Microsoft’s classic Paint program update revives the software with new accessibility features.
Windows 10’s once-doomed Microsoft Paint apparently has been given a new lease on life. The software, previously labeled as “deprecated” and all but chucked into the trash bin by Microsoft, is gaining some new capabilities in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, the company revealed.
“We’ve introduced the keyboard as a primary input mechanism,” Microsoft’s Brandon Leblanc wrote on the Windows Insider blog. “Microsoft Paint is already fully functional with mouse and multi-touch tablet input, but customers will now be able to use the app and draw with only their keyboard.” The improvements all you to move the cursor with your keyboard arrows, activate tools with the space bar, and more.
Microsoft is positioning the improvements as an accessibility upgrade. Paint will also behave better with screen readers like Windows Narrator after the May 2019 Update lands, LeBlanc says.
Reports of Paint’s death were greatly exaggerated, it seems, and that’s very welcome news indeed. Congrats to Microsoft for coming to its collective senses, and for making this iconic software work well for even more people. Look for the new keyboard controls and screen reader improvements to appear in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update later this month, and long live Paint!
