(Credit: Microsoft)
Generative AI image-creation tools are showing up in all kinds of software, and they’ve now come to the venerable and simple Microsoft Paint program that’s included with Windows. That is, you can use text prompts to generate AI images on Windows 11. Also new for the simple image-editing app is Photoshop-like layer editing, Background Removal, and Generative Erase.
The image generation comes courtesy of Microsoft’s Copilot technology, which in turn taps OpenAI's GPT and DALL-E models. Layers, Background Removal, and Generative Erase are free, but to use the text-prompt-based Image Generator, you’ll need a Microsoft 365 subscription. If you have a Copilot+ PC, you get Cocreator, too, which elevates your own sketches into presentable illustrations. Here's how to use these features.
How to Get the New Paint AI Features
First, you’ll need Windows 11; Paint in Windows 10 doesn’t include the new features. Make sure you’re running the updated version via Settings > Windows Update. Click Check for updates if you need to install the update. It may also help to turn on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available" toggle.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Next, make sure you have the latest version of Paint. Open the Microsoft Store app from the Start menu or All Apps screen. Click the Downloads icon that looks like a cloud with a down-pointing arrow, then press the Check for Updates button at top right. That will update all of your Microsoft Store apps, including Paint. You may have to click on Update all, but that wasn’t the case for us.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)A final note on setup: You need to be signed into a Microsoft Account with an M365 subscription to use the Copilot image-creation features. There’s a reason for this: Generative AI is expensive because of the intensive processing on servers. Here’s the support page on AI credits, which explains how many you get and how they’re used. You can check your Microsoft account page to see how many credits you have left.
The next time you open Microsoft Paint, you see Copilot and Layers icons on the Ribbon at the top of the window. The choices under this depend on whether you have a Copilot+ PC or a non-Copilot+ Windows 11 PC. We’ll deal with the more common scenario first.
How to Generate Images in Microsoft Paint on Windows 11
On a non-Copilot+ PC running Windows 11, you’ll now see these choices when you click on the Copilot icon in Paint’s ribbon.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)We’ll mostly be concerned with the first option, Image Creator, though you certainly may find the Generative Erase and Remove Background tools useful.
After you click on Image Creator, you get a text box to describe the image you want and a choice of styles.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Your style choices are Charcoal, Ink Sketch, Watercolor, Oil Painting, Digital Art, Photorealistic, Anime, or Pixel Art. You don’t have to pick a style—you can just describe the style you want in the text prompt or let the AI generate one automatically.
Once you’ve got your prompt written and your style chosen (or not), hit the Create button or Enter key and wait 20 seconds or so. It may take a few refinements of your prompt or add details to get just the image you want. Paint generates three images. Click any image to view it larger in the center of the canvas. If you like any of the images but aren’t sure which one you want to use, click the ellipsis icon for any of them and select Save Image. You’ll be prompted to save it to your computer. The same menu also has a Feedback option, if you’d like to let Microsoft know your thoughts on how it performed.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Here, I was going for something resembling Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. My first few attempts were unimpressive, but I finally got something decent with the prompt, “people eating sandwiches in a park on a sunny day by a river very detailed pointillism in 1890s.” I used watercolor style. You cannot simply write follow-up text like “more people” to refine your image. The tool needs the full edited prompt to generate updated images.
You can use Paint's more traditional editing tools to change colors, draw shapes, and add text.
When you're finished making changes, save via File > Save as. Pick PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, or another format, then choose the folder in which to save it. To share the image with someone via email, click the File menu and select Send and the image will be added to an email.
Using this feature requires AI credits, with each image request using up one credit. You can see how many credits you have left by clicking on the icon next to the Create button, which looks like a stack of coins. This simply opens your browser to your Microsoft Account page. As a Microsoft 365 Family plan subscriber, I got 60 credits per month.
We should note that another way to generate AI images for free in Windows is to use Microsoft Designer. That offers a selection of image types you can generate, including avatars, backgrounds, logos, and stickers, along with layout tools for things like collages and greeting cards. Free users get 15 image generations in Designer.
Using Cocreator on a Copilot+ PC
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)You get all the other capabilities mentioned here on a Copilot+ PC, but these have the extra Cocreate option atop the Copilot menu. This class of PCs feature a dedicated AI processor called a neural processing unit, or NPU, which allows them to perform some AI on the local machine rather than requiring a trip to Microsoft’s high-power AI-optimized servers.
For Paint, that's what enables the Cocreate feature. This feature lets you draw a rough sketch and have Cocreator perfect it in a style of your choice. It's free for any Copilot+ PC owner; you don't need a Microsoft 365 subscription, but you do need to be signed in to a Microsoft account.
After choosing Cocreate from the Copilot menu, just start drawing in the center canvas. I have absolutely no artistic talent, but Cocreator has understood my very rough sketches enough to generate good looking images. Here’s a try at a volcano with palm trees next to it.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)There are fewer style choices than with Image Generator. Missing is Photorealistic, unfortunately, but you still get Watercolor, Oil Painting, Ink Sketch, Anime, and Pixel Art. An important control is the Creativity slider. The more to the left, the closer the result is to your original, the more to the right, the more artistic. I found that a setting in the low 60s yielded a pleasing result.
How to Use Layers in Microsoft Paint
Microsoft Paint is now even closer to being an alternative to Photoshop thanks to its Layers feature. Now, if you want to work with multiple layers, simply select the Layers button and click the Create New Layer button (it looks like a circled plus icon) on the sidebar.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)Select the thumbnail for the new layer and add the content you want to place in it. For example, you may want to add text in the new layer so you can more easily work with that text separate from the image in the initial layer.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)To more easily use the new layer, you may want to hide the original layer. To do that, click the first layer's thumbnail and click the Hide layer icon (it looks like an eye) so the content in that layer is hidden. Return to the new layer to finish adding content to it.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)Now, let's say you've created multiple layers. To work with the content in a specific layer, select its thumbnail and modify the content. You can also hide the other layers if you wish.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)If you decide you don’t need a particular layer or its content, right-click on its thumbnail and select Delete Layer. To copy the elements in a layer to a new layer, right-click on it and select Duplicate Layer.
If you make a mistake with the layers at any point, remember that you can undo any changes. Click the Undo icon on the menu bar or press Ctrl-Z to undo each of your last actions.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)If you want to modify the order of a layer among the thumbnails, right-click on it and select Move Up or Move Down. You can also merge a layer with the one directly below it by right-clicking the thumbnail and selecting Merge Down.
Once the layers are merged, you won’t be able to work with their elements separately anymore. You may ultimately want to hold off merging layers until you've made all necessary adjustments. Layers can then be merged until there's just one left.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)Finally, remember to save your image before you close Paint. Make sure no further changes are needed as the layers aren’t preserved when you save the image.
(Credit: Lance Whitney / Microsoft)Generative Erase in Paint
This is a feature that only recently made it into Photoshop itself, but even free Windows users get it in Paint. You choose the tool from the Copilot button’s menu at top right, and then simply draw over what you want to erase. The circle with the minus sign lets you decrease your selection, and you can enlarge and shrink the brush with the slider on the left. Below, I wanted to remove the cars from this charming street scene:
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Next, it’s just a matter of clicking Apply. You see an animated gradient box for a few moments, and then the selected object is gone. Here’s the area where the cars were removed:
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Unfortunately, in this and other tests, as you can see, the replaced area was rather blurry; I had better results in Photoshop and other dedicated photo software.
Background Removal in Paint
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Removing photo backgrounds (and even video backgrounds) has gotten increasingly easy with the advent of perfected machine-learning AI. This free tool in Microsoft Paint worked flawlessly and instantly. Just choose Remove Background from the Copilot menu, and in less than two seconds you have your subject on a white background.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)You can then add layers as described above to put whatever you want behind your subject. Add your own picture by going to the File menu and choosing Add to canvas. A fun idea is to use Image Creator to make novel background art.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)