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Microsoft Is Redesigning the Paint App For Windows 10 (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the stick-figures dept.

Microsoft is redesigning the Paint app with Windows 10 in mind. As mentioned in the leaked video posted by Twitter user WalkingCat, the "ability to create in 3D" is one of the biggest new features in the works. The Verge reports: A launch video notes that the new "Paint Preview" app includes all the familiar features of the regular version of Paint, but Microsoft is adding in 3D object support. Paint Preview users will be able to create 3D objects, and annotate them freely. Microsoft has a range of markers and art tools to help artists create objects, and brushes that can be used directly on 3D objects. All of the tools appear to be pen- and touch-friendly, with an interface that mixes 3D models, 2D images, stickers, and community tools for 3D content. Microsoft appears to be testing early "alpha" versions of the Paint app, and the videos indicate it could be ready to be released publicly soon. The timing of the Paint videos come just hours after Microsoft revealed it's planning to hold a special event in New York City later this month. Microsoft is widely expected to unveil a new Surface device at the event, with rumors suggesting it will be an all-in-one desktop PC.

69 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. But by alzoron · · Score: 4, Funny

    If they make Paint better then I can't blame my bad drawings on my refusal to buy or download a decent program.

    1. Re:But by negRo_slim · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't worry it doesn't sound like they are making it better at all.

      Layers > 3D content

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    2. Re:But by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't worry. We all understand that as technology improves, and programs start to do amazing things, there will still always be people with no talent.

    3. Re:But by colincarter41 · · Score: 1

      Adding too many features will confuse user, hope Microsoft will make it easy of use, so even a child can use paint app.

    4. Re:But by flyingfsck · · Score: 2

      Now, all the MBAs will think they can do CAD.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    5. Re:But by OolimPhon · · Score: 1

      ...so even a child can use paint app.

      But that still makes it too difficult for Marketing.

    6. Re:But by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      16 bit support and layers with a nice GUI?
      Photoshop version history
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    7. Re:But by nnull · · Score: 1

      Why not? They already think they can fix machines.

    8. Re:But by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hand an artist a pencil and he'll do amazing things. I have a friend that can do a fantastic touch screen drawing in less than a minute just to send a Snapchat joke. Sure using MS Paint instead of Photoshop would be like running with a lead vest, but I don't think you're fooling anyone by blaming the tools. It'd be like blaming poor code on the lack of an IDE, would anyone here buy that? No. Unless you're talking to a PHB, in which case you can blame whatever you want.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    9. Re:But by donaldm · · Score: 1

      16 bit support and layers with a nice GUI? Photoshop version history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      That is nice but you do know that you have to pay for the product unless you are the type of person who likes to have that jolly green parrot on their shoulders. Me I will stick to The GIMP since I don't have to worry about a parrot doing it's business on my shoulders.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    10. Re:But by SeriousTube · · Score: 2, Informative

      Or paint.net which is free and actually has an easy understandable gui.

    11. Re:But by omtinez · · Score: 1

      The best part? paint.net was made by a Microsoft intern as a summer project. I have no idea why Microsoft did not choose to take over the project and ship it, even if it was alongside of paint.

    12. Re:But by nnull · · Score: 1

      And this is the sad thing about photo editing applications in linux.

      Krita takes a step forward, but it still has stupid details that annoy the crap out of me, like you know, PRINTING? Krita's excuse for this is, I quote, "We also removed the print and print preview options; printing in Krita has never worked well, and after porting to Qt5 broke completely.". Yeah, that makes PERFECT SENSE! Then trying to put text into an image, what FUN!

      So guess what I do? Vmware and Photoshop, because image editing or anything art related in linux just sucks ass and has sucked for 15 years or more. So I just laugh at people who claim that they use Gimp all the time, because I can't even use Gimp for simple photo manipulation because it's just dog slow for high megapixel images that even camera phones now have. The time it takes Gimp to wake up with some simple manipulation (Layers? lol), I'm already done doing what I want in vmware -> photoshop.

      I like and I do want to continue to use linux, but there are simply certain software that the opensource community has not been able to match or beat the commercial alternatives. That and the fact that there is no commercial development for said software for linux just hurts the community even more. I hope that changes.

    13. Re: But by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Why can't someone port paint.net which is open source and MIT licensed to mono?

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    14. Re:But by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      They should just take Paint.NET, rename it Paint for Windows 10, and be done with it. And as you point out, adding a 3D option to a piece of crap is about as useful as filming a crap movie in 3D. Or, as one t-shirt pointed out, "if you can't make it good, make it 3D".

    15. Re:But by MercTech · · Score: 1

      And they will probably drop support for my most common use of MS Paint; saving a window screen print to a jpeg to document errors in the OS.

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
  2. Paint is a joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Use "Paint.net" instead. Microsoft made the most pathetic and basic paint program possible when they had the programmers available to make photoshop-league art tools. If they thought paint was an expectable tool to ship then frankly, I don't want to hear about any so-called improvements that they're going to make on it.

    1. Re:Paint is a joke by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      When people buy an appliance rather than a computer, they get what they get.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:Paint is a joke by Calydor · · Score: 2

      You know, if Microsoft was specifically selling MSPaint as an image editor, then you would have a point. But it is a basic tool to perform basic tasks from the people who made the operating system. If you want advanced features, then you go and buy something like Photoshop from the guys who make a living making an image editor.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    3. Re:Paint is a joke by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Paint, Notepad, cmd.exe. Super basic tools on Windows have always been pathetic, because Windows is not meant to be productive right out of the box.

      Often those programs are pathetic because their source code or big pieces of them are used as examples. I don't know if that ever happened to MS Paint. But you don't want to throw effort at them in that case.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Paint is a joke by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Considering that cmd.exe is technically depreciated and is meant to be a "last line" when everything else breaks, that doesn't really make much sense does it. The world moved on from command.com in the early 00's when 16bit went bye-bye from modern OS's.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    5. Re:Paint is a joke by tsa · · Score: 1

      16 bits ought to be enough for everybody.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    6. Re: Paint is a joke by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Hey I know this is slashdot where using old win32 tech and bashing ms is cool, but PowerShell is a worthy and modern CLI.

      In many ways nicer than bash as it's object oriented and digs into azure, VMware esx, and wmi.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    7. Re:Paint is a joke by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      16 bits ought to be enough for everybody.

      That moment when you remember that 16 kB expander cartridges were a thing.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  3. Better replacement already available by saiful76 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's already a better replacement available: Paint.NET http://www.getpaint.net/ This tool is almost equivalent of what Notepad++ can do compared to Windows Notepad.

    1. Re:Better replacement already available by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      That's a replacement for the old Paint. It doesn't do what the new Paint can do.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:Better replacement already available by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      That's a replacement for the old Paint. It doesn't do what the new Paint can do.

      The new Paint is a new thing and shouldn't be called Paint. Paint.NET is the clear successor to Paint.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Better replacement already available by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      They should bring out Paint Classic.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:Better replacement already available by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Unix port?

      It is open source and part of it was able to compile in Mono under Linux. What happened? Slashdotters would take it more seriously if they could run it on Linux. I wonder if it uses some proprietary .NET SDK that is not in Mono.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    5. Re:Better replacement already available by Bathroom+Humor · · Score: 1

      There is Pinta, which aspires to be a unofficial port of paint.net. But it is slow coming, and many features aren't present that are in paint.net. But it's WAY better than almost anything else, aside from Gimp (but it's way easier to pick up and use).

  4. I guess they don't have any thing better to do by Indy1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not like there's a billion other things that 10 needs fixed.

    The GUI is a confusing cluster fuck.
    Windows "Apps" are a joke, and need to be killed.
    Windows Update continues to be horribly broken.
    20+ years of bloat keeps stacking up higher and higher.

    But M$ decides they need to reinvent the wheel..er paint. Genius idea there!

    --
    Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
    1. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Well, otoh there is probably only one or two engineers assigned to that task...

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    2. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In corporations of Microsoft scale, nothing new is done by one or two people. First there will be a three layer management staff with their assistants and yes-men and each manager will get at least seven underlings. After two years of re-inventing the wheel and countless useless UX experiments the corporation will lay off the staff and buy a horribly expensive startup company that has powerpoint slides of a similar software. After company merger, they will lay off the staff from startup and start from phase one again.

    3. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      So you're telling me that "paint" was made by more than 1 engineer?

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    4. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Your windows licenses.

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    5. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by Misagon · · Score: 1

      Well, otoh there is probably only one or two engineers assigned to that task...

      That would still be one or two more engineers than quality assurance of Windows updates.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    6. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That's quite interesting since what you're talking about is either not broken or by design.

      The GUI is a confusing cluster fuck.

      The only problem is the jarring differences between the settings and control panel. The rest of the GUI is pretty much windows 7 with some weird tiles no one uses in the start menu.

      Windows "Apps" are a joke, and need to be killed.

      ... agreed.

      Windows Update continues to be horribly broken.

      I assume you mean the inability to control it. This is by design. Throwing resources at a system that is broken by a policy decision won't do anything because effectively Windows Update is finished according to what they want. They need a conceptual change before they throw programmers to fix a problem.

      20+ years of bloat keeps stacking up higher and higher.

      Now this one is absolute garbage. Most of the bloat in Windows 10 is new. If anything the last 10 years has shown each successive version of windows getting a substantial re-writes using less resources and running overall leaner. Even with the *new* crud Windows 10 uses far less resources than it's predecessors and the benchmarks show improvements in software for end users, I/O, and Network traffic as a result too.

    7. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by donaldm · · Score: 1

      Unpopular opinion, but I haven't any issues with the GUI. Is bashing W10 still the cool thing around here?

      The Windows 10 GUI is fine although IMHO not as nice or as customisable as my KDE desktop. What I don't like, are all the so called privacy features that are "on" by default unless you do something about them and even then are you really sure you have locked down Windows 10 especially after the latest mandatory update?

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    8. Re: I guess they don't have any thing better to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You do realize this is not an iOS discussion right?

    9. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Whereas I'm sure there are 500 designers involved in the "flat UI" look, doing everything in their power to make Windows 10 look like Windows 2.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    10. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Shut the FUCK up, Lennart.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    11. Re:I guess they don't have any thing better to do by WallyL · · Score: 1

      So you're trying to tell me that it had any engineers work on that piece of software?

  5. Reminds me of a classic forum thread by ace123 · · Score: 2

    Lightwave vs Notepad: http://web.archive.org/web/200...

    This was back after XP came out and Notepad was starting to experience some feature creep in XP Notepad, like the view menu or the ability to edit unicode files. I don't think anyone expected one of the classic windows apps like mspaint to actually get 3d support.

  6. Re:Wow by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

    They could have changed it 10 years ago and nobody would have noticed.

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  7. How is it possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How is it possible that one of the biggest software companies in the world makes such a useless app like paint always was.

  8. At Last by AashishPahwa · · Score: 1

    I'd been waiting for this update since ages

  9. Re:Layers or bust by OolimPhon · · Score: 1

    Now imagine a Microsoft version of GIMP...

  10. Re:Layers or bust by nnull · · Score: 2

    I can't. They're both horrible.

  11. Thanks! by aglider · · Score: 1

    This huge enhancement will bring me back to Windows. Paint was the only part to holding me back!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
  12. Re: You are out of paint buckets... by BlytheBowman · · Score: 1

    The sad part is, they will probaly do this. In about 10 years, expect crap like :::clicks shutdown computer::: "You are out of shutdown passes. You can pay $30 a year for unlimited shutdowns, or watch this 3 minute ad to shut down your computer for 'free'."

  13. The important question by dnaumov · · Score: 1

    Why would I want to touch the screen of my Windows computer with a pen/stylus? I prefer my hands not getting killed with pain, thank you.

    1. Re:The important question by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      No-one's forcing you to.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:The important question by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Why would I attach a mouse to my tablet when I have a perfectly good stylus to take notes with? I prefer my text to be legible, thank you.

  14. Surface and Paint by zifn4b · · Score: 2

    Based on the video, it looks like the only reason Microsoft is interested in re-vamping Paint is to make a more compelling reason to use Surface.

    --
    We'll make great pets
    1. Re:Surface and Paint by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Which is interesting given they ship a surface specific program already.

  15. Re:Wow by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    You jest, but what is needed in all computers when you first unbox them to make them useful?

    Steam + Office + some kind of image editor.

  16. Just as you thought ... by yakumo.unr · · Score: 1

    ... the UI couldn't get any more unusable for the occasional bits of minor work most people ever actually fire paint up for instead of getting hold of something better.

  17. Killer App by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has been looking for a killer app to get people to move to Windows 10 and Surface. They may have just found it. Way to go.

  18. Typical Corporate Misstep by alternative_right · · Score: 1

    Humans in large groups make terrible decisions because they are both risk-averse and prone to follow pleasant illusions.

    Paint does not need a redesign; it needs fixes to the broken parts of its interface, and basic capabilities like smart select and layers.

    Microsoft should also realize that people like it, much like Notepad, because it is a light app. Users love things that are simple, work right the first time, and are always fast because they are not bloated.

    In fact, the best advice anyone could give Microsoft about Windows is to worry less about new features and more about making it like a Volkswagen bug: user serviceable, simple, well organized, and light and fast.

    Anyone else remember MinWin? That is what we were all hoping for with Windows 10. It should not require an i7 to get decent performance on the desktop.

    --
    Alternative Right.
  19. Re:Wow by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

    I've never used any of those. How about a development environment. Even gwbasic.

  20. Re:Wow by tepples · · Score: 1

    Without an image editor, how do you make icons for the graphical application that you make in the development environment?

  21. Re:Layers or bust by tepples · · Score: 1

    Does GIMP remain horrible after having turned on Windows > Single Window Mode? If so, what's the most horrible thing about it?

  22. Where do I sign up? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Downloading it now! Because it was nothing but the poor quality of the paint app that was keeping myself and billions of others away from Win 10.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  23. Re:Wow by DMFNR · · Score: 1

    REM Like this?
    SCREEN 7
    FOR y = 1 TO 16
    FOR x = 1 TO 16
    READ z
    PSET (x, y), z
    NEXT
    NEXT

    And a whole bunch of DATA commands?

  24. Re:Wow by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    I'm going to go out on a limb here and say most people are not developers.

  25. Re:Reinvent, eh? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the zero-day exploits. That's still a thing with Windows, isn't it?

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  26. Microsoft, just use the Gimp and be done with it. by emil · · Score: 1

    You could add a bit of new-user wizard polish, but otherwise, why are you bothering?

  27. Re:Wow by driblio · · Score: 1

    I see what you did there!

    Some people noticed. Things like png support and proper resizing have made it a vastly more useful quick tool post-XP.

  28. Windows 10? by Cidtek · · Score: 1

    What does "for Windows 10" even mean?