Take a closer look: Paint in Windows 11

Windows 11 started rolling out almost a week ago (check out our review here), it’s important to note that due to its phased nature, the update may not be available to everyone for the instant. While there are ways to skip the queue and download Windows 11 right now, it’s important to know what to expect before you pull the trigger. This is exactly what we have covered in more detail about the operating system in our ongoing Closer Look series over the past couple of months.

So far, we’ve looked at Search, Widgets, Start Menu, Layouts & Capture Groups, Taskbar, Quick Settings & Notifications, Virtual Desktops, Power & Smart Settings. battery, default app configurations, file explorer, context menus, teams integration, updated Clock app in Windows 11, Microsoft Store, and Snipping tool. Today we are going to discuss updating the Paint app in Windows 11.

As part of this practice, we’ll be looking at the generally available version of Windows 11 versus a publicly available, up-to-date version of Windows 10 (version 21H1 build 19043.1266).

Paint has had a pretty interesting history in Windows. Although it has been part of the operating system for decades, Microsoft announced that it was obsolete in 2017 and that the company wanted everyone to use Paint 3D. At that time, the Redmond tech giant envisioned consumers would turn to creating 3D content and then viewing and interacting with Windows Mixed Reality. Of course, those plans never came to fruition the way Microsoft intended, and this year we found out that it’s actually Paint 3D that gets the ax.

Moving on to the actual Paint experience in Windows 10, we’ve got a canvas where you can create content as you like. The title bar has buttons for Save, Undo, Redo and a drop-down list that allows you to further customize the title bar and add more controls. There are three separate tabs below for File, Home, and View. File allows you to interact with files in various ways such as creating new files, saving, printing, setting desktop background, etc. The Home tab is the default launch experience you see in the screenshot above, it has tools you can use to draw. It also has the option “Edit with Paint 3D” (RIP). Finally, the View tab is where you can show or hide certain UI elements like gridlines, status bars, zoom in and out, go full screen, and more. The lower bar of the Paint application shows you the current size of your canvas in pixels, as well as the zoom level.

The paint is something that I have used occasionally since childhood for educational and entertainment purposes and I think I just got so used to seeing it and using it in its current state that I didn’t much to say about how it can be further improved. Creating artistic and related content isn’t really my strong suit, so I’m not entirely sure from a functionality perspective what other tools would like to see in it. This is fine for most of my basic use cases, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s perfect.

When it comes to the Paint experience in Windows 11, the first thing you’ll unfortunately notice is that the app launches with a very noticeable stutter. At first I thought it was just an issue with my device and version but found other people online complaining about the same. Essentially the canvas launches with a black background, then the toolbar at the top loads the icons, and then the app is available in a usable state. Since this process takes over a second, it’s a very shocking experience and only highlights my persistent complaints that Microsoft is focusing on shipping software first and repairing it later. It just shouldn’t be the experience you should have when interacting with a native preinstalled app. This is unacceptable.

Fortunately, it only gets better from here. You will notice that the title bar and the ribbon user interface have been updated. Instead of having options for Save, Undo, and Redo in the title bar, these have been moved to the Ribbon UI. All icons have been updated and are now modernized and minimalist. There are also some accessibility improvements here and there to advantages (cough, cough) like me. When you click on the Brushes icon, each brush is labeled by default instead of just looking at the icon for you to guess. You’ll notice a similar improvement in the Size tab where the size is not explicitly labeled in pixel values ​​instead of just a visual representation. Some options like flipping and rotating have also been decoupled. These are small but very useful improvements, in the opinion of this writer.

The Ribbon UI tabs at the top also have a pretty interesting behavior change. This is because they are also not tabs in Windows 11. File and View are now drop-down lists and show you the same options as tabs in Windows 10 when you hover over them. The Home tab in Windows 10 is also gone as this is your default view, there are no tabs to navigate in Windows 11, just a canvas, tools, and drop-down menus. I like this approach because it means that you potentially have everything you could possibly need on the same screen.

The “Settings” button in the File drop-down menu strangely opens what appears to be an “About Paint” dialog, which appears to be a work in progress. No wonder if you know Microsoft-Land.

Overall, I really like the redesign of Paint in Windows 11. The new icons are refreshing to see, and the accessibility improvements are a welcome change, especially since they don’t leave the user free. responsibility to understand what the icons mean. The transition from tabbed menus to drop-down menus ensures that you have all possible options at your fingertips. It made the user interface very clean overall.

There doesn’t seem to be any removed functionality, or any that I’ve relied on, at least. The “Edit in Paint 3D” option is indeed missing, but as we saw previously, this is because Paint 3D is near death and is not even preinstalled in Windows 11. You can still use it. ‘install separately through the Microsoft Store but it will not integrate with Paint. I don’t miss it at all.

Maybe the only real complaint I have with Paint in Windows 11 is its poor launch performance. The stutter launch is there every time you open Paint, it’s not something that gets better with use. This really needs to be fixed. Microsoft also noted that Paint will be updating to a dark mode soon, but as it is currently, that’s not a major missing ability, at least for me. Of course, people who prefer consistency across the operating system will be embarrassed by this, so hopefully the theme will be released sooner rather than later.

Take a look at the section here or select from the links below to continue exploring Windows 11 in our ongoing “Take a Closer Look” series: