Microsoft Paint is a simple raster graphics editor that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. The program opens and saves files in Windows bitmap (BMP), JPEG, GIF, PNG, and single-page TIFF formats. The program can be in color mode or two-color black-and-white, but there is no grayscale mode. For its simplicity and wide availability, it rapidly became one of the most used Windows applications, introducing many to painting on a computer for the first time. It is still widely used for simple image manipulation tasks.

In July 2017, Microsoft added Paint to the list of deprecated features of Windows 10 and announced that it would become a free standalone application in Microsoft Store. Microsoft had envisioned Paint 3D as a replacement. However, Paint continued to be included with Windows 10. Microsoft eventually reversed course and announced an updated version of Paint in Windows 11. Instead, Microsoft deprecated Paint 3D.


The first version of Paint was programmed by Dan McCabe and introduced with the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, in November 1985 as a competitor to Macintosh's MacPaint. It was a licensed version of ZSoft Corporation's PC Paintbrush that shipped with 24 tools and can read and write files only in the proprietary "MSP" format drawn in monochrome graphics. Aside from "pencil" and "shape" tools and a brush that draws in 24 "brush shapes and patterns", the toolset also contained two features unique for the time: one the ability to draw Bézier curves and the other that forces lines to be drawn on three angles to create an isometric three-quarter perspective. This version was later superseded by Paintbrush in Windows 3.0, with a redesigned user interface, true color support, and support for the BMP and PCX file formats. Microsoft had deprecated the MSP format, and Paintbrush could only read MSP files.

Microsoft shipped an updated version of Paint with Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, which allows saving and loading a custom set of color wells as color palette (.pal) files. This functionality only works correctly if the color depth of images is 16-bits per pixel (bpp) or higher. Later versions of Paint do not support this feature.

In Windows 95–98, Windows 2000 and Windows Me, Paint can open JPEG, GIF and 48-bit (16-bpp) TIF images and save images in JPEG and GIF formats when appropriate graphics filters are installed. Such plug-ins are included with Microsoft Office and Microsoft PhotoDraw. This also allows Paint to use transparent backgrounds. Support for PCX files was dropped. Starting with Windows Me, the canvas size expands automatically when larger images are opened or pasted, instead of asking.

In Windows XP and later, Paint uses GDI+ and therefore can natively save images as BMP, JPEG, GIF, TIFF and PNG without requiring additional graphics filters.

In Windows Vista, the toolbar icons and default color palette were changed. Paint in Windows Vista can undo a change up to 10 times, compared to 3 in previous versions; it also includes a slider for image magnification and a crop function. This version saves in JPEG format by default.