Paint.NET Supported File Formats for Import and Export

A fresh installation of Paint.NET includes built-in support for a diverse range of standard, modern, and game-development image file formats without requiring additional plugins. This guide details every file type you can directly import (open) and export (save) out of the box, as well as how the program handles layered projects across different file types.

Native Format

  • PDN (.pdn): This is Paint.NET's native image format. It is the only default format that preserves multiple layers, layer blend modes, and project metadata. When creating complex multi-layer graphics, saving in the PDN format ensures you can resume editing later without data loss.

Standard Web and Photo Formats

Paint.NET provides full bidirectional support (import and export) for all standard digital imaging formats:

  • PNG (.png): Highly recommended for digital artwork and graphics requiring lossless compression and full alpha transparency support.
  • JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jfif): Best suited for photographs. Supports adjustable compression quality during export to balance file size against visual fidelity. JPEG does not support transparency or layers.
  • GIF (.gif): Fully supported for static images with indexed color palettes (up to 256 colors) and binary transparency. Paint.NET can open and save single-frame GIFs; multi-frame animated GIFs will only display or save their first frame natively.
  • BMP (.bmp, .dib): Standard uncompressed Windows Bitmap format, supporting various bit depths (including 24-bit and 32-bit with transparency).
  • TIFF (.tif, .tiff): Tagged Image File Format, commonly used in photography and desktop publishing. Supports multiple compression algorithms during export, including LZW, ZIP, and uncompressed.

Modern Compressed Formats

Recent releases of Paint.NET include built-in support for modern high-efficiency web formats:

  • WebP (.webp): Developed by Google, providing both lossy and lossless compression with alpha channel support at smaller file sizes than JPEG or PNG.
  • AVIF (.avif): A modern format based on the AV1 video codec offering superior compression efficiency. Fully supported for direct loading and saving in modern versions of the software.

Specialized and Gaming Formats

  • DDS (.dds): DirectDraw Surface, widely used in game engines and 3D modeling for storing textures and environment maps. A clean installation allows you to open and save DDS files with selectable compression methods (such as DXT1, DXT3, DXT5, and BC7).
  • TGA (.tga): Truevision TARGA format, historically common in game development, supporting 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit color data with optional RLE compression.

Export Behavior and Layer Flattening

Every supported format except .pdn is a single-layer format. If your project contains multiple layers and you choose to export it as a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or any other standard format, Paint.NET will automatically prompt you to flatten the image into a single composite layer before saving the file.