Paint.net Best Free Image Software

[Brad West]

I have tried all kinds of image software Gimp and Photo plus were two that I had recently tried. Gimp is great but could never get used to where all the commands were Photo Plus is ok but they give you half the suite free for life and relentlessly try to up sell you the rest of the software that really make the difference.

Paint.net I have been using for a while now and love it. The core software is free, your time to search and find how you want to customize it is your only cost. Pretty reasonable for this powerful software.

The plugins are very simple to install and you can acquire them right from the Paint.net Forum or you can download my zip file with some of my favorites that I recommend from this post The plugins have been updated and moved further down the thread ~ Ckick to go there
Totally worth the time to learn how to use.

Brad West ~ onomoney

[onnaholl]

It looks great! I downloaded it and now have to figure it out- any tips on how to add images and move them to where you want?

[Brad West]

As I said Paint.net core it fantastic But by adding some of the enhancements make it extraordinary as far as creating. Here is one of the plugins that I started with Here are some powerful displacement filters.
There is nothing more fun than exploring new effects The ones in this pack are a bit abstract but very useful for giving you ides to create things you may have never thought of.

[Brad West]

Here is another group of 11 plugins developed by Pyrochild that Cait and I have been using for awhile now, pyrochild plugins

Here is the list, it will also show you if you can find it under the Effects tab or the Adjustments tab when installed.
Adjustments > Curves+ 2.10
Like Paint.NET's own Curves, but better.

Effects > Render > Borders N' Shapes 1.6
Draw rectangles, ellipses, arcs, and pies, all with configurable styles like solid, dashed, dotted, and others.

Effects > Render > Gradient Bars 3.0
Bars. Bars of gradients. Gradient bars.

Effects > Photo > Film 2.0
Make your photo look more photo-ey.

Effects > Distort > Jitter 3.0
Don't know what "jitter" means? Grab a

Effects > Object > Outline Object 2.6
Make outlines...

Effects > Distort > Stitch 1.0
Like Jitter, but not.

Effects > Advanced > ScriptLab 2.4
Like Photoshop Actions. But not.

ScriptLab Batch Processor 2.4
Want to add a border to 6000 images without wasting hours? Or invert and pixelate them without wasting hours and getting carpal tunnel?

Adjustments > Gradient Mapping 2.2
Make multicolored gradients. Easily.

Effects > Artistic > Splatter 1.5
I used to call this Pineapple. But now I don't.

Effects > Blurs > Pixelate+ 1.0
Pixelate better.

Adjustments > Color Match 1.0
Improve your photography with classical art. Or make it worse. Makes your photo follow another's color scheme.

Effects > Random Effect 1.2
Lacking inspiration? Use this to fire up a random effect with random settings.

Effects > Render > Random Shape Fill 1.0
Draws tons of shapes - from circles to hearts to stars - with various color settings, transparency, etc.

Effects > Distort > Smudge 2.2
Does this need any more explanation than the name? SMUDGE!

Effects > Distort > Frosted Glass+ 1.5
This plugin is discontinued because it is now included in Paint.net itself

pyrochild.effects.common 2.5
Not a plugin, this file contains code and resources that are shared between multiple plugins.
Must be installed regardless of which other plugins are installed.



Brad West ~ onomoney

[Brad West]

Download the file, and save to desktop.
Extract all files and open the folder so you see the .dll files

On your computer go to My Computer, or Computer on Vista machines.
Open your C Drive
Open your Program Files
Search for Paint.net and open
The folder you are looking for to put your .dll files is Effects.

On my Vista machine all I do is drag and drop the .dll files from the folder into the Effects folder on my machine.
But the fastest way to load these if you have a bunch is to put the .dill files together in one folder Ctrl A will copy everything in your folder, right click, copy and past into the effects folder or target folder.
If Paint.net is open close it and re open it to assure you that you can access everything

Party on.
Brad West ~ onomoney

[Brian Hawkins]

I just installed and downloaded Paint.NET. I also have GIMP and an old version of Paint Shop Pro. I like GIMP because it will open PhotoShop files. I enjoy playing with graphics so I'm looking forward to learning Paint.NET.

[Brad West]

If there are any questions about Paint.net I'm more than willing to not only answer them if I can but link I have done with Onna we can open our Dim Dim room up and I can do a demo.

I also have Gimp just so I can open Paint Shop files I need to spend some time working with it I really like some of the features and color choices. Like have you ever tried to make the color gold? Gimp has a gold that is as true as you can get.

Some where in my thousands of bookmarks I have the link to a Gimp forum, It was only started recently.
Something more for the to do list.

Brad West ~ onomoney

[Brad West]

About three weeks ago I got my total update to Paint.NET v3.5.2 There are some subtle changes to most of the core. But overall it seems to work smoother. There were not that many plug-ins updated then but they seem to be getting caught up a bit with them now. I hope this week I will get everything updated and fill in some details on the next post.

Some awesome software details!
Brad

[Brad West]

I know it has been like forever and I haven't until now put a folder of plugins together for Paint.net. I am now running version 3.5.5, most of these plugins all seem to have been updated most of then enhanced. Brad Updated the plugins pack Here!

Once you upload the plugins onto the proper files (instructions are included) you can open up your Paint.net software on your desktop, look in your "utilities" tab and click "view plugin load errors". I had some deleted them and moved on no big deal. I think there may have been a couple that were not up to date.

There is a "CustomBrushes mini" plugin included i don't have brushes put together for it yet, working on it!

[Brad West]

Alright the brushes, I was going to get a bunch of brushes together and let you down load the whole batch. Well I have put together a collection of about 300 so far, it would be a huge download of brushes, also you may not even want my picks.

First thing you should do is check out Brusheezy. This site not only has thousands of brushes but will give you some ideas of how to use them. I say this because if you look at a single brush and your anything like me You will kind of just say “what the hell do I do with this?” So it is different when you see a creation and then open the pack and see what they used to make their creation. Don’t forget to download a few packs you like. Watch out it maybe addicting!


Now her is the deal PhotoShop uses .abr files for their brushes. Paint.net uses .png images so the file formats need to be changed sounds like a real project but it’s not. The next thing you need to do is go to SourceForge and get the abrViewer. This is like the coolest little tool.

Unzip your brush files
Load them into the abrViewer.
When you download them, they are magically turned into .png files.

The tool in Paint.net that will be using the brushes with is called CustomBrushesMini you will be locating this tool after you open Paint.net by following this path Effects/Tools/CustomBrushsMini.

When the .dll files were placed in your ProgramFiles the plugin should have put a folder in your, Documents\Paint.NET User Files\Custom Brushes. The custom brushes folder is where you will put your brushes.

This is how I organized my brushes, of course you can do what is best for you. I uploaded all the brushes to the abrViewer, I made new folders named with something that I would relate to a little better than some of the names the brushes came with and combined some of the groups.

BIG MUST DO, When naming the folders you need to start with an underscore for the folder to show in the menu. Example “_your-brushes”