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Comment by a-dub | Hacker News Reader

it is kind of interesting when you think about it. what utility does something like paint actually have? did it ever have any real utility? (icon editing?) it always kinda felt like a demo that came with early versions of windows that didn't actually do anything useful.

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Cropping and editing screenshots (eg add red circle) in a very lightweight application.

Other image editing applications can do all of that, but they take 10 years to launch (during which they will ask for focus) and 2 GB of RAM.

Yeah, the main use for old school Paint seems to be just adding text, copying a selection, and pasting somewhere else.

I assume regular home users may have different expectations for what Paint should be able to do.

ahh. kde has all that built directly into the screenshot utility. highlighting, text, cropping, etc.

I haven't used that in kde, but I've used the windows snipping tool and that one isn't as useful to me. Usually I want to take the screenshot now and then edit it a minute later. Paint works great for that.

The utility of Paint is that lightweight software is an absolute fucking godsend (which, Microsoft being Microsoft, is on a mission to ruin). I have all manner of professional tools - Photoshop, Aseprite, Manga Studio, etc, and if the edit is something that can be done in Paint, I will use Paint over any of the others, because I'll be done editing before I've even managed to open the file in another program.

It's not a godsend if it lacks features, eg. it would be much more useful for editing photographs if it had a clone tool.

Used to be you saved and shared screenshots by pasting into Paint and saving it. Printscreen didn't save a file and only some programs (Skype) let you paste the screenshot directly from the clipboard. That's how I remember it anyway.

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