paint.net 4.0 is now available!

[Rick Brewster]

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the extensive alpha and beta releases with all the bug reports, crash log submissions, and general feedback. It has all been a tremendous help in creating the best paint.net release ever! It’s been a long time coming, but I think it’s worth it.

 

As usual, there are a few ways to get the new version:

1. The preferred way: If you’re using Paint.NET v3.5.x, go to the Utilities menu and click on “Check for Updates.” If you’re using a pre-release version of 4.0 (beta or release candidate), go to the Settings dialog, then to the Updates section, and then click “Check Now.”
2. You can also download it directly from the website,http://www.getpaint.net/ . There is no need to uninstall the old version: that will be taken care of automatically.

Without further ado, here is the final list of changes, features, improvements, and fixes:

• System Requirements
  • Windows 7 SP1 or newer is now required.
  • .NET Framework 4.5 is now required, and will be installed if needed.
  • A dual-core (or more!) processor is highly recommended.
  • Hardware acceleration (GPU) via Direct2D is now supported.
    • Please disable this in the Settings dialog if you experience visual artifacts.

• Performance
  • A brand new, asynchronous, fully multithreaded rendering engine allows performance to scale very well with respect to the number of CPU cores whether you have 2, 4, 6, or even 16 of them.
  • The responsiveness of the user interface has been greatly improved, especially when working with large images.
  • Memory usage is lower.
  • Improved battery life impact due to fixing the way the floating windows manage their transparency.
  • Startup performance when many plugins are installed is improved, thanks to the Multicore JIT feature introduced in .NET 4.5.

• Selections
  • Selections are now antialiased, which greatly improves the quality around the edges of selected content. You can turn this on and off at any time from the toolbar.
  • Everything related to selections now has much higher performance and greatly reduced CPU usage, especially if hardware acceleration (GPU) is enabled.
  • The selection outline is now rendered using the “dancing ants” animation, which greatly improves the contrast between it and the image itself.

• General
  • The functionality previously provided by the Utilities, Window, and Help menus has been simplified, consolidated, and moved to the top-right corner of the main window.
    
  • The image thumbnail list has been moved up 1 row so that it no longer intrudes into the current Tool’s toolbar space. This means it will no longer “jump around” when you switch between tools. This also means that it is aligned to the top of the monitor when the main window is maximized, making it easier to click on images (Fitt's Law)
  • The image thumbnail list can now be reordered with drag-and-drop.
  • The zoom slider and units selector have been moved from the toolbar to the bottom right corner of the window (into the status bar).
  • Layers can now be reordered with drag-and-drop.
  • Improved quality of Image->Resize.
  • Copying to the clipboard now includes the “PNG” format, which allows transparency to survive from many popular applications (e.g. Office)
  • Shift+Backspace will now fill the selection with the secondary color (Backspace, the shortcut key for Edit -> Fill Selection, still fills with primary color as usual).
  • EXIF rotation metadata is now applied when opening images (e.g. JPG taken with a rotated camera).
  • Crash logs are now stored in%LOCALAPPDATA%\paint.net\CrashLogs (e.g. C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\paint.net\CrashLogs) instead of on the desktop.

• Tools
  • Drawing tools (Pencil, Paintbrush, Eraser, Clone Stamp, Recolor) now have much smoother mouse input handling via GetMouseMovePointsEx.
  • Brush tools (Paintbrush, Eraser, Clone Stamp, Recolor) now have soft brushes support via a “Hardness” setting in the toolbar.
  • The Move tools (Move Selected Pixels, Move Selection) have a much better UI for scaling, moving, and (especially) rotation.
  • The Move tools now support moving the rotation anchor, which changes the center of rotation.
  • The new Shapes tool replaces the Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, and Freeform shape tools. 27 shapes are currently available. You may move, resize, and rotate a shape, as well as reconfigure any other properties from the toolbar (color, outline size, etc.) before committing it to the layer.
  • Color Picker has a configurable sampling radius, and can sample from either the current layer or the whole image.
  • Gradient tool now supports a new Spiral gradient type and allows configuration of the repeat mode (none, repeat, wrapped).
  • Gradient tool has improved rendering quality via dithering and antialiasing. You can control both of these with the standard antialiasing toggle in the toolbar.
  • Magic Wand and Paint Bucket now allow live adjustment of Tolerance and the Origin (click location) after clicking (press Enter to commit/finish).
  • Magic Wand and Paint Bucket can now sample from either the current layer or the whole image.
  • Paint Bucket tool now supports anti-aliasing.
  • Recolor tool can now use the color of the pixel where you click as the color to be replaced. Or, as usual, it can use the secondary color.
  • Text tool now supports multiple rendering modes: Smooth, Sharp (Modern), and Sharp (Classic). These correspond to DirectWrite rendering modes of Outline, ClearType Natural Symmetric, and GDI Classic, respectively.
  • Text tool now supports colored fonts on Windows 8.1.

Enjoy! 

[BoltBait]

Once you upgrade Paint.NET to version 4.0, it would be a good time to review the plugins you have installed.

You may be running older plugins that have had an upgrade recently. Plus, many plugins have been rewritten for Paint.NET 4.0.

For example, my plugin pack has been completely rewritten for Paint.NET 4.0 utilizing the new features.

You can download a copy of my latest plugin pack here: BoltBait's Plugin Pack

For you plugin coders, CodeLab has been updated for Paint.NET 4.0. Make sure you upgrade!

Also, in the coming weeks, you might want to keep an eye on the plugin forum and the plugin pack forum for new and updated plugins.

[Rick Brewster]

* Startup performance when many plugins are installed is improved, thanks to the Multicore JIT feature introduced in .NET 4.5.

 

Please note that this will take affect the second time that you launch paint.net 4.0.

[jp2paint]

No love with this one, for some reason.

 

[Rick Brewster]

I can't see the OS version in your screenshot

[Red ochre]

Congratulations & thanks Rick and all who helped!
(can't enjoy it yet, but some time in the future I hope)

[TechnoRobbo]

Excellent!! Thank you for your tireless effort and the continuous improvements.

[DrewDale]

Congratulations on the completion Rick and a big thanks to all plugin authors who continue to enhance this amazing program.   

[david.atwell]

Wooo!  A long time coming, and worth the wait.  Thanks, Rick!

[sashwilko]

Great news. Thank Rick

[Lloyd]

Wonderful new features, very nice new layout. Well done on completion of V4 Rick. 

[jp2paint]

I can't see the OS version in your screenshot

 

Sorry about taking so long to get back. I keep telling my settings to notify me immediately of replies, but that doesn't seem to stick.

 

So, it is Windows 7 without SP1.

 

I have several KB patches on my home PC that prevent SP1 from installing. If I remove the KB patches, SP1 will install but I lose features on my PC like sound and video.

 

Is there any specific reason why SP1 was required with this release over the "plan Jane" Windows 7?

[Rick Brewster]

Because without SP1, there are bugs in WIC (Windows Imaging Component) that cause all sorts of problems.

 

You'll just have to find a way to install SP1 if you want to use 4.0.

[TheDapperThylacine]

Awesome! I just started using Paint.net a few days ago.

[Goonfella]

Great new version , thanks Rick for all the hard work.

 

Just out of interest, I had these plugins come up as loading errors in the settings menu , so I deleted them for now. I will update when they are ready but so you know , these are the ones concerned -

 

Curtisblack.Common.dll
Illnabplugins.dll
ShadowEffect.dll
Smudge.dll
ZoomBlurDeluxev0.2.dll

 

Apart from this v4 works fine. Shame there is still no ability to scroll down through long lists of plugins though. Having to click on the arrow at the bottom can be awkward at times and if you don`t place your cursor in the right place the list disappears and you have to select your chosen plugin again.

 

I like the way you can drag the layers up and down though. Very handy. The number of new features easily compensates for my little grumble.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Smudge shouldn't be incompatible.  Try reinstalling that from a fresh download.

 

All the others appear in the list: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/27661-incompatible-plugins-an-incomplete-list-updated-for-405268/

[Rick Brewster]

I had to block an older version of Smudge. It was crashing a bunch because of some things that changed. Anything after 3.5 will be fine (smudge v3.5 that is).

[Goonfella]

OK thanks for the info. I'll re-download it this evening.

[barbieq25]

Thanks so much Rick & all of the plugin developers who made this happen. It was a long time coming & so worth it as mentioned above.

[PosteMontage]

Hi,

 

Thanks for this new version ! That work fine !

 

But...

 

On one machine, I can't install it.

 

I uninstalled 3.5 version an tried to install v4, There is the error message in attached file.

 

I have not yet tried to reinstall 3.5...

 

What happen ?

 

 

Windows 7 64bit SP1 on virtualbox, 2 processors, 3 GB ram, 128MB ram video, 2D and 3D acceleration.

error_log_pdn4.txt

Edited June 27, 2014 by PosteMontage

[PosteMontage]

Hi,

 

Thanks for this new version ! That work fine !

 

But...

 

On one machine, I can't install it.

 

I uninstalled 3.5 version an tried to install v4, There is the error message in attached file.

 

I have not yet tried to reinstall 3.5...

 

What happen ?

 

 

Windows 7 64bit SP1 on virtualbox, 2 processors, 3 GB ram, 128MB ram video, 2D and 3D acceleration.

 

 

Hi,

 

I restored snapshot of the VM, I made update from 3.5.11 to 4.0 via menu update and all is fine !!!

[jp2paint]

Because without SP1, there are bugs in WIC (Windows Imaging Component) that cause all sorts of problems.

 

You'll just have to find a way to install SP1 if you want to use 4.0.

 

It has not worked yet. I'm still trying to find ways to get SP1 to install, but the installer has been crashing due to compatibility issues.

 

I have v4 installed here at work. Are files edited with v4 still able to be opened in v3.5?

 

I'm afraid to make changes on some of my very old PDN files at work if they won't be useful in my older version.

[ZuTheSkunk]

Is it possible to revert to an older version? I liked the previous layout better, and the new one still doesn't fix the one problem I had with Paint.Net anyway (movable windows getting in the way while I do stuff).

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Press F5, F6, F7 & F8 to make the child windows disappear. The same combination will restore them.

[nitenurse79]

Is it possible to revert to an older version? I liked the previous layout better, and the new one still doesn't fix the one problem I had with Paint.Net anyway (movable windows getting in the way while I do stuff).

If you still have a copy of V3.5.11 just run that installer and it will revert back to the previous version, you will be missing out on an excellent upgrade though with really interesting new features. Keep in mind support for V3.5.11 will end eventually and most importantly, plugins will only be developed with V4+ in mind

It is now even easier to Show / Hide windows with the little buttons on the upper right of the UI.