PaintFE is a fast, native raster image editor. Single portable binary, GPU-accelerated, scriptable. Runs locally, no account needed, nothing phoning home. Download it once and it’s yours.
PaintFE includes background removal via ONNX models. It runs locally, it’s optional, and you supply the model yourself. Nothing is uploaded. Nothing is trained on your images.
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Bring Your Own Model (BYOM)
Point PaintFE to any compatible ONNX model on your drive. BiRefNet, U²-Net, and IS-Net are all supported and auto-detected.
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Runs Entirely Locally
ONNX Runtime is loaded dynamically. Install it once and it works offline forever. Your images never leave your machine.
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Not Magic
Background removal works best on clear subjects. PaintFE gives you the result as a layer you can refine by hand. It won’t be perfect every time.
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A note on AI and creative work
PaintFE doesn’t generate images or replace anyone’s work. The only AI feature is background removal — a time-saver for tedious masking, nothing more.
What PaintFE is.
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A fast raster image editor
GPU compositing, 4K at interactive frame rates, sub-second startup. Single portable binary.
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Free and open source — actually
MIT licensed, no telemetry, no account required, no cloud, no “pro” tier. The full app ships for free.
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Scriptable and automatable
Built-in Rhai scripting with pixel-level API, headless CLI batch mode, saveable custom effects.
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Enough features to actually get things done
25 blend modes, 23 tools, RAW support, animated GIF/APNG, local AI background removal.
