Frequently Asked Questions about Licensing

Can I use Paint.NET for business, commercial, or government use? Or is it only free for "personal" use?
Yes -- the Paint.NET application is free for all uses including personal, business, commercial, government, and school. You may install it on as many systems as you'd, although we do request and appreciate a donation to support our ongoing development costs.

Can I use the Paint.NET libraries (DLLs) in my own software or application?
No. Paint.NET is only licensed for use as an application, and any use of Paint.NET in other software is strictly prohibited.

License
Before using Paint.NET, you must accept the License Agreement as part of the setup process. The license is as follows, and should be perused.

Paint.NET
Copyright (C) dotPDN LLC and Rick Brewster. Portions Copyright (C) Chris Crosetto, Tom Jackson, Michael Kelsey, Brandon Ortiz, Craig Taylor, Chris Trevino, and Luke Walker.
Portions Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Paint.NET is a registered trademark of dotPDN LLC.

Paint.NET is free for use in any environment, including but not necessarily limited to: personal, academic, commercial, government, business, non-profit, and for-profit. "Free" in the preceding sentence means that there is no cost or charge associated with the installation and use of Paint.NET. Donations are always appreciated, of course! http://www.getpaint.net/donate.html

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software (the "Software"), to use the Software without restriction, including the rights to use, copy, publish, and distribute the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.

You may not modify, adapt, rent, lease, loan, sell, or create derivative works based upon the Software or any part thereof. However, certain icons used in the Paint.NET user interface are from or adapted from those in the "Crystal" icon set, http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/, or the "Oxygen" icon set, http://www.oxygen-icons.org/. These icons are covered by the LGPL license, http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html. These icons are stored as "loose" PNG image files in the Resources\en-US\ directory where Paint.NET is installed.

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.