Tactilis

@Budiak Your link to the image currently gives:

Access denied
Error code 1020
You do not have access to kropyva.ch.
The site owner may have set restrictions that prevent you from accessing the site.

 
However, I suspect this thread will solve your problem:
 

@NetDotPaint The plugin's page at https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/114600-image-distortion/ contains a note saying where you need to put the OptionBasedLibrary files and there is further discussion of this in the thread.

I've edited the note to make it bolder now.
 
 

@0rinoco It's always a good idea to first read the comprehensive and well written paint.net Documentation.

In paint.net click the Help icon at the top right, or press the shortcut key F1, or bookmark this page https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/index.html 
 
The Clone Stamp is described under Tools -> Photo Tools -> Clone Stamp Tool https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/CloneStamp.html 
 
 
 
The way the tool works has not changed.
 

This suggests that you may not be using the latest version of paint.net (5.0.13), which does change its cursor size based on the Windows pointer size setting. This capability was introduced last year in 5.0.10.

Below, you can see that I have increased the Windows pointer size to 4 from its usual value of 1. All the paint.net cursors become larger as expected.
 

 
 

@fuser3000 You can limit the region being filled by creating a selection.

You can read about the Paint Bucket fill tool here: https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/PaintBucket.html
 
And the Selection tools here: https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/SelectionTools.html  You may find that the Magic Wand helps.


Please post an image of your character so people can give you specific advice.

@Whirlygig please use this Microsoft tool to fully remove the previous broken installation https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed-cca7d1b6-65a9-3d98-426b-e9f927e1eb4d

Honestly, your priority should be to sort out your PC.

Change your laptop. Or diagnose and replace the "slowly failing hardware". Or even just do a clean install of Windows.

This has nothing to do with paint.net


 

The very wording of your question suggests that you are new to image editing...
 

You don't have a separate "overlay image" and a "base image". You just have an image. There is no drinks can "base image" under the pieces of chocolate.
 
 

Of course it's possible with paint.net, but obviously not automatically and not without a fair amount of work.

You have to erase the pixels that represent the pieces of chocolate, etc. which are occupying the space where drinks can pixels should be, and then create the missing pixels to match the shape, colour, texture of the can. You are going to need to learn some basic techniques first such as drawing, painting, copy/pasting, cloning... and learn to use layers.

You should consult the excellent Documentation, which you can access by clicking the Help icon top right in paint.net. There are also many tutorials in this forum and various how-to videos on YouTube.
 
 
 

Send me a message to discuss. I can merge some of the layers for you then re-save the file.

But ultimately, you need more RAM if you are going to work with large, multi-layered files.

Pressing K simply makes the Color Picker the active tool. Repeatedly pressing K won't do anything else. There's no such thing as K+
 
 

You are missing an understanding of some of the fundamentals of paint.net. A good read of the paint.net Documentation will help you.
 
Click the icon top right in paint.net or go directly to https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/index.html
 
Read in particular:
 
Tools -> Photo Tools -> Color Picker Tool to properly understand the operation of that tool.
 
Color -> Color Window to understand the Primary and Secondary color slots and use of that window in general.
 
Then gradually work your way through the rest of the Documentation, trying things out as you go. It's a well written document and will help you become proficient in the use of paint.net.

@tieTYT I've realised that part of your misunderstanding likely comes from the way you are referring to a layer's 'background'...
 

Layers do not have 'backgrounds' (transparent or otherwise).  Layers just have pixels, some of which may be set to be transparent.

Every pixel has a Red/Green/Blue colour and an Alpha value (expand the Colors window to see the Alpha).
 
If a pixel's Alpha is 255 then that pixel's colour is fully opaque (like the pixels in your pink line).
 
If a pixel's Alpha is 0 then that pixel's colour is fully transparent (like the rest of the pixels in your Layer 2) which means that the pixel of any layer underneath will be seen through that pixel.

Forget about transparent 'backgrounds'. Just think about the pixels in a layer.


 

As @Rick Brewster says, that has never happened.

The easiest way to create multiple copies of a line or shape is to:

1. Create a new layer and switch to it.
2. Draw your line/shape.
3. Press S to activate Rectangle Select and select the area surrounding the line/shape.
4. Ctrl+C to copy the selected pixels, which will be your line/shape and the transparent pixels around it.
5. Ctrl+V to paste in the same location
6. Press M to activate Move Selected Pixels and drag to where you want it to be.


There was a discussion a few months ago about the desirability of being able to copy & paste a line/shape that is being drawn as a simple way of creating multiple identical copies:
 
 
I don't know whether this was added to the Feature Request list at the time, but if it could be considered for a future release it would be a huge time saver.
 


 

Every time you add a layer, you increase the memory required.
 
Each new layer needs approximately another image width x image height x 4 (for the RGBA pixel value) bytes.

You can easily see this for yourself:

1. Start paint.net and resize the blank canvas to 2000 x 1000 pixels (for example).
2. Run Task Manager and type paint.net in the search field. You should now see just the paint.net process. Note the memory usage when it stabilises.
3. In paint.net type Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer. Note the increased memory usage.
4. Repeat step 3 again and again until you have, for example, 20 layers.
5. Now type Ctrl+Shift+F to flatten all the layers. Note the reduced memory usage.

So, yes, merging the layers will reduce the memory requirement. Whether this is significant depends on your image size and the amount of RAM you have.
 
Do you have a Hard Disk (HDD) or an SSD?  Each time you make an edit, paint.net has to write history data for Undo/Redo out to disk. An SSD will be considerably faster for this than writing to a HDD, so will reduce lag.


When you save to a .pdn file, the image data for each layer is saved in a compressed format. The degree of compression will depend on the nature of the image in each layer.
 
You can easily see this for yourself:

1. Start paint.net and resize the blank canvas to 2000 x 1000 pixels (for example).
2. Save the image to a .pdn file. Note the size of the file.
3. Type Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer. Save the file. Note the increased file size.
4. Repeat step 3 again and again until you have, for example, 20 layers. Save the file. Note the increased file size.

If instead of a blank (uniform colour) canvas, you create a colour gradient, you'll find that the image won't compress so well. Try it and see the increased image size.

The .pdn file for your multi-layer maps should compress well because each State's layer will, I assume, mostly comprise pixels of a uniform (i.e. transparent) colour plus a uniform colour for the State fill.


The bottom line is that having plenty of RAM (it's not that expensive) and an SSD will give you the biggest performance boost, and allow you to work with more layers.

The size of the .pdn file is likely to be a minor consideration in your situation.

 

This has been covered several times before.


For example, please see this thread and note @Rick Brewster's comment:
 

Use either of these techniques:

A. With a separate Layer

1. Use the line tool to draw a line in the layer, with an appropriate brush size. Press Shift while drawing to give a horizontal line.
2. Reduce the layer opacity as required.


 

B. In the same Layer
 
1. Use the line tool to draw a line, with an appropriate brush size and with the Blend Mode set to Multiply. Press Shift while drawing to give a horizontal line.


 
The advantage of using a separate layer is that you can remove the highlighting at a later time if you wish.
 

I'd agree with @Pixey


The paint.net executable is signed to meet Microsoft's requirements as discussed in this thread:  https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/120861-installer-error-on-windows-11-22h2-smart-app-control

As @Rick Brewster advises:
 
 
 

Welcome to the forum @SimmyRN

To change the default program to open .dds files do this:

1. In File Explorer, right click on any .dds file
2. Click Open with -> Choose another app
3. Select the app you want and click Always
 

Welcome to the forum @ElDub2023

This plugin should help you
 




 
 

Welcome @Wolobofe.

There are a few concepts that you need to understand to properly answer your question.

The checkerboard pattern is just an indicator that shows where pixels are transparent.

When you press Delete, you are erasing pixels (leaving a transparent region).
Similarly, when you move selected pixels, you leaving a transparent region in their original place (you moved them, right!)
To add colour to the transparent region, you need to Fill it.
 
You would do well to read the paint.net Documentation.
Click the Help icon or go here https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/index.html
 
Look at the 'Edit menu' page  https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/EditMenu.html 
Note that the Delete key is the shortcut for Erase Selection (leaving transparent pixels).
Note that the Backspace key is the shortcut for Fill Selection (leaving filled pixels).
 
Now have a look at the 'Keyboard and Mouse Commands' page https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/KeyboardMouseCommands.html
In the Tools column on that page, click on Paint Bucket.
Note that Backspace fills the selected area with the Primary colour and Shift+Backspace fills it with the Secondary colour.
See the 'Color'' page to understand about Primary and Secondary colours.
 
Now you should explore the 'Tools | Fill Tools | Paint Bucket Tool' page and have a go at filling transparent regions (you may need to adjust the Tolerance slider when doing this).

Finally, I'd recommend that you get to grips with layers.
See the 'Layers | Layers Window' and the 'Working with Layers' pages.
Depending on what you are trying to achieve, it is often sensible to copy a selected region and paste it to a new layer before moving it, rather than just moving it in the original layer.


The above may seem a lot to take in. But if you work your way through the Documentation and experiment as you go, you will gain a lot better understanding of what you can do in paint.net and why the tools work the way they do.
 
Come back and ask any further questions if you need help.
 

Please consult the Documentation.  Click the Help icon top right in paint.net or go here: https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/index.html
 
See 'Getting Started | Installation | Installing Plugins'. 

 
 

You need to Delete unwanted fonts from the Fonts folder, not mess around with the registry.



Also, you are using a long out of date version of paint.net (v4.3.12).

No more help can be given here unless you update to the latest version (v5.0.11).

See #7 in the Forum Rules:
 
 
If you are on Windows 7, you will need to update to Windows 10 or 11 first.

 
UPDATE:
Font hiding does work as expected with paint.net v5.0.11 and Windows 11.

 

There is no way to set the default size of a new image.

In the paint.net Documentation - click the icon top right - you will see at https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/FileMenu.html
 
"New
This creates a new, blank, single layered image. The single layer will be filled with white.
The default canvas size is 800 x 600 pixels scaled by the system DPI setting, or the size of any image contained in the clipboard."
 
The easiest way to define your own size is to:
Creating a .pdn file with your preferred size and background colour, etc. Save this to your desktop or other convenient location. Use this icon to open paint.net with the default size you want.  
You can set the file properties to be Readonly so that you can't accidentally save over it.
 

You may have (accidentally) created a selection and are trying to type outside that selection.

See my reply in this topic where the same question was asked...
 
 
 

You are mistaken.

Paint.NET does not install any fonts.

It uses whatever fonts you have installed.

It's not the "NEW IMAGE's picked color" because, as I said before:
 
"The selected Tool and its settings and the current Color settings apply to Paint.NET as a whole. There are not different tool/colour settings for each image."
 
And I'll reiterate what @BoltBait said, with added emphasis:
 
"When you flood fill and then you switch images, you're still in the middle of a flood fill.
 
So, when you switch colors while editing a different image and switch back to the one where you're in the middle of a flood fill, Paint.NET sees that you have switched colors and rerenders your flood fill with the new color.  If you don't want this to happen, simply FINISH your flood fill before switching to another image."