Microsoft adds layers and transparency management to Paint


Anthony Roche

September 19, 2023 at 11:10 a.m.

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Paint ©Microsoft

©Microsoft

Thanks to a new version intended for testers, Paint finally earns the right to be truly qualified as image editing software. Microsoft is indeed adding two essential and long-awaited features.

Soon you will no longer need to download Paint.NET, GIMP or even Photoshop to create simple image editing on Windows? In any case, this is what Microsoft seems to want, which is finally adding essential features to its Paint software, launched in 1985. However, these new features are initially intended for Insiders (Canary and Dev channels, version 11.2308. 18.0 or more), since most users will have to wait a little longer.

A promising future for Paint

Already reworked this summer and soon boosted with artificial intelligence, Paint therefore joins the few central software programs that Microsoft does not wish to abandon, and on the contrary, improve. So, like Windows 11 Notepad, for example, which has an automatic save, two central new features will soon arrive on Paint.

The first is the arrival of layers. As with the competition, it will soon be possible to create, copy or reorganize their order. Enough to easily generate simple montages by superimposing images. Especially since the second new feature goes hand in hand with this: support for transparent PNG files.

Paint background © Microsoft

©Microsoft

As shown in the screenshot above, showing a checkerboard will indicate transparent areas, while clearing an area will now make it transparent, not just white. Let us also remember that a new tool allowing you to automatically remove the background from an image is also being tested.

Microsoft at work on the Windows core

In recent weeks, in addition to Paint, Edge and Notepad, Microsoft has offered Insiders numerous improvements to some of its core applications. The Photos software has notably improved, with support for moving photos and automatic background blurring.

The screenshot tool is now capable of detecting and copying text, while Mobile Connecté can edit images directly on your smartphone from your PC. Great new features therefore, which should delight users when they arrive in the final version.

Source : The Verge



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