Download Paint.NET 3.0 alpha 3

The developers behind Paint.NET released the third alpha release of version 3.0 today. This photo editing program owes its name to the fact that it is developed in C#, and version 2.0 of the .NET Framework is therefore required to run the program. It once started as a graduation assignment at Washington State University under the supervision of Microsoft, but is now a standalone product. Version 3.0 brings a large number of changes, but unfortunately that also means that Windows 2000 and Itanium are no longer supported. New is, among other things, the so-called ‘Multiple Document Interface’ that shows all open images by means of thumbnails. Below is a summary of the changes from the second apha release:

New effects:

• Outline
• Blurs->Unfocus
• Blurs->Median

Improved:

• Sharpen effect uses a totally new algorithm, which looks better and performs faster
• Rendering performance of certain gradient types was slightly improved
• Most file types now use less memory when saving
• Gradient tool’s transparency mode is more intuitive
• Gaussian Blur’s maximum radius is now 200 (instead of 100)
• Some icons were improved / changed

changed:

• Gradient tool now uses opposite mouse button for moving both nubs instead of Ctrl. This is for constency with the selection tools.
• In Vista, the floating tool windows no longer have glass frames and heavy drop shadows
• Layers->Import from File no longer spams the user incessantly asking them to expand the canvas size
• Delete button was removed from Colors window
• Ctrl+F4 now closes a tab in addition to Ctrl+W

Fixed:

• 18+ crash bugs reported by users
• Rendering inconsistency with Move Selected Pixels when ‘pixelated’ quality was selected
• When opening multiple images via Explorer, some of them might have been skipped over
• Crash when pressing Esc while drawing or adjusting a gradient
• Finishing a gradient w/ reversed colors would end up with non-reversed colors
• Viewing a layer’s properties was setting the image’s dirty bit, which would cause errenous “Do you want to save?” questions
• Right-click dragging on an empty canvas with the Move tool was moving instead of rotating
• If the ‘x’ button was clicked on the dialog for importing vs. opening layers as a result of drag-and-drop, the operation was not cancelled
• Application icon in Vista was not scaling up to 256×256, it was only going up to 48×48
• The crash log writer was crashing, causing double-crashes
• History control hot tracking/highlighting glitch

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