Paint.NET

Paint.net is an image editor that lets you use a variety of tools to manipulate photos by fixing exposure problems, red eyes, color and many others.

Other than that, the app is also capable of building elements from scratch, allowing you to make illustrations, small models and schematics for any purpose. If you just want to “tchan” a photo, Paint.net has a number of effects that you can customize precisely.

If you have never used any previous version of Paint.net, always be aware of the menus at the top of the window. This is where you will find most of the functions you need, especially as you begin your program activities. After that, there are four main tool frames that float in the editing area.

Editing Area

The first of these frames has a number of functions to be operated with the cursor, such as selection, cropping, scribbling, zooming and many others. Second is the “Colors” board, where you can choose a color from a wide range of options to “paint” with some tool in your image. There is also a box showing the “Layers” you are using and one with the “History” edit, which allows you to go back and undo changes individually and conveniently.

You can still keep more than one project open, and whenever you start a new project, the one you were previously working on is minimized and reachable from a thumbnail at the top of the window. Plus, you can explore all editing tools and experiment with how each function works. Pay special attention to the "Settings" menu and "Effects". There is so much to play around with.

New from previous version

Paint.net's recent update to version 4.0 has brought a lot of changes to the app, but most of it concerns the tool's "guts", with little being visible at first. For starters, the app can now only be used on SP1 updated versions of Windows 7 or later and requires the .NET Framework 4.5 to function properly. This is necessary due to the new image processing engine, which should provide better performance and more graphics power to Paint.net.

This new processing engine makes the application take better advantage of your computer hardware, including support for multicore GPUs and hardware acceleration, as well as many other such features. What's more, developers have improved program start-up and final image processing time, which should ensure more agility for you on a day-to-day basis.

Agility

Although it requires more modern features to function, the new engine works with rendering more efficiently. This should represent lower system memory usage while still ensuring performance when dealing with large images.

When it comes to new features, you should basically notice improvements to what was already in previous versions and the inclusion of some simple elements. This is because the update was more geared to modernizing the platform than creating news.

To ensure all the performance promised by the new rendering engine, we advise you to access the Paint.net settings menu via a specific button in the upper right corner of the screen and check the “Hardware accelerated rendering (GPU)” option. "

Paint.net is one of the best image editing tools you can get on the internet for free. We can say that the app is even better than many other paid programs that perform very specific tasks. Paint.net can do just about everything an intermediate user needs when it comes to image editing, layout creation, and illustration.

The word that can describe Paint.net in just about everything it does is "quality." The new update of the tool has been able to guarantee spectacular application performance that you do not find in your main competitors. Other than that, from basic functions such as element selection to the most complex functions, such as rendering heavily manipulated images, Paint.net works well and quickly. In our tests, he showed no slowness or any choking at any time.

Appearance

The Paint.net interface remains very similar to what you saw in previous versions. It may be said that it takes some time before you can learn to use all the tools of the program, but this is a natural process and you should not break your head with virtually anything. Other than that, the interface is beautiful, with elaborate elements, elegant and simple effects, and can even be customized with two themes, one clear and the other bluish.

About the results obtained with Paint.net, we can say that they were very good. There are many tools to use for a variety of purposes, including applying effects to images. These effects are separated into categories and can have custom intensity, so you always look different each time you use these features.

Finally, if you want an advanced image editor with great performance and many options for manipulating your images, Paint.net is one of the best options you'll find.