Microsoft Paint
Encyclopedia
Paint is a simple graphics painting
program that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows
. It is often referred to as MS Paint or Microsoft Paint. The program opens and saves files as Windows bitmap
(24-bit, 256 color, 16 color, and monochrome
, all with the .bmp extension), JPEG
, GIF (without animation or transparency, although the Windows 98
version, a Windows 95
upgrade, and the Windows NT4 version did support the latter), PNG (without alpha channel
), and TIFF (without multiple page support). The program can be in color mode or two-color black-and-white
, but there is no grayscale
mode. For its simplicity, it rapidly became one of the most used applications in the early versions of Windows—introducing many to painting on a computer for the first time—and still has strong associations with the immediate usability of the old Windows workspace.
. It was a licensed version of ZSoft Corporation
's PC Paintbrush. Paint was later renamed to Paintbrush in Windows 3.0, but the name was changed back to Paint in Windows 95 and later. This version only supported the MSP and BMP file formats. The former is no longer supported by newer versions of Paint, along with PCX
and RLE
. Older versions cannot open or edit PNG files, and can only open GIF, JPEG, and TIFF files with a graphics filter for the specific file type.
, a new version of Paint was introduced. The same icons and color palette continued to be used through Windows XP
. The version of Paint included in Windows 95
and Windows NT 4.0
allowed saving and loading a custom set of color wells as color palette files (*.pal) using Save colors and Get colors functions from the Colors menu. This functionality worked correctly only if the color depth
of images was 16-bits per pixel (bpp) or higher (65,536 (64k) colors [High Color]).
In the Windows 98
, Windows 2000
or Windows Me
versions of Paint, images could be saved in JPEG and GIF and PNG formats if the necessary Microsoft graphics filters were installed, usually by another Microsoft application such as Microsoft Office
or Microsoft PhotoDraw
. In Windows Me
onwards (excluding Windows 2000), the canvas size expands automatically when larger images are opened or pasted, instead of asking.
In Windows XP
and later versions, Paint is based on GDI+ and therefore, images can be natively saved as JPEG, GIF, TIFF and PNG without requiring additional graphics filters (in addition to BMP). However, alpha channel transparency
is still not supported because the GDI+ version of Paint can only handle up to 24-bit
depth images. Support for acquiring images from a scanner or a digital camera was also added to Paint.
, the toolbar icons and default colour palette were changed. Also added were an increased number of undo levels to 10 times, a zoom slider, and a crop function. This version saves as .jpg by default, and gives no control over the lossy compression used, so may subtly degrade the quality of an image.
GUI. It also features "artistic" brushes composed of varying shades of gray and some transparency that give a more realistic result. To add to the realism, the oil and watercolor brushes can only paint for a small distance before the user must re-click (this gives the illusion that the paint brush has run out of paint).
It also has anti-aliased shapes, which can be resized freely until they are rasterised when another tool is selected.
This version supports viewing (but not saving) transparent PNG and ICO file formats and saves in the PNG file format by default. There is now an option to make any shape bigger or smaller after drawing it.
Text can now be pasted into text boxes that don't have enough room to display the text. A text box can then be enlarged or reshaped appropriately to fit the text if desired. Previous versions of Paint would display an error message if a user tried to paste more text than there was room for.
The Windows 7 version of Paint mostly corrects a long standing defect from previous versions involving an inability to scroll the window when editing in Zoom view over 100%. However, when inserting text in Zoom view, the user cannot move the text beyond the zoomed viewport while the text window is in edit mode with either the mouse or keyboard (scrollbars are disabled).
+ any mouse click).
The program comes with the following options in its Tool Box (from left to right in image):
The Image menu offers the following options: Flip/Rotate, Stretch/Skew, Invert Colors, Image Attributes, Clear Image, and Draw Opaque. The "Colors" menu allows the user to Edit Colors (only menu option under Colors). The Edit Colors dialog box shows the standard Windows color picker which includes a 48-color palette and 12 custom color slots that can be edited. Clicking "Define Custom Colors" displays a square version of the color wheel that can select a custom color either with a crosshair
cursor (like a "+"), by Hue/Saturation/Luminance, or by Red/Green/Blue values.
There are 28 color wells in the workspace. The default colors in the Color Box are the following: Black
, White
, Gray, Silver
, Maroon
, Red
, Olive, Yellow
, Dark Green, Green
, Teal
, Cyan
, Navy blue
, Blue
, Purple
, Magenta
, Old Gold
, Lemon
Yellow, Slate gray
, Kelly green, Dark Carolina blue, Aquamarine
, Midnight blue
, Periwinkle
, Violet-blue, Coral
, Brown
, and Pumpkin orange. A color palette is also available.
Paint also has a few hidden functions not mentioned in the help file: a stamp mode, trail mode, regular shapes, and moving pictures. For the stamp mode, the user can select part of the image, hold the control key
, and move it to another part of the canvas. This, instead of cutting the piece out, creates a copy of it. The process can be repeated as many times as desired, as long as the control key is held down. The trail mode works exactly the same, but it uses the shift key
instead of the control key.
A 10x magnification is available by clicking just below to 8x selector.
The user may also draw straight horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines with the pencil tool, without the need of the straight line tool, by holding the shift key
and dragging the tool. Moreover, it is also possible to thicken (control key
+ +) or thin (control key
+ −) a line simultaneously while it is being drawn. To crop whitespace or eliminate parts of a graphic, the blue handle in the lower right corner can be clicked and dragged to increase canvas size or crop a graphic. The colors in the image can be inverted by pressing control key
+ I
(This shortcut has been changed to control key
+ shift key
+ I
in the Windows 7 version of Paint). Users can also draw perfect shapes (which have width equal to height) using the Rounded Rectangle, the Circle, and the Rectangle Tool by holding down the Shift key
while dragging.
Older versions of Paint, such as the one bundled with Windows 3.1
, allowed controlling the drawing cursor with the use of arrow keys
as well as a color-replace brush, which replaced a single color underneath the brush with another without affecting the rest of the image. In later versions of Paint, the color erase brush may be simulated by selecting the color to be replaced as the primary color, and the one it will be replaced with as the secondary color, and then right-click dragging the erase tool. The drawing cursor can also be controlled with arrow keys in current versions of Paint if Mouse keys under Accessibility options is enabled and configured appropriately.
Paint's exclusive availability on the Windows platform has led to the creation of clones by users of other operating systems, such as Kolourpaint
for users of Linux
, BSD
and Solaris.
The new version of Paint found in Windows 7 offers many new features, namely a selection of brushes including Oil, Watercolor, and Calligraphic.
Paint is nonetheless able to correctly load and save indexed palettes in any of the supported formats if an image is opened as an 8-bit or otherwise indexed palette image. In that case, the image's palette will be preserved when saving. However, there is no way to see the actual palette, and color choices for brushes, text and erasers as well as user-defined colors will be limited to the closest available color in the indexed palette.
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
program that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. It is often referred to as MS Paint or Microsoft Paint. The program opens and saves files as Windows bitmap
Windows bitmap
The BMP File Format, also known as Bitmap Image File or Device Independent Bitmap file format or simply a Bitmap, is a Raster graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images, independently of the display device , especially on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems.The BMP...
(24-bit, 256 color, 16 color, and monochrome
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
, all with the .bmp extension), JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, GIF (without animation or transparency, although the Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
version, a Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
upgrade, and the Windows NT4 version did support the latter), PNG (without alpha channel
Alpha compositing
In computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render image elements in separate passes, and then combine the resulting multiple 2D images into a single, final image in a...
), and TIFF (without multiple page support). The program can be in color mode or two-color black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
, but there is no grayscale
Grayscale
In photography and computing, a grayscale or greyscale digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample, that is, it carries only intensity information...
mode. For its simplicity, it rapidly became one of the most used applications in the early versions of Windows—introducing many to painting on a computer for the first time—and still has strong associations with the immediate usability of the old Windows workspace.
Initial versions
The first version of Paint was introduced with the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0Windows 1.0
Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit graphical operating environment, developed by Microsoft and released on 20 November 1985. It was Microsoft's first attempt to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the PC platform. Windows 1.0 was the first version of Windows...
. It was a licensed version of ZSoft Corporation
ZSoft Corporation
ZSoft Corporation, founded by Mark Zachmann, was a Marietta, Georgia software company in the 1980s known for the PC Paintbrush software and its PCX graphic file format. ZSoft first merged in 1989 with Mediagenic. When Mediagenic went bankrupt in 1991, Zachmann was able to regain his independence...
's PC Paintbrush. Paint was later renamed to Paintbrush in Windows 3.0, but the name was changed back to Paint in Windows 95 and later. This version only supported the MSP and BMP file formats. The former is no longer supported by newer versions of Paint, along with PCX
PCX
PCX is an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS imaging standards, although it has since been succeeded by more sophisticated image formats, such as GIF,...
and RLE
Run-length encoding
Run-length encoding is a very simple form of data compression in which runs of data are stored as a single data value and count, rather than as the original run...
. Older versions cannot open or edit PNG files, and can only open GIF, JPEG, and TIFF files with a graphics filter for the specific file type.
Windows 9x to Windows XP
In Windows 95Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, a new version of Paint was introduced. The same icons and color palette continued to be used through Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
. The version of Paint included in Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
and Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996...
allowed saving and loading a custom set of color wells as color palette files (*.pal) using Save colors and Get colors functions from the Colors menu. This functionality worked correctly only if the color depth
Color depth
In computer graphics, color depth or bit depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. This concept is also known as bits per pixel , particularly when specified along with the number of bits used...
of images was 16-bits per pixel (bpp) or higher (65,536 (64k) colors [High Color]).
In the Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
, Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
or Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
versions of Paint, images could be saved in JPEG and GIF and PNG formats if the necessary Microsoft graphics filters were installed, usually by another Microsoft application such as Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
or Microsoft PhotoDraw
Microsoft PhotoDraw
Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 is a vector graphics and raster imaging software package developed by Microsoft. PhotoDraw fills a hole in the Office productivity suite, which includes software programs for word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and alike, but lacks a capable image creation and...
. In Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
onwards (excluding Windows 2000), the canvas size expands automatically when larger images are opened or pasted, instead of asking.
In Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
and later versions, Paint is based on GDI+ and therefore, images can be natively saved as JPEG, GIF, TIFF and PNG without requiring additional graphics filters (in addition to BMP). However, alpha channel transparency
Transparency (graphic)
Transparency is possible in a number of graphics file formats. The term transparency is used in various ways by different people, but at its simplest there is "full transparency" i.e. something that is completely invisible. Of course, only part of a graphic should be fully transparent, or there...
is still not supported because the GDI+ version of Paint can only handle up to 24-bit
24-bit
Notable 24-bit machines include the ICT 1900 series and the Harris H series.The IBM System/360, announced in 1964, was a popular computer system with 24-bit addressing and 32-bit general registers and arithmetic...
depth images. Support for acquiring images from a scanner or a digital camera was also added to Paint.
Windows Vista
In Windows VistaWindows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, the toolbar icons and default colour palette were changed. Also added were an increased number of undo levels to 10 times, a zoom slider, and a crop function. This version saves as .jpg by default, and gives no control over the lossy compression used, so may subtly degrade the quality of an image.
Windows 7
The Windows 7 version of Paint makes use of the RibbonRibbon (computing)
In GUI-based application software, a ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar. Recent releases of some Microsoft applications have embraced this form with a modular ribbon as their main interface. The Ribbon is a contextual interface that offers functionality...
GUI. It also features "artistic" brushes composed of varying shades of gray and some transparency that give a more realistic result. To add to the realism, the oil and watercolor brushes can only paint for a small distance before the user must re-click (this gives the illusion that the paint brush has run out of paint).
It also has anti-aliased shapes, which can be resized freely until they are rasterised when another tool is selected.
This version supports viewing (but not saving) transparent PNG and ICO file formats and saves in the PNG file format by default. There is now an option to make any shape bigger or smaller after drawing it.
Text can now be pasted into text boxes that don't have enough room to display the text. A text box can then be enlarged or reshaped appropriately to fit the text if desired. Previous versions of Paint would display an error message if a user tried to paste more text than there was room for.
The Windows 7 version of Paint mostly corrects a long standing defect from previous versions involving an inability to scroll the window when editing in Zoom view over 100%. However, when inserting text in Zoom view, the user cannot move the text beyond the zoomed viewport while the text window is in edit mode with either the mouse or keyboard (scrollbars are disabled).
Features
Recent versions of Paint allow the user to pick up to three colors at a time: the primary color (left mouse click), secondary color (right mouse click), and tertiary color (control keyControl key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
+ any mouse click).
The program comes with the following options in its Tool Box (from left to right in image):
- Free-Form SelectFree-form selectFree-Form Select is a technique in printmaking, graphic design and image processing.The effect is to erase background colours or elements from a motif for stand-alone...
- Select
- Eraser/ColorColorColor or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
Eraser - Fill With Color
- Pick Color
- Magnifier
- PencilPencilA pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....
- BrushBrushA brush is a tool with bristles, wire or other filaments, used for cleaning, grooming hair, make up, painting, surface finishing and for many other purposes. It is one of the most basic and versatile tools known to mankind, and the average household may contain several dozen varieties...
- AirbrushAirbrushAn airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
- TextText boxA text box, text field or text entry box is a kind of widget used when building a graphical user interface . A text box's purpose is to allow the user to input text information to be used by the program...
- LineLine (mathematics)The notion of line or straight line was introduced by the ancient mathematicians to represent straight objects with negligible width and depth. Lines are an idealization of such objects...
- CurveBézier curveA Bézier curve is a parametric curve frequently used in computer graphics and related fields. Generalizations of Bézier curves to higher dimensions are called Bézier surfaces, of which the Bézier triangle is a special case....
- RectangleRectangleIn Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
- PolygonPolygonIn geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
- EllipseEllipseIn geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
- Rounded Rectangle
The Image menu offers the following options: Flip/Rotate, Stretch/Skew, Invert Colors, Image Attributes, Clear Image, and Draw Opaque. The "Colors" menu allows the user to Edit Colors (only menu option under Colors). The Edit Colors dialog box shows the standard Windows color picker which includes a 48-color palette and 12 custom color slots that can be edited. Clicking "Define Custom Colors" displays a square version of the color wheel that can select a custom color either with a crosshair
Crosshair
A reticle is a net of fine lines or fibers in the eyepiece of a sighting device, such as a telescope, a telescopic sight, a microscope, or the screen of an oscilloscope. The word reticle comes from the Latin "reticulum," meaning "net." Today, engraved lines or embedded fibers may be replaced by a...
cursor (like a "+"), by Hue/Saturation/Luminance, or by Red/Green/Blue values.
There are 28 color wells in the workspace. The default colors in the Color Box are the following: Black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
, White
White
White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
, Gray, Silver
Silver (color)
Silver is the metallic shade resembling gray, closest to that of polished silver.The visual sensation usually associated with the metal silver is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the material's brightness varying with the...
, Maroon
Maroon (color)
Maroon is a dark red color.-Etymology:Maroon is derived from French marron .The first recorded use of maroon as a color name in English was in 1789.-Maroon :...
, Red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
, Olive, Yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
, Dark Green, Green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
, Teal
Teal (color)
Teal is a medium blue-green color. It is named after the Common Teal, a member of the duck family, whose eyes are surrounded by the color.Teal is one of the initial group of 16 HTML/CSS web colors formulated in 1987, shown below....
, Cyan
Cyan
Cyan from , transliterated: kýanos, meaning "dark blue substance") may be used as the name of any of a number of colors in the blue/green range of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the...
, Navy blue
Navy blue
Navy blue is a very dark shade of the color blue which almost appears as black. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue worn by officers in the British Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world....
, Blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
, Purple
Purple
Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
, Magenta
Magenta
Magenta is a color evoked by light stronger in blue and red wavelengths than in yellowish-green wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light...
, Old Gold
Old Gold
Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow. The widely-accepted color "Old gold" is on the darker rather than the lighter side of this range....
, Lemon
Lemon (color)
Lemon or lemon yellow is a color somewhat resembling yellow and named after the fruit. The color lemon is a representation of the color of the outer skin of a lemon.The first recorded use of lemon as a color name in English was in 1598....
Yellow, Slate gray
Slate gray
Slate is a gray color with a slight azure tinge that is a representation of the average color of the material slate.The first recorded use of slate gray as a color name in English was in 1705...
, Kelly green, Dark Carolina blue, Aquamarine
Aquamarine (color)
Aquamarine is a color that is a pale bright tint of spring green toned toward cyan. It is named after the mineral aquamarine, a gemstone mainly found in granite rocks...
, Midnight blue
Midnight Blue
Midnight blue is a dark shade of blue, close to black, that was named for its darkness. Midnight blue is the color of a vat full of Indigo dye; therefore, midnight blue may also be considered a dark shade of indigo...
, Periwinkle
Periwinkle (color)
Periwinkle is a color in the blue family. Its name is derived from the lesser periwinkle or myrtle herb which bears flowers of the same color....
, Violet-blue, Coral
Coral (color)
The various tones of the color coral are representations of the wide range of colors of the class of cnidarians, also called corals. The complementary color of coral is teal.-Coral:The web color coral is a pinkish-orange color...
, Brown
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....
, and Pumpkin orange. A color palette is also available.
Paint also has a few hidden functions not mentioned in the help file: a stamp mode, trail mode, regular shapes, and moving pictures. For the stamp mode, the user can select part of the image, hold the control key
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
, and move it to another part of the canvas. This, instead of cutting the piece out, creates a copy of it. The process can be repeated as many times as desired, as long as the control key is held down. The trail mode works exactly the same, but it uses the shift key
Shift key
The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row...
instead of the control key.
A 10x magnification is available by clicking just below to 8x selector.
The user may also draw straight horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines with the pencil tool, without the need of the straight line tool, by holding the shift key
Shift key
The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row...
and dragging the tool. Moreover, it is also possible to thicken (control key
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
+ +) or thin (control key
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
+ −) a line simultaneously while it is being drawn. To crop whitespace or eliminate parts of a graphic, the blue handle in the lower right corner can be clicked and dragged to increase canvas size or crop a graphic. The colors in the image can be inverted by pressing control key
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
+ I
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
(This shortcut has been changed to control key
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
+ shift key
Shift key
The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row...
+ I
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
in the Windows 7 version of Paint). Users can also draw perfect shapes (which have width equal to height) using the Rounded Rectangle, the Circle, and the Rectangle Tool by holding down the Shift key
Shift key
The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row...
while dragging.
Windows 3.1x
Windows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...
, allowed controlling the drawing cursor with the use of arrow keys
Arrow keys
Cursor movement keys or arrow keys are buttons on a computer keyboard that are either programmed or designated to move the cursor in a specified direction....
as well as a color-replace brush, which replaced a single color underneath the brush with another without affecting the rest of the image. In later versions of Paint, the color erase brush may be simulated by selecting the color to be replaced as the primary color, and the one it will be replaced with as the secondary color, and then right-click dragging the erase tool. The drawing cursor can also be controlled with arrow keys in current versions of Paint if Mouse keys under Accessibility options is enabled and configured appropriately.
Paint's exclusive availability on the Windows platform has led to the creation of clones by users of other operating systems, such as Kolourpaint
KolourPaint
KolourPaint is a free, raster graphics editor for the KDE, similar to Microsoft's Paint application before Windows 7, but has some additional features such as support for transparency....
for users of Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, BSD
Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
and Solaris.
The new version of Paint found in Windows 7 offers many new features, namely a selection of brushes including Oil, Watercolor, and Calligraphic.
Support for indexed palettes
By default, almost all versions of Paint create 24-bit images and are generally unable to properly downgrade them to indexed palettes using fewer than 24 bits per pixel. This means that when saving images in any of the supported formats, if a format that uses indexed palettes with fewer than 24 bits per pixel instead of true color is specified, then a warning message is displayed about possible loss of quality. In fact, Paint does not normally utilize binary, color or gray scale dithering or palette optimization, and the image will be saved with usually irreversibly scrambled colors, potentially ruining one's work. For example, a typical Windows screen will change the buttons and menu bar from grey to khaki green when saved as an 8-bit BMP format. Saving to a monochrome BMP or a GIF format does invoke dithering processes; however, even these use a fixed black-and-white (in the case of monochrome BMP) or standard 256-color (in the case of GIF) palette, leading in the latter case to unnecessarily dithering a picture that already had fewer than 256 colors.Paint is nonetheless able to correctly load and save indexed palettes in any of the supported formats if an image is opened as an 8-bit or otherwise indexed palette image. In that case, the image's palette will be preserved when saving. However, there is no way to see the actual palette, and color choices for brushes, text and erasers as well as user-defined colors will be limited to the closest available color in the indexed palette.
See also
- Comparison of raster graphics editorsComparison of raster graphics editors- List :- General information :Basic general information about the editors: creator/company, license etc.- Operating system support :The operating systems on which the editors can run natively , meaning which operating systems have which editors specifically coded for them - List :- General...
- Pocket PaintPocket PaintPocket Paint is the Windows CE version of the raster graphics editor Microsoft Paint accessory commonly included with the Windows Operating System...
, the equivalent program for Windows CEWindows CEMicrosoft Windows CE is an operating system developed by Microsoft for embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinct operating system and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows... - MacPaintMacPaintMacPaint was a bitmap-based graphics painting software program developed by Apple Computer and released with the original Macintosh personal computer on January 22, 1984. It was sold separately for US$195 with its word processor counterpart, MacWrite. MacPaint was notable because it could generate...
(discontinued), equivalent for Apple MacintoshMacintoshThe Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a... - XPaintXPaintXPaint is a free open source image editing program for bitmap images on the X Window environment on Unix-like operating systems. Its main goal is to be a lightweight and simple to use raster graphics editor.- Features :...
, equivalent for the UnixUnixUnix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
/X11 Desktop Environment - KolourPaintKolourPaintKolourPaint is a free, raster graphics editor for the KDE, similar to Microsoft's Paint application before Windows 7, but has some additional features such as support for transparency....
, equivalent for the KDEKDEKDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
Desktop Environment - PintaPinta (software)Pinta is a lightweight open-source, cross-platform bitmap image drawing and editing program inspired by Paint.NET, a similar image editing program which is limited to Microsoft Windows. Pinta aims to offer a free and open-source simpler alternative to GIMP on the GNOME desktop environment...
, equivalent for the GNOMEGNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
Desktop Environment - Pixel artPixel artPixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old computer and video games, graphing calculator games, and many mobile phone games are mostly pixel art.- History :The term pixel art was first...
, a form of digital art