Microsoft Paint, the class idiot turned “super nerd” thanks to AI

When it was released back in 1985, Microsoft Paint was a mere (rather clumsy) emulator of the iconic MacPaint program that debuted on Macintosh computers just a year earlier. Microsoft’s image editing program, whose charm almost always lay in how ridiculously bad it was, evolved very little over the years. However, people’s perception of it evolved. Paint, initially a mere clone of a program that was actually much better, went on to become one of the apps most hated by Microsoft users. However, That hatred ended up becoming a rapturous love in the end. Paint became, not in vain, the canvas for countless “memes” and, although he was on the verge of dying in 2017, he eventually avoided the grim reaper and his sharp scythe.

Despite its bumpy history full of ups and downs, Paint is an icon (and it is in its own right). Maybe for this reason Microsoft has decided to “tune” the famous software to turn it into a powerful AI-powered image editor that is available completely free on Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCa computer specifically designed to compete head-to-head with Apple’s powerful Macs.

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The new AI-powered Paint allows users to easily modify images by simply selecting those areas you want to alter. If the user doesn’t like, for example, the background of an image, they can change it with just a click and a prompt of a few words. And if you want to eliminate those who have photobombed your last vacation photos, you can also do it with a single click and without having any knowledge of image editing.

“With the addition of fill and generative erasing, it is possible to edit and alter images with great precision and creative freedom”says Microsoft about the new Paint.

Is Paint the future of image editing?

Microsoft’s iconic image editor allows the user to add or delete objects, change backgrounds and also make much more subtle adjustments, avoiding the learning curve associated with more advanced image editing programs such as Photoshop.. In addition, it is a program that is 100% free in nature and available on all computers with Windows 11 operating system (which number in the millions throughout the globe).

An edition that once took several hours is now possible in just a few seconds thanks to a tool, Microsoft Paint, which until recently seemed completely obsolete, and which now, with the help of AI, is claimed as one of the “crown jewels” of Windows 11.

The metamorphosis of Paint as a powerful (and useful) image editing program is bad news for Adobewhich has been suffering for years from the attacks of another “player” that has stolen many spotlights in recent years among those who do not have knowledge of graphic design and have to get involved from time to time, however, in the skin of a graphic designer: Canva.

Adobe’s rivals are multiplying (like mushrooms)

For decades Photoshop, perhaps Adobe’s best-known program, has undeniably dominated the image editing market (on a professional level at least). Adobe preferred to concentrate for a long time on the professional universe because its tools were definitely too complex for users without formal knowledge of graphic design. However, Adobe ended up finding that this was a serious limitation and therefore introduced changes to its UX to attract the average consumer with products like Adobe Express.

The movement ended up proving very successful for Adobe, but the furious entry on the scene of image editing programs powered by AI It probably makes the use of Photoshop unnecessary for those who are not professional photographers or graphic designers and use this program only to make specific corrections to their personal photographs.

Furthermore, it is not only the revamped Paint that could end up condemning Photoshop to irrelevance among non-professional circuits. Meta recently presented important advances in Meta AI, its AI system, which is now multimodal and also has the ability to edit images. Meta’s AI is capable of understanding what is in an image and manipulate its content in a matter of seconds. In addition, Meta AI can put its “superpowers” ​​into practice directly in the different Meta apps (and do so at no extra cost).

Similarly, Google’s Magic Editor tool also allows the user to move, resize and delete objects within images with just a few clicks.

Besides, Canvawhich bites increasingly voraciously at Adobe, has also released AI functions such as Magic Edita feature that carries the title of Stable Diffusion and allows the user to generate images from text prompts and also make changes in a matter of seconds.

Adobe has also logically surfed the AI ​​wave, but his commitment to this technology has simultaneously raised blisters among those who constitute its main target audience: graphic designers, photographers and artists.

Beyond the disconnection between Adobe and its target, which is inevitably very bad news for the software giant and can eventually put it in severe trouble, it is worth noting that most of the multinational’s products are still paid for. at a time when There are more and more free tools out there that also provide exceptional quality to the user. This is, without going any further, the case of the new Microsoft Paint, which could inaugurate a new era (much more democratic) in the universe of image editing.