Paint.NET

Paint.NET is image and photo editing software for PCs that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is now maintained and developed by Rick Brewster. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP.

Download Page (Freeware)

Download Alternative (Windows Store, Paid)

• Paint.NET depends on Microsoft's .NET Framework 4.7.2, which is automatically installed if it isn't already on the system.
• Paint.NET will automatically run in 64-bit mode if possible. You must have a 64-bit capable CPU and an x64 edition of Windows.
• Paint.NET uses your hard drive to store temporary files related to undo/redo history. Because of this, actual disk space requirements will depend on the actions you perform on an image, and on the size of the image.

I'm actually using Paint.NET on a regular basis for any 2D, graphic, pixel or minor photo editing work. Tons of free user contributed plugins from filters to various file/image format support, just google it or browse their forums. Highly Recommended

Seems pretty nice and powerful, good introductory video there.

So what does the paid-for version have over the free version?

Cheers.

Thanks Mark. Yes, it seems the paid version over at Windows store will only update automatically, everything else is the same for both. more info on their licensing page (top part)

I use aseprite for pixel art.(sometime paint.net because aseprite get laggy).

Version 5.0 just released (Jan. 10)

https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/121643-paintnet-50-is-now-available