Automated background removal was also added recently.
Better hold on to your pants, Photoshop. Here’s the new contender!
As GIMP cries in the corner.
GIMP 3.0 stomps door with sexy moustache
As it should, I’ve tried twice to use GIMP, always gone back to Photoshop.
been using photopea for years, highly recommended for quick projects!
Paint is not designed to be GIMP/Photoshop alternative. It is just a simple drawing program. Although it is great that they have finally added these long-awaited features, as I may finally move from paint.net, which is also great but it has one huge drawback - it is not a single window, which is a hassle.
Actually a truly useful update in a sea of bloatware crap.
Excellent! Now I can draw things on the wrong layer in yet another program
Have you tried using descriptive layer names like layer 1, later 2, later 3?
Layer 1, Later 2, Lazer 3.
FTFY
Or just use only one layer.
Win11 exclusive? Welp, guess I’ll never use it, then.
Those are great features and two of the biggest reasons I never bother with Paint. But locking them to Windows 11 and not putting them out on Windows 10 is some Grade A bullshit.
It sure isn’t enough to get me to bother installing 11.
Great. Now my customers are going to send me even worse art.
meanwhile, wordpad… probably used by more people over the age of seven than paint is, getting axed.
microsoft has office subs to sell, but they do not have a photoshop or gimp or even a paint.net alternative to sell.
I’ve literally never met anybody that used Wordpad, whereas I know a lot of tech normies that’ll use MS Paint for quick memes and things
I used it back in my Windows days. Out of the box, I think it’s the only way to do rich text on Windows. Also (used to be anyway) one of the less resource intensive options.
You know, for when you’ve got Napster, Winamp (with visualisation), ICQ, and MSN all up and barely running. You don’t want to have to run, like, WordPerfect at the same time! Your MP3s will start skipping :p
They can cut WordPad, if they kill Notepad then IDK what to say…
Notepad++ FTW!
Fellow notepad.exe aficionado here as well
I’ve been using Notepad++ for a good while now and it’s proven to be a great alternative to MS WordPad.
As someone who enjoys doodling in Paint, this is great
I’ll stick to good ol’ https://jspaint.app/
Works on Linux too.
I really do like it for something that I want to just add quick/small edits to, or something that can be slapped together quickly. But I do hope this isn’t the start of a trend to bloat mspaint and aim to compete against more robust image editors.
The pessimist in me fears they’re going to, and start slapping on AI data harvesting measures that they’re integrating into Windows, like for training their own AI art generators. But this addition, in a bubble, is a welcome change.
So many artists started with paint. I am really glad it is adding some features that are significant improvements that will help today’s young artists even more.
I’m talking about kids, like an age before you’re likely to become aware of other free tools… Wait. Fuck, do kids even use windows computers anymore or is the closest a chromebook?
iPads now 💀
Kindle fire
But today Microsoft announced that it is finally adding two features that could make the app a bit more useful for power users: support for Photoshop-esque image layers and the ability to open and save transparent PNGs.
What kind of person is an MS Paint power user. I just use it to paste screenshots into if I’m not intending fine editing, otherwise it might as well not exist as a program.
The only person who seriously uses MS Paint for artwork is that one guy who recreated the Mona Lisa out of hundreds of pieces of variously burnt toast. Real, usable art tools would destroy the purpose and make that guy sad.
Really, if they kept this kind of momentum up for the next 20 years, it might put it on par with Fire Alpaca. It’s an interesting move, they’re just so incredibly late to the game that even other free programs are still leagues better than they are and no one will ever take them seriously again.
I use Paint almost daily.
Especially when I can’t be arsed opening Steam/Aseprite. Paint is a pixel art work horse.
I forgot about people who do pixel art, and I’m terrible. People like you are invaluable to the gaming industry and the ornate ones are their own skillset I’m kind of always awed by
Reading about other peoples workflows is always really cool. Thanks for re-contextualizing a tool :)
What kind of person is an MS Paint power user.
Some older folks that aren’t as tech savvy have made some impressive pieces with it if memory serves. There’s also those that use it unironically for its constraints to produce pieces with a classic MS Paint style produced from those limitations. In a way this update kind of flies in the face of that a little, maybe, but eh.
Transparency and layers is hardly a power user feature. Any common person wanting to make a meme worth half a chuckle will need both of those features. MS paint always starts up super fast compared to PS or GIMP so I’m looking forward to these features for fast meme creation.
I’d consider myself a paint power user. My job (QA) gives us a NUC and wants us to edit screenshots and videos on said NUC. It’s not going to be a fun time with Photoshop, online tools are expressly forbidden, and alternative software needs manual approval by GIS.
The Big Lez Show graphics are drawn entirely in MS Paint. Every. Frame.
Very cool.
I like Paint for its simplicity, and since I don’t need all the extra bells and whistles most of the time, I’ve never bothered with learning how to use Photoshop or GIMP.
I’ve been using Paint.net for the last few years, but I’ll try the new Paint features as well and compare them to see which one I find better.
Yeah, I’m using paint.net for most of my editing (photopea for rest) but I would never have made the switch from just paint if it wasn’t for layers and transparency. Those are a big deal.
I make all my memes with Paint(.)NET
Didn’t they say they were retiring ms paint in 2017 for some other program no one had heard of?
Wasn’t it something like Paint3D?
Yeah this was during the peak of VR hype when MS sunk a ton of money and effort into HoloLens and Mixed Reality.
