Microsoft Paint has been there since the beginning of Windows. Over 32 years and 26 versions of the operating system, Paint has been in the menu, waiting to be used to make fun of TV shows and vastly improve music videos. But it’s apparently time for Paint to go.
Paint — for those who never spent a day making crude stick figures with it — is a very basic graphics program, and for many people their first introduction to the idea that photos can be edited or computers used to make art. It’s famous, or maybe notorious, for serving as digital red yarn for conspiracy theorists. When you see pictures with circles on them and ALL CAPS TEXT about how Alex Jones is a front for the lizard people, it’s usually in Microsoft Paint. Still, there are plenty of fond memories about Paint, and it can be used for surprisingly good, even photorealistic, ends. Probably the best example of Paint as a program is a 97-year-old grandpa using it to make elaborate, gorgeous art, one pixel at a time.
The Guardian is reporting that as part of its fall update, Windows 10 is officially sending Windows Paint to the Recycle Bin. It’s being replaced with Paint 3D, which is, as it sounds, a tool for manipulating polygons and the like, but it’s not really the same. We guess children of the future will need to express their clumsy creativity on Minecraft or something, but arguably we’re losing something when Paint inevitably gets deleted. Many fondly remember those crude stick figures and first attempts, and hopefully another program will take its place as the goofy, crude art program we all love. Or at least give those conspiracy theorists an easier program to use than Photoshop.
(via The Guardian)