I was around 14 when I got a desktop computer at home. Obviously I was excited; now I could explore this new world beyond the school computer lab. The one thing that I clearly remember about the day the computer came home was what the 'uncle' who came to set it up, told me. “This is Paint,” he said as he pointed at a new white canvas on the screen. “It's a great tool to practice control over the mouse,” he added. Well, that was a new perspective. He even gave a quick demo of all the basic tools, and tried out a few doodles on the canvas.
via Windows blog
What followed was an interesting relationship with MS Paint—doodling, creating shapes, filling colours and so on. What I probably loved about Paint was that you could colour to perfection. There were no more non-uniformly coloured pictures with missing patches of colour here and there.
For years, Microsoft Paint has been an application close to our hearts, probably for the mindless doodling we could do with it even before the word 'doodle' became part of modern-day lexicon. This age-old and simple application found a space even on work computers and was a trusted companion when one had to do a quick fix cut-and-paste.
Whether we realised it or not, MS Paint, too, was part of childhood. And like many of those little things from those days that cease to exist now, this stalwart of Microsoft was set to 'die'. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a plan to kill off Paint after 32 years. With the next Windows 10 update, Microsoft announced MS Paint falls under the 'deprecated' list which means that these are apps that will not be updated further, and will be removed soon.
Microsoft, however, found out that you can't really throw away that trusted old friend one day. After witnessing 'an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint', Microsoft put up a blog post declaring Paint is here to stay. In an official blog post on July 24, Megan Saunders, general manager, 3D for Everyone Initiative, Windows Experience, said: If there’s anything we learned, it’s that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It’s been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app.” She said that they'd save the much-loved app in the Windows Store. That means that though you could download the app if you wanted it, it wouldn't come as a default part of the Windows installed on your machines. That really doesn't feel all that great does it? Well at least it's still there when you crave for one of those impromptu creative sessions, or when you want to show your child how mom learnt to 'paint and teach them to create their first silly pictures!
A few youngsters share their memories about Paint:
Trupti Shetty, 30
This is recent. I had to submit a picture for the organisation I work for and my picture was on a red background, which is a loud colour. So, I decided to change it with the help of paint and ended up changing my hairstyle in the process!
Sumitra Nair, 30
I remember getting my first PC at the age of 13. The only thing I probably used it for was probably to play solitaire and other games like Need for Speed, Super Mario and Counter Strike. Other than that, the only other thing I would find interesting was Paint. Though it is one of the most dullest applications I have come across, I remember doodling away on it without much success. It became one of the mindless things to do on particularly dull afternoons.
Gwyn D'mello, 27
As a kid I did the standard thing I'm sure most of us did—paint a few colours close together, select it, and then shift+ click and drag to spread it all over the canvas. Good times. I still use it today for basic cropping. More than anything, it's much more easily accessible than any browser-based tools or Photoshop, especially when you use a crappy work system.
Tanvi Mishra, 26
I remember paint being the only thing we were taught well in the computer lab. They spent almost a year on it. It was weird since most of us already knew what to do. It's a really user-friendly software. I also remember using it to morph random pictures of people together. And before we had all these collage making apps I used it to make collages of my dogs or friends.
For most people, Paint would have been a quick-fix tool or a means to kill time. However, this iconic tool has been used to generate great works of art, too, even in the days of the more sophisticated Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. For instance, Boston-based artist Pat Hines has received widespread attention for some his brilliant images created using Microsoft Paint. In fact the 34-year-old artist even created his first digital graphic novel—Camp Redblood and the Essential Revenge— in March with MS Paint illustrations. Hines, mastered the Paint when he worked long night shifts on a hospital desk.
Pat Hines's MS Paint illustrations | Pic courtesy: Facebook @captainredblood
The artist has said that though he tried moving on to other programs, he could never really 'connect with them'. When Microsoft announced its plans to kill Paint, Hines shared his agony on his Facebook page. In a post, wrote: “NO, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOO! @Microsoft please reconsider!”
Not just Hines, a Reddit thread—Mspaint—with over 3,000 subscribers is proof that the love for Paint art never dies. The subscribers regularly post beautiful works of art created solely through Microsoft Paint.
via Reddit thread Mspaint
via Reddit thread Mspaint
