Adding a Drop Shadow to an Image in Paint.NET

Have you ever wanted to add a drop shadow to something in Paint.NET and wondered why, after all of the revisions and changes that have been made to it, that feature still isn't readily available? Well, it turns out that there is an add-in from Chris Vander Molton that can solve this problem. Let's take a look at how to download and install this add-in.

Before we begin, make sure you're comfortable with the process of downloading and installing software. To get started, right-click on the downloaded file and select "Properties." From there, select "Unblock" and then use your right mouse button to extract the files. You can also use the Windows Extractor to do this.

Once the files are extracted, run the installer and follow the prompts. As you install the add-in, you'll see a variety of features listed, including drop shadows, tones, monochromes, blues, color accents, fade accents, gradient colors, grid lines, and object lines. Click "Install" to complete the installation.

Now that the add-in is installed, open Paint.NET and navigate to the Effects menu. You'll see a new set of options listed under Object, including drop shadows. Let's take a closer look at how to use this feature. To add a drop shadow to an image, start by creating a new layer. You can do this by dragging a rectangular selection tool across the canvas.

Next, right-click on the layer and select "Paste as New Layer." Move the new layer to where you'd like it to be in relation to your original image. Now, use the Rectangle Select tool to select the area of the image that you want to add the drop shadow to. Make sure you're on the new layer by checking the layer selection box.

With the correct layer selected, navigate to the Effects menu and click "Object" followed by "Drop Shadow." You'll see a range of options listed here, including size, opacity, color, and more. To create a simple drop shadow, start by setting the size to around 50-75 pixels. Next, reduce the opacity to around 20-30%. Finally, choose a color that contrasts with your original image.

To refine the effect, you can adjust the size and opacity further. You can also experiment with different colors and styles to achieve the desired look. To undo any changes you've made, simply press Ctrl+Z.

The great news is that this add-in remembers its settings, so you don't have to re-enter them every time you use it. Let's take a closer look at how this works in practice. To test this feature, create a new layer and paste some text into it. Move the layer to where you'd like it to be on your original image.

Next, right-click on the layer and select "Paste as New Layer." Use the Rectangle Select tool to select the area of the layer that you want to add the drop shadow to. Navigate to the Effects menu and click "Object" followed by "Drop Shadow."

This time, let's choose a different color for our drop shadow. To do this, click on the dropdown menu next to the color slider and select a new color. You'll also see a range of additional options listed here, including dual tones, color accents, and more.

Finally, let's take a look at how to uninstall this add-in if you no longer need it. The process is relatively straightforward. To start, run the installer again and navigate to the "Uninstall" section.

From there, select the features that you want to remove and click "Cancel." If you've done something that's caused problems, don't worry - you can simply deselect the problematic feature and click "OK."

The final two features listed under adjustments are pretty minor, but they're worth mentioning. The first is a range of color accents that can be used to enhance your images. The second is an option to check for plugin errors in case something goes wrong.

If you have any questions or feedback about this add-in, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below. We'd love to hear from you and respond as soon as possible.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engood day have you ever wanted to add a drop shadow to Something in paint.net and wondered why after all of the revisions and all of the changes that have been made to it that that feature still isn't readily available well I mean you know you can do it manually you can go through and add a bunch of effects to make it happen but there's no convenient single-click way to do it well it turns out is it's simply an addin from Chris Vander Molton and we have the extension that he built right here so let's download it and install it and show you how to use it it's not difficult but it's not completely obvious so let's just download it here all right all right so before you unzip it just right click on it select properties and select unblock and then just I just use my right you can you can unzip it any way you want I just right click and drag and then uh you can extract uh let's just extract that we'll extract using the windows extractor Bingo there it is and then you run the installer and you'll see it comes up with drop Shadows du tones monochromes Blues color accent fade accent gradient color you know uh grid lines and uh object line so a whole bunch of really cool little features so let's click install and now when you go into effects you'll see a number of of things that you didn't see before object align super helpful you'll see in particular for this conversation drop shadow and if you look through you'll see a few other of these little icons with the puzzle pieces those are his plug-in right so you can tell which ones are new which ones aren't great okay so let's show you how to use this so let's say you've got an image uh doesn't make any difference let's just uh let's just uh uh background fill this with something to prove a point there we go so we now have that stunning image I will draw a lovely Circle isn't that special now I'm going to offc center it there we go so it's like that and bucket fill that there we go so there's my stunning image now I need to put something in here and I want it to have a drop shadow so here's an article we wrote on icons for Android it's basically the master list of icons doesn't make any difference uh what you choose in fact let's just take a screen grab here and I want this entire text there we go just like that that's what I want go back to paint now you might think you just paste it in and then you go to effect and it's under object and drop shadow nothing much happens it's not really good what's going on yeah just let me explain so undo that what you want to do is edit paste as a new layer move it to where you want it then you think okay now I'll do it I'm jumping ahead again now still doesn't do it okay this is why uh so what we need to do is just get out of that so I'm going to control a to select the entire uh layer and you can see here that I've got my second layer which is this one selected and now what I need to choose is the uh rectangle select and I need to select larger than just that block so let's do that now it's going to work so when I go to effects and I go to object and I go to drop shadow and I want the drop shadow to be red there we go see that and uh to make this point I want to make it a little larger and I would actually like it to be actual drop shadow so I'm going to shift it there we go actually that's a bit much so let's go here I'm going to set this to seven and seven and um I'm going to reduce the opacity a bit and there we go now when I select all there we go that is how you do a drop shadow in paint.net okay so there are two more things to uh go over quite quickly here the first is that it remembers that setting that you just went through so you don't have to re J it every time so let's go back here we'll choose a different icon I'll just take the Snipping Tool and grab it it doesn't make any difference so let's choose the SDI card SD card icon there we go and uh let's go back to paint okay now you do the same thing you don't just paste you paste in a new layer right then move it to where you'd like it to be uh and then what you do is grab the rectangle select select larger than that area making sure that you're on your new layer as you can see I am here and then go to effects object and it remembers the last settings isn't that nice now if you wanted to uninstall it for some reason you'll find that it is not in your apps and programs the way to uninstall it is to go through the installer again and just deselect the features you don't care about or that you don't want if you the unlikely done something that's causing you problems you just deselect them click cancel on that cuz I want to keep them and the last two things are pretty minor uh under adjustments you'll see that he's added all kinds of additional things here color accents and dual tones as we talked about uh the very last thing is this which is checking for plugin errors in the unlikely event you have something I have not had any troubles so I don't know why you would but you might really appreciate it if you would click like it really helps with Google algorithm and if you like this type of thing please click subscribe we do this kind of stuff all day long beyond that if you have any questions please put them in the comment section below we'll get back to you shortly uh usually within a day but you can always get a hold of us at www. t.ca that's .c that's that have a great day thanks bye-bye\n"