Intro to Paint.net
Workspace
When you open Paint.net, you have a workspace like this…
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In the top right corner you can show/hide the panels…
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The menus are on the top left…
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All the tools are in a panel on the left. If you click on “Tool” you can see the list and select one that way too
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Layers
The advantage of Paint.net vs regular MS Paint, is that you can use Layers. To start with it looks like this…
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you can use the buttons at the bottom of the panel to do the following actions:
- insert a new layer
- delete a layer
- duplicate/copy a layer
- merge/combine layers
- properties – or double-click on a layer to change the name or blend mode
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Colors
- Default colors: black & white.
- Primary = front/foreground, Pencil/Brush color; outline for Shapes
- Secondary= back/background, fill for Shapes
- Switch colors using the arrow
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You can choose a color on the color wheel in the middle, or one of the color squares (bottom left). If you click on More>>
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…you see more options for changing your colors. You can set the color to a specific RGB or hexadecimal number; you can also play with the hue/saturation/value amounts, and the opacity amount on the right…
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Shapes
To draw with shapes, first click on the Shapes tool, then go up to the tool options bar and choose which shape you want to draw with…
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You can change what is drawn. Outline = foreground color; Fill = background color.
- Draw Shape Outline (no fill)
- Draw Filled Shape (no outline)
- Draw Filled Shape with Outline
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