Lets take a look at photo applications that could help your creativity flow

Paint.NET: Easy Image Editing and Manipulation

It's fairly common to hear the term "googled" when someone is referring to doing research via the web, or when photo touch ups are involved the term "photoshopped" is commonly used. It seems the de facto standard application for image manipulation is Adobe's powerful Photoshop program.

But Photoshop not only comes with a hefty price, but it also comes with a steep learning curve. Volumes upon volumes of books have been written to ease the transition from novice to expert in the Photoshop realm. Is there an easier alternative to using Photoshop? You bet there is!

Introducing Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a powerful image and photo manipulation application that's absolutely simple to use. If you're partial to beautiful interfaces, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the look and feel of Paint.NET's GUI. The first thing that may catch your eye is Paint.NET's various tool pallets; aside from providing useful features at the zap of your mouse, they also sport a very handy transparent feature, so they don't hinder your view of the current image.

When you select on one of the pallets, it'll instantly come into full view and into the foreground. When you select on another pallet, the previous pallet will go back into transparency mode. This feature is useful when you don't have very much screen real estate to work with.

Like Photoshop, Paint.NET also sports a "layers" feature; this comes in handy when you want to work on certain portions of your image without disturbing other portions with your editing.

Applying special effects to your images becomes a cakewalk with Paint.NET's intuitive interface. Blur, distort, Glow, Frost, at el: Paint.NET comes equipped with enough special effects to give your images that special touch.

Installation

Paint.NET comes with one major stipulation in order for you to install and run it. You must make sure that you've Microsoft's .NET 2.0 framework installed. What's the .NET framework, you ask?

Well, put simply, it's a code library that makes writing Windows applications much easier. Don't worry; it's not hard to install. You may even have it installed. The best way to discover if you've the correct .NET framework, is to just download and run Paint.NET's installation program. You'll receive a warning message box if you don't have the correct libraries installed.

To install the .NET framework, perform a standard Windows Update. In the software section of Windows Update, you'll see a check box for the .NET framework. Have Windows install it for you and do a reboot before attempting the Paint.NET installation again.

Cool Features

If you've ever played around with Windows' default paint application, then Paint.NET's default tools should seem very familiar. Once you've fired up Paint.NET, you can begin creating or editing your images. The tools pallet is loaded with all the stand tools you'll need to create your masterpiece. Select the Paint Brush tool on the Tools pallet; it's the tool with the paint brush icon on it.

If you hover your mouse's pointer over each tool you'll get a nifty tooltip that'll give a short description of its
functionality. Once the paint brush tool has been selected, you can begin drawing on the canvas. Experiment with different colors by selecting and blending new ones on the Color pallet. If for some reason you don't see the Tools, Colors, or Layers pallets etc., you can make them visible by navigating to the Window menu and checking each pallet you want visible, respectively.

Applying Effects

Paint.NET comes with myriad effects to apply to your images right-out-of-the-box. Give your images a professional quality effect that'll spice it up. Load up an image by going to the File menu and selecting Open. Once your image is loaded into Paint.NET, browse the Effects menu to get a good feel of what Paint.NET has to offer in terms of special filters.

For instance, suppose you want to give your image an old-school pixilated look. Select Effects and Pixelate. A small dialog box will appear allowing to adjust the pixelization via a slider bar or by setting the pixel size number. Play around with this and select OK when you're satisfied with the effect.

If you find that you no longer like the last effect you applied, go to the Edit menu and select Undo. Your image will be converted back into its erstwhile pristine state. A nice shortcut key to Undo recent changes is Ctrl+Z; this comes in handy for keyboard aficionados.

Paint.NET's Layers

Layers are a fantastic way to work with your images. They afford you the capability to manipulate and edit sections of your image without affecting other sections. Layers are a great way to "turn off" or "turn on" certain portions of your image. Let me explain.

First, make sure that you've the Layers pallet visible. Navigate to the Window menu and select the Layers item. On the Layers pallet, press the first icon on the bottom left; it's the one with the plus sign. This will give you a new layer to work with. Now, Uncheck the Background layer to make it invisible while making sure that the "Layer 2" layer is checked, making it visible.

Grab your paint brush and sketch out something nice on the checkered background; once you're done doing this, make the "Background" layer visible again by making sure it's check box is checked. Did you see what happened? Ensuring that both layers are visible "merges" them into one image. Uncheck "Layer 2" and watch its contents disappear.

Create as many layers as you need, as you'll find them indispensable if you should choose to delve deeper into graphical creation and editing.

Paint.NET is a wonderful image editor and manipulation tool. If you don't want to break the bank, paying out a huge sum of notes for Photoshop, then Paint.NET is a great alternative.

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