Editing Microsoft Paint (section)

== Features ==
Paint has a few functions not mentioned in the help file: a ''stamp mode'', ''trail mode'', ''regular shapes'', and moving pictures.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/tutorial/mspaint|title= MS Paint Tricks|access-date= July 30, 2008|date= <!-- Unknown -->|archive-date= October 12, 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071012020203/http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/tutorial/mspaint|url-status= live}}</ref> For the stamp mode, the user can select a part of the image, hold the {{Key press|[[control key|Ctrl]]}} key, and move it to another part of the canvas. This, instead of cutting the piece out, creates a copy of it. The process can be repeated as many times as desired, as long as the {{Key press|Ctrl}} key is held down. The trail mode works exactly the same, but it uses the {{Key press|[[shift key|Shift]]}} instead of the {{Key press|Ctrl}} key.

It is also possible to thicken or thin a line either before or simultaneously while it is being drawn via {{Key press|Ctrl|+}} ([[NumPad]] only) or {{Key press|Ctrl|-}} (NumPad only).

To crop whitespace or eliminate parts of a graphic, the blue handle in the lower right corner can be dragged to increase canvas size or crop a graphic. Users can also draw perfect shapes (which have a width equal to the height) using any shape tool by holding down the {{Key press|Shift}} while dragging.

Older versions of Paint, such as the one bundled with [[Windows 3.1x|Windows 3.1]], featured a color-replace brush, which replaced a single color underneath the brush with another without affecting the rest of the image. In later versions of Paint, the color erase brush was removed as an option, however it can still be simulated by selecting the color to be replaced as the primary color, and the one it is replaced with as the secondary color, and then right-click dragging the erase tool.

=== Support for indexed palettes ===
By default, almost all versions of Paint are generally unable to properly downgrade created images to [[indexed palette]]s using fewer than 24 bits per pixel. When saving an image in a format that uses indexed palettes with fewer than 24 bits per pixel, a warning message appears about the loss of quality. Paint does not utilize binary, color or grayscale [[dither]]ing or palette optimization, and the image will be saved with usually irreversibly scrambled colors.

Paint is nonetheless able to correctly load and save indexed palettes in any of the supported formats if an image is opened as an 8-bit or otherwise indexed palette image. In that case, the image's palette is preserved when saving. However, there is no way to see the actual palette; color choices for brushes, text, and erasers as well as user-defined colors will be limited to the closest available color in the indexed palette.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Windows 7 Paint: How exactly do I create custom colors AND use them.|url=https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/windows-7-paint-how-exactly-do-i-create-custom/54061cab-5f55-4e24-9199-880d60d54f39|access-date=February 3, 2021|website=answers.microsoft.com|language=en-US|archive-date=February 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210155922/https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/windows-7-paint-how-exactly-do-i-create-custom/54061cab-5f55-4e24-9199-880d60d54f39|url-status=live}}</ref>