Microsoft Paint - Deluxe (Paint.net)

[magintz]

In the current issue of "Computer Active" I noticed a small clipping about a piece of software called "Paint.net 2" and was developed by Microsft in partnership with Washington State University.

Not sure if anyone knows about this, I checked it out when they had an original beta release but this verison seems to be stable and decent enough to fully replace microsft Paint.

Anywho, here are some details for you all:

Paint.net is intended to be a replacement for the free MS Paint software provided with all Windows operating systems.

It offers many of the powerful features found in commercial editors, including the ability to work on multiple layers, full transparent PNG support, unlimited history, and a plethora of visual effects.

An interesting feature is the way each tool window becomes transparent when covering the image. This enables better implementation of effects and is something the big image editors are currently lacking.

Adding and editing text is somewhat limited, but will hopefully be improved in later versions. You can't seem to move text around the canvas or highlight it to change individual character sizes, and it doesn't automatically assign text to a new layer.

Check this link out to download it:

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2129101/paint-net

You will need to install .NET Framework 1.1 in order to run this software (23.1MB) - Link available through site given above.

Hope this is useful to the people still restricted to using MS Paint, or who have difficulties using some of the advanced software such as Photoshop.

M

EDIT - Fuzzbingles, just saw the freeware apps thread, and to boot it contains a paint.net link.... raspberries. I'll leave it here for now to aleert people to such a great alt. to Paint.

[TheYak]

It has my hearty recommendation.  I've used it for some diagramming work projects, some basic photoshopping, and some minor sprite-work.  It's still got a few bugs and quirks (some stuff not working how it's supposed to and some stuff that should've been put together better).  If you're looking for a free MS-Paint replacement with Transparency, Layering, Palette, Basic Filters, more overall image control and better .GIF, .JPEG & .PNG implementation, this ought to be right up your alley.

[LGM]

It's a rather good paint program, but some flaws are keeping me from using it. I stick with GIMP for now.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

How interesting. Seems that AGS doesn't recognize the BMPs Paint.Net generates. Instead, it sees a block of black. I had to resave it as PNG.

[kadok]

is this paint program  working with win98se or only with xp

[magintz]

How interesting. Seems that AGS doesn't recognize the BMPs Paint.Net generates. Instead, it sees a block of black. I had to resave it as PNG.

Yes I had the same problem how very odd. Chris, any suggestions or improvements you can make to AGS? I found I have to copy and paste into normal paint first.

is this paint program working with win98se or only with xp

As far as I know because this uses the .net framework it will only work in XP. Maybe 2000, not sure.