Microsoft fully resuscitated Paint in Windows 7 with a major facelift, adding the dreadful-to-some ribbon interface as the top menu bar and incorporating the ability to draw in different mediums, such as a crayon or a watercolor brush. There are also more shape selections available and a rulers and gridline overlay to allow you to draw precise whatever-it-is that you draw in Paint. However, with all this newfound sense of worth, Microsoft’s Paint is still not a program we want to use for cropping and adjusting our digital photos. Thankfully, Paint.NET has been released to help quell the Windows handicap of not having a decent image editing application.
The simple interface of Paint.NET makes it easier to use than GIMP, its direct competitor, and it takes up much less hard disk space (though the “temporary” files left behind by the Undo should be cleared out once in awhile to avoid overflow). This free download comes equipped with a tabbed document interface that displays a live thumbnail of the image and uses layers for more efficient image composition. It also features unlimited undos, “special effects,” and a variety of other photo adjustment tools that only seem to come equipped with costly image editing software. Though it’s not as well-equipped as its predecessors, Paint.NET is a crucial addition to your new Windows 7 machine, and an even better starting point for novice photo editors who need a simple palette to play with.
Download Paint.NET here.
Every Wednesday, we pick a new downloadable application as our favorite of the week. Have an app that you can't live without? Send suggestions to florence [AT] maximumpc.com with "Downloadble App" as the subject line.
Comments are closed on this article
xbuzzer1
October 21, 2009 at 6:53pm
Paint.net is great, ive been using it for a few years now, but you need to go to the paint.net forums and download all the cool plugins. If you do that then it will pretty much be on par with the pay programs. You know, that expensive one. Dont judge paint.net till you download all the cool plugins. It will also do tons more than the gimp also.
arch-chancellor
October 21, 2009 at 5:57pm
No config menu. Could not paste a color as transparent. MS Paint is the superior program. Sadly.
Onyx2291
October 21, 2009 at 3:52pm
I do enjoy the ribbon more. I am taking some computing classes and they all use Office 2007 so I have learned to navigate the ribbons. When I went back to 03 I have to scoure the little tool bars up top forever to find what I want.
-Onyx
captrespect
October 21, 2009 at 2:42pm
Maybe it's because i don't use ms office stuff that often, but I like the new ribbon. It shows you more options without hiding burying everything. Before it took forever to find that one menu option to pop up that one dialog box to change that one option. Now most of the time the option I'm looking for is already showing.
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