Beta 1 of Paint.NET 3 is now available for download and I highly recommend this amazing image editing tool. At this point Paint.NET 3 is feature complete and over the next two months they will be working solely on bug fixes. Here is what’s new in this version:
- New effect: Clouds
- New menu command: Edit->Fill Selection (shortcut key: Backspace). This will fill any selected area with the primary color.
- New toolbar item / hotkey: The brush size may be manipulated with +/- buttons in the toolbar. Hotkeys for this are [ and ], and you may hold Ctrl to increment or decrement by 5.
- New translations: They are not complete yet, and in fact some have just been started. They are mostly in place right now in order to get the code correct: Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, and Spanish. You will have the ability to choose one of these languages during installation, and from the Help->Language menu, but the text will still be either mostly or completely English. Complete translations will be finished by February.
- Added left-handed shortcut keys for Cut (Shift+Del), Copy (Ctrl+Ins), Paste (Shift+Ins)
- Upper-left coordinate of selection is now displayed in the status bar
- When moving text with the Text tool, the anchor point coordinate is now displayed in the status bar
One thing I can’t get over is that Microsoft doesn’t include this program with Windows. They definitely shouldn’t replace the original version of Paint because I know some people that use it simply because there isn’t a lot of buttons to confuse them, but power users would love to see Paint.NET integrated with Windows. Maybe they could just offer a menu command to switch between “advanced” and “basic” modes?
I have been using this program for several months now and would hate not having it. I am also an avid Photoshop user but I find myself using Paint.NET more than Photoshop because it loads so quickly and lets me get my stuff done fast. They obviously don’t have as many features as Photoshop nor a comparable number of filters but I hardly use them anyway. Congrats to the Paint.NET team because they have done an amazing job on this product!
Note: This version does expire December 31 but that is because a newer version will be out before then.
News Source: Paint.NET Blog
If this is a Microsoft supported project then why is there a “Donate” link on the page that allows you donate money via PayPal.
Maybe the billions of dollars Vista took really put a hurt on all the other projects.
I’m not completely sure how they are tied to Microsoft but I know I have read in several places that they are owned by Microsoft. The footer of the page says “Portions Copyright (C) 2006 Microsoft Corporation” so maybe it is only partially owned.
While I agree that Paint as it currently is is anemic, Paint.NET might be a little to good for Windows. I can just imagine what would happen if they included it. Adobe would sue MS saying that they are destroying their business, MS would have a multi-million dollar settlement, and then we wouldn’t even have normal paint on Windows
. (Not that it matters 
.) I agree with one of your sentiments, though. With Paint.NET and Gimp, there is little need for Photoshop or Fireworks anymore!
While is downloadable for free, why include in Windows? Who needs it, shoul download it. And since it is updated so frequently, to be included in Windows could make no sense: till you install your Windows, the version of Paint.NET will be for sure another.
I must admit I am a fan of Paint Shop Pro, more cheap than Adobe Photoshop and almost as good. But I enjoy to see any free solution, and, who knows, maybe I will not have to buy PSP XII, but use Paint.NET next year?
I’ve been using Paint.NET as my “quick fix” editor for months and absolutely love it. I think it will continue to get even better as they add more features.
I use Picasa as my quick photo editor, and Photoshop 7 does everything else. I do agree the program looks nice though, and maybe handy for those scared of the expense and complexity of Photoshop.