Microsoft is working on a new version of Microsoft Paint for Windows 10 that it plans to release in the future to replace the classic Paint program with.
Paint is one of those long standing programs that ships with every version of Windows. It is a — very basic — image editor for doodling around or simple tasks.
While there are some artists that create impressive works of art using nothing but Paint, most Windows users have probably switched to another image editor for serious work.
There are plenty of free alternatives, Paint .NET or Gimp for instance, and paid alternatives such as Adobe Photoshop for that.
The new Microsoft Paint for Windows 10
Two teaser videos were leaked recently by the Twitter user WalkingCat. These videos highlight the new Paint interface and some of its functionality.
The new Paint will be offered as an application and not as a legacy desktop program. Microsoft will ship the app with Windows 10 eventually, but that is probably not going to happen before the Windows 10 Redstone 2 update gets released in the first half of 2017. Even then, it may be that Paint is not ready by then and will be delayed to Redstone 3, out in the second half of 2017.
If you compare the old and new interface of Paint you will notice a lot of differences. Microsoft optimized the new Paint for touch and pen input.
The menu bar is gone, and icons are a lot bigger than they used to be. Also, when you click on an icon you get a sidebar with tools, and not a second toolbar at the top that lists options.
Lets take a look at the Microsoft Paint Preview video first.
The biggest feature addition to Paint — probably — is support for 3D objects. The video highlights this feature almost exclusively but mentions stickers and community content as well.
The new Paint app will certainly be more popular than 3D Builder, another system app that Microsoft ships with every version of its Windows 10 operating system.
It remains to be seen if the new 3D creation options in Paint attract a large enough crowd. While they will certainly appeal to some users and businesses, it looks like a niche feature more than anything else to me.
Now You: Do you use Paint at all?