MS Paint of Nu

After many months of suffering multiple computer crashes on an increasingly regular basis, and being too lazy to go through the motions of reinstalling Windows, I finally got down to the job a few days ago. However, to make things more interesting, I decided to download and install a build of Windows 7 Beta, having heard good things about it.

The point of this post is not to bore the readers by detailing accounts of Windows 7's many cool new features, which are available in far more eloquent detail on various geek blogs elsewhere on the Internet. The one thing I do wish to touch upon is the completely reworked version of MS Paint bundled with the new OS.

Whereas the familiar version bundled with all versions of Windows remained virtually unchanged from 3.1 and right up to Vista, ultimately reducing its function to "Print Screen saver", a function which has incedentally been delegated to the new aptly named "Snipping Tool," the new version sports many new features and a clean, simple layout that make it a dream to use as a sort of digital pocket sketchbook.

The most welcome addition is a new set of brushes that do quite well to mimic their real counterparts. These two examples took a few minutes each and are both miles ahead of what was possible previously.