NoUserName

I'm interested in the source for this plugin, is it available online somewhere, github?

hummm....perhaps the way to go is to introduce an extension framework in the app where you could get help developing different modules of the application. Perhaps making part of the application open source? Perhaps the gui could be broken of from the core graphic engine and handled as separate entities? then it would be possible for the community to work on utility features, gui things and that stuff, when the core is still maintained as today? Or just make it all open source and just let people submit features and modification via you so you still have control over what goes into the source. /NUN

Hummm...why not create a Paint.NET plugin-framework, where Paint.NET. from within the application displays a list of plugins that are submitted by 3:ed parties. The plugins could be uploaded and registered on the "Paint-NET official plugin page". After that the community will rate and grade the plugin and and the uploader/creator of the plugin will gain reputation based on number of downloads, complaints, feedback, gradings and so on. So if he did a good job with version 1 of a plugin, then he will start with a high reputation for the second version or if he makes a completely different plugin. Also, one could use Total Virus and their API to submit any plugin uploaded and let them evaluate it for any virus...you could keep uploading it for a couple of days since not all virus engines they use get daily updates and if it is a new virus in the plugin it might take some time for it to get detected by the different virus-detection-engines. https://www.virustotal.com/en/documentation/public-api/ Doing something like this will have many benefits since it will be more easy and accesseble to non-techical persons to install a plugin, as well as easier for those who develop the plugins to get reach with their effort. Perhaps there should even be a possibility for commercial plugins?? as long as they are optional and doesn't interfere in any other way it might be a good way to get even more functionality into the software....just make sure the plugin-API is stable before you do something like that. /NUN

GoSub: The time I took writing the above was longer than the automatic-inactive-user-logout-timer, which made my blood pressure rise to unhealthy levels when I got an "post denied" message and noway of recovering the text...well, with some clever (if I may say it myself...and I may ) use of fiddler and F5 I managed to recover the text. But really, when something goes wrong in a post involving a textarea of any kind, you at the very least have to re-display the text back to the user. This is the very least you can do. And if you are worried about malicious code/text (which you always should be), then just html encode it before displaying it back. I am not sure that just saying it didn't work and throw the submitted data away is ever the correct way to go.

Hi! I thought I would just give my initial gut reaction to the 4.0 version I just downloaded. I am not a image/picture guru in any way and only have limited experience with previous versions, Instead I'm a windows software developer and has been so for 20+ years so I know what happens when you are involved in a project and I know you tend to get "blind" for some of the stuff a new user might seem find confusing or unclear. So please don't take this as negative criticism and instead just the opinions of a non-graphic-windows-developer. (well, OK, the moving of the cursor is rally criticism, that's really passing the line ) Couldn't find Options/Settings With an "old" menu like the one in 4.0 I would expect Options to be on the tools menu...but there where not even a tools menu!, so I looked on the edit menu where it used to be way back...but not there either...and not in the files menu...Then I found it way off to the right. All commands/options should be accessible from the menus, putting settings like that on the right will confuse a lot of people. I can not reach Settings with only the keyboard, a big no-no in my book. Always try to do stuff the way people expect them to work, use "The Principle of least astonishment" whenever possible. MDI/SDI and Multiple images It took me a while to figure out what the little "stamp" in the menu was. Traditionally working with more than one file in windows was handled by just starting a new instance of the program and that was it. Later on MDI (Multi Document Interface) was introduced and let you have sub-windows within your main window, where each window could could be a new document (or a different view the same document, or combinations). The previous version where now referred to as Single Document Interface (SDI). Later versions of for example Office moved away from the MDI approach since it was too "advanced" for "normal" users and kind of went back to the SDI approach, where it now looks like there are, for example, many instances of MS Word running when you have several documents open. Modern Windows now groups the same program under one "button" in the taskbar and lets the user see the content of the different "instances" by hovering over them. The way this is doen in Paint.net 4.0 is compleatly new and does not resemble anything I have seen before. So in my opinion, there has to be a very, VERY good reason to go and do something that is so completely different from everything else. Because when you do this users will be frustrated when they for example, cannot put one image on one their left screen and another one on their right screen. Or why they don't see the different open images when they hover over the taskbar as they kind of do for any other program they have installed. And even though the application displays a good overview of opened images when you hover over the taskbar, you don't get a similar functionality with the classical ALT+TAB which many users use since it gives a very good overview of all opened documents. So picking a completely new way to do something that has evolved since the late 80-ies is a big responsibility. The Settings Dialog First, never ever move my cursor (mouse-pointer)!!! There is a mouse-setting in the control-panel in windows to position the cursor over the default button in a dialog. Users will use that if they want their cursor moved. The cursor position is READ_ONLY!! User Interface Perhaps an explanation in a tooltip what the different checkboxes actually do, and why you would want to select/not select an option. Tools "tab" The flowing-layout needs to know which elements belong together so that it moves all the stuff to a new line as a unit. As it is now it can be very hard to understand/see how different things in there relate to each other. Perhaps one setting should always be on a line of it's own to remove any confusion on what label/setting (or part of a setting) belongs to what. No Gamma levels? I couldn't find any way of changing what I believe is called Gamma (again, not a graphing/photo editor)...perhaps it is in one of the curves or levels tools....but I am not really sure how to use them....a gamma level modification tool (like setting gamma in a game) would be good I think. Text Perhaps this is by design, but when I wrote text it kind of become one with the picture, and I couldn't move it around...like it does in MS Paint...I guess I am doing something wrong because I can't see why I wouldn't want to select the text afterwards and perhaps move it or change the font or whatever... Selection At some point I managed to get some kind of rectangular selection and it started living it's own life. I never understood how it worked...I could move it around, rotate it and stuff...even move it outside the picture...perhaps this is correct and would be perfectly good/obvious for someone working with graphics....but when I move a selection in Word or Excel the data kind of follows....not just the area of the selection.....it seemed strange....but again, I'm a developer... View - Menu Can't find a way to hide or show the different utility windows, like the history or the toolbox....why they are not here I can't understand. By only having them as "strange" buttons to the right, again, makes it impossible to turn them on/off by use of the standard way to interact with the menu in Windows. OK, I'm sure I am missing a lot and that some of this will be understood when I click around a bit more....this is my initial impression after using 4.0 for 10 minutes. /NUN