Microsoft Paint History: The Windows 10 Debate

In July 2017, Microsoft Paint’s future prompted widespread discussion after 32 years on Windows. Microsoft clarified that Paint would remain available, correcting reports that it was simply disappearing. This archive reflects on Microsoft Paint history and its early graphics tools, which differ considerably from the tools used in professional web design. Paint first appeared with Windows in 1985.

Microsoft Paint was originally a version of ZSoft’s PC Paintbrush, published in November 1985. It only had 1 bit graphics, which was great if you had a black and white printer. Therefore, various shades of grey were denoted by their stippling effects. It is hard to imagine how limited PC Paintbrush was alongside equivalents on 8-bit machines like the Atari 800 (with The Designer’s Pencil) and the Commodore 64 (with KoalaPad).

Illustration of a classic digital painting workspace with pixel artwork and colour tools.
Concept illustration: illustration of a classic digital painting workspace with pixel artwork and colour tools.

This was consistent with hardware limitations at the time. State of the art in 1985 was the 80286 processor; the Apple Macintosh was in full swing, with Pagemaker the DTP package of choice. The average PC, in CGA mode could only show four colours from a sixteen colour palette: black, white, cyan, and magenta were popular.

At first, Microsoft Paint only supported its own file format. Come Windows 3.1, BMP was the default format. This was followed by compatibility for JPG, GIF, TIF, and PNG formats. This materialised in 1998 when Windows ‘98, and the need to support internet file formats came to the fore.

Due to its limitations, when compared with the Adobe Creative Suite programs and other professional packages, it became a popular program for pixel art. It inspired pixel artist Jim’ll Paint It to create – for free – satirical images with Microsoft Paint. If you look at his work, it leaves our background image (which we have done in MS Paint for old times’ sake) standing in the dust. His patience is astounding.

The response to the 2017 debate showed the affection many people had for Paint. For another perspective on early digital creativity, explore our graphics tablet history.

Dreamkatcha, 25 July 2017.

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