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- <h2>FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)</h2>
- <p>This FAQ is up-to-date as of the release of this version of
- Paint.NET. The most up-to-date version is
- <a href="http://www.getpaint.net/redirect/faq.html">online</a>.</p>
- <h3>Is Paint.NET free?</h3>
- <p>Yes, Paint.NET is indeed free in the sense that we do not charge
- money for it.</p>
- <h3>Will Paint.NET ever replace Paint in Windows?</h3>
- <p>There are no plans to include Paint.NET with Windows. But you can
- always download it for free from our website.</p>
- <h3>Is Paint.NET optimized for dual-core processors? I just bought an
- Athlon X2 ...</h3>
- <p>Yes. Paint.NET has been optimized for multicore and multiprocessor
- systems since its first release. Everything from effect rendering, layer
- composition, .PDN file saving/loading, blitting, and more, are optimized
- for this. Our benchmarks show very impressive scaling based on the
- number of cores in a system. We've tested on everything from a normal
- single processor system all the way up to a quad dual-core Opteron (yes,
- that's 8 cores, and yes it was frightfully fast).</p>
- <h3>Does Paint.NET support 64-bit processors?</h3>
- <p>Yes. New for Paint.NET v2.6 is support for 64-bit mode if both your
- processor and operating system support it. For example, if you have an
- Athlon 64 processor and are using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition,
- you will get the benefit of faster performance and the ability to work
- with larger images.</p>
- <h3>Where's the Crop tool?</h3>
- <p>Right under your nose, so to speak. Simply select the area you want
- to crop by using one of the selection tools. You can then move, resize,
- or even rotate the selection by using the Move Selection tool (2nd row,
- 2nd column). Finally, click on Crop to Selection in the Image menu (or
- press Ctrl + Shift + X, or use the button in the toolbar). If you're
- interested in selecting, say, a 4 inch by 6 inch area of the image, make
- sure the "Units" are set to inches (in the toolbar, or in the View ->
- Units menu), and then watch the statusbar (lower left in the main
- window) to see how large a selection is while you are drawing it.</p>
- <h3>Why aren't Windows 98 or ME supported?</h3>
- <p>These legacy operating systems are not supported for many reasons.
- First is that it would require us to do extensive testing on each older
- version of Windows. We don't have the time, the equipment, or the older
- copies of Windows to test with. Second is that it would radically
- complicate our installation process, which is complicated enough as it
- is. Third, it would also compromise the quality of Paint.NET on the
- versions of Windows that we do currently support by requiring us to
- reduce or limit functionality. We use features of Windows that aren't
- available unless you have at least Windows 2000 or even XP. One of these
- features is the ability to consistently use Unicode (as opposed to ANSI)
- character and strings, a prerequisite for rich text compatibility and
- international support. Other features are related to security,
- performance, and reliability.</p>
- <h3>What about Windows Vista support?</h3>
- <p>Paint.NET v2.5 and v2.6 work on the current beta release of Vista,
- although there are some issues that were are looking in to. We are
- planning on including Vista-specific enhancements in future releases as
- well.</p>
- <h3>Why can't I scan or print?</h3>
- <p>There are three possible reasons. One is that you're using Windows
- 2000. We use WIA v2.0 (Windows Image Acquisition) for our printing and
- scanning functionality, and this is a system component that is not
- available unless you have Windows XP SP1 or later installed.</p>
- <p>Second, if you can't scan, then maybe your scanner doesn't support
- WIA. You can check to see if you scanner supports WIA by verifying that
- it shows up in the "Scanners and Cameras" control panel. Some scanners
- or cameras require that special software or drivers be installed before
- they work with WIA.</p>
- <p>Lastly, if you are running Windows Server 2003 you should know that
- the Windows Image Acquisition system service is not enabled by default.
- Simply set it to "Automatic" and it should work.</p>
- <h3>(1) Will it ever be ported to Mac OS, Linux, or any other operating
- system?<br>
- (2) What about Mono support? Wouldn't that be really easy?</h3>
- <p>We will not be doing any work to directly support Mac OS, Linux,
- Mono, or any other platform. It's not that we dislike any of them, it's
- just that they're entirely differenet development platforms than Windows
- + .NET. They all have their own set of implementation intricacies, bugs,
- and support issues. Remember, there's only 3 (yes three) of us on this
- project. We only have so much time, and by focusing strictly on Windows
- + .NET we can make sure that the experience there is the best we can
- possibly make it. <i>(Side note: Yes, it'd technically be possible, but
- we're Windows developers with years of experience on this platform and
- none on Linux or Mac OS. You wouldn't want us writing code for Linux or
- Mac OS because it'd probably be wrong, flakey, slow, or worse.)</i></p>
- <p>As for it being easy: maybe, maybe not. Everytime we add support for
- a new platform it adds an extra burden on us. When we add or change
- something we have to retest a lot of things on every platform that we're
- supporting. Not to mention we get lots of bug reports from beta users
- that we have to figure out solutions for.</p>
- <p>Currently the list of platforms we support is Windows 2000 with .NET,
- Windows XP/Server 2003 with .NET, 64-bit Windows XP/Server 2003 with
- .NET, and 64-bit Windows for Itanium with .NET. Supporting Mono, even on
- Windows, would mean doubling that list to include Windows 2000 with
- Mono, Windows XP with Mono, etc.</p>
- <p>As always, the source code is available so someone else is more than
- welcome to do this themselves.</p>
- <h3>Why can't I load or save icons (.ico files)?</h3>
- <p>Icons are meant to hold multiple images of various dimensions and
- color depths. Paint.NET is meant to work with single images composed of
- multiple layers that are exactly the same dimensions and only with the
- 32-bit color depth. So Paint.NET would make an awful icon editor. We
- recommend checking out out Axialis IconWorkshop, http://www.axialis.com/iconworkshop/
- , instead.</p>
- <h3>Is Paint.NET based off of the Paint code?</h3>
- <p>No. Paint.NET was written from the scratch and is completely separate
- from Paint in every way except for its name. Any similarity between the
- two is on purpose, and is neither accidental nor the fault of legacy
- code.</div>
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- <h4><br>
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- <p align="center">
- <font color="#808080" size="1">Copyright <font face="Times New Roman">⌐ 2006 </font>
- Rick Brewster, Tom
- Jackson, and past contributors. Portions Copyright
- <font face="Times New Roman">⌐ 2006 </font>Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.</font><font size="1"> <br>
- </font>
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