I’m going to, on a weekly basis, go in-depth with one piece of freeware and talk about why you must download it and start using it. Sometimes, using software is a pure personal preference, so you can disobey the Doc’s orders and not take these weekly pills (that don’t cost you a dime, mind you), but you do so absolutely at your own peril. Some of this software you will have heard of, some of it will be more obscure, but all of it extremely useful. I won’t highlight it here if it’s not among the best on the internet, in my humble opinion, of course.
So, without further ado!
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If you’re a graphic designer, artist, professional photographer, or anyone who needs uber-powerful imaging manipulation, then this is not for you. For the rest of us huddled masses yearning for a decent paint program, this is the one that will allow us to breathe free.
To be truthful, most of us are not power users. Most of us don’t need all the insanity (and power, yes) granted in Photoshop, GIMP, and the like. We want an easily-learnable program that will allow us to be able to quickly edit images to either upload to blogs, websites, or send to friends.
So why not just use the “Paint” program provided as default by Microsoft? Well, in a few words, it sucks. As much as Photoshop and GIMP are overkill for certain simple projects, the regular ol’ Microsoft Paint is underkill for just about anything. Granted, if you’re going to create stick men or do simplistic freehand sketch art, then maybe Paint is just fine. But it has very few options and is quite limited.
Paint.NET is not as limited. First of all, you can have more than one active image in it, while Paint does not allow more than one solitary pathetic image per instance of the program. Also, Paint.NET allows you to switch between your images just by clicking on the thumbnail in the upper right hand corner. As far as aesthetics, usability, and layout, all the menus make sense. The small windows within the whole program fade a bit when not in use, and become opaque when hovered upon. The status bar at the lower left gives you appropriate tips depending on the tool/menu you’re using. Tooltips are great, so it’s easy to learn how to use it in less than an hour. A convenient “undo” miniwindow can allow you to undo multiple actions very quickly and easily, which is convenient for people such as me who are always making mistakes.
An important feature that puts in into stark contrast with Paint is the ability to actually have more than just a couple of width choices for your brush! Another convenience is brush gradients, so you don’t always have to paint with a solid brush. So if you are aching for that stupid Paint spray can, you can have a similar effect.
It has a lot more, including image manipulation: blur, distortion, noise, red-eye removal, and so forth. Color adjustment, hue, saturation, and contrast. It’s got a lot more that I probably haven’t even stumbled upon yet. It’s feature rich, but easy to use. Put simply, that should be the goal of any mainstream software program. You won’t be sorry when you replace Microsoft’s sorry excuse for a default paint program!
Paint.NET (v.3.22, 1.6MB): 
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