Comparison of free picture/photo editing software

The Paint.NET project was started in 2004, and is considered by many to be the successor to Microsoft Paint which is found in all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. The work has been done by the Paint.NET Team, with their efforts being supported by Microsoft. This picture editing program requires Microsoft’s .NET framework to be installed on the machine where it is, hence where the name comes from.

If your picture editing needs are basic or if you are just starting out, then this free proprietary application is for you! The software only runs on Windows, but a transplant to Linux has already started to bear fruit (through Mono, the Open Source implementation of the .NET infrastructure).

This application is able to import images from standard peripheral devices (scanner, digital camera…) as well as being compatible with the most widely used picture formats (JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, GIF, TGA, DDS). Besides these, Paint.NET natively works off the .PDN format, preserving the different design layers and other information.

The working interface is simple and easy to use, reminding us a little of the first versions of PaintShopPro which contained only the essential elements. With Paint.NET, touching up a photo is done easily thanks to the elementary tools (F5), calcs (F7), colour pallet (F8), and history (F6). Novice users can easily make changes to pictures with rounding, colour changes, pivoting by degrees, resizing, and vertical and horizontal centring…

The filters and effects, while not as numerous as in Gimp, are sufficient (artistic, noisy, deformations, blur, rounding, stylised…), while plug-ins also exist for the program. The printer management is very successful, allowing you to quickly print your creations in predefined sizes (full page, 10 x 15cm, wallet, colour management linked to your monitor).

Framakey by Framasoft, a group of portable applications which run off your flash drive also integrates a light version of the program titled Portable Paint.NET. It is therefore possible to work on any Windows computer where the DotNET framework is installed.

Creator: Rick Brewster & Paint.NET Team
Download Site
Test version: 3.36