Like many PC users, I’m not good at making graphics. The most I can do is to change image size, add text, or erase unwanted areas on a picture I find on the Net. So I don’t need complex graphics software on my PC, and even more I don’t want to overpay for pricey Adobe and Corel programs to do these basic operations. Therefore, I use MS Paint and quite happy with it! Here are 10 reasons why I love Paint.
 1. Free & by Microsoft
MS Paint is one of numerous free Microsoft software. Of course, free programs differ and there’s a great deal of other free image editors like GIMP, PhotoScape, BeFunky, Irfanview, but I rather stick to Microsoft brand. Moreover, in Windows 7 it got a stylish ribbon interface which makes it even more easier to navigate.
2. Pre-installed
Paint is the only free image software which comes pre-installed with Windows OS, from 9x to 7. It’s always at your fingertips, quickly launched and unnoticeably updated.
3. Image cropping
The option that I love most of all about MS Paint in Win 7 is a handy image crop. You just select a rectangular or free-form area that you want to leave and click “Crop”. I also love “Invert selection” and “Select All” (Ctrl+A) options which let me simply get rid of unwanted borders or delete the entire image.
4. Text adding
Paint is the best tool to create Demotivators like images, believe me! It provides all that is need for an easy test integration: text font, size, style, and color selection, opaque or transparent background setting, as well as the possibility to paste text from the clipboard (Ctrl+V).
5. Image rotation
This is very handy to rotate a whole image or only a part of it. Just use selection tools and choose among rotation and flipping options: Rotate right 90°, Rotate left 90°, Rotate 180°, Flip vertical, Flip horizontal.
6. Shaping and underlining
I use these features to format screenshots taken with Prt Scr button. Paint allows the following types of ready-made shapes: Line, Curve, Oval, Rectangle, Rounded rectangle, Polygon, Triangle, different arrows, and much more. You can control line size and color and easily shift the figure all over the image to find the best placement.
7. Watermark deletion
This magic combination of brush and color picker lets delete any watermark from image found on the Net. Zoom in, choose “Color Picker”, click the pixel area nearest to the watermark, switch to “Brush” and paint over it. Works perfectly!
8. Erasing
It’s great to use Paint eraser to delete unwanted areas on a picture. The size of the eraser is changed in the same way as the size of all brushes and shapes.
9. Filling with color
This feature works well with the eraser tool. Once you deleted unnecessary areas, you need to fill them with color of close pixels. Pick color and click the “Fill with color” button to paint the area. Note that this trick works only if the close area is of one and the same color and shadeless.
10. Plain image creation
Look at the first picture in this post: I made it with Paint! Such simple pixel art suits well for making fast postcards, clip art, and even images like this nice cat:
