CodeLab for Paint.NET

Develop your own plugins for Paint.NET!

Most Paint.NET plugins are written in C# and most plugin authors polled prefer CodeLab for plugin development. CodeLab is a free (as in "free beer") development environment for writing Paint.NET effect plugins in C#.

The first version of CodeLab was written by Tom Jackson (of the Paint.NET team). After he published it, several members of the Paint.NET forum posted a few bug reports and many enhancement requests. Since he has not shown any interest in updating CodeLab, I took it upon myself to update and enhance this wonderful tool. I have published several updates to CodeLab and I am now the official maintainer of CodeLab.

If you have suggestions for improvements or bugs to report, please post on the official CodeLab thread in the Paint.NET forum.

Download Now

Download CodeLab here: Version 6.8 - ZIP format

Just save this file to your desktop, "unblock" it, unzip it, and run the installer. After that you should be all set.

Thanks! How can I help?

I update CodeLab in my spare time and I share it with everyone for free. You are not required to pay me in order to use CodeLab. However, if you would like to support the CodeLab development you may do so by buying me a beer via PayPal (no account required).

Donate
The following is a list of people who are trying to get me drunk:
Scott Stringer (aka Ego Eram Reputo), John Stout (aka jstout), Michelle Greathouse, Angelia Udechukwu (aka ladyangelamarie), Jeromy Goodnight, Noriyuki Chiba (aka dpy), Rick Williams, Gary Muhonen (aka garymuhonen), and Steve Brereton. Wouldn't you like to buy me a beer, or two?

What can I do with CodeLab?

Once you have the DLL installed and working (it should show up under the Effects>Advanced>CodeLab menu in Paint.NET) you can read the following tutorials to help you get started:

More Information

Here is some more information that you may find useful:
CodeLab Help File
History of CodeLab
CodeLab Source Code for Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition C# - (Advanced users only)

News

CodeLab 6.8 Released
(January 22, 2023)
This latest release of CodeLab for Paint.NET includes the ability to edit shape files, TXT files, and write file type plugins. It also features the Roslyn C# compiler.
More...

Double-Six Dominoes 3.1
(May 10, 2021)
This long-awaited refresh of the most popular dominoes game on Download.com is now available!
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HTML Editor 1.5 Released
(March 31, 2016)
This latest release is a complete rewrite adding a wysiwyg editor mode and a much improved UI.
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