paint.net 4.2.4 is now available!

[Rick Brewster]

This hotfix addresses some crashes and hangs that were happening when saving DDS images in certain formats.

 

If you’re using the Windows Store release, you should get the update automatically within the next 24 hours. You can also force an update check by following these instructions.

 

For the Classic release, you should be offered the update automatically within the next week or so. You can get the updater soon by going to ⚙ Settings → Updates → Check Now. You can also download and install it directly from the website.

 

Because 4.2.2, 4.2.3, and 4.2.4 are all kind of the same release (the latter two are hotfixes), here are the full set of changes:

 

Changes in 4.2.4:

• Fixed a hang, which sometimes also resulted in a crash, when saving DDS images in certain formats (e.g. BC1/DXT1)
• Improved: Reduced CPU usage in the COM interop system, which should help reduce overall power consumption

Changes in 4.2.3: 

• Fixed: A missing DLL, vcomp140.dll, was preventing the bundled DDSFileTypePlus plugin from loading on some systems

Changes in 4.2.2:

• New: AV1 (*.avif) images can now be opened (saving is not supported). Windows 10 v1809+ and Microsoft's AV1 Codec are required (download: https://www.microsoft.com/p/av1-video-extension-beta/9mvzqvxjbq9v)
• New: DirectDraw Surface (*.dds) support has been greatly improved due to bundling @null54's DDSFileTypePlus v1.9.6.0 plugin. All DX10/DX11 formats should now be supported (e.g. BC4, BC5, BC6H, BC7), and encoding (saving) will make use of the GPU to greatly improve performance. Note that it's no longer necessary to use the ".dds2" file extension.
• New: 4-bit saving is now supported for PNG, BMP, and TIFF
• New: The palette selection menu will now indicate which palette is currently active (thanks @null54 for the implementation!)
• Improved: The maximum image size is now 262,144 x 262,144 pixels, up from 65,535 x 65,535 pixels. This is mostly for accommodating very tall or very wide images.
• Improved: Startup performance has been improved for multi-core CPUs
• Improved: Startup performance has been improved when a lot of custom shapes are installed
• Fixed: EXIF metadata of type Float and Double are now supported. This ensures GeoTIFF metadata is preserved. 
• Fixed: Opening an image should no longer flicker due to the transparency checkerboard being drawn first
• Fixed: TGA images that are 16-bit with 1-bit alpha with a zero'd out alpha channel are now treated as opaque. This allows images from 5CC Map Maker (for Close Combat modding) to work. Thanks @null54 for the fix!
• Fixed: JPEG XR's file extensions (*.jxr, *.wdp, *.wmp) are now registered with Explorer
• Fixed: Pasting images that use RGB pixel ordering should now work (this affects PaintTool SAI)
• Fixed a crash when manually typing in a very large number for the zoom level in the status bar

 

Enjoy!

[Roger the Dodger]

 

Thank you Rick for all your hard work in making this update possible.

 

Kindest regards

Roger the Dodger

[Rick Brewster]

You're welcome!

[writer]

Thank you all for the hard work on the application. I have loved it for years.  I've run into an issue though with one of the recent releases.

I am running paint.net 4.2.4 on Windows 8.

 

One of my workflows when editing the screenshots for my documentation:

1. Select a portion of the image with the Rectangle select tool
2. Press the M key to change the selection to display the handles to the Move pixels.
3. Press and hold the Control key and drag the selection (or use the arrow keys) to copy the selection.

With one of the recent updates, the pixels no longer copy.

Was this feature removed on purpose? I use this all day long, and I'm struggling with changing to copying and pasting.

 

Thanks in advance,
Kari

[Rick Brewster]

@writer, holding Ctrl to make a copy now only works when using the mouse, not the keyboard. This change was made a few versions back.

[Rick Brewster]

Closing thread -- new version incoming!