Microsoft Paint Gets AI-Powered Generative Fill and Erase Features

A green iguana with spiny scales along its back is perched on a rough tree branch. The background is a blurred natural setting, enhancing the iguana's textured skin and vibrant colors. A subtle blue streak is visible to the side.
Paint users will be able to select an area of a photo (as seen above) to add or remove features.

Despite being declared dead in 2017, Microsoft Paint has defied the odds. It continues to receive Adobe Photoshop-style AI features the latest being Generative Fill and Generative Erase.

Just like the Adobe Photoshop tool of the same name, Generative Fill on Microsoft Paint will allow users to “paint” over specific areas of an image to edit. Once selected, a text prompt can be entered to introduce a new element into the pictures.

Image of a screenshot showing Microsoft Paint open on a Windows 11 desktop. The Paint window displays a detailed image of a green iguana resting on a tree branch. A user is currently using the 'Oil Brush' tool on the image in Paint.

Generative Erase will work like the Spot Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop, allowing users to remove objects from an image. Once an area is selected, the unwanted element will vanish from the picture using the magic of AI editing.

Observers of Microsoft Paint might have already seen this coming, the legendary app has been receiving Photoshop-like updates throughout 2024. Last month it got a background removal tool which can detect and isolate the subject of an image, allowing users to remove the background with a single click. Also in September, Paint got Layers and Transparency features allowing the user to “stack shapes, text, and other image elements on top of each other.” And in May, Microsoft Paint got an AI image generator that creates images from text prompts but also takes input via “doodles.”

Microsoft has implemented the C2PA Content Credentials system into Paint — a method of checking an image’s provenance.

“We have implemented content credentials, and provenance based on the C2PA standard, to help users identify AI generated Images. Images generated with Image Creator will contain C2PA manifest helping users identify that it is an AI generated image,” says Microsoft.

A software interface is shown with a split-screen image of three smiling people taking a selfie. Tools and options for editing the photo, including upscaling and a comparison slider, are visible on the right side. One person's hand holds the phone for the selfie.
Super Resolution in the Microsoft Photos app will be able to upscale photos up to eight times.

The Verge reports that Microsoft’s Photos app will also get the same Generative Erase tool coming to Paint as well as a new Super Resolution feature which uses AI to upscale low resolution images. The feature allows users to increase image size up to eight times their original resolution via a slider. Super Resolution is available for free.


Image credits: Microsoft.

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