Can Paint.NET plug-ins be used outside of Paint.NET?

Question

Can I easily use plug-ins made for Paint.NET in my own C# application (assuming that I comply with the plug-in licensing)?

My goal is to automate certain effects and it seems that there are quite a few for Paint.NET.

Answer 1

If you have any .NET assembly, you can use it in your code as long as you use it correctly.

In your case:

1- Are you sure you will implement all the interface with the plug-in correctly (your code will behave as if it is Paint.NET)?

2- Are you sure the plug-in does not depend on Paint.NET itself in doing its job?

3- Are you sure all pubic interfaces of the plug-in does not depend on each other (I mean you need not to call 2 public methods consecutively to perform a single functionality)?

If this plug-in is not obfuscated, you can reverse its code with Reflector and play with the code as you like.

Answer 2

Paint.NET was previously open source. I did a little Googling and I found the last open source version over here: http://d.freewareshare.net/938276

What you can do is take code from Paint.NET and use it in your project (eg. the stuff that plugins interface with). I believe Paint.NET 3.36 is licensed under some kind of super permissive open license, so even if your code is commercial in nature it shouldn't be a problem.