Paint.net 4.2 is out with a huge list of changes

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 15, 2019
Image, Music and Video
|
10

The developer of Paint.net released a new version of the image editor for Microsoft's Windows operating system on July 13, 2019.

Paint.net 4.2 is an update for the desktop version and Microsoft Store version of the image editor. The new version is already available for download on the official project website. Updates of the Store version and installed versions may take up to a week if automatic updates are enabled.

Desktop users may run a manual check for updates to download the new version immediately; this is done with a click on the Settings icon, and selecting Updates > Check now in the Settings window.

To put the 4.2 release into perspective. Paint.net 4.0 was released in 2014, Paint.net 4.1 in 2018. The developer of Paint.net releases updates regularly but major updates like Paint.net 4.2 are rare.

One of the major new features of Paint.net 4.2 is support for the HEIC file format. Support is not available on all supported versions of Windows, however. HEIC support is only available on devices running Windows 10 version 1809 or newer, and only if the HEVC Video Extensions application is installed.

The Paint.net developer mentions the paid version for $0.99 only but there is also a free version available that users may want to give a try. Microsoft included the codec initially in Windows 10 but moved it to the Store when it released the Creators Update for Windows 10.

A quick test on a Windows 10 version 1809 confirmed that the free version is enough to display .heic images in the image editor.

The format is used as the default format on Apple iPhone devices and also supported on some devices running newer versions of Android.

Core file types, including BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG, and TIFF -- have been upgraded internally. The developer built them on top of the Windows Image Component instead of GDI+ which also introduced new functionality such as support for saving 32-bit BMP images with alpha transparency, support for larger JPEG, TIFF, and PNG sizes, or saving TIFF images at 25-bit and 8 color depths.

Paint.net did not really handle very large images, those starting at 32kx32k pixels, well performance-wise. Users who had to edit these large images noticed that performance would drop of significantly  and that it could take anywhere from several seconds to a minute before the application responded again.

Other changes in Paint.net 4.2

  • New keyboard shortcuts for changing the current layer are available now:
    • Go to Top layer --  Ctrl-Alt-PageUp
    • Go to layer Above -- Alt-PageUp
    • Go to layer Below -- Alt-PageDown
    • Go to Bottom layer -- Ctrl-Alt-PageDown
  • Support for saving PNG images as interlaced.
  • TGA images load about four times faster than in previous versions.
  • Errors are reported in the Save Configuration dialog. Also, some performance improvements.
  • Fixed Windows Explorer thumbnails for certain image types, PDN, DDS, and TGA, that were not rendering alpha correctly.
  • Improved CPU usage for thumbnail updates.

You find the full list of changes published on the Paint.net Blog.

Now You: Which image editor, if any, do you use?

Summary
software image
Author Rating
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5 based on 2 votes
Software Name
Paint.net 4.2
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
Multimedia
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Comments

  1. Mike J said on September 21, 2011 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for this, Martin, I will give it a try. I have been attempting to edit vids with Machete Lite sans success;the online instructions give a sort of overview and a description of the “buttons” but no real step-by-step; or maybe I am just too dumb.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on September 21, 2011 at 3:58 pm
      Reply

      It works really nicely. YouTube on the other hand added borders again, haha, that felt kinda strange.

      1. prakash said on September 22, 2011 at 9:05 pm
        Reply

        who are you bey

  2. Mike J said on September 23, 2011 at 11:26 pm
    Reply

    Could not get it to work;kept crashing. Using XP SP3.

    1. rcloud7 said on July 25, 2012 at 2:38 pm
      Reply

      yeah this didnt work at all, and your instructions are a bit off, the options/ menus GUI is not exactly like you describe

  3. *!:DECCAS:!* said on October 19, 2012 at 3:37 am
    Reply

    I followed the instructions, but when i save it still has borders. I crop it, the black goes green, i click ok, i click close then save. I can’t preview it in avidemux as it just crashes. what am i doing wrong? (Windows 7)

  4. Khurram said on November 10, 2012 at 2:39 am
    Reply

    I followed all instructions, I can’t play the video in preview, when it saves, it’s only audio. Using Windows 7, please help…

  5. Khurram said on November 10, 2012 at 2:40 am
    Reply

    I followed all instructions, I can’t play the video in preview, when it saves, it’s only audio. Using Windows 7, please help…

  6. David Broome said on November 20, 2012 at 12:50 pm
    Reply

    Waste of time. Like everyone else I get what I started with but unplayable.

  7. TIPS said on November 22, 2012 at 4:07 am
    Reply

    Video Crop and other settings are in:
    (above) Video > Filters…
    Then on main screen (The video will show normal, then saved, the filters will be applied)
    –Video Output:
    Mpeg4 AVC(x264)
    –Audio Output
    Mp3(lame)
    –Output Format
    MP4 Muxer
    >>>>>>>>NOTE: dont use copy on video/audio output because the filters don’t apply

  8. Kevin McGowan said on November 28, 2012 at 7:45 pm
    Reply

    This worked perfectly (ubuntu 12.10). Thanks, I’d been pulling my hair out trying to get iMovie on a Mac to do this without destroying the video quality.

  9. Swaffles said on December 3, 2012 at 4:09 pm
    Reply

    Thank you so much for the tutorial! It worked perfectly except that it altered the colors of my .avi file. It changed everyone’s skin color to blue and I think the tones have flattened? Is there a way to fix that?

    Thanks!

  10. Nihir said on October 23, 2015 at 11:06 am
    Reply

    Many years later this came in handy at the perfect time. Thank you for posting this.

  11. Len said on March 13, 2016 at 4:08 pm
    Reply

    I did exactly as you stated. I brought in an AVI file, tried every video output (1 at a time) , did a crop, saved the file. Every output had no video codec.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 13, 2016 at 4:34 pm
      Reply

      What do you mean by that? That you cannot play the video?

  12. Irene said on February 15, 2017 at 4:45 pm
    Reply

    Hi,
    I imported a video and cropped the screen in filters to suit my needs. When I save the file it only saves 7 min 10 seconds. My video is 30 min long and My A and B points are the beginning and the end of the file. Any idea?
    Thanks

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on February 15, 2017 at 4:51 pm
      Reply

      What do the A and B values read on the main screen?

      1. Irene said on February 15, 2017 at 5:15 pm
        Reply

        I closed everything and opened it again and now it saves the whole video.

        Thanks for the quick reply anyway :)

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