Paint.NET is the free image editor that’s more powerful than Paint but easier than Photoshop.

Essential Tools

  • Rectangle Select (S) — Select rectangular areas
  • Lasso Select (S twice) — Freehand selection
  • Magic Wand (S three times) — Select by color similarity
  • Move Selected Pixels (M) — Drag selected areas
  • Paint Bucket (F) — Fill areas with color
  • Gradient (G) — Linear and radial gradients
  • Clone Stamp (L) — Copy pixels from one area to another

Working with Layers

Window → Layers (F7). Each layer is independent — edits on one don’t affect others. Add new layers with the + button. Drag to reorder. Use the Properties button (or double-click a layer) to rename, set opacity, and choose blend mode (Multiply for shadows, Overlay for highlights).

Effects

The Effects menu has dozens of built-in effects: blurs, distortions, artistic filters, photo adjustments, and more. Effects apply to the current selection or entire layer. Ctrl+F repeats the last effect.

Adjustments

Adjustments → Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Curves. Adjustments are non-destructive — they can be undone. Use Levels (Ctrl+L) to fix exposure by dragging the histogram sliders.

Plugins

Paint.NET supports community plugins for extra effects and file formats. Download from the forum (forums.getpaint.net), extract to the Effects or FileTypes folder. Popular: Pyrochild plugins (gradient, smudge, etc.) and BoltBait’s plugin pack.