Guide to Paint
Sources: Paint Help Systems, Microsoft
Paint OverView
- Setting foreground and background color - to set foreground color, click
on the color in the color bar, to set background color, right click on the
color in the color bar
- Drawing a straight line - Click on the line symbol and select the thickness
in the bottom of the tools panel. To draw a line with the left mouse button
to use the foreground color and draw with the right mouse button to use the
background color (the same color rules regarding foreground and background
color apply for all the drawing tools). To constrain the line to
be either perfectly vertical, horizontal, or 45 degrees, hold down the shift
key while drawing
- Drawing a freeform line - Click on the pencil tool and drag.
- Drawing a curve - Click on the curve tool and select line thickness at the
bottom of the panel. Draw a straight line and then click and drag where you
want the line to be curved. You can have two such curves per line.
- To send a file via email in the .bmp format, click File>Send and then
enter email address.
- To draw a rectangle, click Rectangle or Rounded Rectangle in the toolbox
and select a fill style at the bottom of the Tools panel - the top choice
will use the foreground color for the rectangle and the fill color will be
white, the middle choice will instead use the background color for the fill
color and the bottom choice will use the foreground color for both the rectangle
and the fill color. If you hold down the right mouse while drawing, the background
color is used in all three of the above choice in place of the foreground
color and the foreground color is used instead of the background color in
all three of the above choices. To draw a square, hold down the Shift key
while dragging. The border width is the same as selected for the line tools.
- To draw an ellipse, click the Ellipse tool and then the choices are the
same as for the Rectangle tool except that holding down the Shift key constrains
the shape to a circle.
- To draw a polygon, select the Polygon tool and then drag, clicking at each
of the vertices and then double-click when Done. The left click/right click,
3 fill styles, and holding down the shift key are as before.
- Acquire an image from a digital camera or scanner - select File>From
Scanner or Copier and then select the image. You must have a camera or scanner
connected for this procedure to work.
- Erase a small area - Click on the Eraser tool and drag through the area
to be erased. The color used will be the current background color -- as stated
above, to change the background color, right click on a color in the color
palette.
- Erase a large area - Use the Select Tool or the Free-Form tool to draw around
the area and then hit delete. As with the eraser tool, the color used will
be the current background color.
- Erase the entire image - Image>Clear Image. Again the current background
color is used.
- To copy color from one area to another - Click on the Pick Color (eyedropper)
Tool, then click on the color you want. Then click the Fill with Color icon
and then click on the area whose color you want to change. Left clicking with
the Pick Color tool changes the foreground color whereas right clicking changes
the background color. In the target, left clicking fills with the current
foreground color whereas right clicking fills with the background color.
- Creating custom colors - In the color box, click the color you want to change.
Then choose Colors>Edit Colors>Define Custom Colors and then specify
a color and click>Add to Custom Colors.
- To zoom in, click View>Zoom>Large Size or Custom.
- To change the color of an existing line, click on the line and then click
Fill with Color to fill with the current Foreground Color. You may want to
zoom in to do this precisely.
- Brush Tool - Select Brush Tool, then select particular Brush shape.
- Airbrush Tool - Select Airbrush Tool, then select spray size.
- Setting Image size - Image>Attributes. For an existing image, this crops
from the lower right corner.
- To make an image smaller or larger, Image>Stetch/Skew
- Paint allows you to save the file in several file types, including gif and
jpg, but gives you no control over number of colors in a gif or quality in
a jpg.
Revised: February 8, 2007. Comments to William Pegram, wpegram@nvcc.edu