Drop Shadow

Paint .NET is one of the few image editors that is free of charge and benefits from a numerous community that keeps expanding its features either by contributing to its development or by creating plug-ins to enrich the default list of effects.

Drop Shadow is a simple extension that adds a new effect into the program. Installing the plug-in is as easy as extracting the contents of the archive and dropping the files into the “Effects” folder in the Paint.NET installation directory.

The files are just a couple of DLLs that are integrated immediately by the program at the next launch. Drop Shadow appears in the Effects menu, under the Objects sub-menu.

It includes options for positioning the shadow effect both on the vertical and the horizontal axis. There are additional customization options available that allow setting the radius of the effect, or the blur level.

Apart from these, the developer makes available the possibility to set a specific level of opacity for the shadow as well as its color, which can be selected from a RGB palette and customized in terms of intensity.

Despite being a simple plug-in, Drop Shadow is built responsibly and provides the option to rest the level to all the settings.

Just like in case of many other additions, this, too, lets you preview the effect of all the changes in real-time, before applying them. Another option is to maintain the original image that is altered, thus leaving a rectangular area that can act as a layer in the larger picture.

Drop Shadow does not require too much image editing experience to install or to work with makes for a simple way to enrich the list of effects available in Paint.NET.