The free pixel-based image editor Paint.NET has a many of its tools grouped together in the Tools palette. Paint.NET is very popular with users who prefer a more coherent user interface than GIMP. It isn't as powerful as GIMP, but this does mean that it has a slightly gentler learning curve and it is also a good choice for anyone who can't afford Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
In this article, I'm going to take a look at the Tools palette and give an overview of what the tools are used for. If you're a newcomer to Paint.NET, you may also be interested in this introduction to the user interface as a whole.
The Tools palette floats above the document and is configured in two columns. When a tool is selected by clicking upon it, the options for that tool are displayed in the bar above the document window.
The tools break down into three basic groups, these being selection tools, painting/drawing tools and a couple of utilities. If you mouse over any tool, a tool tip will show the name of the tool and the keyboard shortcut that you can use to select it.
Selection Tools
These offer several ways to select pixels. This gives you a way of editing and adjusting parts of a photo without affecting other areas that you wish to remain the same. The Selection Mode can be adjusted to change the way that different selections interact, allowing more complex selections to be made. By default, all of the selection tools are set to Replace, meaning that there can only ever be one active selection at any one time.
Pressing the 'S' key will cycle through the four selection tools and pressing the 'M' key cycles between the two tools for moving selections.
- Rectangle Select – makes rectangular selections and has options to make fixed size and fixed ratio selections.
- Lasso Select – allows you to draw free hand selections.
- Ellipse Select – draws elliptical selections and holding down the Shift key while using the tool will constrain it to drawing a circular selection.
- Magic Wand – selects pixels based on their color and can be used to select pixels in just part of the image or across the whole image.
- Move Selected Pixels – moves the pixels within the selection, but holding the Ctrl button while moving the selection makes a copy of the original pixels and moves those, leaving the originals in position.
- Move Selection – this can be used to reposition the selection without having any effect on the pixels within the selection.
Utilities
There are two utility tools within the Tools palette in Paint.NET that don't fit into the selection or painting/drawing groups.
- Zoom – you can zoom in increments or click and drag to highlight the area that you want to magnify.
- Pan – you can use this to move around the image rather than using the scroll bars.
Painting/Drawing Tools
These tools offer a variety of ways to paint and draw within a document. The last five tools can be cycled through by clicking the 'O' key.
- Paint Bucket – can fill selections or change the color of parts of an image.
- Gradient – fill a layer or selection with a blend of two colors or fade a layer to transparent.
- Paint Brush – this can paint lines of varying widths with a solid fill or patterns.
- Eraser – this removes color from pixels but works much like the Paint Brush, including the ability to change the Transparency – Alpha setting so that it has a softer effect.
- Pencil – draws hard edged thin lines.
- Color Picker – this eye dropper tool allows you to select colors from the document that you can then paint with.
- Clone Stamp – this can be a very powerful tool allowing you to copy one part of an image and paint it into another part of the image.
- Recolor – can be used to paint pixels of a certain color without affecting differently colored pixels.
- Text – a basic tool for adding text to an image, though text isn't editable once it has been deselected.
- Line/Curve – this draws straight lines and adds four nodes that you can move to curve the lines in different ways.
- Rectangle – has options for outlined or solid rectangle shapes.
- Rounded Rectangle – works in the same way as the Rectangle tool, but with rounded corners.
- Ellipse – can draw solid or outlined elliptical shapes.
- Freeform Shape – works much like the Lasso Select tool but draws solid or outlined shapes rather than selections.
The Tools palette offers a strong range of tools and to get the most from them, do keep an eye on the Tool Options bar and experiment with the different options that are available.