Technology giant Microsoft plans to get rid of one of its first famous features, Paint, in the new Windows 10 update released later this year.
Along with Outlook Express, the Reader app and Reader list on Windows 10, the original ‘Paint’ will be removed, with only the reinvented ‘Paint 3D’ to remain – not that it’s any comparison to the fun or looks of the one and only original Paint.
Launched in 1985, ‘Paint’ has touched the lives of Windows Users across the world during its time on our PC screens, so it’s no wonder the application is the talk of the town trending on Twitter and causing uproar as the announcement came about.
While it was far from the top dog in graphic design, it was an application used by the global population. In case you didn’t know just how much of an impact Paint had to the lives of the UK population, here’s a rundown of its life on Windows.
Let’s start at the very beginning…
Launching in 1985 on Windows 1.0, Paint was the staple built-in application to Windows that was used for children’s IT lessons around the world, creating the budding artists of the future (or so we all thought).
Though you probably don’t remember a time when black and white was a thing, that’s how Paint started out – it only featured monochrome graphics when it first came about 32 years ago.
A life in colour for Paint
It wasn’t until five years later; the world was miraculously painted in colour, allowing kids (and potentially adults) to choose from a colour pallet what their creation would be filled with that evening.
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Before you knew it, Microsoft updated our beloved Paint with Windows 4 which let you save and load a custom set of colour wells boosting user creativity to a whole new level!
Take a picture, it will last longer
Compared to how Windows and the internet operates today, it’s hard to imagine a world without live videos, or SnapChat filters, let alone JPEGs being a standardized way to save an image. But crazily, this wasn’t common knowledge until 2000 when Paint installed the option, until it was later an automatic procedure later in Paints life.
Taking pictures on our iPhones and uploading them to our computers seems ‘old news’ now when we can just post them straight to social media, so it might come as a shock to hear it was 16 years ago that Microsoft Windows XP first made it accessible to upload images from a digital camera onto paint ready to edit. Something so simple was such a big step for the application, looking at software like Photoshop and After Effects, it’s unsurprising.
The ability to undo…
The real turnaround for Paint came with Windows 7, released in 2009, which allowed you to make up to 50 undo’s to your work, something the Leonardo Di Vinci aspirers of the 90s wouldn’t think of being able to do when making their masterpieces after school – but yes, this came as an addition to Paint, alongside more ‘artistic brushes’ and your imaginative paint bucket to run out of paint…I’m sure it was only meant to be fun, but it all seemed to have gotten so serious.
Learning something new every day – things you didn’t know about paint
There are things I’m sure users wouldn’t have even been aware you could do on paint, Stamp Mode? Trial mode? Regular Shapes? All things you could do on paint to make your picture even more fantastic, so get using those gadgets if you haven’t already before your time’s up!
Bringing pictures to life
Of course, in 2016 Microsoft brought paint ‘up to date’ with the creation of Paint 3D. This new version of the original Paint lets you create 3D pieces of art and bring them to life.
If it’s any consolation to Paint being axed, you do get to keep Paint 3D on your Windows devices, although I can’t see it being as fun as the original. The remakes never are.
Having being on our computer systems for over three decades, Paint is going to be sadly missed by the world population. But, there’s no official news on when Paint will cease to exist on our computers, but it’s speculated to be around October. So for now, pick up your paintbrush and make one last masterpiece!
