Paint.NET

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Paint.NET
A screenshot of Paint.NET version v3.0 showing the effects that can be achieved, example is the K2 mountain.
Maintainer:	Paint.NET Team
Stable release:	3.05 (March 29, 2007) _[+/-]
Preview release:	None (None) _[+/-]
OS:	Microsoft Windows (Microsoft .NET)
Available language(s):	Multilingual^[1]
Use:	bitmap graphics editor
License:	MIT License
Website:	Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a bitmap graphics editor for the .NET Framework. The application started as a project developed at Washington State University (WSU) for Microsoft Windows and was mentored by Microsoft. Paint.NET is programmed in the C# programming language, with small amounts of the C++ Programming Language used for installation and shell-integration related functionality.

The native image format used is a compressed representation of the application's internal object format, which preserves layering and other information. Its file extension is .PDN.^[2]

Some thought Paint.NET was the unofficial successor to the older Microsoft Paint graphics program that comes with Windows, though it is not affiliated with Microsoft Paint. Released under the MIT License, Paint.NET is open source.

1 History
- 1.1 Timeline
2 Mono Port
3 Notes and references
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Paint.NET originated as a computer science senior design project during spring 2004 at WSU. Rick Brewster, one of the main designers, says on his weblog that version 1.0 was written "in 4 months … and was 36,000 lines of code."^[3] A recent release, version 2.63, is approximately 105,000 lines of code. The Paint.NET project continued over the summer and into the fall 2004 semester for both the version 1.1 and 2.0 releases.

Development continues with two developers who now work at Microsoft, both of whom worked on previous versions of Paint.NET while they were students at Washington State University. As of May 2006 the program had been downloaded at least 2 million times.^[4], at a rate of about 180,000 per month^[5]

[edit] Timeline

A screenshot from Paint.NET 2.6 showing the new Curves adjustment.

An image made in v3.0 showing how one can make an image 'morph' from sepia to colour.

Version 1.0 (Released May 6, 2004):
- WSU Developers: Rick Brewster, Brandon Ortiz, Chris Trevino, Luke Walker
- WSU Advisor: Jack Hagemeister
- Microsoft Sponsor: Ivan Lumala
- Microsoft Mentor: Kerry Hammil

Version 1.1 (Released October 1, 2004):
- Microsoft Mentor, Main Developer: Rick Brewster
- WSU Testers and Technical Writers: Tom Jackson, Michael Kelsey, Craig Taylor

Version 2.0 (Released December 17, 2004):
- WSU Developers: Tom Jackson, Michael Kelsey, Craig Taylor
- WSU Advisor: Jack Hagemeister
- Microsoft Mentor: Rick Brewster
- Emboss, Relief, and Edge Detect Effects: Chris Crosetto
- Testing: WSU's Computer Science 422 Fall 2004 Students

Version 2.1 (Released April 30, 2005):
- Developers: Rick Brewster (Lead), Tom Jackson, Craig Taylor
- Web Site Design: Luke Walker

Version 2.5 and onwards had Rick Brewster as lead developer, accompanied by Tom Jackson.

Version 2.5 (Released: November 26, 2005):

Version 2.6 (Released: February 24, 2006)
- v2.61 (Released: March 29, 2006) — minor bug fixes
- v2.62 (Released: May 10, 2006) — minor bug fixes
- v2.63 (Released: June 4, 2006) — minor bug fixes
- v2.64 (Released: July 8, 2006) — minor bug fixes

Version 2.70 (Released August 2, 2006)
- Some plugins were integrated, system requirements updated
- v2.72 (Released: August 31, 2006) — minor bug fixes, and a new effect

Version 3.0 (Released: January 26, 2007)
- Major new features are the Tabbed document user interface (TDI), gradient drawing, and availability in 6 new languages (8 total).

Version 3.01 (Released: February 26, 2007) — minor bug fixes

Version 3.05 (Released: March 29, 2007) — Adds a new effect, improves certain parts of the user interface, and fixes a few minor bugs

[edit] Mono Port

Miguel de Icaza has partially ported Paint.NET to Mono, an open-source implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure on which Microsoft.NET is based. This allows Paint.NET to be run on Linux or other Mono-supported platforms. While the port is incomplete and no binary releases are planned as of 2006, the port's functionality considering the relative paucity of effort spent on it have led to de Icaza believing that a full-featured port is a realistic goal.^[6]^[7]