed Open Recent File

Single Dialog Application that allows for multiple open files.

Zoom Blur Filter

and some others that arent so special.... many more built and even more to be downloaded!

Where to get it
//www.getpaint.net

Dont forget to pick up some filters to give it that greater capability.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

04/07/2007 10:18:37 PM · #2

As far as my personal experience with it. I started out on Ulead PhotoImpact, which was good but version 4 got outdated along time ago. Im good with photoshop but could not afford it. I did not like gimp.

As of current i no longer use it because I now have Photoshop CS2.

karmat

Apple iPhone 7

04/07/2007 11:08:05 PM · #3

Very interesting. I'm about as illiterate as anyone when it comes to post processing, but this program looks like it would be good for someone starting out that isn't quite ready for the jump (either with experience or money) to some of the other software that is generally "accepted."

Wish I had time to download it and really look closely at it. :/

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/08/2007 01:39:39 PM · #4

bump

strangeghost

Canon EOS-7D

04/08/2007 02:11:38 PM · #5

Appears to be Windoze only...

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

04/08/2007 02:12:49 PM · #6

Originally posted by strangeghost:

Appears to be Windoze only...

Depends on how creative you can get. I used to run office xp, IE 6, and aol 5 on Linux.

But yeah its not like the other OS's have jumping good .NET library support and its not like microsoft is gonna help at all.

Message edited by author 2007-04-08 14:13:18.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

04/08/2007 03:03:07 PM · #7

From the review forum at the download site:

Reviewer: Kramy Mar 25, 2007
Version: 3.01

v3.0 no longer supports Windows 2000. A bit sad, since Win2k suffers from MSpaint as well, but nothing we can do about that.

Found the last version to support Win2k:
//tinyurl.com/2opk6n

Would be nice if betanews mirrored it, for people with Win2k.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

04/08/2007 03:10:06 PM · #8

GeneralIE, that actually sucks I had no idea.... I guess Win2k doesnt support newer versions of .NET

Did you look on oldversion.com? If not then we need to submit it.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

04/08/2007 03:12:22 PM · #9

Originally posted by RainMotorsports:

GeneralIE, that actually sucks I had no idea.... I guess Win2k doesnt support newer versions of .NET

Did you look on oldversion.com? If not then we need to submit it.

I checked at the link I listed, but I don't kow if it works. I have to leave now -- I'll check back later ... if you find a working link you can post it here.

04/08/2007 03:15:06 PM · #10

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by RainMotorsports:
GeneralIE, that actually sucks I had no idea.... I guess Win2k doesnt support newer versions of .NET

Did you look on oldversion.com? If not then we need to submit it.

I checked at the link I listed, but I don't kow if it works. I have to leave now -- I'll check back later ... if you find a working link you can post it here.

//oldversion.com/program.php?n=paintdotnet

I have some 2.7x's im gonna send them if theres any other version that are older then 3.0 but newer then 2.7 let me know so i can upload them.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

04/09/2007 08:56:42 AM · #11

bump for the weekday

David.C

04/09/2007 12:51:53 PM · #12

I had time for a quick look. The controls are fairly intuitive and precise if you are already familiar with similar controls. The Levels dialog takes a bit of getting use to, but I think I like having the before and after histograms on the screen. However, the one thing I missed most was an always visible histogram. From what I could see, the only way to see a histogram was to open the levels dialog. Maybe I have grown to rely on the histogram too much in PS, I don't know.

Do you know if any of the plug-ins give a histogram view?

David