14 DAY TRIAL // Although many users expected to see a new stable revision for Paint.NET image editing suite, the developer came out with a beta update for version 3.5 of the product.
However, rolling out this build is just to make sure that everything is ready for the 4.0 release (alpha), which, according to the developer, will happen “soon” (there is no set date available at the moment).
The developer informs that the current beta (3.5.11) will reach stable stage in a few days (probably less than a week) and it will be able to provide users with the update for the upcoming version 4.0 of the product. Alternatively, users with the current stable release (3.5.10) will not receive subsequent updates.
Among the changes available in this beta, there are performance improvements for various effects (Sharpen, Median, Fragment, Unfocus) as well as a lower resource usage when history is filled with selection manipulation operations.
The Gaussian Blur effect should now be able to calculate the alpha values for non-opaque pixels correctly.
Paint.NET 4.0 will integrate new rendering and history systems. A public alpha should appear when work on the features is complete and only glitches need to be addressed.