Microsoft Paint Tips & Tricks for Windows users

Microsoft Paint is still used by many in Windows 11/10. Besides the basic image editing features like rotating, cropping, changing text colors, resizing an image, ability to save an image in black and white, there are many more features of Paint that are not usually known to regular Windows users. In this post, we will learn about some not-so-common Microsoft Paint tips and tricks.

Read: How to use Microsoft Paint in Windows.

Microsoft Paint Tips & Tricks

This post covers the following Microsoft Paint tip, tricks and tutorials for Windows 11/10 users:

1. Invert Colors
2. Transparent Background selection
3. Clear Outlines
4. Change the brush size
5. Trace a pic in Paint
6. Make Custom Brushes
7. Use Eraser as Color Replacement Tool
8. Create a Gradient Effect.

Let us see them in detail.

1. Invert Colors

Not many of us know, but MS Paint lets you invert the colors of an image, which means the light colors in the image become dark and dark colors turn into light ones. You can invert the colors of the entire image or a selected area. If you want to invert the colors for an entire image, click CTRL+Alt -> right click your mouse and select Invert Color and if you want to invert colors of a select area, select the particular area and then click on Invert Color. The image with inverted colors looks like a negative image.

2. Transparent Background selection

Images with transparent backgrounds are easier to merge with other images. MS Paint lets you cut and copy a selected area of an image with a transparent background. To cut or copy a selected area with a transparent background, click on Select–> and click on Transparent Selection from the background. Now select the Free Form Selection, carefully mark the outline of the preferred area and cut or copy as desired.

3. Clear Outlines

We sometimes want to shade a picture in Paint but are worried about the messy line-work. So this trick helps you shade freely without worrying about the outlines. Open the image in MS Paint, zoom it out completely, and copy it to the clipboard. Make sure your selection is transparent. Zoom in the image again and shade out freely without worrying about the outlines of the shape. When done with the shading and another editing, hit paste or CTRL+V. Bang on! You are done!

4. Change the brush size

While painting you might need the brushes of different sizes but MS Paint has a preset size of all its brushes. No worries, you can easily make the brush larger or smaller as per your requirements. Select any brush you want and on your keyboard tap CTRL plus ‘+’ to make it larger and CTRL plus ‘-‘ to decrease the size. This works for Pencil, eraser, line and spray tool as well.

 5. Trace a pic in Paint

Select a picture you want to trace. Select black color in the color swatch and start outlining the picture. When done, press CTRL+A and invert colors. Now click on File tab and select Properties in the drop-down menu.

Tick on the checkbox of ‘Black and White‘ and click OK.  Now press CTRL+A and invert colors again. Use the Eraser tool to clean the small spots and bingo, you are done!

6. Make Custom Brushes

Draw any kind of random shape for your custom brush. Select the shape and make sure that Transparent Selection is ON. Now hold, shift, and drag your selected shape. Here on you get your custom shaped brush in MS Paint.

7. Use Eraser as Color Replacement Tool

Open the image you want to make edits in. Chose the color you want to replace in color swatch 1 and select the color you want to replace within swatch 2. Now select the ERASER tool and wave it across the image while holding the right-click button on your mouse.

8. Create a Gradient Effect

Open Paint and select the work area size as per your requirement. Now cut the image diagonally and fill in two different colors. 

Now go to Resize tab and edit the Horizontal value to 1. Make sure you’ve unchecked the aspect ratio check box. Now edit the Horizontal value to 500 thrice or more and you are done. More you change it to 500, smoother will be the gradients.

These were some not-so-common Microsoft Paint Tips and Tricks for Windows users.

Do let us know if you have some more ideas about having fun with MS Paint.

How do you trick an eraser in MS Paint?

If you want to increase your eraser size, press “CTRL and +”. To decrease the eraser size, press “CTRL and -” at the same time.

What is the useful commands of MS Paint?

Some of the useful MS Paint keyboard shortcuts are: