If you’ve been an avid user of Paint for decades, and occasionally felt the side-eye from your friends with big budgets who use Photoshop or another more expensive Paint-inspired product, the one feature that your friends most likely pointed to as one they could not live without is layers.
Now, if you’re like us, you probably replied that layers are just a crutch for artists who don’t plan ahead, and that real painting canvasses don’t have layers that you can edit independently of each other. Or maybe you just explained that real layers are the layers of paint that you apply from the base up, and if you know what you’re doing there is no need to edit base layers after the fact.
But you probably also wished, somewhere deep inside, that MS Paint would add layer editing support some day and let me tell you something… the day has arrived!
First rolling out to Windows 11 Insider builds and later to all of us, the venerable Paint program will now proudly stand as tall on a stack of layers. Heaps of layers! All the layers you want to add! And guess what? It’s still the free, accessible program that has enabled generations of artists to create digital masterpieces, not a prohibitively expensive subscription reserved for the elite.
Thank you, Microsoft!
