I’ve been using Paint.net as a free alternative to the ever popular Photoshop for a few months. Following the recent v3.0 release, I am sharing it with my readers for this week’s Freeware Frenzy.

Note: As the name implies, Paint.net requires the Microsoft .NET 2.0 framework. If you do not already have it installed, it is possible to download it along with Paint.net from the program’s website.

Installation has two main options; Quick and Custom. Custom allows you to set Paint.net as your default image editor for JPG, PNG, BMP and/or TGA images, create a desktop shortcut, and automatically check for updates and/or beta releases. All are checked by default as they would be for the Quick Install option. After agreeing to the license, and choosing a location, installation begins. The program used one of those annoying scrolling progress bars that do nothing to show the actual progress, but no matter because it was finished in under a minute. .Net installation will add to this time. Contrary to my expectations, the program did not open immediately after I clicked Finish. 

First opening Paint.net shows a similar layout to other image editors. You’ll find a blank sheet in the center surrounded by various extra boxes for tools, colors, layers and history. New to version 3 is a very handy tabbed interface so you can switch between multiple workspaces and images without opening new instances of the entire program. Rather than listing features included in Paint.net, I thought I would present a walkthrough of some simple edits as a way to illustrate both features and usability. I grabbed a photo from my vacation archive and will apply some tweaks for a future desktop wallpaper.

Step one was to remove the unsightly date my camera had placed on top of the photo. It only takes one vacation before you remember to always turn that feature off. But with a few tools and minutes, no one will know it ever existed. I first opened the arguably most useful tool in Paint.net, or any photo editor, the Magic Wand. This tool lets you select certain areas of the image to remove or relocate them. What separates it from lesser ‘area select’ tools is that it is ’smart’ and can select odd shaped areas on its own, not merely rectangular or circular areas. After tweaking the tolerance bar to adjust how specific of an area the wand would select, I could easily grab each number of the date and delete them.

Once they were all gone, I had to fill in the holes left behind. The effects menu contains a tool to create clouds, with a variety of tweaks for size and blend. Unfortunately, I could not find an appropriate resemblance to the mottled clouds in my photo, so I used another technique. I selected an area of clouds, copied it and then laid the copy over the previously dated area. Then using some various Blur effects I had a convincing cloud cover across the photo that eliminated the numbered area completely. Now that I had that finished, I decided to work on the photo more deeply by removing the tower of Pisa entirely and creating a new image.

Once again I chose the magic wand tool and fiddled with the tolerance level until I had enough of the tower selected. After pasting the tower into a new image, I used the eraser to remove some unneeded areas. New image files default to the size of your cropped image to be helpful, but you can always edit the size. Once the tower was ready I left it in place and opened a blank image at a typical wallpaper resolution; 800×600 pixels. Using lines and the paint bucket I created the Italian flag. I then moved my image into place, using those handy tabs I mentioned earlier. For some old world charm, I colored the tower in sepia and added an oil painting effect. I added text, which becomes a part of the image after it is in place, to finish. A useful control nub lets you place the text anywhere you wish first. And here is my finished product:

I have barely touched on everything Paint.net is capable of, but I have found it to be very user friendly. The online manual will help you if you ever need it. Try your hand at photo editing and see what you can create at www.getpaint.net