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 Paint.NET version 3.5 |
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| Developer(s) | dotPDN, LLC |
| Initial release | May 6, 2004 |
| Stable release | 3.5.1 / 2009-11-19 |
| Written in | Mainly C#, with some C++ |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP with SP2[1] |
| Platform | "Wintel" (32-bit or 64-bit) |
| Available in | English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish[1] |
| Type | Raster graphics editor |
| License | Freeware[2] |
| Website | www.GetPaint.NET |
| CPU | 800 MHz (32-bit or 64-bit)[1] |
|---|---|
| Memory | 512MB[1] |
| Hard Drive Space | 200 MB[1] |
| Screen resolution | 1024×768 |
| Required components | .NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1[1] |
Paint.NET is a freeware raster graphics editing program for Microsoft Windows, developed on the .NET Framework. Originally created as a Washington State University student project[3], Paint.NET has evolved from a simple replacement for the Microsoft Paint program, which is included with Windows, into a powerful editor with support for layers, blending, transparency, and plugins.
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Overview
Paint.NET is primarily programmed in the C# programming language, with small amounts of C++ used for installation and shell-integration related functionality. Its native image format, .PDN, is a compressed representation of the application's internal object format, which preserves layering and other information.[4] Excluding the installer, text, and graphics, Paint.NET is released under a modified version of the MIT-like License.[5] It was initially released as completely open source, but due to breaches of license, all resource files (such as interface text and icons) were released under a Creative Commons license forbidding modification, and the installer was made closed-source.[6]
Version 3.36 was initially released as partial open source as described above, but the sources were later removed by the developer. The developer no longer makes the source freely available for download. In version 3.5, the license was altered to reflect this.
History
Paint.NET originated as a computer science senior design project during spring 2004 at Washington State University. Version 1.0 consisted of 36,000 lines of code and was written in fifteen weeks.[7] In contrast, version 3.35 has approximately 162,000 lines of code. The Paint.NET project continued over the summer and into the fall 2004 semester for both the version 1.1 and 2.0 releases.
Development continues with one developer who now works at Microsoft and worked on previous versions of Paint.NET while he was a student at WSU. As of May 2006 the program had been downloaded at least 2 million times,[8] at a rate of about 180,000 per month.[9]
Notable releases
| Version | Release date | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | May 6, 2004 | Initial release |
| 1.1 | October 1, 2004 | Support for effect plugins |
| 2.0 | December 17, 2004 | Many new effects, adjustments, and tools |
| 2.5 | November 26, 2005 | Internationalization support; update manager; support for file type plugins |
| 2.6 | February 24, 2006 | Use of .NET Framework 2.0, full 64-bit support |
| 2.72 | August 31, 2006 | Last version to support Windows 2000 |
| 3.0 | January 26, 2007 | Tabbed document user interface (TDI) |
| 3.10 | August 23, 2007 | First inclusion of 3rd party plugins into the official release |
| 3.20 | December 12, 2007 | Made effect plugin development easier; improved many existing effects; several parts no longer qualify as open source |
| 3.30 | April 10, 2008 | Made file type plugin development easier; ability to save PNG in 8-bit and 24-bit color depth, and BMP in 8-bit |
| 3.35 | June 7, 2008 | Dramatically improved selection support through the use of the General Polygon Clipper library |
| 3.36 | August 26, 2008 | Improved effect rendering speed; last release where source code was available. |
| 3.5 | November 6, 2009 | First version optimized for use on Windows 7, visual refresh, performance improvements, reduced memory usage |
| 3.5.1 | November 19th, 2009 | Windows 7 taskbar reporting, image resize problems resolved, copy and paste issues resolved |
Plugins
Paint.NET supports plugins, which add image adjustments, effects, and support for additional file types. They can be programmed using any .NET programming language, though they are most commonly written in C#.[10] These are created by volunteer coders on the program's discussion board, the Paint.NET Forum. Though most are simply published via the discussion board, some have been included with a later release of the program. For instance, a DirectDraw Surface file type plugin, (originally by Dean Ashton) and an Ink Sketch and Soften Portrait effect (originally by David Issel) were added to Paint.NET in version 3.10. Also, a plugin called CodeLab, originally written by Tom Jackson, allows the everyday user of Paint.NET to try their hand at making their own plugins, and if wanted, to compile them into their own plugin files.
Hundreds of plugins have been produced[11] ; such as Shape3D, which renders a 2D drawing into a 3D shape. Some plugins expand on the functionality that comes with Paint.NET, such as Curves+ and Sharpen+, which extend the included tools Curves and Sharpen, respectively.
Examples of file type plugins include an Animated Cursor and Icon plugin and an Adobe Photoshop file format plugin.[11] Several of these plugins are based on existing open source software, such as a RAW plugin that uses dcraw and a PNG optimization plugin that uses OptiPNG.
Support for non-Windows operating systems
Paint.NET was created for Windows, and has no native support for any other system. With its previous open-source nature, however, the possibility for alternate versions was available. In May 2007, Miguel de Icaza officially started a porting project called paint-mono[12]. This project has partially ported Paint.NET 3.0 to Mono, an open-source implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure on which the .NET framework is based. This allows Paint.NET to be run on Mono-supported platforms, such as Linux.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Brewster, Rick. "Paint.NET Download". dotPDN, LLC. http://www.getpaint.net/download.html. Retrieved 28 November 2009.
- ^ http://blog.getpaint.net/2009/11/06/a-new-license-for-paintnet-v35/
- ^ "Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing". http://www.getpaint.net. Retrieved September 30, 2009. Bottom of the page, below about.
- ^ "Paint.NET's file format, ".pdn"". http://web.archive.org/web/20051230140736/http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/archive/2005/01/18/355571.aspx.
- ^ Paint.NET - Licensing and FAQ
- ^ "Freeware Authors: Beware of “Backspaceware”". Paint.NET blog. December 4th, 2007. http://blog.getpaint.net/2007/12/04/freeware-authors-beware-of-%E2%80%9Cbackspaceware%E2%80%9D/. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- ^ "Paint.NET v1.1 "Beta 2" Download". http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/archive/2004/09/03/225514.aspx.
- ^ "Paint.NET crosses 2 million downloads, and other news". http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/archive/2006/05/08/592633.aspx. Retrieved June 16, 2006.
- ^ "Interview: A Look Inside Paint.NET". http://www.betanews.com/article/Interview_A_Look_Inside_PaintNET/1141071978. Retrieved June 16, 2006.
- ^ "CodeLab: Paint.NET Plugin Development Environment". http://www.boltbait.com/pdn/codelab/.
- ^ a b "Plugin Index". http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30570.
- ^ http://code.google.com/p/paint-mono/
External links
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Wikibooks has more on the topic of |
- Paint.NET - Home
- Paint.NET Forum
- Paint.NET Tutorials
- Paint.NET Plugins
- Rick Brewster's Blog
- .NET Rocks! - Rick Brewster on Paint.NET (April 2007)
- Interview: A Look Inside Paint.NET (February 2006)
- The Sharp Design Philosophy Behind Paint.NET (April 2005)
- Video: Chris Sells interviews Rick Brewster, Tom Jackson, and Craig Taylor (August 2005)
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
