How to use Microsoft Paint in Windows 11/10
To open the Paint application, click on the START button > Windows Accessories > Paint OR type Paint in the search box on the Taskbar and then select the Paint application from the results. The following window will open on your screen. This is how the Paint canvas looks like.
At the top of the Paint window, you will see the Toolbar, where you can carry out various functions. This toolbar includes the File tab, Home tab, and View tab. Let us now look into it in detail.
1] Home
The Home tab is the default tab when you open the Paint application. In the Home tab, you can carry out various functions related to the image, clipboard, tools, shapes, and colors.
Under Clipboard, you can perform commands such as cut, copy, and paste, where you can cut or copy a selection from the canvas and paste it on the keyboard. Under the Image section, you can crop, resize, and rotate the picture. You can rotate left and right to 90 degrees, rotate to 180 degrees and flip vertical and horizontal as well. The Tools group will allow you to draw a free form pencil line with the selected width, add text, pick a color and use it for drawing, fill an area on the canvas with the selected color, use the magnifier for a particular area on the canvas, and use the eraser to erase a particular area of the picture. Click on the Brushes drop-down menu to draw using different kinds of brushes. You will find a variety of brushes with different effects such as crayon, marker, natural pencil, etc. In the reference picture below, I have used a few tools to show you how they look and feel.
Here, I have used the free-form pencil tool, a few brushes, the shape fill tool, and the text tool. You can also convert your 2D drawing into a 3D picture by editing it in Paint 3D. Go ahead and simply explore! With all these tools, you are sure to make your picture look attractive and simply awesome!
Text Tools
On your Paint canvas, choose the location where you want to add the text box and type the desired text in it. You can format the text by selecting the font type, font size, changing the font to bold and italics, and underlining or striking through the text. You can choose the desired foreground color as well as the background color. Refer to the example shown below.
Under the Shapes group, you can insert ready shapes such as rectangle, pentagon, diamond, star, callout, and so on. Click on Outline to choose from the various options such as solid color, crayon, marker, oil, natural pencil, watercolor, or even no outline. Click on Shape Fill to select the medium for the fill, such as, solid color, crayon, marker, oil, natural pencil, watercolor, or no fill. Under the Size drop-down menu, you can select the size or width of a particular tool. You will see four variations under Size such as 1px, 3px, 5px, and 8px. See an example shown below.
I have used certain tools such as the text tool, pencil, brushes, and fill with a Color tool to draw the following picture. Select the shape you want to draw and the size of the width of the tool. Here, I have selected a 3px size for the Lightning shape with a solid outline color like brown and a crayon fill as yellow. The Colors group includes a wide palette of colors that you can choose for your drawing. You can also edit with Paint 3D using advanced tools, which we will later cover in detail in another post. Read: Microsoft Paint Tips & Tricks.
2] View
The View tab includes three groups named Zoom, Show or hide, and Display.
The Zoom group enables you to zoom in or zoom out into the picture as much as you want for a better viewing experience, or you can also zoom to exact 100%. Under the Show or hide group, you will find settings related to rulers, gridlines, and status bar. With the help of Rulers, you can view and measure the object or a particular picture on your Paint canvas. Gridlines will help you to align objects in your picture. By checking or unchecking the Status Bar option, you can show or hide it at the bottom of the Paint window.
In the Display group, you can view the picture in Full Screen; and you can show or hide the Thumbnail window.
3] File
Under the File menu, you can open an existing or already created picture, create a new picture, and save the current picture in the desired location. You can import files from a scanner or camera, print a picture, and send a picture as an attachment in an email message as well. You can change the desktop background by setting the current picture as the desktop background. You can change the Properties of the current picture as well. And finally, you will see the Exit option to close or exit the application.
Quick Access Toolbar
On the top left side of the Paint window, above the Toolbar, you will see the Quick Access Toolbar.
Here, you will find the shortcuts to save the current picture, undo or redo the last action, and minimize, maximize, and close the application. You can also customize the quick access toolbar as per your requirements. You will find additional settings here to minimize the ribbon, to show the quick access toolbar below the ribbon, etc. So, go ahead and customize and make changes to the quick access toolbar as per your requirements. This will make your work pretty easier and quick. In this post, firstly, we have seen the two main ways on how to open and begin the Paint application. And, secondly, we covered all the components of the ribbon and the quick access toolbar. I hope this post covered all the details on how to use the Paint application and how to create or draw a new picture by using the various Paint tools and accessories. Now read: How to use Paint 3D App in Windows 11/10.
